Flight is the latest collaboration to emerge out of Norway’s ‘Kolbotn Thrashers Union’; a comical term invented some time ago to support the mass of talent in this mystic part of Norge. Flight shares its members with those in Condor, Gouge, Purple Hill Witch, Mion’s Hill and Mabuse. Bass player and co-founder, Jonas Bye tells us about the formation of the band: “We always drink beer and listen to Judas Priest. I guess the idea of Flight came naturally because we weren’t playing in a heavy metal band at the time. It wasn’t really a conscious choice.” After having the pleasure of listening to Flight’s un-released rough demos, it is safe to say they are far more enriched in the rocky pre-NWOBHM sound. Jonas elaborates on their less-common played style of heavy metal; “We play what feels the best for us and we try to experiment a bit in that frame. It’s not like we try to make a blueprint of ’77 heavy metal. We are gripped by influences from all over. Nobody except Iron Maiden can be Iron Maiden”.

Talking with Jonas about the lack of distinctive band names today, unlike the original and self-explanatory bands such as Saxon … Read More

Let’s let Oslo’s grind youngers Gouge have the first words. “We are Gouge, we play music. We listened to Repulsion a lot and formed Gouge because we felt we had to. So Repulsion is a big influence and Dr Shrinker, Autopsy, Nihilist and the Funeral demo.” Gouge arrived on the scene recently with a cast-iron demo that is arguably one of the best ‘grind’ debuts released since the old days. Herman plays drums and Christoffer plays guitars and sings. Their first gig was actually on the mid-September day in 2012 that Iron Fist and Gouge had a chat. The two core members employed Jonas Bye of Mabuse for bass duties for the live show and they don’t plan to play many gigs but a full length album is halfway finished and likely to see the light of day in 2013. Until then they, “will just keep on working, drinking beer and playing music.” They’re a great example of the new generation bringing unshakable energy into the extreme music scene. They naturally employ a fresh approach, which is entirely unprejudiced by modern versions of our music. They only know the greats and use a similar sound to the classics to play new … Read More