Iron Fist Magazine

INTO BATTLE: LANDSKAP

“From the very beginning, Landskap was supposed to be a psychedelic rock band with hard rock, prog and krautrock influences,” says bassist/rhythm guitarist Frederic Caure (Serpentcult, ex-Thee Plague of Gentlemen), talking about the five-piece band he formed after moving from Belgium to London in 2012. “Unfortunately I believe the reason why people are labelling us under the doom tag is probably because we opened our album [titled ‘I’] with our slowest song that has quite a bit of a Sabbath-y feel to it. There are clear connotations with doom, hell, I’ve been playing it for ages, but I believe there’s something essentially different in our songwriting and approach. We focus mainly on the jamming aspect, and we’re mainly influenced by the styles we set out to play.”

What makes Landskap sound so distinctive is that insatiable need to allow each organ-driven song the time and space to develop organically out of free-flowing, late ’60s and early ’70s sepia-soaked jam sessions. This past January, Landskap released ‘I’ through Bandcamp as a “name your price” digital download, but have now decided to ally with the infamous Iron Bonehead for a vinyl release, scheduled for May 16.

“All of us in the band have done … Read More

INTO BATTLE: PILGRIM

Pilgrim are in an unusually strong position for a band of their age. Guitarist, vocalist and songwriter The Wizard is just 22-years-old; drummer Krolg Splinterfist, Slayer of Men, just turned 23. Their live bassist, who goes by Bradoc the Barbarian, is the oldest at 24. Despite this, their 2011 ‘Forsaken Man’ demo caught the ear of Primordial front man A.A. Nemtheanga, they’ve unveiled two splits with Ice Dragon and Gypsyhawk, and are on the verge of releasing their sophomore outing ‘II: Void Worship’, the second of four records they owe to Metal Blade. In 2013 they appeared on the Roadburn lineup, and before this issue hits the stands they will have embarked on a three-week tour with Spirit Caravan. Their origins are humble, their love for the trudging doom genre they operate within is palatable, and their progression from their debut, ‘Misery Wizard’, is impressive.

“When I was in high school, two years before I started Pilgrim, I fucking hated metal. Me and Krolg thought that metal was the stupidest thing. It’s a bunch of chauvinistic men, muscled out dudes, playing this stupid brutal music,” recalls The Wizard, laughing. He spends over an hour on the phone with Iron Fist being … Read More

INTO BATTLE: SKELETHAL

Before Skelethal, there was Infinite Translation a classic sounding thrash band from the north of France whom guitarist Gui Haunting joined in late 2009, right before the recording of ‘Masked Reality’, their second full-length. “I had seen the band live few times but didn’t know them personally before I joined,” he recalls. “Their bass player Jon and I really hit it off although I’ve always been into a more extreme style of metal, whereas he was first and foremost a thrash fan.” Being a former drummer, Jon used Infinite Translation’s rehearsal place to relearn his way around the instrument and in 2012, the two hatched an evil plan to play death metal, the ancient way. “We love playing in both bands but we went to keep things separate: like Infinite Translation was meant play thrash, Skelethal’s raison de vivre is to perform real death metal. We love the atmosphere and vibe from the early scene and even if I’m not old enough to have had the chance to live that period, I think there was a honesty and a dedication then that sadly got lost at some point. Nowadays, there are way too many bands and everything is just a … Read More

INTO BATTLE: NERVOSA

“I was inspired by something that happened to us and made me conclude that everything you do has a consequence. If you do bad things, bad things will come your way. If you can’t take responsibility for your decisions, you become a victim of yourself.” Brazil’s Nervosa believe karma is a bitch and won’t blame anyone but themselves for life’s outcomes. It’s a philosophy that bassist/vocalist Fernanda Lira treasures and has made the dominant theme of debut album, ‘Victim Of Yourself’. Though, when you consider the stigma that unfortunately still follows the phrase ‘all-female band’ and their hailing from a country whose geography and infrastructure isolates them from the epicentres of metal business, Nervosa know they’ll have to work twice as hard to expose half as many people to their fiery thrash. Good thing they’re not afraid of a little elbow grease.

Both Lira and guitarist Prika Amaral (drummer Pitchu Ferraz completes the line-up) tell familiar tales of making developmental leaps from Maiden and Sabbath to Metallica and Slayer before becoming obsessed with “old-school American and German thrash.” They played in various São Paulo bands before stumbling upon on each other and the idea of getting rid of the figurative, and literal, … Read More

INTO BATTLE: ASTROPHOBOS

With a sound steeped in the scythe-swinging, melodic majesty of ’90s black metal, Sweden’s Astrophobos have drawn critical comparisons to the deified Dissection since the January release of their impressive full-length debut, ‘Remnants Of Forgotten Horrors’. “It’s definitely a compliment, since we grew up listening to bands like that, but even if we play no-frills black metal, we want to create our own identity,” says vocalist/bassist Micke Broman, when asked whether comparisons to Dissection and early Naglfar are a positive or something the band feel they need to overcome. Guitarist Jonas Ehlin adds: “[’90s black/death metal] is the music that binds us together. However, we don’t really put much effort in making it sound ‘just like it did in the ’90s’. We play the music that comes natural to us, and we would never throw away a good riff just because it doesn’t sound like something from that era. So I think it’s more the chemistry between us as musicians that results in the way Astrophobos sounds.”

Taking their name from the title of a poem found amongst the ungodly works of H.P. Lovecraft, Astrophobos’ lyrics, at times, read as though they were summoned forth from the same yawning abyss as … Read More

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