Iron Fist Magazine

HAIL OF BULLETS INTERVIEW: “WE’RE NOT A NAZI BAND”

Renowned Dutch death metal brigade, Hail Of Bullets, recently completed their third Metal Blade full-length, ‘III The Rommel Chronicles’. According to drummer Ed Warby, “After a half-year period of slightly worrying metal fatigue I finally started writing in June 2012. I had to recover from several years of doing one album after the other: Gorefest, Hail Of Bullets, Demiurg, Star One, 11th Hour, etc, without time to breathe. I needed to recharge the batteries so to speak. But once I had the basis for what would become ‘Farewell To Africa’, the floodgates of inspiration opened wide and with contributions from Stephan [Gebédi – guitars, also of Thanatos] and Paul [Baayens –guitars, also of Thanatos and Asphyx] we soon had a full album.”

Ed explains further, “In the months before I had no desire to even pick up a guitar or play metal, so when that [‘Farewell To Africa’] riff finally came to me it felt like such a relief. It was one of those moments where the song almost writes itself, one riff leading to another until you have a fully-formed song. That gave me such a confidence boost, and even more importantly it put me back in ‘metal’ mode. At … Read More

INTO BATTLE: CRAVEN IDOL

For anyone involved in the underground scene, especially in London, Craven Idol have been impossible to miss. Over the last few years, they’ve been a consistent presence on the live circuit, delivering primitive, atmospheric death thrash. There’s been a marked increase in the quality of their performance over the last few years and they stand on the brink of following up 2010’s ‘Ethereal Altars’ EP with a full-length album. Released on October 15 by the excellent Dark Descent Records, ‘Towards Eschaton’ is a far more varied release than many will have expected with a melodic sensibility that sees the band paying homage to their ’80s inspirations.

Frontman Wrath met Iron Fist in one of Camden Town’s finest boozers to talk through the long road towards the album’s release. “Craven Idol is a brainchild of myself and Scourger, the two guitarists. We met at university and discovered very quickly that we had the same sort of interest in music. We wanted to play old school Sodom, German Poison, and were also big fans of old school heavy metal. The whole Australian black thrash movement was also coming out at the time and we wanted to incorporate all those things and not be too … Read More

AEVANGELIST INTERVIEW: “WHEN YOU REACH INTO THE VOID YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT’S GOING TO PULL YOU OUT”

The Portland black metal scene is famous for twisting and manipulating the blackened template into whole new forms, but MATRON THORNS, former collaborator with Bethlehem, has come up with a new nightmarish vision that he believes takes the essence of the genre right back to its pure evil roots. OLIVIER ‘ZOLTAR’ BADIN gets a sermon from the ÆVANGELIST…

How do you come up with such a strange and disturbed entity like Ævangelist? Matron Thorns: “With no particular agenda in mind, I’d say. We don’t approach music with any specific genre in mind. As the title of this album implies, it’s meant to be an experience happening to you as opposed to something you are only listening to. We wanted to take the idea of evil in music out of the realm of just hypothetical.”

It is almost as if your music was strongly seeking to install an almost masochist relationship with the listener. To many, it’ll sound much too chaotic and suffocating, yet those who’ll dare look into it will most probably end up being drawn to it, as if they were looking to be swallowed by the void it created… “When you’re saying that, I can’t help but recall the ’90s when it … Read More

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