When we came up with the idea of doing a Mix Tape idea for the Iron Fist website there were three people we knew we needed to ask. Jason Decay and Ian Chains from Cauldron were a given, at least one of them were bound to put Bleak House on there, and the other was Ryan Waste. Now the latter has a brand new album out for his snotty speed metal punks BAT, we knew the time was right to hit him up. Ryan has spent the summer driving a taxi (seriously, read the latest Livin’ Fast column in Iron Fist #17) and on the tarmac in Europe with his thrash comrades Municipal Waste so we know his ear is gonna be trained to the right songs for the right road so we asked him to gather together some of the songs that inspired BAT’s latest album, ‘Wings Of Chains‘. It was through MW that we first met Ryan and got to know just how vast, and how perfect for the party, his music taste is. Buckle up and hit play!

SIDE A:

SLANDER ‘Lonely Nights’ Let’s set the mood here. I feed off the sound of desperation in music, so what better way to … Read More

Municipal Waste may have crowned themselves as the kings of party, with a drunken fan-base stumbling behind them but Tony Foresta, like his other Waste bandmates, shows a different side with Iron Reagan. Despite playing “house shows and dive bars” for the last couple of years, the crossover project consisting of Rob Skotis (Hellbear), Mark Bronzino (Mammoth Grinder, ANS) and Ryan Parrish (ex-Darkest Hour) have just been added to the Relapse roster allowing their politically-fuelled punk to reach the masses. “For me it’s cool because you can’t really go into that territory lyrically with Municipal Waste,” Tony explains when discussing the very obvious political themes. “Nobody wants to hear a band that sings about drinking the entire time try to wax philosophical about women’s rights in Virginia!”

With their debut album ‘Worse Than Dead’ released last year, Iron Reagan are already following it up with a 13 song EP coming soon and although it only lasts an insane seven minutes, there’s an evolution to be heard. “I think with the addition of Mark and Rob to the band it definitely has a darker sound, as well as being heavier. It’s still fast as shit though. Hardcore punk metal, man.”

As well as … Read More

“We got drunk with Satan, man! It was pretty cool.” You read Iron Fist, so the fact that Ryan Waste of trad metallers Volture is referring to the NWOBHM legends and not the dark overlord surely doesn’t make this story any less enticing. “Wings Of Metal in Montreal, that’s the festival I just came from,” he elaborates. “Me and Nick [Poulos, guitars], we flew up there as fans just to go hang out, see Satan and Manilla Road and a bunch of my friends’ bands like Midnight and Goat Horn. It was amazing.” Waste and Poulos are the partnership at the heart of Volture: a pretty amazing band with a pretty amazing story. That story kinda begins a long time ago, when Waste was in his early 20s, had just started out with Municipal Waste (they hadn’t blown up yet) and decided to try to fulfil a lifelong dream: playing in a traditional heavy metal band. “It’s something I’ve always wanted to do, but you know, I hadn’t found the guy with the ‘voice’. Brent had that amazing, falsetto voice. I was like: man, you need a band! I didn’t even know the guy, I just heard him sing. I was like: we need … Read More

The neo-thrash trend fronted by the likes of Municipal Waste and Evile may be waning but there are still many clinging on to the roots of the genre and resurrecting it with equally ancient, scuffed up hi-tops. Cue Southampton’s Desolator, who despite only starting two years ago have made quite a name for themselves. The trio made up of Jamie Brooks (vocals/guitar), Felix Dock (bass) and Sam Talbot (drums) love playing fast and Brooks sums up their sound perfectly; “Speed thrash ‘n’ roll! Thrash for us should be unhinged and fun, stripped down with every instrument being pushed to excite!” Desolator’s consistent desire to party has done them favours, with a constant flow of gigs around the country, gathering a mental mass of followers. Their first gig was at one of the UK’s many thrash all-dayers back in 2011 and despite only having two songs written, the band invited eager ears. “We couldn’t believe our luck, it was an unbelievable way to start,” recalls Jamie. From then on there’ve been support slots with the likes of Cannabis Corpse, DRI and Sacred Reich, giving the three-piece more opportunity to showcase their energetically live shows. “Our recent show in Belgium at Thrash Till … Read More

Kurt Brecht is man whose lungs have earned him his name firmly carved into the walls of crossover thrash history and as 2012 heralded DRI’s milestone 30th birthday, the band, fronted by Brecht toured the globe in celebration. However, as the band have decided against recording any new music the dirty rotten singer has gotten himself embroiled in a side project, Pasadena Napalm Division. Taking their name from their Texan hometown and not the Californian suburb, PND were founded back in 2008 when local Houston death thrashers Dead Horse split and were looking to form a new band. Guitarists Greg Martin, Scott Sevall and drummer Ronnie Guyote set about recruiting bassist Bubba Dennis who’d served time in Texan/SF hardcore punks Verbal Abuse and when they heard Kurt was back in Houston on downtime while DRI guitarist Spike recovered from cancer surgery he was the obvious guy to get on board.

Brecht’s spoke of his choice to join PND saying; “I listened to the songs they had and realised that it wouldn’t be too hard to write some lyrics for them. The guys in the band all seemed really nice too. I’d never jammed with anyone outside of DRI before, except … Read More