Danish sinister hard rockers Demon Head are about to unleash their second full-length album ‘Thunder On The Fields’ via The Sign Records and Caligari Records (it will also be available via Crypt Of The Wizard in London!). Their sound is a marvellously memorable mix of rockin’ riffing, Danzig-esque vocals and heady hooks, which will embed themselves into your memory, plus there’s an occult, organic nod to the past without sounding like a retro throwback. Their upcoming album has already caught the attention of Darkthrone drummer Fenriz, who recently made them a band of the week, and they’re set to turn more heads. We caught up with the band to find out more about this still quite mysterious musical entity.

You have a new album due out soon, what’s up with that? B.G.N (guitar): You can expect a very generous and honest record that mostly take use of guitars, bass, drums, voice and words as instruments of expression. M.S.F (bass): Real music for real people.

Are you chuffed with the end result?. M.F.L (vocals): Yes, as Birk says it has been a lot of hard work; recording it ourselves, making the artwork (luckily with help for the final layout part). We are perfectionists about the songwriting and … Read More

Epic hard rockers ASHBURY have been enjoying renewed popularity in recent times, thanks to the rediscovery of their private-press LP from ’83, ‘ENDLESS SKIES’; a true lost-classic of melodic hard rock which marries the melody of Wishbone Ash with the delicate vocal lines of James Taylor and the grandiose scope of heavy metal. In light of this much-deserved renaissance, the band has regrouped for several successful appearances at metal festivals on both sides of the Atlantic. Now, this weekend will see Ashbury tread the boards at Frost & Fire II Festival in Ventura, California. JAMES BLACKFORD caught up with band-leading brothers, ROB and RANDY DAVIS to revisit ‘Endless Skies’ and survey the band’s long history…

ON DISCOVERING MUSIC… Rob: “Our Dad was in the Army, so we moved around a lot, living in France for three years, as well as in Oklahoma and Georgia. Dad played guitar and loved Johnny Cash, Buddy Holly, Elvis and Fats Domino. He owned a state-of-the-art Telefunken stereo and bought records every week, so growing up we didn’t watch TV, we just listened to music. Music and family were Dad’s passions in life, although his first attempts to get us to play guitar were useless! We had no interest, … Read More

When Live Evil was launched in 2010 it made the crazy decision to base its booking policy 100 per cent on the acts picked by Fenriz’s then-new Band Of The Week blog. It’s a policy that they’ve stuck to through to the third edition this month – if he keeps unearthing great new bands they’ll keep booking them. But of all the bands that have trod the stage at Live Evil, it’s Swedish thrash pack Antichrist that have played every single edition… it’s become a tradition. On the eve of Live Evil Attack III Dylan Hughes of A Fist In The Face Of God blog along with Brad Smith of Nocturnal Cult blog tracked down the hard-to-reach band for Iron Fist zine…

A few years ago on an email to a certain Mr Gylve Nagell I was warned to check out a new thrash band from Sweden called Antichrist. I never heard of this band and there was nothing about them anywhere online. I was ordering the Bastard Priest demo from Blood Harvest at the time and noticed they had Antichrist’s ‘Crushing Metal Tape’ demo so I added it to my order. Fuck it, a recommendation of anything with a hand-drawn cover should … Read More

“I see the light shining” sung TUDOR SHELDON on Virtue’s 1987 demo ‘FOOLS GOLD’, but it’s us that sees the light now, shining bright from that most sought-after yellow cover. Seek (and destroy) no more, No Remorse from Germany have made VIRTUE readily available and DAVE SHERWOOD tracked down the band to ask if we’ll ever get to see them live… and to give the only mention of Skindred that will ever appear in our pages.

At Iron Fist we are fascinated with the weird and wonderful; from knowing about Phil Lynott’s guest appearance on Heavy Load’s ‘Free’, to discovering Slayer’s first ultra-rare release: ‘Satan Laughing As You Eternally Rot’ which simplifies to SLAYER. So we were ecstatic when we discovered an official re-issue of Oxford’s unsung heavy metal heroes: Virtue. They were active towards the back end of the NWOBHM prime time but were pushed into never ending pit of trend-influenced bands. It has only been in the last four years that their 1985 ‘We Stand to Fight’ single has gone viral in the metal community; and so with its original release (costly and pressed to a minimal number) it was only a matter of time until a label were wanting … Read More

Imagine if your job was to travel around Europe, drinking beer and playing heavy metal? They might mow Geddy Lee’s lawn and work in a pig-themed toy shop [true stories] when they’re at home but for two months CAULDRON quit life and hit the road – and remembered all the gory details for Iron Fist

BRITISH STEEL Myles [Deck, drums – the new boy!]: “A six week European tour?! Yes please! Having only done a handful of DIY tours in Eastern Canada – not to mention having never set foot on European soil before – I was very eager to hit the road as the new Cauldron drummer and prove my metal to the band and its fans. Spanning from the end of November to the first week of January, I gladly informed my family that they’d have to suffer the holidays without me and set off on a wet and wild, 35 date adventure of heavy metal bliss. When we landed, we met up with our driver and grindcore enthusiast, Luuk and friend Inti who worked the merchandise table for us all tour. Inti is the star of our ‘Nitebreaker’ video and goes by a number of aliases such as Merch … Read More

Raise hell, get seduced by the dark and shun the light – three things WITCHGRAVE make us want to do in 2013. The young Swedes have just vomited forth their first full-length and it’s not been off the Iron Fist stereo since it landed. Hearing everything from Venom to the blues in there we had to find out more and sent DAVE SHERWOOD to the cabin in the woods to infiltrate the coven.

“Vomit on the fucking priest!” That’s probably the best greeting we’ve had from a band this issue. And it’s no surprise that it comes in email form from Swedish youth gone wild, Witchgrave. Their self-titled full-length arrived in our postboxes like an early “fukk you” from Santa just before Christmas. Fitting since we’ve not exactly been the best-behaved children this year. The album, which contains juvenile blasts of thrashing fury such as ‘Seduced By The Dark’, ‘Raise Hell’ and ‘The Virgin Must Die’, is just the dose of merciless, Venom-ous, old metal brilliance we needed to end the old year, and ring in the new. Witchgrave are inhuman, they’re forged from the molten wax of someone’s complete Neat Records collection which has been burned (and died). A little bit of … Read More

Keep It True Festival, Germany, 2011. The storm is coming thick and fast and whenever there’s a flash of lightning some guys start singing ‘Lightning Strikes Again’. Suddenly there’s a crash of thunder and another group of guys on the opposite side of the field started singing ‘Thunder On The Tundra’. It’s a moment we’ll never forget, and proves how much THOR has become a heavy metal legend. Once we heard he was working on a new album Dave Sherwood tracked down the hero to talk movies, music, comics and hot water bottles.

I can’t honestly think of any other acts hailing from Canada during the early to mid-’70s who were playing heavy rock and metal; do you think you were the first? Were you aware of any other bands playing with such force back in the day? “There was no one else in the world who not only played heavy rock/metal with such force but also performed the concept of the superhuman frontman who could bend steel in his bare hands in the arena while singing and performing theatrics on stage. I started the first Muscle Power Gladiator rock band ever. There were other rock acts in the ’70s as the tag … Read More

It starts with a catchy riff that immediately brings to mind the opening section from ‘Hells Bells’. ‘Full Pull’ salutes those about to rock and before you know it ‘All Fired Up’ has you just that; fired up for the Växjö, Sweden quintet who are most definitely on their highway to hell.

To be fair, Bullet were heading to the top (every pun intended) back in 2004 when Hell Hofer (the evolutionary link between Bon Scott and Brian Johnson), Gustav Hjortsjö (drums) plus guitarists Hampus Klang and Erik Almström released their debut album. Their first album made the top 40 in the Swedish charts, saw them open for their Aussie idols and it’s been rumoured that the five Swedes (who at the time included bass player Lenny Blade) inspired a similarly-minded group of DC fanatics down under who formed a band called Airbourne.

But while Airbourne have been touring the world and touted by the likes of Lady Gaga as the greatest band out of Australia since Young, Young and co, Bullet have been quietly chugging along on the rock ‘n’ roll train. When Blade upped sticks and moved to Thailand, gun for hire Adam Hector was called in to man the … Read More