Iron Fist Magazine

BIG TEASER: JOHN HOYLES (ex-WITCHCRAFT) SETS OFF SIRENS ON NEW SOLO ALBUM

In this series of new bands and artists were currently labouring over, it doesn’t take a genius to work out where the new solo album by John Hoyles sits on the anticipation scale. Okay, granted he’s not new (neither is Danko Jones and he featured earlier this week), but this is a new direction for the man behind Witchcraft and Spiders.

London born and bred, the young tyke moved to Sweden in his formative years and pretty much kickstarted the retro doom revival in 2000 with the incredible Witchcraft. After jumping the ‘craft he formed the glam-tastic Spiders and again we were floored.

Now its time for an eponymous trip, again with his pal Axel Sjöberg from the recently deceased Graveyard along for the ride. With a ’70s proto punk, garage rock vibe, John cites The Damned, Dead Boys, Pink Fairies and Stiff Records as inspiration on this latest project. “The reason I made my own record was that I wanted to try and play and produce everything myself apart from the drums,” he tells Iron Fist. “I have Ricard Harryson from Spiders and Axel helping me out there.

I recorded the solo record in between Spiders albums, it was a chance to … Read More

NAEVUS INTERVIEW: “IT FELT SO GOOD TO WRITE AND RECORD AS FOUR FRIENDS AGAIN”

German doom rockers Naevus came back this summer with a new album via Bandcamp (and Meta Matter Records), their first since their debut album ‘Sun Meditation’ was released on Lee Dorrian’s Rise Above Records 17 years ago. We got in touch with frontman Uwe Groebel to find out about the new album and what happened to cause the band to split up soon after the release of the debut.

Hi Uwe, Naevus is back with a new album, please tell the readers a bit about your new recording? “Since the release in August we’ve been very pleased with reactions. People seem to like it a lot. It’s a very strong doom metal/rock album, maybe with a slight pop appeal, if I might say that. Some times very melodic. Each song is different in structure and we tried to be creative on this. All in all, it felt so good to write and record as four friends who were together again after so many years. We had a lot of fun.”

This is your first album since the 1998 debut, what are your feelings about that album looking back? “On my side I couldn’t listen to the album for a very long … Read More

ELECTRIC WIZARD INTERVIEW: “I’VE NOT GOT A LOT OF ADMIRATION FOR PEOPLE THAT WEAKEN AND DILUTE METAL”

Two decades of doom dealing could easily take its toll on lesser bands, but Dorset’s ELECTRIC WIZARD have taken all that misanthropy, occult leanings and horror fanaticism and weaved it into an eighth album of dreary, but omnipotent intent. Back in 2014 line-up and label woes, paranoia and over-indulgence were been thrown into the cauldron and the result, ‘TIME TO DIE’ made the band never sound more alive. Jim Martin spoke to JUS ORBORN for Iron Fist back in Issue 12 and we’ve dug it out of the archives in time for their headline slot at tomorrow’s DAMNATION FESTIVAL in Leeds…

 

The tranquil sound of a mountain stream drifting through a forest. Not something one would naturally associate with Electric Wizard, but this is how their new album, the intimidating ‘Time To Die’ kicks off, and in such a fashion that one could be forgiven for assuming they’ve purchased the wrong record. That is, until the distinct strains of a Hammer-style Hammond, ’60s garage drumming, and sampled news reports concerning Satanism drift into view through the ether, and the rural paradise proves short-lived. “On one level it reminds people that we’re from Dorset, just to get people back to our frame of mind … Read More

CHURCH OF MISERY: AND THEN THERE WERE FOUR… ACTUALLY

Japanese doom kings Church Of Misery have revealed the details of their sixth studio album, ‘And Then There Were None’.

‘And Then There Were None’ is a typically blood-soaked trip through homicidal hell, with songs, as always, inspired by serial killers, however there is some change in the COM camp. Bassist and mastermind Tatsu Mikami found himself forced to find new collaborators in 2014 but wisely chose some names very familiar to the Iron Fist world. Blood Farmers guitarist Dave “Depraved” Szulkin joins the cult, alongside Earthride drummer Eric Little and Repulsion/Cathedral man Scott Carlson on vocals.

With members strewn across America and Japan, Tatsu says; “[This] was a challenge because there was not much time to make this record— only two weeks. One week for rehearsals and then one week to record all materials.”

Scott Carlson wrote all the lyrics, which also marks the first time he’s done vocals for a full-length album since Repulsion’s genre-inventing classic, ‘Horrified’.  He comments: “I was afraid to listen to it for a while because I haven’t recorded a full album of vocals in almost 30 years”.

 

‘And Then There Were None’ will be released via Rise Above Records on March 4. You can listen to a teaser track below courtesy of … Read More

SWEDISH TRAD METALLERS SATURN RELEASE ROKKTORI VIDEO

One of our favourite new bands of 2015, Saturn, have released their first video for ‘Rokktori’.

The song came from their debut album ‘Ascending (Live In Space), which came out earlier this year on Rise Above Records.

The band said on their Facebook page: “We’re releasing our first music video soon. We released the album last summer but fuck it, better late than never right?”

In issue 12, Iron Fist writer Marek Steven described the Swedish band as “Not a carbon copy of the multitude of other new bands repeating the heavy metal blueprint, Saturn have the chops to back up their groove and swagger”.

The band told us that “We are Saturn. We play Space Metal! We share the same passion for old school rock ‘n’ roll and heavy metal, primarily from the ’70s, but also older progressive rock and thrash. Firstly, we are friends and a band second, it’s all about having fun.”

Of the album, bass player Oscar Bo Valentine Pehrson said of the title: “It is semi-live. All instruments are recorded live in one take. ‘Live In Space’ is a bit of hint of this and a small joke on our part. Like I said, its all about having fun. However, I would not have anything against … Read More

UNCLE ACID AND THE DEADBEATS INTERVIEW: “I went from having normal work colleagues to passing Tony Iommi in the corridor”

Earlier this year the group known as Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats released their fourth full-length ‘The Night Creeper’ on Rise Above. Forming in 2010 as the project of Uncle Acid himself, musical mastermind Kevin Starrs, the band put out their debut ‘Volume 1’ on CD-r and limited it to just 20 copies. A year later a split with Danava and another album, ‘Blood Lust’, this time limited to 100 copies saw their name uttered in underground heavy metal circles. Everyone wanted to know who they were and how they managed to so perfectly capture the occult rock vibe everyone was trying so hard to copy in the wake of Ghost’s universal success. It made sense that the band would sign up to Ghost’s label, Rise Above, for third album ‘Mind Control’ and that partnership saw the group tour the world, even at one point with and at the request of their musicals heroes, Black Sabbath. That a band from Cambridgeshire can go from hand-copying albums in their front room, making just 100 for friends, to being asked personally to open for rock Gods is testament to Uncle Acid’s unique appeal and their own path to greatness. As the band … Read More

GRAVEYARD INTERVIEW: “A LOT OF PEOPLE GOT INTO MUSIC THROUGH THEIR DAD’S RECORD COLLECTIONS”

Forming in 2006, six years after the dissolution of the Swedish hard rock band, Norrsken (who also featured Magnus Pelander of Witchcraft), Graveyard have been on the forefront of the classic rock revival. Four albums in – with the most recent entitled ‘Innocence & Decadence’, perhaps a titular nod to the era of music they heartily worship – the band made up of Joakim Nilsson (guitar/vocals), Jonathan Ramm (guitar), Truls Mörck (bass) and Axel Sjöberg (drums) may have been part of the force behind the current resurgence in rock roots but, as Joakim tells us over a pint, there’s no chance of them slowing down. “We have a lot to do still,” he insists, getting riled at the idea that the band may have lost some of that innocence bands have when they form. “When we started out, we were naive and didn’t know what we were doing, and that can be a really good thing. That’s why there are so many great first records but at the same time, you can get that feeling back.”

That’s what the band have done on their latest album but there is one stand-out track, ‘The Apple & The Tree’, that deviates from their … Read More

HORISONT INTERVIEW: “IT’S ALL ABOUT THE ’70S”

Initially a part of the Crusher Records (Spiders, Dead Man, Troubled Horse) roster, Horisont were originally perceived as another of those retro-rockers from Sweden, seemingly happy to surf on the nostalgia wave and have an excuse to wear bell-bottomed jeans. Except that there’s always been something a tad weirder and out-there with them and not just due to their occasional Swedish lyrics. Still, many will be surprised by their fourth full-length ‘Odyssey’, a 65-minute tour-de-force that sees them coming out of their shell and heading for the stars with space rock and classic prog influences abound and a solid dose of vintage synthesizers. Blasphemy? No, a simple and very human longing for evolution says their frontman Axel Söderberg.

Two years ago when you promoted your third full-length ‘Time Warriors’, you made no secret that it was style-wise very close to its predecessor and your Rise Above debut, ‘Second Assault’. Yet ‘Odyssey’ doesn’t follows the same pattern does it? “Indeed as the previous two full-lengths were kind of made in a rush. Don’t get me wrong, they’re great as they are but after ‘Time Warriors’ we knew right away that we would need more time for the next one so we could do the … Read More

INTO BATTLE: THE OATH

Fans of witchy, haunting traditional metal, come take THE OATH, a new band formed by Linnéa Olsson of Sonic Ritual and DJ/Promoter, JOHANNA PLATOW SADONIS, who explains the creation of this new vision and the making of their debut single ‘NIGHT CHILD/BLACK RAINBOW’

Johanna Platow Sadonis is known to the Fist through her work as a heavy metal promoter and DJ in Berlin, so when we found out that she’d started a new band with Sonic Ritual guitarist Linnéa Olsson we couldn’t wait to hear it. “The stars aligned when Henke [Palm, Sonic Ritual/In Solitude] wrote me a mail that Linnéa had moved to Berlin and was looking to play. He suggested that we should meet. I say the stars aligned ‘cos he did not know I was looking for a guitarist at the time. I’d never met her but the moment we sat down it was sealed. We have so much in common. People ask if we are sisters all the time and in a magical way we are. Soon after my boyfriend, Simon Bouteloup, quit as bassist for Aqua Nebula Oscillator in Paris and moved to Berlin to join us. On a magical side note, before meeting me, Linnéa … Read More

INTO BATTLE: UNCLE ACID AND THE DEADBEATS

Their second album quickly became eBay gold. Their first gig was sold out in minutes. They’ve been invited personally by Electric Wizard to play with them at Roadburn Festival. Who the fuck are UNCLE ACID AND THE DEADBEATS and what’s behind the hype? 

With songs like ’13 Candles’ and ‘Ritual Knife’, last year’s hot album, ‘Blood Lust’, by mysterious cult Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats perhaps came at the wrong time for a modest, shy musician from Cambridge who didn’t want any fuss made over his band. The man who we know only as KR didn’t set out to be an occult rock sensation, nor did he want to be the new Ghost, but in the mad scramble for anything resembling the nameless ghouls set in motion a frenzy that is unseen in today’s apathetic music world. Blame our coverstars if you want. No band, not in years, have warranted that much press hounding or label envy. But Ghost, like KR’s psychedelic hard rock mob, grew from the underground. They were both small, demo bands, making music only on their own whims, but they caught a zeitgeist and things went bat-shit crazy.

Ghost were first, in 2010, and then all those … Read More

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