It may seem like aeons since our last issue but we’re back and raring to go and continue our indulgence in all things denim, leather and everything in between! Heavy metal will never die! Patience is a virtue and we hope you’ll be rewarded with the enjoyment everything in these 100 pages will bring.

The Queen of metal, Doro graces our cover to celebrate her 30th anniversary in service. And as well as our chat with Ms Pesch, this issue features some of the most revered bands including the ultimate power trio Budgie, the UK’s longest serving thrash band Onslaught, a retrospective look at one of Germany’s best metal labels, Noise Records and a welcome return to Aussie underdog Hobbs Angel Of Death. Staying Down Under, we talk to the notorious Destroyer 666 about how wildfire is needed to create a new underground and Annick Giroux heads beneath the Southern Cross in her regular World Downfall column. We also launch a brand new regular section, Pictured Life, that casts a well -deserved spotlight on some of the great cover art artists from the world of heavy metal, kicking off with a close look at the latest coffee table book featuring art from Timo … Read More

‘CHASING THE DREAM’ might be the name of their new album, but SKULL FIST  singer JACKIE SLAUGHTER has been living the dream since he moved to the big city of Toronto from his hick-town home aged 19. Yeah, he may have broken a few bones along the way but is showing no signs of slowing…

“I tried to do this handrail, and I hadn’t skated in a while so I somehow thought I was better than I was. I snapped a bone in my neck, right where it holds onto your head… Man, people always make that sound when I tell them.”

Fuck. Of all the hardcore things we’ve written about in Iron Fist that’s gotta be one of the grimmest, but we deserve it, after all we did ask the question; “So what exactly happened to delay the latest Skull Fist album?”

In true, care-free (some might say careless) abandon, Skull Fist founder, frontman and guitarist Jackie Slaughter is doing this interview by phone, while biking to work. “Biking, as in Motorbiking?” He laughs; “C’mon, I don’t have a motorbike. I hurt myself skateboarding, imagine a motorbike!”

Still, we’re not sure health and safety killjoys would recommend cycling while being interviewed, especially in downtown … Read More

“We had been discussing a name change for a couple of months prior to playing the Noctis festival,” muses Lester Skelter, drummer and vocalist for Western Canadian traditional metallers Spell. A continuation of the NWOBHM metal lineage begun by the young trio’s previous act Stryker, Spell is the sum of this basic equation: Stryker + ‘70s prog + ‘60s psychedelic imagery. Confused yet? So were we…

“When it turned out that Striker from Edmonton (they were featured in Iron Fist Issue 9) got booked on the same show… that was kind of the final thing that made us go ahead with the name change,” says Skelter. Indeed, the act played the final Noctis 666 in September of 2013, and was somewhat humorously double billed by a cheeky promoter.

“Although really, underneath that, the name change had been a long time coming as well, because the initial name reflected more of the ‘80s heavy metal style that we started playing. We’ve taken on a lot of new influences and gone in a new direction and become better and more capable players, and so we thought the new aesthetic and direction we were going in needed a new name.”

Far from embarrassed by their initial … Read More