Although this horde of black metal brothers have existed as a unit for 13 years, OCCVLTA have two short recordings to their name, the 2010 ‘We Command The Wolves’ demo and a 2012 split 7” with the UK snarlers Salute. Having existed mostly as a live unit, with legendarily primal, in-your-face appearances at Live Evil, Muskelrock and Metal Magic, the time has finally come for Occvlta’s first full-length to surface from the depths of the German underground. Iron Fist have been given an exclusive stream of ‘Merciless Hammer’ so we caught up with vocalist Hord to find out more about the song and upcoming album ‘Night Without End’…

“‘Merciless Hammer’ was our first attempt at writing a d-beat song. Most of the album comes in at a much slower pace. None of us were ever into d-beat punk bands but we are all big Motörhead fans, so when Torm [drums, brother of Hord] came up with the main riff we decided to write a whole song in that punk style. It just felt right. It gave some sort of primal satisfaction. I had the title in my head for a while and wanted it to be primitive and brutal. Occvlta is evil … Read More

Spitting black fire since 2000, Vornth have followed their self-titled 2013 debut with a second album of Venom-ous filth. ‘Black Pyres’ is out today as a Samhain offering, with lashings of Teutonic thrash fury, blackened ire and traditional heavy metal speed. Hailing from Sweden, the band have returned to the Iron Tyrant family – home of Profanal, Mortuary Drape and Culte Des Ghoules – and feature Janne Rimmerfors on battery, Ewil Johansson on bass and Erik Blackflexer on guitars. 

Citing “our own Electric Blood” as their only influence (despite hearing Kreator, Destruction, Mercyful Fate and even early Candlemass proudly in their sound) they say of today’s heavy metal scene that “Rock ‘n’ roll should be strong and alive. Metal should be more strong and more alive.”

We couldn’t agree more. “We chose Iron Tyrant and they chose us,” Erik continues of working with such an eminent underground heavy metal stable. “It’s a brotherhood if you like. You always see who and which bands are going strong when times get rough; that is the real difference between illusion and the definitive. We feel part of a community of hard working musicians and artists that fight with integrity no matter what. We are Vornth which we have proven a long time … Read More

NYC noise duo Uniform have gotten into the Halloween spirit by trick or treating (depending on where you stand on their take on the Gods) us with a cover of Sabbath’s ‘Symptom Of The Universe’. Taken from their brand new 12″ ‘Ghosthouse’, out via Sacred Bones Records, their version is a tad more bleaker than the “summer skies of love” of the lyrics. 

Sabbath are no strangers to having their catalogue covered; it’s a standard go-to for almost all burgeoning bands jamming in garages around the world, and most covers tend to stick pretty close to the original. We here at Iron Fist want to tip our cap to the brave and downright blasphemous, like Uniform, who take the blueprint laid down by Iommi and co, and fuck with it. Here are a few of our favourite shocking takes on the Sabs from over the years…

LISTEN TO UNIFORM’S ‘SYMPTOM OF THE UNIVERSE’:

Ghosthouse by Uniform

GONGA – BLACK SABBETH – FEATURING BETH GIBBONS Black Sabbeth by GONGA This one came out of the leftfield, as who knew trip hop chanteuse Beth Gibbons from Portishead would lend her ethereal charm to Sabbath’s self-titled classic so flawlessly. But back in 2014, Bristol-based doom trio Gonga not only … Read More

Stating that their influences are simply Pentagram and Johnny Winter, Brutus are from Oslo, Norway, but feature three Swedes amongst their ranks. Back in Iron Fist #16, as part of our special report on modern bands with that oh-so-vintage sound, guitarist Johan Forsberg told us how he and Krille Hellqvist talked about starting a band in that vein and found Kim Molander, Knut-Ole Mathisen and Jokke Stenby in 2006 to make it a reality.

“We started to jam and drink some beers every Saturday for a while,” he explains. “Good times and the songs kept coming. We released two full-length albums and right now we’re mixing the third.” That was then, and this is now as that third album ‘Wandering Blind’ is ready and being streamed right here at Iron Fist.

Talking of their influences beyond Messrs Leibling and Winter, Johan tells us that “bands like Jerusalem, Bang and of course, Sabbath was in the early stage of Brutus, but we’ve got our own style of more bluesy heavy rock now. We all listen to Grand Funk, Deep Purple that I think coloured our songs too. A lot of blues bands too, I listen maybe more to the Peter Green Fleetwood Mac, Bluesbreakers, … Read More

Chicago is rarely thought of as a celestial otherwordly plain, but with the roots of soul and gospel buried in its very foundations, perhaps a band like Dead Feathers were inevitable. Tony Wold and the psychedelically named Shaggy Shadric (guitars), Rob Rodak (bass), Jose Bernal (drums) and the bluesy lungs of Marissa Allen came together to create a sound that harks back to the ’60s explorative rock of bands like Procol Harum, Pink Floyd and 13th Floor Elevators while sitting easy on the ears of fans of Jex Thoth, Blood Ceremony and Royal Thunder. Conjuring perfect wintery moods in the Iron Fist office while we dive headlong into another stressful deadline, we caught up the band to ask them how they weaved such magic and thanked them for honouring us with a stream of their stunning new EP…

Your new self-titled EP (out this month on HeviSike Records) is crushingly beautiful, where the hell did you come from? Tony Wold: “Thank you. The band was started by myself and the bassist, Rob Rodak. We started it in high school and were looking around for a drummer who then got us in touch with our second guitarist, who ended up knowing Marissa, our lead singer. … Read More