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

Doom rock legends The Obsessed (Maryland, USA), led by the infamous Scott “Wino” Weinrich (Saint Vitus, Spirit Caravan, Place of Skulls, The Hidden Hand and W.I.N.O.), formed in 1976. The band have split up and reformed numerous times, first splitting in 1986 when Wino joined Saint Vitus, but reformed four years later and released two very influential albums via the Hellhound Records label and Colombia that are regarded as classics – namely ‘Lunar Womb’ and ‘The Church Within’. After releasing three albums (including the self-titled that was originally recorded in 1985), The Obsessed broke up for a second time in 1995.

Wino reappeared on the scene a few years later with Shine who later became Spirit Caravan and released a demo as well as a couple of albums and EPs, touring Europe and the UK twice in 1999 and 2000. The band called it quits soon after and Wino pursued other projects for quite a while before reforming Spirit Caravan and rejoining Saint Vitus for another stint, which included a new album, 2012’s ‘Lillie F-65. their first since the 1995 album ‘Die Healing’. Some heavy touring culminated in Wino being arrested for drugs possession at the Norwegian border on the way … Read More

Scott ‘Wino’ Weinrich and SAINT VITUS… ubiquitous, right? Wrong! According to Iron Fist’s resident doom archivist OLIVIER ‘ZOLTAR’ BADIN the sole album with CHRITUS LINDERSON and the final album from original singer SCOTT REAGERS deserve a place in the hallowed halls of metal just as much as ‘Born Too Late’…

There’s a black hole in Saint Vitus’ story. No, not the early days when spat on by punks and metalheads alike in the mid-’80s at low-key shows in shitty clubs, where they still delivered the goods and released all-time classics like ‘Saint Vitus’ or ‘Born Too Late’. Nor during that 12 years silence when their legend kept growing, despite the band’s lack of activity. We’re actually talking here about the first half of the ’90s when everybody seemed to be against them, including their core fanbase and even of some their own former members. Sitting in the accusation chair is 1992’s ‘C.O.D.’ and 1995’s ‘Die Healing’: while the first has gained the rare status of being their less-revered album, right next to ‘Mournful Cries’, the second split opinions with the return of their melodramatic original singer Scott Reagers and it’s very-metal production. The fact that the latter would turn out to … Read More