By the grace of god, Iron Fist #19 has head off to the printers, and while it’s been a bit supershitty to the max to get this magazine into some degree of high visibility, we managed to finish off 100 pages full of the most grande rock, with the usual mix of new bands who will refute the claim that rock ‘n’ roll is dead, and the bands who have been around for years payin’ the dues. Now, we don’t want to be giving any clues as to who’s on the cover but we’ve been giving some hard stereo time to the type of band of late who know that you can’t pull from one limiting genre pool to create musical genius.

If you’re inspired by the three ring rock n roll circus of the ‘head, missed the last bus home like Lynott, live your life on Permanent Vacation, chill out to a bit of jazz, cool down with the blues, rev it up with some sleaze, are born to be wild and walk on the wild side, then you belong in our pages and over the next few days we will be highlighting some of the bands we think will take … Read More

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

‘Holy Diver’, ‘The Last In Line’ and ‘Sacred Heart’ are regulars on the Iron Fist HQ turntable and while Dio’s passing in 2010 means that as a band Dio will never reform, however LAST IN LINE are as close as we’ll get. Formed in 2011 to play the songs they wrote between 1982 and 1985, Vinny Appice, Jimmy Bain and Vivian Campbell – the original Dio band – got together after 25 years along with Lynch Mob frontman Andrew Freeman to simply play the “hits”. But in 2013 they were offered a record deal that changed the way they viewed their future. Heading for the studio, the making of ‘Heavy Crown’ was to be the project to spur bassist Jimmy Bain into battling his substance abuse demons. Writing while in rehab he won and had been sober for over a year. But fate was the deal another card, as the band prepared to release the album they’d been working on for three years Jimmy Bain passed away. Devastated by the news, and wanting to STAND UP AND SHOUT that Last In Line are a band that deserve to be celebrated, we caught up with guitarist VIVIAN CAMPBELL to ask him what lies ahead for this … Read More

We can hear the hound dogs on our trail. All hell breaks loose, alarms and sirens wail, and it gives Iron Fist the utmost pleasure to have THIN LIZZY gracing its cover for issue number 14. Within its pages, we chat to SCOTT GORHAM, the man who helped birth the style of glorious twin-guitar harmony that would resonate throughout so many of our cherished slabs of wax, and resided in the eye of this life-affirming band’s particular hurricane for its glory years and beyond.

For all that band’s turbulent and tragic history, THIN LIZZY’s grit, balls and outlaw chutzpah remain central to Heavy Metal, and there are plenty of other tales of trials and tribulations tackled and often overcome in this issue, and of artists elevated by the all-consuming power of their music to levels bordering on the realm of mythical superheroes. Jon-Mikl THOR’s is one of these, and the legendary thundergod’s story in this issue is proof positive that the love for his chosen steel-bending metier could triumph against all adversity. Similarly stirring is the tale of GIRLSCHOOL’s KIM MCAULIFFE and ENID WILLIAMS, who spill the beans on four full decades of tireless and inspirational hard rocking in often somewhat … Read More

Pinpointing a certain sound to a geographical place has become almost impossible, mainly thanks to the internet and how it globally manipulates trends. So, it may be with some skepticism that people would meet WHIPSTRIKER, a Brazilian band. If someone told you that some of the most brutally honest metalpunk came from Rio, albeit tinged with the elixir of the metal gods, you’d probably tell them the next classic TNBM record would come from rural Ireland. However, living in Rio seems like living out a Discharge lyrics sheet, and Whipstriker mainman VICTOR took time out from his hectic recording schedule to talk about metal and life in Rio’s favelas. Historians can write what they like in their textbooks, but musicians (usually) tell the truth in their songs…                                                                                                                          

How did you get the name Whipstriker exactly? Victor Whipstriker: “I really don’t remember. I … Read More

Corsair are a rare treat: a classic hard rock sounding from the US (Charlottesville, Virginia to be precise) who proudly wear their influences on their sleeves – think Thin Lizzy, Iron Maiden and a hell of a lot of vintage progressive rock – yet they have never sounded like a tribute-in-disguise, but more like a richer and more interesting act that is just getting started. Since forming in 2008 after guitarists Marie Landragin and Paul Sebring met at a local Black Sabbath tribute show they have released two EPs and one self-titled full-length. The latter has just been reissued worldwide by Shadow Kingdom Records, just in time to coincide with Marie and bassist Jordan Brunk’s bass return from a six months stay in France. “Paul has always been into those instrumentals Metallica had on their earliest albums and Marie loved Thin Lizzy so Corsair spun from both,” suggests Jordan, who joined a bit later. “But after we put a lot of effort into being cohesive, we started to branch out and break apart from each other as well. We love getting our guitars to intertwine while playing totally different parts.”

If their name was suggested by Paul “because of his love … Read More

“Twin guitar harmonies,” is what Hakim, lead vocalist and guitarist replies when asked what prompted the foundation of Dead Lord, a new revelation in hard rock from Stockholm only founded in January of this year and currently entrenched in Sun Studios in Dublin recording their debut album, slated for an early 2013 release through Germany’s High Roller Records. Stylistically Dead Lord have it down, completely, bringing into the 21st Century all that made classic rock so interesting, vital and vibrant with a slick amalgamation of Thin Lizzy, Scorpions and Kiss as well as The Hellacopters, who upon further prodding certainly come out as being somewhat of a standard bearer and ‘go to’ reference point for a whole younger generation of Swedish hard rockers. “Yeah, Nicke Anderson would certainly be a big influence on us when it comes to exploring deeper into music and he has generally been a measure for good music,” is Dead Lord drummer Adam’s view on the matter, which is reinforced by a collective of nodding heads.

So what then of the emergence of a whole new wave of bands rooting deeper into the recesses of rock’s turbulent history, particularly in Sweden? “There’s a much better situation now … Read More