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

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

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