Issue 7

Strange as it may sound to some, at Iron Fist we don’t consider ourselves a retro magazine, exactly as we don’t consider Heavy Metal a thing of the past, more a timeless force. Therefore it’s something of a delight to unveil a new issue - a staggering thirty-six pages fuller and printed on a much heavier, more tactile paper-stock - that does more than ever before to unite past, present and future into one everlasting continuum of steel.

Who better then for the cover, indeed, than modern Metal’s most towering progenitors, the mighty Judas Priest. Currently traversing the globe on a tour that takes them across the States, to Bloodstock and beyond, this titanic troupe’s storied career is covered in depth in a chat between Dom Lawson and Rob Halford, So, here we are, issue 7, a whole year survived, and in a certain respect we're back where we begun. Erik Danielsson of Watain is back on the cover, marking the completion of a circle that begun when he and I first discussed the idea of Iron Fist back in June 2012. When Erik moved back to his hometown of Uppsala earlier this year our awesome photographer Ester Segarra and I were invited to hang out and meet the bands of the Uppsala Metal Of Death circle, including Degial, Reveal and the incredible In Solitude, who just served up an album of the year contender in 'Sister'. We got a chance to talk to Erik and Pelle and Gottfrid Ahman about creating both the new Watain and In Solitude albums at the same time and how it helped cast in stone two vital slabs of contemporary heavy metal.

Motörhead, the band that gave us our name, are also back within our pages, this time thanks to Paul Schwarz's fantastic interview with Phil Campbell about their new album 'Aftershock'. Hell, even Kim pulled off an amazing coup in interviewing Mystifier, something she told me she wanted to do when I asked her to come join this crazy ride.

It's been a wild ride, we've made mistakes, we've had sleepless nights, we've definitely been broke as hell, but there's not a single regret. Demonstrating the Iron Fist has become life for us, we can't see any other way. Just like Running Wild, who are also interviewed in this issue, said: “Heavy Metal like a Hammerblow”. There is nothing else we'd rather live for. Thank you for being there with us every step of the way.

Issue 7 also features...

Antichrist, Arcturus, Below, Bloody Hammers, Blues Pills, Cadaveric Fumes, Craven Idol, Crypt Lurker, Cursed13, Dagger, Daniel Bay, Degial, Dendera, Gehenna, Gnosis Of The Witch, Grave Miasma, Hail Of Bullets, Hybris, In Solitude, Irkallian Oracle, Mercyless, Motorhead, Mystifier, Necrowretch, Newsted, Nile, Pentagram Chile, Praise The Flame, Reveal, Ross The Boss, Running Wild and so much more...