Magazin special: Iron Fist

Magazin special: Iron Fist, bi-monthly metal bible for those that can’t live without their denim and leather.

I was in a business trip in Wien few months ago. I had some plans to visit the Totem Records Shop in the downtown but the shop’s program doesn’t fit to my daily program so when I tried to visit the shop for the 3rd time on the same week and it was closed I was a bit angry and frustrated. On Friday my program ends earlier and I’m travelled once again to the Totem and luckily the shop was open! If you are a music collector and you are in Wien do not hesitate to spend few hours in the shop, amazing stock, lots of rare vinyls and Cds, etc., this will be an other story!

So when I was first time outside the Totem I saw in the storefront a very nice looking magazine called just simple IRON FIST. Shame on me but I never heard of about this mag earlier, inside the shop I found lots of issues, I bought all the stock right now (5 euro for a full colored 100+ pages hard cover magazine is a very fine deal). On the airport I read one issue after one more on the airliner! 

The magazine edited by Louise Brown (ex-Terrorizer) with other nice collaborators.

“Iron Fist is a new magazine aimed squarely at connoisseurs. It will be a magazine that caters for the disciples of heavy metal, whether that be traditional or classic metal, black, death, thrash or power metal. Iron Fist is born out of passion for music and is a call to arms for other metal maniacs that want to reminisce about the genre’s early days while remaining hungry for the new blood keeping the scene alive. With Iron Maiden, Metallica, King Diamond and Black Sabbath ruling the summer stages at festivals and on worldwide tours, it is undisputed that heavy metal is back on top and Iron Fist will be the bi-monthly bible for those that can’t live without their denim and leather.”

Let’s see the content: the magazine starts with a “Lectori salutem” editorial (Forward to Hell), after we can get some news from the scene under the “Black Horizons” banner, the next few pages are dedicated to the new bands from the underground with some short story-telling interviews. (Into Battle, new bands to die for).

One of my favorite part is the “World Downfall” section, presenting interesting scene reports from Africa to China, a road article! An other very interesting part is the “The Past is Alive” (Dio – Holy Diver, Accept – Balls to the Wall, etc) presenting some old classic releases from the Metal history, a must to read articles!

“Under the influence” presenting an influential band (eg Running Wild in the #7 issue, Satan in the #5 issue, etc) with band’s history, a must to listen discography and other interesting things.

“Reviews.Praise.Mutilation” is dedicated to the long and detailed reviews from the deep underground pit of hell to the mainstream scene.

My personal favorite part is the “Heavy Metal Hunter” articles when band members showing their personal record collections (vinyls of course, what else?) with nice photos and answering to questions like: “my favorite record is”, “my favorite artwork is”, “the record I would save from fire is”, “the best record I stole is” and so on.

On the last page is the “Heavy Metal Warrior” section with record shop owners, promoters, metal journalists, etc.  

Beside the regulars we can read lots of detailed interviews, live, concert reports with old, forgotten metal heroes, new metal forces and lots of real underground acts.

On the pages of Iron Fist I found some nice advertisements, luckily not too much. Finally we have a magazine which is not a fanzine and not a mainstream magazine like Terrorizer, Legacy (something between), advocating real metal with totally dedicated editors and real music lovers!  11th issue has been unleashed, I have only one thing which I really don’t like: the story-telling type of interviews, I prefer question-answer interviews, the rest is just perfect!

Hard cover, nice looking magazine, papers are not glossy! with great pictures and well designed, lots of stuff to reading!

Enjoy, read and support, do not forget: only printed magazine is real!

Contacts, info:
http://www.ironfistmag.com
https://www.facebook.com/ironfistzine

by Mirgilus, 2014 September