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Another heavily underrated local act, this Melbourne band has been around for quite some time, and this is their second full-length album.

Forgotten Ancestors finds them progressing strongly from their debut, 2017’s Pathways (which itself was excellent), winding out and really exploring their sound, and producing a highly cohesive work of bluesy-arse art that will appeal strongly to anyone who likes anything from Black Sabbath to Kyuss to Helm to Celtic Frost. And just about everything in between.

This album is seven tracks, although 40-odd minutes’ worth, of pure ballsy stomp, with riffs aplenty, slamming drums, a chunky, chugging, uber-tight rhythm section, wah-drenched lead breaks and powerful, soulful vocals soaring over the top. There is not a single weak track among the seven on offer, although they certainly saved the best til last: penultimate track Down to the Stars is the record’s best cut. Its sense of down-tempo but dynamic raunch is just enthralling. Then Backchat closes proceedings in epic, grandiose and sometimes eerie and atmospheric style.

And arguably the best thing about it all is that there is a real sense of boogie to their sound. You can move and groove to it while you slam your fist to the sky and spill beer all over yourself while you stagger around the pit in a happy drunken frenzy.

To tip it all off, the production is real, raw, powerful and highly listenable all at once. You can hear every instrument with great clarity as well as all the sweat, blood and tears that have obviously gone into this album’s creation. Much kudos to everyone involved in this record’s engineering, recording, mixing and mastering.

If you dig your rock ‘n’ roll with balls of steel and an old-school aesthetic, then Forgotten Ancestors is your bag.

Band: El Colosso
Album: Forgotten Ancestors
Year: 2020
Genre: Heavy stoner/blues rock
Label: Independent
Origin: Australia

The post El Colosso – Forgotten Ancestors first appeared on Metal Obsession.

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A little background on Markus Saastomoinen: he is a Melbourne-based singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and currently frontman for extremely promising progressive heavy rock outfit Cirrus Crown. This is his debut solo record.

And it’s an interesting ride, with a broad musical palette and good depth of songwriting. Opening with the short, evocative voice and piano piece A Strange Silence, the album proper kicks off in a style you might imagine, coming from a member of an Australian prog rock act, with its longest and most progressive track, Puzzle Piece.

However, if you thought it was going to be another heavily Cog and Karnivool-influenced Aussie prog album, think again. Saastomoinen takes a sharp turn to the left on Clones. Here we get the first taste of something that pervades much of the rest of the album, a strong 60s influence on the songwriting. In fact, Clones sounds like something George Harrison might have done in his post-Beatles career. Lullaby reminds one of The Beatles’ Oh Darling. I can hear The Beatles, The Hollies, The Beach Boys and the like in the melodies and the songcraft in pretty much everything except for the aforementioned Puzzle Piece and the stomping Truth, Lies & in Between. He even brings some very 50s and 60s gospel-esque a-capella to the table on Bring Him Home, which closes proceedings in ear-pleasing and unexpected style.  

The fact that he brought the great man, former Southern Sons guitarist and founding member Peter ‘Reggie’ Bowman, in on production, songwriting and musical inspiration duties only added further aural lustre to this sweet-sounding project.

Puzzle Pieces is a great name for this record, it’s quite an enigmatic puzzle that pieces together to make one rather cohesive and listenable whole. This record is well worth a moment of your time to check out.

Band: Markus Saastomoinen
Album: Puzzle Pieces
Year: 2020
Genre: 60s influenced prog rock
Label: Independent
Origin: Australia

The post Markus Saastamoinen – Puzzle Pieces first appeared on Metal Obsession.

Mt. Joy, a new band from Los Angeles by way of Philly, is firmly based in rock but infuses their riffs with some seriously groovy soul.

Mt. Joy, a new band from Los Angeles by way of Philly, is firmly based in rock but infuses their riffs with some seriously groovy soul.

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We’re not sure whether you’ve noticed, but 2020 hasn’t been the easiest year to negotiate. Yet rather than affecting our resolve one iota, this has only made us more determined than ever to carry on the chronicling the glorious and never-ending continuum of heavy metal through the ages. With that in mind, we’re very happy – at long last – to present another Iron Fist for your delectation. Rest assured there‘s no danger of the rivetheads who run this magazine running out of sounds to raise our pulse and get our dandruff flying, and thus putting this one together has been an almost indecently exciting experience Who better to have on our cover than a legendary band who’ve kept their strange flame alight an entire half century now, through all of manner of trials and travails: Blue Oyster Cult.  We chat to sage wizards Buck Dharma and Eric Bloom in a quest to tackle the band’s enduring charm, their uncanny allure and the fact that against all odds, reason or logic they’ve just making killer records well into their seventies.

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Reflecting the fact that our passions extend across all of that half-century, we have Electric Wizard’s Jus Oborn waxing lyrical on the joys of Atomic Rooster, not to mention meeting up with early ’80s pace-setters like Algy Ward’s Tank and Tokyo Blade. Elsewhere, as always we’re equally thrilled to be digging into heavy metal’s tales of lore and talking to the modern-day bastions marking out its future – there are features to be had here on the Soho denim and leather mecca that was Shades and the proto-kvltist Xeroxed gold of Slayer Zine. Yet we also chat to mighty modern day warriors like Grand Magus, Lizzies, Bat, High Spirits and Wytch Hazel, bringing mayhem and magick anew from diverse inspiration.

We travel back to the mystical realm of the ’80s when some of the most stubborn advocates of the metal faith – mighty arcane forces like Virgin Steele, Manilla Road and Cirith Ungol – were sharpening their steel in the US and toiling largely uncelebrated in the dungeons in a way that would result in formidable cult status decades later, and also chat to Michael Whelan, he whose sleeve art formed part of that elusive mystique. Yet back in the here and now we travel to Canada to deal with a thrilling scene going on right before our very eyes, thanks to the likes of Metalian, Spell, Starlight Ritual and Occult Burial.

To paraphrase the timeless eloquence of Manowar, here at Iron Fist we’ve all got hearts made of metal, and our blood is molten rock – if we don’t hear the sound of metal, we go into shock. No shock tactics to fear here at Iron Fist, as we stubbornly keep the flame alive against all adversity, and would be delighted if you care to join us.