Line UP:
Simön Slaughter On Guitar / Vocals
Ange Upstart On Bass
Mitch Bästärd On Drums
Well,friends of Aristocracy!
We speak again of our newsroom, where in a little while, we will begin in all its emotions, Interview 110 of this Aristocracy.Today, our goal is to talk to the Australian band Ironhawk. Which, drinks from the source of Punk Metal, Speed Metal and Thrash Metal. It's hard to believe, but they will present their debut album titled Ritual in nine days. of the WarPath.
Through a German label called Dying Victims Productions. The Vocalist that has already been mentioned here, answers our questions and the song that opens the interview begins.
We just thank the band, their label and just say that it's hard to believe because the band has a very refined technique. We thought this band had a longer period on the road. Fortunately, it's just the beginning for them!
A1:Talking about the composition work in Ritual of the War Path?
Simön Slaughter:These 10 tracks are a continuation of the themes and style that we had recorded a couple of years beforehand with the Cemetery of Steel EP.Most of these tracks had been evolving as part of our live set from about 2018 onwards, and some of them we had kept aside to give the album some unheard songs too.
A2:In some measure,Would metalpunk bands inspire the Ironhawk sound?
Simön Slaughter:Ironhawk is heavily influenced by early metal punk. The era that we draw heavily from is the era of when punk bands started moving into metal territory, which during the 80s bands like Onslaught, English Dogs, Amebix, Sacrilege, Axegrinder, Depression, Anti Cimex, really captured a perfected halfway mark between metal and punk.But we also like newer bands like Mystic Storm, Devil Master, Power from Hell, Obnoxious Youth, Lifeless Dark, Subversive Rite, who have brought a new dynasty of the metalpunk tradition and breathed life into the genre. In Australia, there are bands like Reaper and Sepsis who are on a similar trajectory to this.
A3:The Darkness can be interpreted in many ways. How is it interpreted for this album?
Simön Slaughter:This album is a tenfold journey through myriad forms of darkness. There is the darkness of ravenous power and control (The Final Crusade). Darkness of a world that is dying upon cataclysmic infernal flames to become a barren wasteland beneath infinite storms (Signal to Oblivion). Darkness of a murderous past etched into the land as shadows around us (Enter the Circle). Darkness of pious command and persecution (Sanctimony), the darkness of war and nuclear obliteration (Eternal Winter), the darkness of the juggernaut march of progress leading ourselves to our ultimate demise (Dark Age), the darkness of the world within the mind in the depths of suffering (Escape from the Void), the search in the darkness for the warrior within to struggle for survival upon a doomed wasteland (Doomsday Rider) and the darkness of the shadows left upon death (Gates of Beyond), and all of the above summarised in guitar solos (Ritual of the Warpath).Each song is drawn from a shadow cast by this world. Ten sides of darkness!
A4:Not that I don't like an album with an adventurous theme, but why can I say that about this band's work?
Simön Slaughter:It's a fine line between fiction and reality, and that is what makes it thematically very metalpunk. The vision of a diabolical world is set in the reality of today, a world of masters and slaves, war and nuclear-threatening, the earth dying amidst an infernal grave, persecution, the shadows of brutal history concealed by the sheen of modern life
When the songwriting began on this album, our town was surrounded by flames in what was an unprecedented firestorm, and outside we would look at the burning sky, red and darkened by the infernal horizon set to decimate everything in its path. Apocalyptic scenes that would be once a work of dystopian fiction have increasingly become reality for many people, as year on year devastation and collapse wreak havoc more intensely and more frequently. Natural disasters that were once rare are becoming commonplace.So, it's a dark age. But the aesthetic that is often in punk tends to explain the world by reeling out facts and figures. And that doesn't really communicate the depth of feeling that looking into the darkness of our times will evoke. It is within the power of metal to induce the music that summarises a burning world, and Ironhawk conjures an infernal vision, that is also an observation of things in this world.And that also means that there is something for everyone, because someone who listens might just enjoy it for the music, and that's fine too.
A5:I know that in song eight, the band refers to a knight. Maybe the question was who would that knight be, but could we say that in the story told to more than one knight in this doomsday told?
Simön Slaughter:Ahh,so it refers to Night rather than KNight, but in a sense the night hordes of hell that it refers to is a call to arms of the warrior within that seeks to avenge the wasteland. So that's the ride through the doomsday, it's mad-max in its imagery but akin to a saga.
A6:What kind of circle is dealt with in the third song?
Simön Slaughter:OK so it was written when some friends and I tried to hike to an abandoned town deep in the rainforest of the West Coast of Tasmania. After a day of walking we were running out of daylight, and as we got to the edges of the ruins we were surrounded by flooded waters and rather than crossing a wild river in flood, we turned around and walked through the rainforest in the dark for several hours.As we scrambled back for some hours in the dark, exhausted, with no torchlight we walked along steep banks of a river in flood, where one slip and any of us could be washed away to our death. To keep my spirits up I composed the song in my head as we trudged our way to safety, reflecting on the bizarre and inhospitable place we had encountered.This place had been abandoned almost a century ago, and had remained untouched and reclaimed by the wilderness around it. In this, it felt very immersed in its history and somewhat haunted by the enduring times of its existence. The history of the hardship, cruelty, and massacres that had occured in the area seemed to breathe their suffering into the landscape.Weary and delusional, we speculated that the only way that we could see this town was to die there. We had stepped into the circle where the energy of past horror and torment was embedded in the surroundings, and that we were to turn around or be forever in a loop of time.So, the circle a space of tormented memories that are embedded into the stones and ruins. The idea that history does not live only in minds and pages of books, but is etched into the landscape in a dark circle of time. Shadows cast by the suffering endured years ago will echo their presence in such places. The idea may have been influenced by the magic mushrooms we had too, {ha}!
A7:It´s more easy or more practical been a powertrio band?
Simön Slaughter:Yes, you can easily get everyone firing in the same direction on stage. Being a trio works in a lot of ways - it's easier to keep it tight and cheaper to put the band on the road!
A8:How is Ironhawk different from your previous bands?
Simön Slaughter:The previous bands I was in were doing more straightforward punk music, and there is always a core influence of early UK punk in Ironhawk like GBH or Exploited. Some of the stuff I was doing had elements of metalpunk but it was always a bit harder in those bands to really let it rip with solos and more metallic elements. Mitch had been in both punk and thrash bands so he was able to really bring from both worlds his powerhouse hammering of the drums. Ange was previously in metal bands The Wizard, and Tarot, both of which were more influenced by early 1970s metal and to Ironhawk has brought a penchant for epic parts and provided more experimentation with slow and enigmatic portions of songs.
A9:Looking at the prefix of the band's name, does it indicate idolatry or happy conscience?
Simön Slaughter:Few people seem to ask where the name ironhawk originated!
The idea was that it would be a portmanteau word that should reflect a collision between worlds, between the past and the future, between civilisation and the wild, between machine and blood.Iron, of the steel chains that bind, of the lacerating blade, of the mechanised world. This is positioned up next to hawk ,the majesty and magic of the wild and arcane, the untamed beast, the raptor of wisdom, the eyes that hover upon the world in all its forms.
Ironhawk, assembled as some bastard creature of the world, upon the clash of chaotic and dissonant forces.
A10:Some literature or film inspire the band?
Simön Slaughter:Much of the inspiration comes from a mixture of post-apocalytic films from the 80s and mysterious psychological horror from the 70s. To reel off a few... Mad Max (1 & 2 & 3), Miracle Mile (1988), The Wicker Man (1973), The Stone Tape (1972), Children of the Stones (series, 1977), The Tripods (series, 1983), Threads (1983), The Witchfinder General (1968), Heavy Metal (1981), Hammer House of Horror (series from 1980) and Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense (1984), She Wolves of the Wasteland (1988), Blade Runner (1982), Tales of the Unexpected (series, 1980s), Out of the Unknown (series, 1960s), Logans Run (1976), The Omen (1976), Repo Man (1984).. Literature, I would say there are themes that are inspired from the writings of Philip K Dick, Albert Camus, Ursula le Guin, Franz Kafka, Micheal Moorcock, and probably a load more.
A11:What´s the idea behind artwork´s album?
Simön Slaughter:We wanted the artwork to reflect the cataclysmic sensation of its content. The idea was that an entire mountain is exploding against a vortex of flames over the ruins of the world, whilst a silhouetted beast emerges in warmongering fury to avenge the wasteland. The artwork was done by Stewart Cole (Rotten Realm) who is a master of grim and diabolical scenes.
A12:How band arrive to Dying Victims producions?
Simön Slaughter:We had reached out to Dying Victims as they were well known here in Australia, they have been releasing some of the best speed/thrash/metal releases and have a good ear for bands that are keeping the old flame of metal and punk burning.
A13:Explain nine song,please?
Simön Slaughter:Gates of beyond is about the shadow cast upon the empty space that death leaves behind. I wrote it upon the sudden death of a couple of friends, and the complex grief that ensued for many around us.
A14:This album is conceptual?
Simön Slaughter:Yes. Conceptually there are interwoven themes and a general narrative beneath all the tracks.The first side of the album are strings that weave an entangled world of dark forces, of unbridled power and enslavement, avaricious greed until extinction, the bloodthirst and silence of history, oppresive dogma and , nuclear warmongering and obliteration. From this, the second side of the album are reactions that emerge of revelation, madness, vengeance, grief, and elation.The ritual is the musical journey that takes us to comprehend this as a warpath, of understanding the wasteland as a struggle for survival on forsaken lands of death.
A15:What dynamic did you want to give this album?
Simön Slaughter:It was crafted to listen from start to finish. I wanted the songs to not as much stand as individual tracks but to interweave themes and ideas to make it a journey from start to finish.
A16:Why is the album title song the last song?
Simön Slaughter:It's an instrumental that tries to summarise the album speaking through guitar solos. And as the songs are prone to being conceptually heavy it's nice to end on a note of just purely rocking out in the ecstasy of cascading guitar solos.
A17:What would the 2022 Ironhawk say to the 2014 Ironhawk?
Simön Slaughter:Look after your teeth better.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a29_0T6kvAM
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