Sometime in 2012, Däddy D-Beat (aka Mitch) teamed up with Simön Slaughter (aka Simon) to thrash out a new musical project that aligned with dark, brooding, 80s crust and the speed and ferocity of bands like Bathory, English Dogs, and GISM.After searching Tasmania for a bass player they enlisted the help of Jacob Flowers who in 2014 was replaced by Ängelic Upstart (aka Ange). The modern incarnation of Ironhawk was born. After releasing the well-received demo Boozehounds from Hell, the trio are set to release their new record Cemetery of Steel on Australia's best metal label Heavy Chains.Recorded by Heavy Chains honcho Will Spectre, the album sees the band developing the intensity of earlier material that takes the thrash of acts like Amebix and Inespy and spits a huge, muccy glob on it.With an upcoming visit to the mainland, that will include a show with Japanese punk legends Deathside, things are looking to thrash hard for Ironhawk. Listen to the track "Ride Upon the Wasteland" and read a chat with Simon below.Noisey: Were you surprised by the reaction to the demo?
Simön Slaughter: It was a surprise! We recorded it in the early days of the band, so it seems quite tame compared to the recent EP or how we play live. We recorded the latest release at the Heavy Chains Dungeon. Will Spectre knew exactly how to harvest the raw energy of the band, and was able to channel a sonic intensity that sits at the perfect cusp of punk and metal.Did you read the review that compared one of your guitar solos to Husker Du?
Yeah I saw that! I never quite understood why – my guitar solos are manic and lack any precision to accurately emulate anyone! Husker Du were never a big influence for me. I began doing solos because guitarists like Bones from Discharge made it feel like with enough distortion and bending the occasional note you can make the crudest solos sound like demons howling. Noise not music!The demo is called Boozehounds from Hell. Speaking of booze, is it true that there is a parochialism when it comes to beer in Tasmania between Cascade and Boags?
More so in previous years, but it has tended to symbolize coming from the north (Boags), or the south (Cascade) of the state. Every now and then you will still hear someone waffling on about what beer people from north/south should drink with a kind of regional allegiance. Rivalry between the north/south of the island is mostly contrived, at least these days. We, like most people down here drink whatever is the cheapest and nastiest!"Servants of the Warmonger" is a big song. The intro is intense.
Ironhawk's music attempts to capture and recreate the tension of this unstable world. It aims to be intense! The song evokes the knife-edge that we currently live upon. Unprecedented devastation is looming closer than ever before in history. The most powerful nation on Earth is now led by a tyrannical loose cannon. A coalition of quasi-fascist nations are following suit, to which Australia is another puppet. Impending resource depletion, economic collapse, and increased instability of environment, will prompt these rulers to nothing short of frenzied totalitarian crackdowns and military interventions. Amidst this, people are blindly obedient and hypnotized by the deluded spectacles of economic gain and nationhood. The song is about the complicit submission of the masses whilst on the horizon a road is being paved to perpetual warfare and global holocaust. The world is burning to death - and nobody knows who to believe anymore.Much of the music and lyrics of Ironhawk attempts to crystallize the breaking point of this tension. Rather than conjure imagery of horror from fantasy and fiction, I see it more intense and vital to draw from the real dystopia surrounding the present day, for building the aesthetic and content of Ironhawk's music.You are playing with Japan's mighty Deathside! How do you feel about this?
Deathside are the gods of the burning spirit punk! We are really stoked to be playing alongside them. Along with Deathside there's also the return of Pisschrist, Sadist coming from the US, and Havittajat too – this show is going to be insane!!Did you do anything to commemorate the anniversary of Lemmy's death?
So we played a set of Motorhead covers down the local haunt (Brisbane Hotel). It's always fun because we, and many of our fans, love those songs. And the songs are etched on the back of our brains from one thousand drunken nights of playing them at 5am so we find ourselves covering pretty often.But despite the mantle of 'motorpunk' the influence of Motorhead on Ironhawk is somewhat overstated. Musically we draw primarily from 80s punk, (early) crust, thrash, (early) black metal. And all these genres got something out of Motorhead, but few bands actually sound much like Motorhead. All of us in Ironhawk have been Motorhead fans from our teen years, and always will be, but we're not a "rock n roll" band in the way Motorhead were. Ironhawk is blackened punk from the depths of hell!! Ironhawk pecks at the bones from the rotted corpse of rock and roll!! Ironhawk is the deafening screams of the apocalypse!!
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Simön Slaughter: It was a surprise! We recorded it in the early days of the band, so it seems quite tame compared to the recent EP or how we play live. We recorded the latest release at the Heavy Chains Dungeon. Will Spectre knew exactly how to harvest the raw energy of the band, and was able to channel a sonic intensity that sits at the perfect cusp of punk and metal.Did you read the review that compared one of your guitar solos to Husker Du?
Yeah I saw that! I never quite understood why – my guitar solos are manic and lack any precision to accurately emulate anyone! Husker Du were never a big influence for me. I began doing solos because guitarists like Bones from Discharge made it feel like with enough distortion and bending the occasional note you can make the crudest solos sound like demons howling. Noise not music!The demo is called Boozehounds from Hell. Speaking of booze, is it true that there is a parochialism when it comes to beer in Tasmania between Cascade and Boags?
More so in previous years, but it has tended to symbolize coming from the north (Boags), or the south (Cascade) of the state. Every now and then you will still hear someone waffling on about what beer people from north/south should drink with a kind of regional allegiance. Rivalry between the north/south of the island is mostly contrived, at least these days. We, like most people down here drink whatever is the cheapest and nastiest!
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Ironhawk's music attempts to capture and recreate the tension of this unstable world. It aims to be intense! The song evokes the knife-edge that we currently live upon. Unprecedented devastation is looming closer than ever before in history. The most powerful nation on Earth is now led by a tyrannical loose cannon. A coalition of quasi-fascist nations are following suit, to which Australia is another puppet. Impending resource depletion, economic collapse, and increased instability of environment, will prompt these rulers to nothing short of frenzied totalitarian crackdowns and military interventions. Amidst this, people are blindly obedient and hypnotized by the deluded spectacles of economic gain and nationhood. The song is about the complicit submission of the masses whilst on the horizon a road is being paved to perpetual warfare and global holocaust. The world is burning to death - and nobody knows who to believe anymore.Much of the music and lyrics of Ironhawk attempts to crystallize the breaking point of this tension. Rather than conjure imagery of horror from fantasy and fiction, I see it more intense and vital to draw from the real dystopia surrounding the present day, for building the aesthetic and content of Ironhawk's music.You are playing with Japan's mighty Deathside! How do you feel about this?
Deathside are the gods of the burning spirit punk! We are really stoked to be playing alongside them. Along with Deathside there's also the return of Pisschrist, Sadist coming from the US, and Havittajat too – this show is going to be insane!!
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So we played a set of Motorhead covers down the local haunt (Brisbane Hotel). It's always fun because we, and many of our fans, love those songs. And the songs are etched on the back of our brains from one thousand drunken nights of playing them at 5am so we find ourselves covering pretty often.But despite the mantle of 'motorpunk' the influence of Motorhead on Ironhawk is somewhat overstated. Musically we draw primarily from 80s punk, (early) crust, thrash, (early) black metal. And all these genres got something out of Motorhead, but few bands actually sound much like Motorhead. All of us in Ironhawk have been Motorhead fans from our teen years, and always will be, but we're not a "rock n roll" band in the way Motorhead were. Ironhawk is blackened punk from the depths of hell!! Ironhawk pecks at the bones from the rotted corpse of rock and roll!! Ironhawk is the deafening screams of the apocalypse!!
'Cemetery of Steel' is available soon on Heavy Chains records. Catch Ironhawk in Melbourne April 21 at the Tote with Deathside, Pisschrist, Sadist and Havittajat.