About Fist

Greetings and salutations. Call me Fist, I'm a proud Kentuckian and I've used metal to help me get through the suffering of living in the bible belt. I am an encyclopedia of metal. I'm a fan of all types of metal. My main goal here is to help people find more music they will fall in love with. Hope you enjoy our words! \m/

Interview: Flaw @ Louder Than Life 2015 [AUDIO]

While we were at Louder Than Life 2015 we stepped away from the crowd and spoke briefly with Chris Volz, Ryan Jurhs, and Jay Daunt of Flaw. They were on tour and drove 24 straight hours from Maine to Louisville to play the festival. In 2014 the band was the ribbon cutters of the festival in a sense being the first band to play the festival in its inaugural year. The band is currently working on their new album which should be released in the first quarter of 2016. We caught up with the guys after their amazing live set.

Review: Louder Than Life Festival 2015

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Louisville, Kentucky’s premier rock festival has once again come and gone. It was the 2nd annual Louder Than Life festival in Champion Park and music wasn’t the only thing drawing crowds towards the Ohio River. Before we get to the music, which was our whole reason for being there we have to chime in on the gourmet man food, whiskey, craft beer, and this year NXT wrestling was added as well. I think all of these things are amazing and just add to the reasons to attend the festival. The wrestling brings people into the festival that may not have any interest in music, it’s just another selling point the promoters came up with that seemed to work rather well. This year’s lineup of bands was a little more mellow and southern rock than it was last year. I like the idea of a theme with the bands. Last year seemed to be more of a 90’s throwback lineup and this year was more of a southern rock year it seemed. It leaves everyone curious what we are in store for next year. Continue reading

Tour Review: Toxic Holocaust, Lord Dying & All Hell.

All Hell (Jacob Curwen)

All Hell (Jacob Curwen)

It’s not often you get to see three amazing bands packed together in one of the smallest venues in North Carolina. The Odditorium even though small in size brings some of the biggest bands in metal to the region. It was a night I had highly been anticipating. First up on stage was the hometown band All Hell who are getting ready to release their amazing new album “The Red Sect” ( You can read that review here). The band is a perfect example of blackened thrash and will quickly become a favorite for any true metalhead. In our previous review of that album I pleaded to them to play my favorite track on the album “Graveyard Dust” and they were listening. That night at The Odditorium in Asheville they played the song on stage for the first time. That was a privilege in itself. They took stage and after a few songs singer Jacob Curwen screams in his demonic growl “We are all going to die”, and until the moment the show ended I thought he may be right. The tiny packed venue was raging with people moshing, jumping, singing and screaming. Just to further explain the violent nature of this show I was bleeding when I left. All Hell were amazing on stage and left victims to their sound all around. The stage was just the perfect size for the three piece band to dominate.

Lord Dying (L-R Nickolis Parks, Erik Olsen)

Lord Dying (L-R Nickolis Parks, Erik Olsen)

Next up to conquer the stage was Portland based band Lord Dying. The band being a quartet posed some problems for the small stage. Bass player Don Capuana actually performed in front of stage left. Since I was the closest person to him I felt it as my job to keep people from running into him or causing him bodily harm in their moshing craziness. I used my body as a blockade and it seemed to work. The voice of Lord Dying Eric Olsen has a voice that resonates with any metal fan. His vocals aren’t like any you’ve heard before and seeing him unleash them live just raises the bar even more. You can see the passion and hard work in his face with each soul crushing song. The band showcased songs from their two releases and no one wanted them to exit the stage. As they played their farewell song Don Capuana broke a string. He grabbed that son of a bitch moved it out of his way and just went about his business.

Toxic Holocaust (Joel Grind)

Toxic Holocaust (Joel Grind)

Next up was Toxic Holocaust featuring main man Joel Grind who has ties to both other bands on this bill. Joel actually helped produce the upcoming All Hell album we mentioned earlier and also Lord Dying‘s new album “Poisoned Altars”. This was the second time seeing Toxic Holocaust, the last time he was touring for the ” An Overdose of Death” album in 2008. I will tell you now that Toxic just get better with age. Once they took the stage the audience went mad. They were right up in Joel’s face singing along to songs like “Wild Dogs” and “Nuke The Cross”. Circle pits were happening and the violence unending and out of pure happiness. Speed, speed, speed is how the band plays. Thrash so fast it will steal your beer and smack you in the mouth before you realize what’s going on. They really captured everyone’s hearts when they played the all inspiring song ” 666″. If you can make it through a Toxic Holocaust show and not head bang you need your ass kicked repeatedly. So they had one final song to play and luckily it was “Bitch” and everyone was more than excited to hear it, but hated knowing it was the last song of the night.

Lord Dying and Toxic Holocaust are still on this tour and have 10 dates remaining through October 3rd. If you are within a reasonable distance from one of the remaining dates and don’t attend you are doing yourself a great injustice. Get your ass out there and experience live music, watching it on YouTube is not the same as being there in person.

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You can follow the bands on their Facebook accounts below:

Toxic Holocaust

Lord Dying

All Hell

Review: Walking Corpse Syndrome “Human Delusion” [Video]

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It’s not often you say to someone “Hey check out this brutally kick ass band from Montana.” I have been saying that about Walking Corpse Syndrome to anyone and everyone that will listen for a week. From this point forward these guys are my favorite band from Montana. The band was formed by guitarist Matthew Bile and drummer Nocktis in 2006. The guys were in a band together before and the break up of that band resulted in them going on to create this band. One thing that sets this band apart is that they use two drummers. The band is a six piece having double guitars and drums. Of course co-founder Nocktis is one of those drummers and the other is his brother Mr. Grimm. It’s rare you have two drummers, but one of the best bands to ever pull that off is none other than the legendary Melvins. Both drummers able to drum in rhythm is very difficult. Since the drummers grew up together learning drums it helps their chemistry that much more. The vocalist Leif Winterrowd helps give the band an extra boost toward legendary metal status as well. The band has been labeled as dark metal, atmospheric death metal and brutal groove and while none of those are wrong I’d honestly refer to them as New Wave of American Heavy Metal with some extra aggression. The band is about release their fourth studio album titled “Human Delusion” on September 25th. Continue reading

Reproacher [Multi-Album Stream]

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*This is part of our State Of The Art series, showcasing bands every Monday from the State of the month.”

This month’s State is Wyoming!

Reproacher is a Wyoming based band that formed in 2010. They have been a hard working band and have amassed several releases in their youthful existence. In 5 years they have developed their signature sound and released material that is pure unfiltered and an undefinable style of music. In 2011 they released their debut self-titled album. That album was produced by Andy Patterson who also recorded another favorite band of mine, Gaza. Since releasing the debut they have also had 3 additional releases. Next chronologically was 2012’s ‘Tour Demo MMXII’ EP. The 6 track EP has this raw and rough sound to it. Sometimes these high quality pristine recordings take away the soul and energy of a band. This EP really captures the organic composition of the band. Pin pointing the exact genre the band fits into is rather difficult. A dash of this and a pinch of that from various styles of metal seems to sum up the accomplished sound of the band. Their two most recent releases are ‘Nothing To Save’ which came out in 2013 and a 7″ split with Of Feather and Bone that came out in 2014. The split is the first release from the band that wasn’t recorded by Andy Patterson. Continue reading

Review: Creedsmen Arise “Temple” [Stream]

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Creedsmen Arise are a relatively new band, and they hail from Boras, Sweden. They haven’t even been together a year yet, that anniversary isn’t until November. Guitarist Simon admitted to me that the band didn’t really find their sound until March. In a span of several months the band was able to not only find their sound but also perfect it. They went a certain direction and didn’t slow down. Unfortunately, shortly after the release of their debut EP “Temples” the lead singer Gustaf has split from the band. They are now a 3 piece for the time being but are seeking a new singer and will hold auditions soon. They again may have to find their sound, or adapt to whomever they choose to fill void in the band. Continue reading

Demise of Sanity!

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*This is part of our State Of The Art series, showcasing bands every Monday from the State of the month.”

This month’s State is Wyoming! (I’m a little late on last Mondays’ post.)

Demise of Sanity comes to from Cheyenne, Wyoming. While the band has more of a southern sound, and by southern I mean straight from the depths of hell. The band was formed in 2009 and has since released two full length albums and an EP. Their debut was titled “Falling Into Madness” and was unveiled in 2011. Next they released an EP titled “Towards the Guilded Edge” in 2013. The most recent release in February of this year was entitled “In the Midst of Stones and Fire”. They are signed to Bastard Giraffe Records. The band has elements of thrash and their sound as a whole is encased and surrounded with amazing riffs by axe man Dustin Clark. The riffs aren’t sporadic and they melt faces equally throughout the Equality State. Each song seems to really showcase something different about the band, and they build harmony very well between the music and the vocals throughout each and every song. The vocals help set the band apart, at times the clean’ish melodic singing style by Shawn Colvin brings this bluesy element into the mix. The blues and metal have always been close in relation and it helps the band have this refreshing sound that stands out in the crowd of bands flooding the market. They have released a video for a song on the newest album entitled ‘Escape From Tomorrow’. In this song the screaming parts of the vocals along with the guitar riffs and some funky bass lines make this song have an edge against the other tracks. The band has two upcoming dates in Cheyenne including one at Zombie Fest so make sure to get out there and check them out.

Make sure to follow Demise of Sanity on Facebook here.

Here is the video for ‘Escape From Tomorrow’.

Interview with Jason Shi of Wildlights and ASG!

Jason Shi

Jason Shi

Jason Shi of ASG and Johnny Collins of Thunderlips have formed together an ass kicking duo and put out their debut album. If you haven’t heard of ASG or Thunderlips you can go ahead and crawl back under the rock you have been hiding under. The new self titled album was released on August 21st and is also on beautiful color vinyl via Seasons of Mist. They have a true rock sound that has really been absent in the music world for a while. Call it what you want, surf rock, desert rock, its just good music with great riffs that stick with you. We had the pleasure of speaking with Guitarist and Vocalist Jason Shi and asking him a few questions about what has been going on.  Continue reading

Unsigned Band Review: Destroythm’s Self Titled EP

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Have you ever wanted to hear the pure unfiltered sound of brutality? Well look no further. Destroythm brings it to your doorstep and crams it into your skull. The thundering drum beats and echoing guitar riffs are ecstasy to my ears. The new self-titled EP has 6 tracks for you to headbang to. The EP was released in July 2014 and how they have managed to go this long without being signed I will never know. I’m sure once their material starts to circulate they will have offers from various labels, as they have a sound that really has no competition to speak of. Continue reading

Interview with Josh Brown of Full Devil Jacket!

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Full Devil Jacket have released one of the best comeback albums in the last decade titled “Valley of Bones”. Singer and lyricist Josh Brown also spent some time in the christian rock band Day of Fire, during the time FDJ was apart. While both bands are great we are very glad to have Full Devil Jacket back and making new music. Josh and drummer Keith Foster are the only two original members still in the band. FDJ has always been a lyrically driven band and that hasn’t changed after so much time apart. Many people, including myself credit Josh Brown’s lyrics as one of the main things that aided in getting through life’s struggles. The lyrics cast away the darkness that tries to surround us all. We had the opportunity to speak with Josh before they head out on their next tour. Continue reading