Formed about 5 years ago, Malmö, Sweden based IRON PIKE delivers a gloomy yet crushing blend of doom, sludge and hardcore. The group shares members with faster acts such as The Arson Project, Atlas Losing Grip, Trophies and more, and their new album “Be the Discomfort” is coming out this coming Sunday, June 21st! Heralded by the massive new single “The Great Deep”, recorded by Ulf Blomberg at The End Studios, and mastered by Magnus Lindberg at Redmount, the track promises an epic outing that doesn’t fall off the high standards many of the greats have set over the years. Unleash the beast and learn more about their story through the first-hand commentary below, including the band’s story, their take on the pandemic situation and local music scene in Malmö.
Iron Pike have been around since January 2015 but took it real slow in the beginning. In 2017 we released out first two recordings on cassette together with Seeing Red Records and Widowmaker Tapes and started playing a couple of shows. In 2019 we did a short euro tour together with Snailking and recorded our first album. This was also the first songs we wrote since Niklas joined the band playing organ, synths and doing noise and vocals, which defintely expanded our sound to the better. Aside from Iron Pike Oscar and Björn also play in The Arson Project, and together with Niklas we have a yet unnamed hardcore band. Previously we have played in Trophies, Atlas Losing Grip and First Cut to name a few.
𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐺𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑡 𝐷𝑒𝑒𝑝 𝑖𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑖𝑟𝑠𝑡 𝑠𝑜𝑛𝑔 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑎𝑙𝑏𝑢𝑚 𝐵𝑒 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐷𝑖𝑠𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑡.
We will release the album on June 21st on cassette in a sweet little package with inserts, wrap around cover, a patch and probably some more. Music wise I think we have found our sound with this recording and we are really proud of it, as it took us a great amount of effort to write and prepare for the studio.
I think our hardcore and punk roots sets us aside a bit from the usual sludge/doom bands soundwise, our at least I hope so.
𝐿𝑦𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑎𝑙𝑏𝑢𝑚 𝑑𝑒𝑎𝑙𝑠 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑙𝑑 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑖𝑡𝑠 𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑠, 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑔𝑢𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑚𝑎𝑙𝑒 𝑝𝑟𝑖𝑣𝑖𝑙𝑒𝑔𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑏𝑒ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑖𝑜𝑢𝑟, ℎ𝑜𝑤 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑎𝑝𝑖𝑡𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑠𝑡 𝑠𝑦𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑚 𝑑𝑟𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑠 𝑢𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑠𝑖𝑚𝑖𝑙𝑎𝑟 𝑡𝑜𝑝𝑖𝑐𝑠.
Cover for the digital release of Be The Discomfort
As for now our only booked show in July got cancelled because of Corona but hopefully we can book a couple of shows in the fall when the things settle a bit and concerts are allowed again. There have been discussions about getting ourselves to mainland Europe again and hopefully we can do so in 2021.
𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐶𝑜𝑟𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑣𝑖𝑟𝑢𝑠’ 𝑖𝑚𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑡 𝑜𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑢𝑠𝑖𝑐 𝑠𝑐𝑒𝑛𝑒 𝑖𝑠 𝑞𝑢𝑖𝑡𝑒 𝑏𝑟𝑢𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑎𝑠 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑝𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑠ℎ𝑢𝑡 𝑑𝑜𝑤𝑛 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑑𝑎𝑦 𝑡𝑜 𝑎𝑛𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟.
We are lucky enough to not have any economical setbacks with any of our bands and can only complain about cancelled shows. It also affects the social part of the diy scene as we cant travel and see our friends in different countries, which is a huge part of playing in a band. A lot of bands and venues struggle a lot these days and everyone who can should consider helping the ones you like so that the scene can get back on its feet when this is over. And as swedes we should probably complain the least because we have so far not had a lockdown and can still enjoy many parts of everyday life.
Malmö music scene
Malmö have been a crust and d-beat city as far as I know. Lots of bands and lots of love for the d-beat, but not for so much else it seems sometimes. We have also struggled a lot with venues the last couple of years as most venues only last for a year or two, which makes it harder to maintain a scene with consistency. I think the size of the city makes for a good mix as well, big enough for different subgroups and genres, but small enough for most people to know each other.
Other artists worth a check:
Blessings from Gothenburg have new music coming out later this year, Grace.Will.Fall release a new album in late may, Ocean Chief from Sweden put a new album of really heavy doom recently, Fredag den 13:e have a new 7″ out with top notch scandicrust. Probably tons of bands that I forgot about!
The Great Deep lyrics:
Contagious is the helpless blind
Unknown, unheard of
A thousand songs unsung
Steady hands will tie our nooses
Migrate, off into the senseless void
To march the ocean floor
Where nothing feels and nowhere’s near
Narrowing down the horizon
Until it sets in black forever
The flies will find their way to every carcass
Detached
Boneless
Numb, down to the marrow
Migrate, off into the senseless void
To march the ocean floor
Where nothing feels and nowhere’s near
A thousand songs unsung
Until it sets in black forever
A thousand songs unsung
Until it sets in black
