Speaking with Ironwood's drummer, Dan Nahum

This week I conversed with Dan Nahum of Ironwood, a progressive, pagan metal band hailing from Sydney. They burst onto the metal scene with their self-titled 2007 EP, returning this year with the release of their debut album :Fire:Water:Ash:. Ironwood’s music presents a mass of emotive and musical contrasts, with haunting vocals, evocative melodic ideas and a flawless fusion of folk and black metal influences, whose atmospheric lines stay imprinted in one’s head.

Ironwood was originally conceived as a side project by Henry Lauer (vocals/six string bass) around 2003. Dan had worked with him on other projects and was “only too happy to help out on drums”.

Dan – "Given the obvious potential of the project, we decided that it would be a full band and recruited Matt Raymond and Phil Brown (both vocals and guitars) to complete the line up."

The beliefs of the band lie in their connection and relationship to the world “that can be classified under the broad heading of animism.”

The idiom animism is derived from the Latin word anima defined as breath or soul. The beliefs constitute that everything has a ‘soul’, an ‘anima’, a ‘spirit’...each Anima is powerful, spiritual, that can help or hurt them, including the souls of the dead, the "ancestors". [www.themystica.com]

To Dan, in many ways, Ironwood is an artistic outlet for those sentiments.

Dan described that for him, as well as Ironwood as a whole, music is a natural artistic outlet that he cannot imagine not creating it. “Getting to record and perform this music with these guys is really great; they are so full of ideas and talents.”

Dan spoke to me about his other outlets within music, one of being Sword Toward Self [www.myspace.com/swordtowardself], including Phil and Henry – “which performs progressive death/black metal with a decidedly Eastern philosophical lyrical bend – which actually dovetails thematically with Ironwood quite well, even if the connection is less than obvious to some.”

Dan’s solo project delves into Black Metal under the moniker of Bleakwood [www.myspace.com/bleakwood], about to release a 7” through Foul Is Fair Recordings. Henry of Ironwood has a dark ambient project Ein Skopudhr Galdra [www.myspace.com/einskopudhrgaldra], and both explore Greed & Rapacity [www.myspace.com/greedrapacity] also releasing a demo EP later this year.

Dan – "expect uncompromising black metal that is technical, memorable and bestial all at once."

When one listens to Ironwood, they experience a brilliant ambience, a feeling of solitude within a natural environment, which underlines the aspect of animism within the band.

According to Dan, “Ironwood is really about the way the natural world acts upon itself, upon us and the way we act within it. It is a transformative - (trance-formative!) – gateway through which we can identify with nature and mythos and use that catharsis/identification to explore different aspects of our being – and we invite the listener to use our music and words to do the same.

Ironwood wanted to make :Fire:Water:Ash: a very emotionally rounded album, on which they presented a multitude of aspects within life, and a change within atmospheres covering; “triumph, loss, grief, wonder, nostalgia, creative ecstasy, possession!”

Dan stated that the last lyric of the album “In death there is life” spoke to him for some time – “… the notion of life being at its most “authentic” where there is also a profound recognition of death… I see it in fairly existential terms myself but I think the other guys (in particular, Henry) are coming from a different angle to reach agreement with me here.”

To listen to Ironwood head over to their MySpace www.myspace.com/ironwoodband, details for purchasing :Fire:Water:Ash: can be found there.

[Interview: Anna Denejkina]