MONKEY MAGIC

Two underground icons remember Iron Monkey v1.0

DAVE HUNT ANAAL NATHAKH/ MISTRESS/BENEDICTION

“Iron Monkey didn’t like you. That was the first, and enduring, impression I got. They didn’t want to communicate anything to you. They didn’t want to make you feel part of something. They didn’t want to impress you. They didn’t even particularly seem to want you to listen to their music. What they were intent on was dredging up a rumbling storm of kinetic riffs and nihilistic resentment. Not because it showed some kind of semi-poetic, bruised pride of the downtrodden, but just because it was fucking horrible. And that was the point. JUST NEGATIVE. FUCK OFF. It was brilliant.”

ANDY SNEAP

PRODUCER/HELL

“My strongest memory of working with Iron Monkey is that we got a really great low end on the first record! I remember playing it to Robb Flynn before I worked with Machine Head and it was a talking point during the sessions for The More Things Change. I was a bit oblivious to the whole scene, but I’d worked with some hardcore bands like Hard To Swallow [featuring Jim Rushby], and the scene was really incestuous back then, so that’s how Iron Monkey ended up coming to me. They paid me £169 for two days, the guys played together live, Johnny only did one or two takes after and that was it, job done! Johnny was a nice fella. He used to get me cheap deals on trainers from the skate shop he used to work at! As menacing as he sounded, he always had a smile on his face.”