Summertime is always a fine time to catch a band
who’s on the road. Touring bands and show-goers alike enjoy moving from one hot
box to another, all in the name of live music. On a hazy summer night here in
North Carolina, I went to one of my favorite hot boxes, a local metal dive on
Maywood Avenue aptly named, “The Maywood.” The Maywood was hosting the classic
Maryland doom band, Iron Man, whom I had never seen before. For a lot of us,
Iron Man was a band who was more heard-of than actually heard, so I was happy
to finally check them out. Biker-sized frontman, “Screaming Mad” Dee Calhoun,
joked about the band being composed of “two brothers and two crackers”,
(meaning himself and drummer, Jason “Mot” Waldmann, as the representative white
southerners, and bassist Louis Strachan and guitarist, Alfred Morris III, as
the African American quotient). Iron Man started as a Black Sabbath tribute
band in 1988, but soon after began writing their own brand of
Sabbath-influenced material, quickly joining the ranks of world renowned
Maryland heaviness. The band’s lineup has changed many times throughout the
years, but there has been one steady constant. Guitarist, Alfred Morris III.
That night in Raleigh Alfred was donned all in
black. A tall, thin man with a proud, silent presence. For most of the downtime
before their performance Alfred kept to himself, seeming perfectly happy to
leave most of the talking to Dee and Louis. However, once he climbed onto the
stage and plugged his Gibson SG into a chain of vintage guitar pedals and a
1979 Sunn Beta Lead, all eyes were immediately on him. Out of all the Sabbath
clones in and around the metal scene, both locally and worldwide, I had never
heard such an authentic, Iommi-esque guitar tone, (and that includes the time I
saw Black Sabbath in the early ‘2000s during an Ozzfest). Alfred lit the stage
ablaze with the doomiest guitar sound this side of “Master of Reality,”
bringing all the Sabbath lovers into a headbanging frenzy, while still adding
his own flavor to the Iommi formula. The band charged through a pounding set of
classic Iron Man material, like “Black Night” and “The Fury,” as well as newer
songs from their comeback record, “South of the Earth.” In short, they blew the
roof off the joint.
I called Al a few days after their show. He was in
the middle of looking up classic Sabbath footage on YouTube, a favorite pastime
of his, (the Don Kirshner footage was the choice selection during the time of
the call). Alfred was affable, mellow, and more than happy to share stories of
his early days as a young guitarist when he began to learn the secrets of the
masters. He was a young Maryland kid who knew something special was happening,
not only in the burgeoning hard rock scene throughout the world, but also in
his own backyard. Alfred continues to embrace the music he loved as a kid in
the ‘70s, and if Iron Man’s recent performance in Raleigh is any indication,
there is little to no chance that we’ll be hearing an end to their classic doom
sound anytime soon.
ES: So after seeing your recent performance here
in Raleigh, it’s obvious you’re a guitarist who’s well schooled in the great
heavy bands of yesteryear. Who were your
favorite bands growing up? Obviously Sabbath?
AM: Well, Sabbath came later. Cream, Yardbirds,
Steppenwolf, Mountain, the Amboy Dukes, that was the kind of stuff that was
first hitting it with me in Maryland, but once I came upon the “Master of
Reality” album, that was it! Especially when I heard the song, “Into the Void,”
like when he breaks down into that solo. I was like, “Man, that cat sounds like
Hendrix!” I was just like, “Wow.” And then I started backtracking. I was like,
“Well, which album is this?” Everyone was like it, “It’s the new one, the third
one!” “Well, then I need to hear those
other two!” Haha.
ES:
So you liked a lot of heavy psych. Were you also a Blue Cheer fan?
AM: Yeah. All that stuff that was out back then,
you know? 1964 was the Beatles and the Stones. Then that whole period there
between ‘64 and ‘70, those were my growing years right there. That’s when I was
first started grabbing the guitar, kind of figuring stuff out. It was kind of a
prime time to learn guitar because you had all the masters right there: Jimmy
Page, Jeff Beck, Jimi Hendrix, Leslie West. It was a sound explosion and I was
right there soaking it up like a sponge. I think the advantage for me with
Hendrix and Iommi was that they were left handed and I was right handed. So
when I watched them on TV it was like looking into a mirror and figuring out
where to put your hands, and I was kind of picking up on that. I was like,
“Cool! Okay, it looks like he’s going right here!” Unfortunately, the way
technology was back then, you had to grab the needle on your record player and
keep putting it back, haha. That was a blessing later on, but for that time I
had to pick that needle up and keep putting it back, going, “What was that
part?!” haha. I would just play on my little amp until it sounded close to what
they were doing, and I was like, “Okay, I think I got it.” I had to wait for
the radio to play the song sometimes. I’d grab my guitar real quick and play in
unison with it. That’s how I taught myself.
ES:
Like I was telling you the other night at your show, I have never seen or heard
a player who has Tony Iommi’s sound dialed in as well as you. Mind giving us a breakdown of your equipment?
AM: Yeah, the whole chain starts with a 1973
Gibson Standard. That was as close as I could get to the old Monkey SG that
Tony used. That goes into the Crying Tone wah-wah pedal, which is made by
Electro Harmonix, and I picked that because when I saw Sabbath I was right in
front of Tony’s feet. He had the sky blue, Tychobrahe wah-wah, and it was big.
It had a bigger, wider sweep. And I said, “I’m not getting a Crybaby. I’m
getting something else!” The years went by and I used Crybabies and the Vox
wahs, but Electro Harmonix has this wah-wah pedal called The Crying Tone. I
looked at it and said, “Oh, man! This is that wah-wah just like Iommi’s! I’ve
gotta get it!” It has a lot of different features on it, you know, a lot of
different tones. It has the exact sound that I wanted, especially for playing
“A National Acrobat” or “Electric Funeral,” something like that. So it goes
from the SG into the wah, and then into a Boss seven-band EQ. The EQ goes into
the Uni-Fuzz, and the Uni-Fuzz goes into the Electric Mistress flanger. And the
flanger goes into–well, I have two Electo Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man pedals,
but they’re both down. Luckily, Beheringer makes a copy of that called the Time
Machine. It’s an exact copy of the Deluxe Memory Man. So that’s the last piece
of the chain, and I split it out into the amplifier, (a 1979 Sunn Beta Lead).
ES:
It was a wonderful guitar tone, man. I could have listened to you play all
night with that tone, I swear.
AM: Ha! Thanks a lot, man.
ES:
So, Iron Man is now considered to be a classic doom metal band, often mentioned
in the great company of bands like Pentagram, Trouble, and Saint Vitus. The
doom sound has evolved a lot throughout the years, with guitars being tuned way
down to C, guttural vocals, that kind of thing.
Are there any doom bands around these days that stand out to you?
AM: Well, besides those, you had the ones from
across the pond, like Cathedral and Electric Wizard, stuff like that. They’re
all great bands to me. Of course, at the top of the heap you have Sabbath,
haha. And they’re not really a doom band, but they have a couple of doomy
songs. That British band, Budgie, was a great influence on me also. A lot of
different moods with Budgie.
ES:
I really like that you guys are from Maryland, because Maryland is home to a
lot of great heavy bands. You have Wino’s bands, like The Obsessed and Spirit
Caravan, but also a lot of stoner rock groups like Clutch, Earthride, and Sixty
Watt Shaman. Any thoughts as to how there ended up being so much talent out of
that area?
AM: I don’t know, man. I guess it’s just like it
was for San Francisco back in the ‘60s. I think it’s just the angel of rock
flies over these places and stuff starts happening. It’s like how you had a lot
of stuff coming out of Seattle, and then you had a lot stuff coming out of New
Orleans, then Maryland and New York. I don’t know what it was. One thing for
sure is that we were in the touring track for all major bands. We had the Capital
Center which caught every major thing coming through, you know. They would come
in from overseas, land in New York, hit the Garden or the Civic Arena, the
Philadelphia Spectrum and then come down. The next one was the Capital Center
right there in Maryland, you know? Boom, and they’re on. They’d swing on over
to the west coast. I think that had a lot to do with it. We were just so
exposed to the people who made that music. That was the place where everybody
hung out, the Capital Center, and I was right there. My first show there was
February 19th, 1974, which was Iommi’s birthday, and I stood right in front of
him because it was general admission. No seats on the floor. I was right there
hugging the stage! Haha!
ES:
Sounds like you guys had it all right there, and that you all fed off one
another. So much great music coming out of there.
AM: Oh, man. It was great.
ES:
Baltimore is kind of looked upon as being a central city up there in the
Maryland scene, even though not all the bands are from Baltimore proper. One
thing I always thought was interesting is that Baltimore is typically thought
of as being a tough, gritty city. And
with Sabbath, they were from Birmingham, and a lot of folks always had the
theory that Birmingham, as an industrial city, was a big influence on Sabbath’s
sound. Or like Detroit. Detroit was a
tough, blue collar city and it had a lot of influence on bands like the Stooges
and Alice Cooper.
AM: And the MC5!
ES:
Yeah, the MC5 of course. My favorite!
AM: Oh, my god. I tell you what, man. When people
starting seeing the MC5, everyone was like, “Damn!” If you’ve never seen any
footage of them, they were on fire, man! Yeah, Detroit had some stuff coming
out of there in the ‘60s. But Baltimore and Birmingham? I guess they are
similar cities. I think it might have been a little tougher in Birmingham. But
yeah, I think you’re right. I think the mood and the atmosphere makes things
conducive to the writing. Slower, plodding, stuff like that. I guess Maryland
would be like a multi flavored ice cream cone. You’ve got a piece that tastes a
certain way from Baltimore. You’ve got another piece that tastes a certain way
from Frederick. You’ve got another piece that tastes a certain way from
Rockville. I think it’s just a multi flavored area.
ES:
Definitely some great music from there. You were talking about that dark,
plodding sound. Generally speaking, most heavy, dark bands enjoy non musical
influences like horror movies, pulp novels, trashy pop culture type
things. I’ve noticed there’s a track on
your new record, “South of Earth,” that mentions H.P. Lovecraft’s classic
demon, Cthulhu. Do horror culture things
influence your songwriting at all, or do you like to leave lyrical things up to
your vocalist, Dee Calhoun?
AM: Yeah, that’s what we do. We leave the lyric
writing up to the vocalist. My influences are purely musical, like I said, from
‘64 and on. For moods and stuff like that, that would be more translated into
the lyrical side of it. For most of our material, we’ll make a riff and that
will inspire the vocalist to write in a certain way. The riffs will inspire Dee
to write whatever is inside of his heart and inside of his head, and if it
happens to trigger some Lovecraft or any well known writers like Stephen King,
it will come out in his lyrics. He’ll be inspired to write in that vein. Of
course we’ll also add on life experiences and stuff like that.
ES:
At your show the other night Dee announced that it was the band’s one year
anniversary of signing with Rise Above Records for European releases and Metal
Blade Records for America. I’d imagine
it feels pretty good being back in action.
What’s your fondest memory of the past year?
AM: Well, you caught us right after a great memory
because we played the Castle of Doom in Italy!
ES:
Dee had mentioned that to me. It sounded amazing.
AM: Oh, man. It was incredible. I’ll tell you.
They treated us like we were kings, man. It was fantastic. I’m at a loss of
words, really. But the best and greatest thing about being signed to a proper
label like that is you’re flying here and you’re flying there. We did the 25th
anniversary show of Rise Above in London, England. We were there for like four
days. It was a two day show. So yeah, we’re doing a lot traveling, reaching out
to a lot of fans, hearing from different countries. It’s just incredible. We
can’t wait to get over to Turkey and Greece, or India. We’ve been hearing from
everybody. Japan, we got to play with our labelmates, Church of Misery. They said,
“Man, we’ve got to tour Japan together.” We’re all labelmates, buddies. We all
respect each other.
ES:
That would be so many doom lovers’ dream to see that tour. I look forward to
that myself.
AM: Yeah, right around the corner! It’s coming.
ES:
Regardless of all the line up changes throughout the years, Iron Man has been
going strong for several decades now. Do you remember the first show the band
played where you felt you had a good thing going on? Do you remember where and
when that was?
AM: Well, it depends on which one because Iron Man
started as a Black Sabbath tribute. Are you talking about that, or as a
recording artist?
ES:
Either way. I’ve played in cover bands where I’ve had just as glorious of an
experience as I’ve had with my original bands. So whatever your first favorite
live memory is from the start of this band.
AM: I think just getting it off the ground and
playing an actual show, which was in August of ‘88. That was a good feeling. We
walked in, and I think there was an opener. But when we came on there was about
75 or 100 people there. It was a good feeling. They had never seen us or heard
us, but because we were a Black Sabbath tribute, they came out and showed up
and we played pretty good that night. But during that time also, I was always
thinking that we’d write original music, you know? We weren’t just going to go
out and headline as a Sabbath tribute. We were going to write our own stuff and
see if we could get signed. It always seemed like a good way to do it, you know,
do the tribute and then write your originals. We were into the Sabbath vein,
and also the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, you know? I like music that moves
sometimes too, moves at a quick pace and lets people rock a little, and then
add it with the heavier stuff. That’s what we were going for. So yeah, I guess
just remembering the first show we did getting the band off the ground, and
then this recent show we did in Italy. It was just incredible.
ES:
Thanks for sharing those memories. Whenever I see a guy who plays guitar like
you, I like to ask do you prefer recording in the studio where you’re given the
chance to tinker around and experiment, or do you prefer playing live and raw?
AM: They’re both rewarding. It’s cool in the
studio because you can create that piece of art. But then it’s cool too to go
out and play live and get that response from human beings. You bounce off them
and they give it back to you, you know? They’re both golden opportunities.
ES:
Anything we can expect from Iron Man in the coming year?
AM: Right now we’re probably three quarters done
with new material for the next thing, 10 or 11 songs. Then we just wanna
practice the hell out of it and ingrain it, and then when we go to the studio
we’ll get that power. The thing starts to become a monster after you put all
those parts together. A lot of touring things have been thrown at us. We’ll
probably go through Canada, and I anticipate the west coast coming at some
point. Never been there. I’ve been as close as Las Vegas and that’s it!
ES:
I think they’ll love you out on the west coast. Lots of metalheads out there!
AM: Haha, yeah. And they’ve been waiting a long
time!
ES:
Anything else you want to add or mention?
AM: We love our fans. They’re the best. They treat
us like gold. We love talking with them and going over history with them, and
we love it when they talk about our songs with us. It’s just a fantastic
experience. I can’t wait to record the new CD, and I can’t wait to see you on
tour!
Words & Interview by: Erik Sugg
