Iron Claw "it's like Black Sabbath with Syd Barret on vocals..."

Classic Rock's "Lost Pioneer's of Heavy Metal" feature unearth's Iron Claw, and brings the band back to life after 30 years.
Initially active between the years of 1969-1974, Iron Claw brought about a havoc like no other to Dumfries, Scotland, save for the likes of Black Sabbath. Formed by Alex Wilson in 1969, who then recruited Jimmy Ronnie (guitar) and Ian McDugall (drums), they were joined by singer Mike Waller in early 1970. Wilson, the groups founder and bassist, decided to go about forming a band after witnessing a Led Zeppelin gig in 1969. The band lifted their name from the opening lyric to King Crimson's classic "21st Century Schizoid Man." (Cat's foot/iron Claw/Neuro-surgeon's scream for more). Wilson and McDugals attendance at Black Sabbath's performance at Dumfries (which Wilson recorded, representing Sabbath's earliest live recording) convincing them to not only cover their entire first album and single live, But to conciously constuct their sound around them.

In 1971, Willson had to replace Mike Waller (when he left to take up the guitar), and so two new members (Wullie Davidson/vocals/harmonica/flute, and Donald MacLachlan/guitar) were recruited by Wilson and this changed the sound of the band to a more structured twin harmony guitar direction. However in 1971, when new recording sessions were looming, Donald MacLachlan was asked to leave the band as Jimmy Ronnie was unhappy with his presence. After the recording sessions, drummer Ian McDougal left in May 1972 and was replaced by Neil Cockayne. The group broke up in 1974.

In 1993, Iron Claw played a one-off show for charity. And in the late 90's, a German bootleg CD of some of the early recordings resurfaced. And in 2009, 16 recorded songs from the 70's were remastered and released on CD on Rockadrome Records from Texas. In response to the critical success the band reformed in 2010 and began working on an album of new and unreleased material. New vocalist Gordon Brown was recruited by the three remaining members of the band to finish the album. Alex Wilson (bass), Jimmie Ronnie (guitar), and Ian McDougal (drums).

The resulting highly acclaimed CD "A Different Game" was released internationally by Ripple Music in 2011. In November Gordon parted company with the band and following his departure Gary Hair was chosen from Brown to take over as vocalist. March 2013 saw the final disbanding of Iron Claw.