With the launch of Classic Rock magazine in 1998 he became involved with that title, sister magazine Metal Hammer, and was a contributor to Prog magazine since its inception in 2009. In the early 90s, Malcolm Dome was the Editor of Metal Forces magazine, and also involved in the horror film magazine Terror, before returning to Kerrang! for a spell.
He would later become a founding member of RAW rock magazine in 1988. Dome is also credited with inventing the term "thrash metal" while writing about the Anthrax song Metal Thrashing Mad in 1984. Malcolm Dome had an illustrious and celebrated career which stretched back to working for Record Mirror magazine in the late 70s and Metal Fury in the early 80s before joining Kerrang! at its launch in 1981. His first book, Encyclopedia Metallica, published in 1981, may have been the inspiration for the name of a certain band formed that same year. But that’s the beauty of what happens: it’s the fans who decided this was a great song.” I don’t think we believed at the time that it would turn out to be so special. But, over the years, Iron Man has grown and grown. “We never thought of ourselves as a singles band anyway. “I think it worked best at the time in the context of the album,” Ward says. Although it reached No.52 in America (nine places higher than Paranoid), in the UK it make no impact at all. Sabbath released Iron Man as a single in 1971. “I suppose, because of the film, there’s also gonna be those who see a tie-up between what I wrote 40 years ago and the comic-book character. “When you have such a major film using it, then it does introduce it to a new generation, kids who perhaps aren’t aware of who Black Sabbath are but who might be tempted to go and check us out. “It was a recognition of just how much the song means,” he says with pride.
In 2008, Iron Man received another boost when it was included in the movie of the same name, based on the Marvel Comics creation. I think its popularity now is such that, in a way, it no longer belongs to Ozzy, Geezer, Tony and me, it’s now everyone’s song.” It’s very musical, but also so theatrical. People recognise it as soon as it starts up. It’s now a part of the culture of the country. “In America, if you go to most sports events you’ll hear it at some point. I’m very proud of what we achieved here.”īill Ward believes that the song’s stature has grown over the years, to the point where it has now gone beyond being just a great Sabbath song. “It’s fairly simple, yet also has a lot of depth. “I really do feel that when you listen to Iron Man, what you’re getting is the essence of what made Black Sabbath such a special band,” he offers. For Geezer Butler, it is perhaps the track that bests sums up the band. Over the years, Iron Man has become not only one of the cornerstones of the Sabbath catalogue, but also credited as one of the most important songs in the history of metal. Today it would be so easy for a band to get the proper sound on a song like this, because the technology exists.” In the end they did an excellent job under the circumstances. For Rodger and Tom, trying to make Iron Man work was so tough. I played very loud back then, and wanted a powerful bass drum sound that’s what the song needed. “The trouble was that the microphones available to us in 1970 just weren’t up to the task of capturing the power and depth of the sound. “Technically, we had real problems getting it right in the studio,” Ward recalls. For me, the drumming was a real challenge to get right in the studio. As soon as you hear that ominous start, you know something’s building. Former Sabbath drummer Bill Ward reckons that, musically, the song was nothing like anything else the band had done up to that point: “For me, this is a special song for the band.