Iron Man

Iron Man evolved from earlier Alfred Morris III projects Force and Rat Salad. In 1988 the band decided to become a Black Sabbath cover band and changed their name to Iron Man. The band has been billed as "Blacker than Black Sabbath" since it has featured multiple black musicians. The band soon began writing original songs again in the vein of Sabbath and were signed to Hellhound Records in 1993. They released their debut album Black Night in 1993 and followed up with second album, The Passage in 1994. During this time, Lee Dorrian offered Morris the lead guitar position in Cathedral but had to turn it down because of his family situation. In 1999 the band released their most recent album, Generation Void. Each album has had a new line-up with Morris being the only constant throughout the years. In 2006, a bootleg recording of Iron Man surfaced entitled Iron Man: Live in Cincinnati. This concert was one of the very few performed on the ill-fated 2000 U.S. Tour. The show was recorded on February 9th, 2000 at Annie's Saloon in Cincinnati, Ohio. It was the last show ever with Dan Michalak & Vic Tomaso. At the beginning of 2000 Iron Man embarked on a 20 city U.S. tour which ended prematurely with two band members (Michalak and Tomaso) leaving. Temporary bassist ViiX recruited two additional temps (Jared Rein on drums and Jadd of MeteorCity Records founder on vocals) for the tour. She also provided a van for the band to use & did various photography & artwork. They resumed touring up until April 2000. This line up played their last show on April 1st, 2000 at the Emerson Theatre in Indianapolis, Indiana. In 2004 Michael Lindenauer took on the role as their manager and helped Morris to revive Iron Man. Morris had recruited new band members, one of which, Jon Owen, was from London, England. This caused problems when they tried to make their first comeback show on July 9th, 2005 at the Templars of Doom Festival held in Indianapolis. Jon Owen was unable to secure a proper visa in time and was going through a series of personal problems as well. It took the combined efforts of both Morris and Lindenauer to put the band back together yet again. Ex-members of Maryland doom bands Wretched and Life Beyond (Louis Strachan on bass and Gus Basilika on drums) were recruited for the rhythm section. After a long search Lindenauer secure Joe Donnelly of Sabbra Cadabra (a Black Sabbath tribute band). Iron Man was booked for the Doom Or Be Doomed Festival to be held over three days in Baltimore, Maryland on the weekend of April 13-15th, 2007. Just a month before the show, Basilika left the band over musical differences. Former Force drummer Brian "Dex" Dexter filled Basilika's spot. With the new line up intact the band finally made their comeback show as planned on April 15th at the D.O.B.D. Festival. Since then they have managed to put out a self produced CDEP called Submission. In 2007, Leaf Hound Records began re-released the first two albums originally released on Hellhound Records. Both albums have been remastered. The Passage was re-released on CD. In 2008, Black Night was released on LP with plans to re-release the CD version in the future.