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OH MY GOTH! PRESENTS THE GIRLZ OF GOTH (8/10) $5.95
www.voltaire.net / voltaire@voltaire.net
With a tongue-in-cheek gesture of naming himself after "that dead French guy" who's writings offended the status quo in the 17th and 18th centuries, Voltaire sees himself as a reincarnation of France's most celebrated poet/philosopher in the sense that his imagination is outside the norm. But today there's an audience for what's outside the norm and unlike the first Voltaire, his music and animation is embraced by everyone from the goth scene to MTV. You might have heard of Voltaire's self-titled project that offers "historically accurate" goth music done with strings instead of keyboards. in addition to this, his other projects are self-published publications including Chi-Chian and Oh My Goth! The Girlz of Goth presents a deeper glimpse into the different worlds he has created through his books with single and double character portraits based on his publications. The Chi-Chian and Oh My Goth! sections of Voltaire's book feature "redesigns" of many of his characters, next to new pieces in the sections The Deady Bears and The Girls Of Planet Pixeee!. The latter section strikes me as a goth-anime hybrid with pieces named "Devil Pixeee" and "Kitty Witch Pixeee". I'm not too familiar with the Chi-Chian characters but quite a few of these pieces have some dialogue which could offer some insight into this series. The section at the end entitled "Dead Girlz and the demons who love them" has interesting characters like Donna Matrix, The Harlequins and The Black Pearl. The inside covers have background information on Voltaire himself. - Dave Wolff
READ BETWEEN THE LIES #7 (8/10) FREE
PO Box 362; Sonoma, CA 95476-0362 USA
rbtlies@hotmail.com
This is to be the last time we hear from Read Between The Lies as Rev. Ian Heran announced it will fold following this issue. His reason is, while he prefers to finance it himself instead of dealing with labels for ad money, his finances do not allow him to continue with it. He also mentioned his plans to become more active in recording, mentioning the three sessions he did during the previous year with Mongoloid Witchcraft and Armageddon Accelerator. Ian does a fine job covering older and newer albums in the twelve-page review section added. His write-ups are brief and to the point as he avoids the over elaboration that writers bring to album reviews (which I myself have been guilty of, haha) to target specifically what he likes or doesn't like about each one. RBTL is going out with a bang as Ian interviews Morbid Angel, Enslaved, Zyklon, Vital Remains, Behemoth, Yattering, Solefald and Cult Of Luna. A few of his interviews are shorter than some of the others, and appear as if they may have been hurriedly done, but it's still worth it to read about bands who are still active in the underground even if they haven't gotten as much Stateside press of late. A list of Ian's top 10 albums of the year and full page ads from Metal Rules! magazine and blackmetal.com complete the issue. Watch for Ian in other zines and webzines as he plans to make a few surprise guest appearances here and there. - Dave Wolff
RUPTURED ZINE #1 (8/10) FREE
Pam Garrett; 234 Hemlock St. #2; New Bedford MA 02740 USA
www.rupturedzine.cjb.net / rupturedzine@verizon.net
It seems to be a unanimous consensus with the staff of Ruptured Zine that St Anger is the worst Metallica album ever, judging by the vicious attacks launched at the band by each writer. This is to be expected, as chief editor Pam Garrett warned me beforehand that Ruptured will pull no punches in offering its opinions. Her handwritten editorial reiterates this point as she adds "hostile" to the mix. Most of her interviews and articles were laid out in a "cut and paste" format that reminded me of a few punk zines I used to read; this is kind of being established as her trademark as she likes the DIY style. Contributions by Metalgeorge of Unhallowed zine (including interviews with Lullacry, Kalmah and To/Die/For) are "traditionally" laid out to provide a contrast. Pam contributes interviews with Nasum, Upon Crimson Wings and The Accursed along with a three-page report on her journey to the 17th annual Milwaukee Metalfest. Plenty of reviews are added from various staff members, who also include lists of their favorite CDs, favorite live performances and biggest disappointments of the year. A couple of the review pages have write-ups superimposed over news clippings which gives this zine more of a punk/DIY feel. If interested in advertising in Ruptured its ad rates are on the back inner cover. - Dave Wolff
SURVIVOR Volume 16 Number 6 (7/10) SUGGESTED DONATION $2.00
Apt. 2E; 11-15 45th Ave.; LIC, NY 11101 USA
Survivor is not really zine; it's more like an anarchist/libertarian newsletter that is published on a fairly frequent basis. There's no original stuff from the editor or editors as far as interviews or articles, just stuff thrown together like news clippings and reports from investor relations companies, all photocopied. Each issue there's a two-page music section and a section for classified ads in the back. This issue features reviews of new material by MC5, The Black Keys, Das Ich, Mary Sarah, The Microphones, Mekons, King Of Woolworths, Metaphor, The Spencer Davis Group, Tommy Bruce, Lutz Glandien, The Muffins, Soft Machine, Ass Baboons Of Venus, Orange Goblin and Mammoth Volume, all with site addresses and contact addresses. In this section there is also a report on the conviction of the guy who murdered the lead vocalist of The Gits, plus something on the 20-year anniversary of Dionysus Records, mentioning a band based in Boston in the 70's known as The Thrills whose bassist was Merle Allin of the Murder Junkies. - Dave Wolff
UNDERWORLD ZINE #4 (7/10) FREE WITH TRADE
Roy Sierra; c/o N.P.C.C.; PO Box 2058; BD #11185 Eng. Dept.; Abu Dhabi, U.A.E.
http://trendcrusher.bravepages.com
Another zine releasing its final issue, Underworld bids farewell to the underground with interviews with All That Is Evil, Council Of The Fallen, Funeral Frost, Sift, Friendship 7, Elenium, Necroplasma and Incarion. The editorial at the beginning includes editor Roy Sierra's thanks list for his contacts and a disclaimer about the interview content. Everything here is arranged in triple-column format with some of the interviews starting where a previous one leaves off. The interview questions are often standard but frequently they'll touch on subject matter revolving around pedophile priests, political themes like anarchism, religious and environmental issues and finally whether a human would resort to cannibalism to live through a life-or-death scenario. it goes without saying that all this makes interesting reading once such questions are put across and the interviewee has a chance to answer. What's good about this, besides the room being made to debate intelligently on each subject, is the brutally frank way these issues are laid bare. Free with this zine is a bonus CD included for the purpose of free promotion. Gracing the CD is Abhorred's The Empire's Fall" demo, Deathguy's The Beast Zingle" promo, Myndsnare's ...A Preliminary Quest demo and Negatron's Messiah of Damnation demo. The email addresses of each band is included in the track listing so you can contact any of them should you like what you hear. - Dave Wolff
UNRESTRAINED! #23 (10/10) $3.99
5625 Glen Erin Drive Unit #57; Mississauga, Ontario; L5M - 6V2; Canada
www.unrestrainedmag.com / info@unrestrainedmag.com
70 pages of interviews in article form, reviews and ads for all over the place, all laid out with extreme professionalism. Morbid Angel fans will appreciate the double page spread on them that comes immediately after the table of contents. I should mention the separate sections in this interview where Steve and Trey discuss perfectionism in their music and the like. The interviews are decorated with various studio, live and video photos which give each interview a different atmosphere. The best examples of the professionalism here are the interviews with King Diamond, Impaled Nazarene, Zyklon, Dimmu Borgir, Falkenbach and Grimfist. The music reviews at the end are extra-long and very informative, the CDs the editors deem most worthy of checking out are highlighted. Following this section is what they call a "head to head review challenge" where one reviewer who's straight edge and another who's a heavy drinker compare notes on a certain album; the "winner" is determined by which of them gave the album in question a higher rating. There are often draws between the two of them accompanied by various fight scenes instead of the pictures of straight edge tattoos and drunken metalheads passed out amid empty beer cans. An original idea and worth looking over here. - Dave Wolff
VIOLENCE #4 (9/10) $1.00 & postage
c/o Selfmadegod Records; PO Box 46; 21500 Biala Podl.; Poland
www.selfmadegod.com / karol@selfmadegod.com
This is an older issue (#5 has been out since earlier this year with Benumb, Agoraphobic Nosebleed, Day Of The Dead and Death Sentence among others) but I wanted to review this and get the name around anyway. The byline says that contributors include Charlie Infection of Gonkulator/Fudgeworthy Records and Napalm Death's Shane Embury who also has an interview this issue. This Polish zine has much information on the punk/thrash, punk/grind and hardcore scenes in Poland, Sweden, Finland, Brazil and the States with editorial columns and interviews with bands that the major indie labels haven't noticed next to bands signed to Relapse and Razorback. The layout is similar to New York based zines like Maximum Rock N Roll and Under The Volcano with close to 100 pages to read (this includes 16 pages of reviews). The two page spread on Bay Area thrashcore legends Hirax is worth reading for old school thrashers, and you'll hear from new faces like Macabre, Reagan SS, Third Degree, Municipal Waste, Crispus Attucks, Apathetic Youth, Hellnation, Drop Dead, Catheter, Tumult, Cthuwulf, Discarga and many more. A tour diary from Rot and Wojczech describes each stop they made across Europe between August and September 2002. Also there's a detailed report on the 4th annual Minnesota Thrash Fest where Caustic Christ, Path Of Destruction, Damage Deposit and Tear It Up performed. This zine is done by the same people who manage the Polish independent label Selfmadegod Records (see the above link). - Dave Wolff |
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