Evil's Best #3 (2009)

100 page, A5, xerox, English

Interview
Darkthrone, Dawn of Wolves, Bloodsoul, Beerage, High Spirits, Infernal Assault, Warhammer, Nocturnal, Children of Technology, Abazagorath, Heretic, Iron Kobra, Riotor, Death Invoker, Atomic Agressor

Issue #2 was made available again together with #3 so I ordered both issues. Looking at the new issue, the editor maintain almost all the things I said for the previous issue. Good chat I must say, again! Only things that changes is less picture is presented here, although the reviews still have the front cover. If you just flipping through the zine, you will think its have a very long interview but it is not. Reason is band's picture or logos are made as the background for the interview so you see no break between one interview to another. Some interviews still have some pictures tough. So dont worry, your eyes will not get tired looking at text only. One thing I forgot to mention in my previous review. The reviews, it written there the formats available of that release but the editor didnt mention whether he is reviewing CD version or LP version of that release (you know, some format got extra song and such). I dont know other English-written zine from this land and currently this zine is the best so far. Probably hard for other to beat. I still wondering about the Israeli bands mention in issue #2. Do they really make "fake" releases???

Evil's Best #2 (2008)

92 page, A5, xerox, English

Interview
Hod, Superchrist, Strident, Morbid Tendency, Crushing Jackhammer, Recrucify, Thrash Storm, Apokalyptic Raids, Sacrificial Blood, Tangorodrim, Golgolot, Gehennah, Dead To This World, Ancient Rites

My first ever mail from Israel. I got mixed reaction before I ordered this zine. I thought our government might confiscated my mail and I could be probably boycotted by the local metalhead. Haha. Some imagination (but not so sure about the second one). Should politics be mixed? Well, at least this zine doesnt. It also feature band from neighbouring country, Lebanon (both country involve in war few years ago). This is the first issue written in English. A very well-layouted zine, page are numbered and have table of content. There's no border artwork and such, the layout looks clean done with computer. Almost every page have pictures although sometimes not related with the band. Example if the band say Clint Eastwood, you'll see his picture haha. Almost all reviews have the cover art as well. Well-done on the visual aspect. The content are much more interesting. The Q & A are done "live" so its very interactive, informative (the bands answered it quite long too) and with some humour in the questions as well. (if not "live", then it sure looks like a normal chat to me). I will never asked about band's bio to band like Ancient Rites (already read lots of intie bout this band since mid 90's) but Gunther very well summarized their bio. About the reviews, all formats are combined together, rated and not arrange in alphabetical order. There's also concert reviews, label's guide and address list of the bands/label featured in the zine compiled into one page. In this issue, you can discover some Israeli bands (I only know Salem, Orphaned Land & Melechesh). The editor will answered back if the band said "No" when asked about Israeli metal scene. So you'll have sort of a small scene report here and there. And the most important one is Tangorodrim (special feature in this issue, called "Tangorobituary" with interview and reviews). I'm also pleased to know Golgolot is a Hebrew word for "skull" (I thought of somebody teasing Gorgoroth after all the soap opera created by this band haha. The editor also run a label and have some release out. So also ask about that when contacting them.


Contact
werewolf12345666@gmail.com
www.israhellbanger.com

Sangwitok #7 (2009)

48 pg, A5, xerox, English

Interview
Bereavement, Mord, Nibelheim, Death Invoker, Soul Devour, Shamanthra, Prayer of the Dying, Wishmaster, Ulterior Decimation, Kratornas, His Name In Vain, Incisor, Hereafter

I like packed zine like this. The font are small (but readable) and no space wastage. There's a lot to read in the 48 pages. The zine starts with editorial which the editor wrote about politics in the state where the zine is from, Perak. Interesting! If you have issue #6, the layout is similar like previous issue and improvement on the good xerox quality (even when using background image or dark color background, still can read the text clearly). Well done on that aspect. Again, you can find artwork by Imperial Art, Fatamorgana Art, Other Dimension Design and Nurhidaya. News are plenty and they are not placed on the earlier pages of the zine like normal zine, but also in between the interview Band A and Band B. The pages are numbered but no table of content. Reviews (most have front cover as well) are not divided to specific section. All formats (CD, demo, etc) are place together and not in alphabetical order. And like the news sections, you can find reviews in between the interviews. Eh? Its sound like I copied the review of issue #6 haha. It seems, not much have change. Interview questions are not just on music but on various topic, some are quite hillaroious for me. The editor put the band bio as well, a good way beside asking the band their bio in the interview. He still dont give a f**k of what people said, still review his previous issue, and I like this style. Some negative aspect I found for this issue (probably just me that have the problem haha) is pictures are sometime too small but still OK I guess if compared on Necroscope which you hardly find any pictures at all. Some arrangement of the pictures, can be misleading if not you did not read the text entirely. For example picture of Natrah (local BM band, the name sounds like a Malay girl name??) at Virus Zine review. The zine is hand-numbered, mine #52. New issue already out by the way. Apologies for taking too much time to upload this review.

Contaminated Tones #1 (2009)

38 pages, A4, xerox, English

Interview
War Master, Nyctophobia, Wendess, Sapremia, Midnight Priest

I got to know about this zine after Neftaraka posted info about the review of their release in Metal Terus forum. After checking the blog, I contacted the editor, paypal the money and soon after that, I got this zine mailed from USA. Printing & xerox quality wise, I would say its excellent. The text are clear, the graphics are sharp eventough the editor is using background email/color for all pages in the zine. Only 5 interviews for this issue but the questions are long so there plenty to read there. So what else do this issue offer? Some reviews and some more reviews but made in "article" form like "Forgotten Existence" (reviews of bands and their releases. Not really 'old bands' as I thought the name would suggest though), "Apolion" (4 pages of review of this band discography, incl. pictures) and also article on the band called Blackspell (from Syria). The zine's pages are not numbered but table of content is provided at the editorial page (so you have to count to find page 23, to continue reading Nyctophobia). Not much to complain, well usually I will, if you ask about the font size. The font size which is a bit large than usual but I think its fit with the layout (Large picture is used so I think it fit). I enjoy reading this issue especially the review/article. My copy is hand-numbered 73/200. Just one thing that keep me wondering, my copy have a newspaper clip stapled on the last page. The clip is news about death of Traci Thompson (mortgage underwriter). What do that have to do with the zine or the editor? I do not know and not interested to ask either. If you read the info on the blog, it says this issue is pro-print but looks more like a laser xerox. Anyway this zine deserve your support.

Email
Orion_metalhead@hotmail.com

Web
http://contaminatedtones.blogspot.com/

Chaos #12 (2003)

80 page, A4, pro-print, English

Interview
Krisiun, Blood Red Throne, The Crown, Vomitory, Setherial, Grosteque, Kataklysm, Eternal Lies, Callenish Circle, Immolation, Maze of Torment, Nail Within, Hearse, Fragments of Unbecoming, Necrophobic, Neuraxis, Dimension Zero

My first issue of this mag starts with issue #13. That issue totally blow me away! When I know issue #14 is on sale, I asked Shenck (the editor) for back issue and to my luck #12 is still available (and also save on postage when buying 2 copies, #14 & #12 at the same time). So I am now reviewing the old issue after reading the new one. Issue 12 is the 10th anniversary so it means it is quite special issue for them. There's a page featuring the front cover of all the issues released, good for us to know some history of mag. If you seen the layout for the issue after #12, this is kind of a letdown hehe. The layout for the interview are OK but for the review, its the boring style column by column on white background which we can do using MS Word. But still, the interviews are as interesting as usual. As you can see from the band featured here, the mag is more into DM. Another interesting part of the mag is the reviews are separated by genre, not by format like most of the mag/zine do. The reviews are separated to Black Zone (black metal), Death Zone, Grind Zone, Thrash Zone (unfortunately metalcore is grouped in this zone) and my favorite "Hail To Sweden" (all stuff from Sweden). Since Sweden produce great bands in almost all metal genre, the decision to put all reviews in one section is good and not to forget, very original idea too. Whether its true or not, there's 666 reviews in this issue! This issue also comes with 2 free CD sampler (from Displeased Records & Voice of Life Records). Normally the sampler comes separately but here, 2 page (1 for each sampler) dedicated for this sampler with some info and the CD is glued to it. So this will make it hard for the news stand or distro if they want to sell them separately haha. At the time of this review is made, issue #15 is already out!

Contact
P.O.Box 7020
72734 Reutlingen
Germany

Email
chaosmagazine@gmx.de

Web
http://www.chaosmagazine.de/

Virus #5 (2009)

64 page, A4, xerox, English

Interview
Inferis, Necrolisis, Enshadowed, Spearhead, Witchcurse, Black Abyss, Hellghast, Grave Desecration, Shackles, As Sahar, Maniak, Abhorer

Bio
Embrace of Thorns, Paganus Doctrina, Dark Breed, Tantrum, Symphony Jimbalang

Article
Scruples of An Old Metalhead, Slaves of The Portal, Pearls of Abyss

The thing that amaze me with Virus is, beside Deadhead Zine, Virus Zine is also the most interviewed editor in the local scene. Virus must be great I guess so I have very high expectation for this new issue. And luckily, it meet my expectation. This is my first issue by the way, never read them before (all back issues now sold out). First, the xerox quality is damn clear, the size is A4 (big size) and the layout is done the old cut n paste style and some with frame artwork, have table of content and page number, and the content are nicely arranged. So the visual expect pass 100% by my standard haha. How about the content or the reading material presented here? That's is hard to comment because that depend on your personal taste. The questions are OK, maybe not lenghty but it covered the 'musical aspect' of the band. Some people would also like to know non-music questions asked to the band (well, I read some review about this zine saying they want to see some 'life' questions) but I'm not. Not that I dont like to know what kind of food the band like to eat for dinner but for me that is not important. Some reviews here are contributed by some people which Fauzi gave the stuff due to lack of time. Probably they got few more stuff for reviews after this zine is complete so they give 1 extra sheet with some last minute reviews. Another thing, if you noticed the articles sounds familiar. Ok, those articles are written by Adam of NECROSCOPE ZINE. Adam also use that title for his articles in his own zine but that should not be problem. I think not many people read zine these days so will not know if that article already published elsewhere or not. I only detected 1 section on the article have been featured in issue #19. This issue also comes with a CDR sampler and the zine is hand-numbered in green. Oh yes, 1 last note before I end this review. I almost laugh looking at the blue stamped wording "YOUR COPY IS TRUE IF THE INK IS BLUE". But on serious note, do respect these editors. I will not mind if you made a copied of my zine but making profit out of it, that will piss me off. Oh, another last note hehe, you noticed ABHORER in the interviewed list, right. Well, that's done by Frank Stover, published with his permission and I think I do need to tell you who Frank is. Avid underground metal readers should already know.

Contact
c/o Fauzi
virus_zine@yahoo.com

Web
www.myspace.com/viruszine

Deadhead #4

96 page, A4, xerox, English

Interview
Impetigo, Rabbath Ammon, Blackfire, Headhunter DC, Inside, Metal Savage, Transgressor, Nocturnal Vomit, Levifer

Nearly 100 pages but less than 10 interviews?? Is there any space wastage or too many pages on news? Its not true if you think that. The interviews are one of the in depth interviews I ever read in a local zine. Oh yes, it is very informative and really entertaining reading those intie. Syamsul really study the bands, even the band are surprised! He also put lots of picture that makes you "on track". You know, its quite exhausting to read just text like NECROSCOPE so that really sooth the eyes. He still stick to the format he used to do, using frame artwork with computer-typed text and pro-printed for the front cover. Reviews also cover all formats (CD, vinyl, zine, demo CDr and tapes). Seriously, not much to comment to comment here, only compliment I can say here. Oh well, on some pages the xerox quality on the upper part of the pages is not good, I can't read that clearly but it is still readable though. Hah, at least I found some thing to complain about haha. Support this zine and also his label, AFTERLIFE PROD. Latest news I got is, issue #5 already completed. Can't wait to get the new issue. No email or myspace, just the old snail-mail way to contact him.

Contact
c/o wan Syamsul
10 Lrg. lang Lompok,
Taman Sri Bintang, Kepong,
52100 Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia