Another cool old music (death and thrash metal mostly) ‘zine was IHDM. I actually got to contribute a couple of live reviews to this, the second issue. It featured interviews with AUTOPSY, NOCTURNUS, DECEASED, HELLWITCH, ABOMINOG, EVICTION, PRIMEVIL, IMPETIGO, DERKETA, RIPPING CORPSE, and REVENANT. It also had album and demo reviews (plus the above mentioned live reviews), and a ton of ads.
Here’s some pages to peruse:
Dying Terror was a really cool music ‘zine that featured interviews with hardcore and metal bands, funny, well done reviews, news, and a couple of opinion columns. I’m not sure if there was more than one issue, but this one was very thick and featured interviews with BATHYM, FILTHY CHRISTIANS, PRONG, MORTICIOAN, NUCLEAR DEATH, THE ACCUSED, MORBID ANGEL, EVICTION, IMPETIGO, NOKTUNEL, BEYOND DESCRIPTION, HIDEOUS MANGLEUS, SUFFOCATION, ATOMICAUST, and Richard C. who ran Wild Rags Records (the label that put out a lot of cool albums by bands like IMPETIGO, BLASPHEMY, BLOODCUM, ORDER FROM CHAOS, HELLWITCH, BLOOD, and a bunch more).
It was structured a little different than most ‘zines in that all the reviews were up front, then it had all it’s interviews, then all it’s pictures, then the last several pages were all ads.
Here’s some pages for you to check out:
Here is the third issue of Godvomit ‘zine. A couple of notes before you look at it:
1) A couple of pages are a little bit messed up, because it came out in early ’92 (over 20 years ago), so things like this happen. This issue isn’t too bad.
2) I put out this issue (well, all of the Godvomits) in the early ’90s. This was before we had Lollapalooza, MINISTRY, the BUTTHOLE SURFERS, NARILYN MANSON, or even NIRVANA out on the radio and television- if you weren’t alive at that time, you don’t understand how repressed everything was. Anything ugly, dark, even mildly offensive, “controversial”, or in bad taste was terribly looked down upon, and pushed to the side, ignored or censored. The religious right ruled everything. One of the things that I was trying to accomplish with this ‘zine was to offend these people- I thought everyone was too oversensitive, and that you shouldn’t ignore or hide the ugliness in the world. So I filled the ‘zine with ugly, offensive, upsetting, dark, disturbing things- I always said “Those who get offended easily should be offended more often, so they get desensitized to it”. I was trying to do this- desensitize people to offensive things as well as piss off the religious right and the people trying to censor everything. So it’s more than just an underground music magazine. It’s a direct attack on censorship and good taste.
Nowadays, things are different- the sickos won. Things are a lot more loose and free and it’s not as necessary to overload the world with dark and depraved shit. You can find crazy underground movies and music easily on youtube, and artists are always pushing the envelope farther (although the ridiculous hubbub over Miley Cyrus’ rather tame shenanigans kind of makes me question this a little- maybe we are going back toward the more repressed era?).
Anyway, it kinda goes without saying that kids probably shouldn’t look at this (well, their parents probably shouldn’t, anyway. The kids have probably watched and laughed at Two Girls One Cup 20 times by now). Stay sick…
Ultimatum was an old metal ‘zine put out by Kim August (who had a very short stint In DERKETA) starting in the mid to late ’80s. This first issue is pretty slim, and the layouts are boring, but it’s the content that ultimately matters. This one features 3 pretty good interviews with MORBID ANGEL, ATHEIST, and one of the only ones I’ve ever seen with the Texas cult band NECROVORE. There aren’t many reviews but they’re all pretty long and in depth as well. Tho there were plenty of glam and hard rock magazines around at the time, there weren’t very many underground ‘zines that featured stuff like this in the mid-80s (tho there would be a ton just a couple of years later) so this is a pretty good attempt.
Here’s some pages from it:
This was Bill Steer’s (from CARCASS/ NAPALM DEATH at the time) old ‘zine (and the cover was done by Jeff Walker, also from CARCASS (and who did NAPALM DEATH’s Scum album cover).
Bill and his fellow editor Pek did a fine little ‘zine which featured a lot of crust/ stenchcore bands, as well as death metal, thrash metal, black metal, hardcore, punk, and grindcore. They would do several lengthy interviews each issue, plus several shorter interviews and few mini interviews. They’d also do a bunch of shorter demo/ record/ and ‘zine reviews, plus a few slightly longer features on bands they liked. They asked a lot of political and social questions (particularly a lot about veganisn) and a lot of more intelligent questions (rather than the usual questions most ‘zines asked). They also didn’t have many ads in their ‘zine, unlike most ‘zines of the time.
I think this was the last issue they ever did…
Here is another ‘zine that was absolutely packed to the gills with content. It focused on grindcore and black and death metal, and featured interviews with bigger bands (MORBID ANGEL, DEATH) as well as smaller ones (PAINEATER, MILK AND COOKIES), but editor Bryan Daniel had a knack for getting awesome bands to do interviews. The type was tiny, so even more was crammed in. A lot of the interviews were short, but that made room for more. It also had an extensive reviews section with (mostly) longer reviews (not just short blurbs like most ‘zines).
I know a lot of people who were very influenced by this ‘zine. I’m not sure when this issue came out (’89 to ’91 I’d think), but it was good stuff.
U.S.D. was a thick (tho half size) ‘zine full of death, black and thrash metal, crossover, and grindcore from France. It was put out by Laurent Merle, who went on to do Peardrop ‘zine and form Listenable Records (who put out records by such notable bands as IMMOLATION, GOJIRA, ABORTED, SOILWORK, GENERAL SURGERY, INCANTATION and tons more). They crammed so much in that it was a bit cramped, and didn’t have much in the way of aesthetic or design appeal, but when it came to exposing underground bands to it’s readers, it definitely got the job done. I discovered several awesome bands by reading it, and tho the English isn’t so great that really just adds to the charm (he’s a pretty funny writer, in a kind of hokey way. Example (from the demo reviews): “…let’s continue with a French band: MUTILATOR… oh! Excuse me! I want to say MUTILATED… I forgot to mutilate the “OR” hihi”
The one thing it doesn’t have much of is ads, probably because it’s so packed full of real content (tho back in those days the ads were just as much a way of finding out about music and ‘zines as anything else).
This was a cool little ‘zine, and I got a lot of tapes because of it…
We’re going to start off bursting out the gate with a huge 80 page monster of a ‘zine that specialized in underground hardcore and metal music with a few pages of book and movie reviews thrown in for good measure. Some might wonder why I’m starting with such a huge but not very famous or wide-spread (compared to other underground music ‘zines of the time like Slayer, Morbid, Uniforce, MRR, etc) ‘zine. The answer is because I know the creator/ editor very well. It’s me.
Godvomit issue 1 came out in 1990, after I had put out a couple of issues of another music ‘zine called Hatefilled (which has been lost to the sands of time, but was basically the same format as Godvomit but smaller and featured interviews with bands such as CRYPTIC SLAUGHTER, FEARLESS IRANIANS FROM HELL, PISSED HAPPY CHILDREN, IMMOLATION, FATAL, CURRICULUM MORTIS, BACCHUS, and New Jersey’s HATRED). Godvomit got it’s name from something it says in the Bible about how God regurgitates every time a Christian follows his rules only because they are afraid of the punishment of hell if they don’t, which leads me to believe that heaven must be knee deep in God’s vomit. It was purposely chaotic and sloppy looking as an antithesis to all the generic looking desktop publishing fanzines that were coming out at the time.
Unlike the other ‘zines I’m going to take a look at on here, I have permission to scan and post this one in it’s entirety, so I won’t go on much about it, and just let the magazine speak for itself (warts and all)…
Includes interviews with IMPETIGO, MORTICIAN, THERION, WINTER, DEAD HORSE, THE ACCUSED, DEVOID, HIDEOUS MANGLEUS, SPLATTERREAH, NUCLEAR DEATH, SOCIAL DECEIT, NECRO-SCHIZMA, DERKETA, EXIT 13, NUNSLAUGHTER, and FUNEBRE.
Godvomit issue #1