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 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…
This time the random ‘zine generator chose Thrashcore‘zine, from my neighbors in Louisiana, which mostly featured what the name described- thrash and hardcore. The editor still does a ‘zine today called Paranoise (https://www.facebook.com/paranoizenola). The layouts in Thrashcore are pretty simple and undynamic, but there are interviews with a lot of good bands you don’t see interviewed a lot, so that’s a real draw. It also featured a small review section with shorter ‘blurb’ type reviews by editor Bobby plus several guest reviewers (including ex-Soilent Green vocalist Glenn Rambo (R.I.P.) and EyeHateGod/ Soilent Green member Brian Patton).
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.
Uniforce was a fairly long running (for an underground ‘zine) hardcore and extreme metal ‘zine put out by Mark Sawickis, guitarist for cult horror obsessed grind/ death band IMPETIGO. It was an underground mainstay in a time when ‘zines were the veins that spread the blood of music information to the underground fans and people who were into it.
It always featured a lot of interviews (including some with bigger bands that often didn’t answer interviews with little ‘zines) and reviews; and included reviews of albums, demos, and even music that a lot of underground ‘zines ignored (more commercial metal and rock bands).
This issue was a return to a full-size ‘zine after trying out a digest sized one (that was incredibly thick), and featured a bunch of ads (mostly for other ‘zines), and some show reviews, but mostly it contained interviews and reviews (no frills no filler). The reviews were earnest and unpretentious and honest (but positive- I never saw him rip on something, even if he didn’t like it much). The layout was unspectacular, but like I said the music was the #1 focus, everything else was unimportant.
Poison Planet was put out by Ty Smith (who I recently found out passed away a couple of years ago- R.I.P.) of the old hardcore band RESIST (as well as the short-lived but awesome NAMLAND with members of IMPULSE MANSLAUGHTER), and featured a good mix of hardcore, punk, grindcore, straight edge, and death metal. Most every band he featured was pretty bad ass, and he also did show and ‘zine reviews, had some funny art and comics (mostly stolen from other sources), and did longer reviews (and even reviewed a few more mainstream things like RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS and FAITH NO MORE- he has a very broad musical taste and his own unique opinions, even giving good reviews to things that a lot of underground ‘zines panned like VOIVOD’s Nothingface and later DIE KREUZEN (yuck!) ) that seemed pretty thought out. The interviews were fairly short (tho he did some with bands you didn’t see interviewed much, such as BROTHERHOOD, who featured a young Greg Anderson who went on to found Southern Lord records and play guitar in the bands GOATSNAKE, SUNN 0))), THORRS HAMMER, and a bunch more) and he also did a few articles on bands where he wrote a longer bio for them.
When people ask me what my favorite punk/ hardcore album of all time is, I can’t answer honestly- there are several that are tied. However when pressed, I usually say this album- CONFLICT’s masterpiece The Ungovernable Force.
It starts off with a crude noise collage called “You Cannot Win” that goes into the intro from their album Increase the Pressure (the whole album has nods to CONFLICT’s past, as well as a punk history lesson in the lyrics), then some piercing feedback. The next bunch of songs are all connected to each other, almost a punk and hardcore medley that starts off with two incredibly ripping tracks (with a savage bass line) that sound like one song, then a marching nod to C.R.A.S.S. (which a lot of the members of CONFLICT were also in).
“Custom Rock” comments on radio-friendly bands who join corporate labels to get famous, and the music kind of apes U2, but is 100% CONFLICT. Then they go into another march that brings us up to date on the state of things (at the time). All of these songs have their own feel and flavor but flow into each other seamlessly. Another savage commentary on popular music comes next- this one about bonehead metal bands and tough-guy hardcore bands (the music is suitably matallic as well). The last song on side A is a brutal and pissed diatribe about standing up for what’s right and fighting the powers that be when they are oppressive. Lyrics like “Riot- there ain’t been a riot but ones knocking at your door; you’ve seen nothing yet but household pets, you’ll feel the lion’s claws!” are pretty call-to-action provocative. This song is accompanied by samples from a big riot that happened in London.
Side B starts off with an older CONFLICT (from their first album It’s Time To See Who’s Who era) soundung track which quickly morphs into the catchy and humorous “Force Or Service?”. These tracks are more catchy and punky, but then comes “The Arrest”, which is back to a faster hardcore track that tells what you should do if you get arrested (“Whatever you go through in a police cell is nothing compared to the suffering inflicted by governments; the state destroys tortures and murders, we must stop them using force if necessary- remember that and good luck!”). This is followed by a mellower instrumental (that even sound a little Metallica-esque at tomes) then another savage and awesome song about a nuclear strike. This is the climax of the album.
The last 2 songs are “This Is the A.L.F.”- a very well put together song with a lot of interesting changes about animal liberation and the final song is a very quiet and poetic one with just a piano and a female singer.
This album is put together so well, the way all the songs flow into each other and build to a climax- the dynamics and riveting patterns of the songs, and the way they all have so much going on in them- the multi-instrumentation, the 3 vocalists, plus the samples and noises. The only complaint that I would have is that most of the songs don’t stand up as well on their own (tho some do), because they are fragments of an overall piece. But make no mistake- this is an excellent and ambitious album well put together by talented musicians with a lot of spirit, fire, conviction and personality. Find it…
The album sounds better if you lsiten to it as a whole, but this song stands well on it’s own and is a good example of the album’s excellence:
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.
