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#8. MUSIC AND 'ZINE REVIEWS 2: IT TOOK SIX MONTHS FOR ME TO COME UP WITH THIS?!
 FALLING SILENCESHADOWS MULAMBO RECORDS, 2002 I'm not sure what to make of this album. Falling Silence calls itself a "post-metal" band (post-metal, pppfh - that would mean metal would have to have died as a genre for that to happen) with hardcore influences. Of course, it all sounds like modern heavy metal to these ears. Falling Silence actually does sound decent for a heavy metal band, though at times the band sounds a little too much like Rage Against The Machine for my liking. Shadows isn't a bad album, but it's not great by any means. Loredana C. Moresi seems to be singing in a voice falling somewhere between Zach De La Rocha and Dave Mustaine here, although Moresi does at least attempt to sing instead of screaming the whole way through (see: most hardcore). The music is atypical modern metal, and there's nothing here that really seemed to catch my interest. That's not to say it's bad, or even mediocre, but there's nothing here that stands out among the ten songs (avec requisite shitty-sounding bonus track) on Shadows. If you like no-frills modern heavy metal, then I would recommend this album. There are more worthy albums, though, even among the albums being reviewed in this update. By the way, I'm sorry for the plain review, but the review is unfortunately all-too-representative of the music being offered here. Sorry, fellas. Falling Silence c/o Maurizio Veri Salita Chiattone 18 6900 Lugano (TI) Switzerland http://www.fallingsilence.ch/ [email protected] [email protected]  THE SEVENTH GATENONE SO BLOODY AS THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST SATAN ROCK RECORDS, 2002 OH, GOD, NOT OLDE ENGLISH FONTS! THEY'RE IN ALL CAPS, TOO! AAAGH! Seriously, it's hard to read the side of the jewel case to find out what the name of the album is because the cover is a rather boring piece of Jon Zig artwork (odd because most of the covers he does are really damn good), and the side of the jewel case that contains said album title is done in THIS ANNOYING OLDE ENGLISH FONT THAT MAKES THE TITLE HARD TO READ (you have to have the OldEnglish font to see the effect). The lyrics are done in this font, too, with the letter s looking like the letter f for increafed annoyance. I haven't even reviewed the music on this album and my review is in negative territory. If the music was as bad as the packaging, I would have braced myself for an abyss of suckitude on None So Bloody As The Kingdom Of Christ. Of course, the actual album isn't as bad. I wasn't really impressed with The Seventh Gate on this offering. The Seventh Gate sounds pretty much like every other cookie-cutter death-grind band on the planet. I have the same problem with None So Bloody... as I did with Pyaemia's Cerebral Cereal about nine months back. It's brutal, it has annoying black metal screams, it has fast mosh parts, and it has clips from horror films (well, there was that one clip from Apocalypse Now, but since it's Coppola I can overlook it), but it's boring. It's like most of the metal product on the market today. Sure, None So Bloody... is at least an acceptable album, but it's not something that will make the listener throw Grandma into an abattoir. At least the lyrics were above-average. Bottom line: The Seventh Gate put out an atypical debut album, and I expect the band will get better with their next album. By the way, check out the Satan Rock Records homepage and marvel at the way The Seventh Gate markets itself. All I have to say is...wow. Also, muffins. The Seventh Gate/Satan Rock Records 2615 Amanda Ct Vienna, VA 22180 USA http://www.satanrock.com/ [email protected]  HUMAN ABSTRAKTPSYCHOLOGICAL BLINDNESS SELF-RELEASED, 2002 Finally, something decent to review for Unbelievably Retarded! Human Abstrakt is a band from Atlanta, Georgia that plays technical metal in the Meshuggah vein, which in my opinion is a welcome change from the usual metal fare being released these days. I say in the Meshuggah vein, by the way, because these guys are not Meshuggah clones. Most of the songs on this album are wholly original, and have that Meshuggah sound without ripping off aforementioned band. Danny Carwile's vocals are bellowed, clean vocals, almost Meshuggah-esque in quality but original nonetheless. In fact, this album could almost pass itself off as a Meshuggah record, though it won't because 1) Psychological Blindness can easily stand on its own merits and 2) this is Human Abstrakt's debut album. Hell, even the lyrics (which are always an Achilles' heel with most of the CD's I get sent to review) are decent. Good music, good vocals, good lyrics...what do you think that spells? If these guys don't get signed to a label soon (and not one that screws its signees by releasing rarities and/or "live" albums, like Earache or Nuclear Blast), I'll personally shit my pants in agony. The things I do for my readers... Human Abstrakt c/o Danny Carwile 2931 Appling Circle Atlanta, GA 30341 USA http://human-abstrakt.8m.net/ [email protected]  VARIOUS ARTISTSA TRIBUTE TO MAYHEM: ORIGINATORS OF THE NORTHERN DARKNESS AVANTGARDE/DWELL, 2002  VARIOUS ARTISTSARMAGEDDON: THE TRIBUTE TO DESTRUCTION DWELL, 2002 Fuckin' hell! More tribute albums from Dwell! I know some of you smartasses will point out that the Mayhem tribute is licensed from AvantGarde, but I hardly think that matters. I'm not going to give these things a proper review like I have in the past, so I'll just blow through these albums like the arctic winds that blow high above the Norwegian fjörds. Besides, I'm surprised Dwell still wasted (wastes?) money on this 'zine, seeing as how the only Dwell tributes I've given a positive rating to were the Morbid Angel and second Metallica tributes back when I was doing that abomination called Metal Strike Force, which was the logical end result of me getting two hours of sleep every night for three months. (I wish I was making this up.) On to the reviews... OotND: Did everyone forget the fact that Dark Funeral's cover of "Pagan Fears" is already on that band's Teach Children to Worship Satan EP? What laziness. Anyway, this tribute suffers from an affliction commonly known as "mediocre effort," in which the bands reproduce the sound of the band they are tributizing faithfully, but almost never add to the sound of said band. The only cover that stands out is Behemoth's rendition of "Carnage," though Vader's regurgitation of "Freezing Moon" is not without its merits. Aside from those two songs, there's nothing here that's anything more than average. It's also funny to hear an entire section from "Carnage" being reproduced, verbatim, on "Buried By Time And Dust." This album is decent enough for black metal fans to pick up, but since I got burned out on black metal a year ago, this album doesn't excite me as it does everybody else in the underground. You fucking poseurs. Armageddon: This is shit, absolute shit. The only worthy song on here is Kauldron's version of "Bestial Invasion." Every other cover on Armageddon is mediocre to crap. By the way, somebody shoot Nokturne L.A. (here listed as Nokturne), Diabolic, and any band who records more than one track for use on these Dwell tributes. It's about time this label started to release albums from death metal bands again, but we all know they'll keep on releasing these tributes until 1) they go bankrupt from lack of interest in said tributes, 2) they go bankrupt from putting out too much crappy product, or 3) 'zines stop reviewing this crap. Yeah, I know, I'm purposely trying to get off the Dwell mailing list. Trust me, at this point it would be a blessing. Dwell Records PO Box 39439 Los Angeles, CA 90039 USA http://www.dwellrecords.com/ [email protected]  PRIMAL DAWNSELF-RELEASED, 2000 Zinf identifies this as "MiniMoni. Telephone! Ring Ring Ring." Ah, the beauty of MusicBrainz. Anyway, this CD is a self-titled effort from Irish death metallers Primal Dawn, and while this isn't a great album by any means (after all, this is a debut), it's still a decent mid-paced death metal album. This album reminds me a lot of Fornever's We Whom Are, being as it is a mid-paced, no-frills death metal album, but has the advantage of not having hardcore overtones or samples from Natural Born Killers on it (not that I hate NBK - I think it's one of the best films of the 1990's - but samples from that movie are almost as bad a cliché as, uh, Evil Dead samples). Aside from that, there is nothing really of note to speak of here. It's a serviceable death metal album, and while it's worth the pick-up, those seeking originality or extreme brutality are not going to find it here. Still, this album isn't in the same category of bland as Falling Silence's Shadows, so if you're interested in supporting the Irish DM scene, it wouldn't hurt to pick this album up, as well as Mourning Beloveth's Dust. What can I say, the Irish DM scene is just a good honest scene... Primal Dawn c/o Pat Kennedy 7 Glenville Road Blanchardstown Dublin 15 Ireland http://www.primaldawn.freeservers.com/ [email protected]  THE ATOMIC BITCHWAXSPIT BLOOD + SAMPLER CD METEORCITY, 2002 Well, this is probably the last MeteorCity promo I'll ever get, considering the label hasn't sent me one since this album. (I don't blame them, either, given how often I update this piece of s...oh, look, a bunny!) Anyway, this release from stoner rock mainstays The Atomic Bitchwax is pretty much an uneventful affair, with a cover, some new songs, and some multimedia and a sampler CD tacked on to make the album more salable. Kidding, kidding, the multimedia part is very damn good (even though it contains more info about how The Atomic Bitchwax assembles their songs than I'd ever want to know), and is very well assembled. Good job, Nod 'Zine! Still, I can't help but think that MeteorCity wanted to hedge their bets on this album, thus the multimedia and the sampler CD. Packaging the sampler with a well-known band for the same price as a normal MeteorCity CD is a really good idea, but it should have been tacked on to something like Solarized's album or the Scene Killer project, because the sampler CD, sadly, upstages this album. The Spit Blood CD starts off with a cover of a good AC/DC song ("Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap"), but that doesn't make it sound any less generic. In fact, every song except "Spit Blood" was typical Stoner Rock (warning: this type of music is prone to sound like shit with clean production). I've heard worse, but then, I've heard better. I expected the moon with The Atomic Bitchwax. I'm a little disappointed I got a few stars and the part of the moon that says "CHA." Oh well, c'est la vie, I guess. The sampler CD, though, is the star of this Spit Blood/sampler CD bundle. I know, it's fucking sad to have the sampler CD dominate the double-CD set, but bear with me on this. There are seven songs on this CD, and the regulars (The Mushroom River Band, Eternal Elysium, Solace and Lowrider) seem to be doing right by stoner rock on their respective tracks. Of the newcomers, Slaprocket's "Holy Mother Sunshine" is an ass-kicker, The Ribeye Brothers' "Mister Ray Charles" is an interesting curio, and...Orquesta del Desierto's "Shadow Stealing" sounds like utter shit. After three years, I finally hear a sub-par band signed to MeteorCity and I don't get to riff the band's album to hell! There are many things wrong with the song: the fact that the lead singer sings like Kermit la Rana (i.e., Kermit the Frog), the thin production, and the fact that the song is incredibly repetitive. I don't have a problem with the lead singer singing in Spanish; I just wish he'd found a better band to do it with. Still, the sampler CD gets a respective six out of seven from me. To summarize, although The Atomic Bitchwax's Spit Blood didn't do much for me, I liked the sampler CD about as much I do most MeteorCity albums (which is a lot). I recommend you still support MeteorCity and their endeavours, because it doesn't look like they're going to go bankrupt any time soon. Of course, the fact that they've released an album a month since Spit Blood came out kind of scares me a little bit. Don't tell me Frank Kozik's been secretly taking over your company?... MeteorCity Records PO Box 40322 Albuquerque, NM 87196 USA http://www.meteorcity.com/ [email protected] ----- The Atomic Bitchwax PO Box 284 Oceanport, NJ 07757 USA http://home.arcor.de/fatso/bitch/  ELENIUMTHEM USED GODS SELF-RELEASED, 2002 Not hearing anything from these guys before, I didn't know what to expect from Elenium. Let's just get the one thing I hate about this demo out of the way: that fucking keyboard. It sounds like a Casio from 1986...literally. Worse yet, it sounds like a Casio from 1986 being twiddled with but seeming to be stuck on one of those fruity chime settings or setting 96, Annoying Synth Noise 1. I'm surprised you guys didn't base all your songs on what I like to call "First Five Minor Key Jam," except it's all necro and shit. Hell, you don't even need that many chords - it's black metal for fuck's sake! ...okay, I'm talking through my ass. The keyboard is annoying but it's so minor in the mix that it doesn't ruin the album, and at least it's played well. As for the album itself, Them Used Gods is pretty damn decent "black metal." It sounds more like melodic death, but "black metal" is what they want to call it, so who am I to argue. Though melodic, Them Used Gods is musically intricate, and the grunting and "clean vocals" are both done equally well. The three songs are quite interesting musically, and there's never a dull moment on this fifteen-minute demo. The lyrics are also quite decent (the line "i create, ejaculate, this world" sticks out in my mind in more ways than any sane human being would want to know). This band is clearly past the demo stage at this point, and I think a decent label will sign Elenium soon. Hopefully, the band will have bought a better keyboard by that time, one that doesn't sound like 1986 threw up on it. Keyboards give me panic attacks. Elenium c/o Juuka Pelkonen Laajaniitynkuja 3 C 25 01620 Vantaa Finland http://elenium.tripod.com/ [email protected]  CHARNEL HOUSEFROM BIRTH TO BURIAL "INDEPENDENT RECORDS," 2001 I don't know what sort of drugs Adrian Bromley is on when he reviews albums. When he reviewed Charnel House's Sample of Murder EP he kept referring to the band as death metal. It's funny, he makes mistakes like this all the time. Meanwhile, he writes for a glossy print 'zines and I'm stuck entertaining my hand and anyone who decides to read these crappy reviews. My life's a sham... Anyway, enough of the Bromley bashing. Charnel House plays thrash metal with a hardcore bent, and though this album isn't going to please anyone who's expecting a more modern, "death" metal sound, the music the band plays is very competent and has a good thrash metal sound without sounding exactly like 1980's-style thrash. Although it has that certain hardcore "bounce" to it, From Birth To Burial remains firmly rooted in the thrash metal sound. Simply put, Charnel House has a distinctive thrash sound without sounding like "thrashy death"/"deathy thrash" or "third-rate Slayer ripoff." John King's vocals are raspy without delving into death metal grunting, and the overall sound of this album has the sort of production values that, while a little thin, are great for this sort of metal, as Abyss-style production would probably have made this album sound wimpy (after all, "old-school" albums normally have this type of feel). The lyrics are also rather decent on From Birth to Burial (even if the liner notes mash them all together - hyphens are just not a good lyric divider, fellas), and are very matter-of-fact as opposed to the more over-the-top theatrics present in some thrash/death metal bands. All in all, From Birth to Burial is a very decent thrash album that's very reminiscent of "old-school" thrash without camping it up or devolving into new-school thrash, and is well worth checking out. By the way, it just wouldn't be kosher not to bring up the fact that two of the members of Charnel House work for the Emergency Medical Service in New York City and worked the actual site of the World Trade Center after those two fine buildings were demolished on September 11, 2001, and for that I salute them. Even though one of the songs on From Birth to Burial is called "Terrorist," it was not meant to capitalize on the attacks but is rather more haunting because of the matter-of-fact nature of the song's lyrics. Irony works in strange ways sometimes... Charnel House PO Box 570677 Whitestone, NY 11357 USA http://www.mp3.com/ACharnelHouse [email protected]  MOSHQUITOWORLDS END MORBID RECORDS, 2001 I'm writing this review on November 12, 2002. I know it shouldn't take me two months to do an update, but 1) I've had a sleeping problem for the last two or three weeks, and seeing as how I still tend to wake up at times like midnight or 3 AM in the morning, writing reviews for a low-level website isn't exactly the most desirable option available at that time of night, and 2) I've had doubts about maintaining a metal webzine, and have seriously thought about turning this site into yet another blog or E/N site (which would necessitate yet another format change for this site, seeing as how I haven't had a stable format since November 2000). The second problem has already been solved and the first problem is in the process of being dealt with. That being said, I wish I didn't have to badmouth promos I get like Moshquito's Worlds End, but in the end, I have to. I do it to entertain you, the reader. I also do it because it's fun as hell. Anyhow, onto the album itself. Moshquito is a band from Germany playing rather faceless and generic "technical" thrash metal. I have no doubt that these guys are professional and that the music itself is competent, but unlike Charnel House's From Birth to Burial, this album just sounds dull. Sure, it's "technical" (read: there's some guitar wankery involved), but fifteen years of being a band does not excuse Moshquito from sounding rather blasé in general. Worlds End isn't bad, but it bleeds into fifteen other modern thrash metal albums pretty damn easily, and after fifteen years of being in the metal scene, I'd thought that Moshquito could come up with something better than this. Mind you, I'm not totally going to badmouth the band like lesser people would, but really, this album is boring. Since that's the kiss of death for a thrash metal album...oh, come on, figure out the rest.  There's some multimedia on Worlds End, too, although the "multimedia" in question is basically a bio, some MP3 snippets of songs from their last album, Secrets, lyrics from the two albums (which is kind of a goofy thing to include seeing as how I don't think that many people paid for their last album in the first place), and a seventeen-minute video of the band thrashing it up live, among other things. I know the image I put up of the concert footage is shitty, but it's reflective of the concert footage itself: nice-looking, well done, but not a good representation of the band in general. Some shots of the crowd moshing it up would have been nice. The whole experience, the CD and the multimedia, seems to smack of half-ass. I hate being honest like this as the band sent me the promo themselves, but unless you are a real thrash enthusiast, I wouldn't recommend getting this album as it sounds the same as any other average-sounding thrash album currently on the market. I hate to say such things, but it's hard to riff on things that maintain the status quo. I'll try to do better next time.Moshquito c/o Oliver Hippauf Prof.-Simmel-Str. 32 07548 Gera Germany http://www.moshquito.de/ [email protected] ----- Morbid Records Postfach 3 03114 Drebkau Germany http://www.morbidrecords.de/ [email protected]  FALL OF THE LEAFEFERMINA ICARUS RECORDS, 2001 I'm writing this review on December 10, 2002. I wish I was shitting you. I wish I was shitting myself. I'm on week (nine? ten?) of a bad sleeping problem/depression. To be quite honest, I'm becoming a parody of the parody of myself I have been since the beginning of 2001. Nevertheless, I feel I must tell you about my problems, since they are bothering me. I am really fucking pathetic, aren't I? (Don't answer that. Yes. Yes, I fucking am.) This time, I don't get to bust a nut over a review of another average German band. No, I get to splooge over a Finnish band instead. There's a difference between the two kinds of homoerotic fixation, you know. Based on the reviews I've read about this band, some people are bothered by the softer sounds coming out of Fermina. So what if they're sounding more like a goth band than a metal band these days? Fall of the Leafe still sounds like a metal band, and I personally think Fermina kicks ass. Admittedly, I'm not a fan of the band's fixating on a certain riff for five minutes (as happens often on Fermina), but everything else on the album is still worthy of praise. Unlike most melodic metal I've heard, Fall of the Leafe has a certain degree of heaviness to them, and Fermina is full of decent melodies. The vocals are incredibly shitty (the lyrics are in English but I can't make out a damn word the singer, Tuomas Tuominen, is singing), but they have their certain charm, and the vocals complement the music so well I don't give a flying fuck what he's singing (having read the bizarre lyrics, I am only going to surmise that this is a good thing). The production on this album is a bit muddy, but overall, all of the elements in Fermina work well with each other, and the album does kick the ass out of most of the goth albums I've heard recently. Even though I'm sure Fermina won't go well with Fall of the Leafe purists (and I can guarantee there's not many - Fall of the Leafe being signed to Icarus Records is like Raven making Sunday Night Heat his stomping ground), Fermina is still a good damn album, and I commend Fall of the Leafe for remembering that in the term "melodic metal," you have to include some degree of metal. Fermina may not be the heaviest thing I've listened to this week. Guess what? Fall of the Leafe Yo-Kylä 5 D 12 20540 Turku Finland http://utenti.lycos.it/fotl/ [email protected] ----- Icarus Records C.C. 1593, Correo Central C1000WAP, Buenos Aires Argentina [email protected]  SERCASINGULARITY BEIGE CHINO RECORDS, 2001 I've always had a problem with bands naming themselves after companies. I'm surprised these guys haven't toured with American Tourister, Chartwell's and Random House yet...all right, I'm making pithy jokes here, but I have to work with what the band gave me, you know. The best thing about this demo by far is its minimalist packaging. The demo comes in a slim case that opens easily and yet allows the CD to fit snugly within its packaging. It's also barely bigger than the CD itself. It's much classier than the slipcases I get every so often, and it's readily available in the US, so none of you bands have any excuse for half-assing your promotional packaging. The sad thing is, I like the packaging better than I like this demo. Now, don't get me wrong. I like this album, but as a first demo, it is kind of weak musically. serca (yes, the band name and album name are in lowercase for extra pretentiousness) calls their brand of music "new industrial rock." I hate the term "new rock," and I seriously think singularity is industrial more than it is "new rock." I don't have a problem with singularity not being "metal" enough (get a fucking grip, you poseu...uh, people), but on the whole, this album sounds like a weaker version of pitchshifter with weak vocals. The album is quite catchy musically, and the lower recording quality adds a sort of added dimension to serca's music (trust me, if the guys at serca had come up with an immaculately-produced demo I would have seperated this singularity into a million fragments), but the vocals are too fey and gothic for my liking, and some added heaviness would have helped immensely. singularity also sounds like it's been done a million times, but since it's a first demo, that's to be expected. To make a long story short, I think serca could benefit from tougher vocals, more guitar effects and a much heavier bass-end. Of course, I don't want serca to become the next Ministry, but since the band leans toward the Skinny Puppy side of things, I have hope that the band's next few albums will be infinitely better. If they aren't, I will personally go to the United Kingdom and set Chris Tarrant on fire. Take that, TISWAS! serca 4 Moat Drive Harrow Middlesex HA1 4RX United Kingdom http://www.serca.net/ [email protected]   METAL RULES! MAGAZINEISSUE #13: HOT NEW HUNKS!, EARLY 2002 ISSUE #14: 2 STARS, A ROCKER AND A MAGAZINE, MID-2002 Say what you will about Jeff Rappaport, but the heeb manages to put out a quality 'zine every few months. I'm sure all of you are familiar with the way Metal Rules! works, but if you aren't, you are retarded and need to be taught the wonders of MR! all over again. The basic Metal Rules! formula is interviewing a wide mix of names, and unlike most fanzines, actors are given more than adequate face time here. Sure, the organization is shit, but that's part of what makes MR! work, dammit. Issue #13 has interviews with Bathory, Emperor, Extreme Noise Terror as well as Kip Winger, Michael Eric Kramer (i.e., star of 1979's Over the Edge), CSI's Eric Szmanda and others that I won't spoil simply because I'm a lazy fuck. The retardedness continues with issue #14, as Andrew W.K., Corey Feldman (yes) and Oz's Chris Meloni are interviewed, along with Mortiis (rather decent interview, believe it or not), Groinchurn, Children of the Corn's Courtney Gains, Shadows Fall and Whitesnake's Neil Murray, among others. Also included are the always-decent reviews, pictures of Jeff heebing it up, Angus pictures (if you don't like Angus, don't look at the back cover of issue #13, that's all I have to say) and all the other useless crap that defines Metal Rules! The big improvement these last two issues has been in the layout department, as more emphasis has been placed on more creative graphics and a less generic layout (yes, MR! keeps on hamming it up with the Teen Beat-esque layout throughout issue #13, annoying graphics and all). Sure, I'm a mark for Metal Rules!, and the $4.95 US/$5.95 CDN price might still be a little high for some people, but as far as I'm concerned, it's worth it. Issue #15 has recently come out, and Chris Jericho is the "star" of the issue, so there's really no reason for you assclowns not to pick up at least one issue of Metal Rules! at least once in your lifetime...unless you hate fanzines in general. In that case, call me a fag and forget I wrote this, mmmkay? Thanks. Metal Rules! Magazine 2116 Sandra Road Voorhees, NJ 08043 USA http://www.metalrulesmagazine.com/ [email protected] [email protected]  CHAOTIC ORDERISSUE #12, 2001 I got this in the mail back in February, and I am reviewing it in December. Sure does seem like I'm doing a great job of reviewing these things, doesn't it? Anyway, I hate the cover for this issue of Chaotic Order. I just think the drawing's shitty as all hell. Of course, the issue itself isn't nearly as bad as the cover would leave the average reader to believe (that is, if you consider people who read articles on the occult and bondage fetish artists "normal" in any way). The 'zine is forty-six pages of said bizarreness as previously described, with people like Mark Ryden, Michael Manning, Eric Stanze and Static Video's Mario Fazina being interviewed (all obscure to me aside from Mark Ryden), along with a few articles and requisite reviews. Some of the submitted articles for Chaotic Order are a little spotty and the quality is somewhat uneven, but Chaotic Order #12 was all-in-all a pretty interesting read. There is a thirteenth issue of the 'zine out, £2/$4 US, and considering the overall quality and presentation of Chaotic Order's 12th issue (which advertises a price of £2/$3.50 US - fucking inflation), it's a worthwhile buy for those interested in the more bizarre things one can be interested in. Although the 'zine has a few problems with its layout (on a few pages, text is way too small or hard to read), the thing's rather professional and definitely not what I was expecting. To be quite honest, even though most of the things Chaotic Order covers aren't really my bag, I recommend it. One more thing I should mention before I end this review: the cover to issue #12 has a warning on it saying NOT FOR THE EASILY OFFENDED. All I can say is, no fucking kidding. Chaotic Order 15 Digby Close Doddington Park Lincoln LN6 3PZ United Kingdom http://www.insound.com/zinestand/co/ [email protected]  FRINGE VIDEOISSUE #3, OCTOBER 31, 2001 ISSUE #4, APRIL 1, 2002 It is rare that I have been privileged to review anything local in the three years I've done a 'zine (whether it be The Unbulova Ripoff or this, its second abortio-uh, I mean incarnation), and so I end with a review of something from Peterborough (which is not that far from my hometown). Fringe Video is dedicated to the review of...well, shit, figure that one out and I'll give you a nickel. Both issues are twelve-page and newsletter-esque in format. Although the "reviews" are more synopses of and information about the movie than actual reviews and the writing has its share of grammar problems, Fringe Video is rather informative about the movies it reviews, and the layout is great, with lots of pictures of the videos being reviewed and information about the videos/DVD's themselves (director, rating, Region designation for DVD's, that sort of crap). I'm also happy to say that Crosgrey realizes the maxim that when you have a dark or black photo, white text goes on top (basic stuff, but I've seen my share of ads with black text on really dark grey backgrounds before). The issues of Fringe Video I got were free, and the Fringe Video website has pretty much the same material in a more Web-oriented form. The only thing I hate about Fringe Video: the fact that I have to use this picture of Crosgrey hamming it up in front of the camera for my image placeholder. Okay, I don't have to, but I like pissing my readers off. Fringe Video 499 Rose Avenue Peterborough, ON K9J 8J2 Canada http://home.cogeco.ca/~tcrosgrey/fringe.htm [email protected]  
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#2: Ten Worst Cartoon Companies
#3: How To Be A True Black Metal Warrior
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#7: TNN/Spike TV Review
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