November 2014,
58/A4, xeroxed, Polish, hand-numbered, interviews: NECHBEYTH, RAPTURE (Mexico),
ISTENGOAT, JUST BEFORE DAWN, ANCIENT CRYPTS, ZOM, POSSESSION, ETERNAL ROT,
ABYSSAL, MORTIFICY, PRAISE THE FLAME, DARK MANAGARM, BÖLZER, STRANGE
FACTS IN THE SCALPEL CASE, SHE’OL.
Even if the
bowels of Polish underground don’t expectorate let’s say ten zines for a month,
I missed this title inexplicably. What is more, the Robin’s child as a name
itself, is well-known for me, cause it has been reviewed in every Polish zine I
have read in this century. Finally, seeing that another issue saw the day
light, I decided to give it a chance and with the newest piece, I bought the
previous one. Well, tidy and modest front-cover, touched by unidentified
Lovecraft-like image, invites to the apocalyptic rites. Layout is simple,
clear, without any additional graphics, band pictures mostly well-marked, all
in mathematical dimension, sunk in the kingdom of right angles.
Concerning
the interviews, I am a bit surprised. Mind you, all the line-up is a foreign
blood and now it’s very hard to me to remember any title from my country with
no Polish crew inside. Yes, maybe Eternal Rot is a half of Polish, yet it’s
based on English soil. Anyway Robin made a good search bringing many totally
unknown bands for me, even if the zine was born two years ago. And his choices
fit to my taste in overwhelming majority. All right then, let’s factorize first
hero that has been served by Robin’s kitchen, Singaporean Nechbeyth strikes.
Strikes? No, it does not strike. It becomes the biggest mistake here, luckily
the only one in such a lame way. The whole is like a parody of common
interview, reaching nursery-school level and supported by mighty caps lock
button and Superiority Apex definition. If they wanted to crack a joke for
Polish zine, they fuckin’ failed, turning out into “yyy… my mother made me to
do it, if not she hides my Lego Basic kit, yyy…”. Ah, let’s leave these
warriors, because next pages are… simply normal. Quoting classic words, the
Mexican Rapture gives a good change! As mentioned, it wasn’t easy to bring this
alive, questions in English and Spanish (!), so Robin was forced to make a
small compilation. Maybe questions should be written in Nahuatl? Yeah, it would
be a real challenge, a real Superiority Apex. Anyway, I don’t wanna describe
each chat in detail, but: the best on the board is Eternal Rot I guess, with rather
long, comprehensive answers. Almost
equally good is She’ol. There’re some chats pretty promising, smoothly flowing,
to read suddenly cult answer “yes” only or line of dashes (Bölzer, Ancient Crypts, really poor ZOM). Or in Praise the Flame, kept in
third-rate manner, when guy copied (!) his answer from another band’s
interview. What a smart ass! Then, I kept my watchful eye on Just Before Dawn,
but if the first half is just good, the latter seems to be a really pain in the
ass for Anders being a master of laconism. On the opposite side of barricade,
Belgian Strange Facts in the Scalpel Case with the name more correct for any
Haemorrhage tribute crew. Anyway, answers on a good level. And the last I want
to mention is Brazilian Mortificy, maybe not because of rather decent answers
(with another plea about football corruption and other shit in Brazilian
football), but the Robin’s opinion about Krisiun and Rebaelliun: simply he
doesn’t like them. Believe me, I didn’t meet anybody with such taste in the
underground, however during She’ol intie, editor confirms he likes Chilean and
Brazilian (!) scene. Hm… am I stickler
in this case? Concluding the subject, Robin as an experienced metal-maniac,
strikes with good, not seldom very good studied questions, not avoiding
difficult topics (Islam mainly). He uses various notes in the interviews,
simply necessary in many answers…
All right,
reviews, with total quantity of 198 music and 35 underground press. Good score,
indeed. It’s easy to describe Robin’s taste but let’s start with zines section,
as they are explored mostly in precise and scrupulous method. And it is perfect
stuff, I liked it a lot. About music: some of them in rough draft way, and such
descriptions are too short for me; others more complex and they are simply
better. Generally I have an impression that this column has been subsidized by
the state administration of Chile. Yep, there are plenty of titles coming
straight from this not large land of the Mapuche. But let me call two of not
Chilean stuff. The first one is Horrorscope and their last “Delicioushell”
album. It is one of few reviews fully written in a positive way I have read in paper press. The second one is Necromantical Screams and “Deadly Frost”
Ep. Robin uses varying metaphors while describing the sounds, here giving drug
name of Rutinoscorbin, he perfectly aims at me (my branch) and the title. Ok,
what else? One orphan live report and opinion poll referring to exorcisms,
interesting piece with introduction and fruitful deductions of Celej which
tickled my fancy right-down. Especially his visions concerning inquisition-like
tv show and Robin as accused. All is completed by an article describing
complaints during ‘fights’ to take the answers back.
To sum the
thing up: Apocalyptic Rites zine is a piece of really solid underground work,
unfortunately several bands simply failed to present themselves in a positive
way. Then I can’t define the content as superiority apex. Well, few typos
enclosed, yet it has no meaning while giving a final mark. But the most
important: Apocalyptic Rites pulls its weight, as new bands and their releases
need to be checked out by me.
apocalyptic_rites_zine@wp.pl
7,5/10
-Tlacaxipehualiztli
(written in April, 2016)
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