Monday, April 4, 2016

RIPPING SKY 2 (1994)






1994, 48/A5, xeroxed, Polish, hand-numbered, interviews: MASACRE, THERION, SUPREMACY (Swiss), SADIST, KATATONIA (Polish), DARKSEED, DAWN OF DECAY, FESTERDAY, THE GATHERING, PAZUZU, INFERNAL DEATH zine, NOSTRADAMUS, MAYHEM, EMPEROR, NEPHRITE, CEMETERY OF SCREAM, SACRIVERSUM, CENOTAPH (Polish), ADVERSARY, CARRION OF TORRENT, LETIALIS, SULLIGREPSA, NIGHTFALL, PUTRID OFFAL, MUTILATION, DISSOLVING OF PRODIGY, DISFIGURED CORPSE, ANAPHOBIA zine, CRANTHORPE, DIARRHOEA, IMMORTAL RITES.

This zine follows the path of Kozi Bobek title, as Słomiany, the editor-in-chief proudly declares it in few words of introduction. Up to now I’ve no idea why the first name felt into desuetude, which translated into English means ‘goatish doo-doo’. I guess such a cult name could be some barrier to get a fine interview from any true black horde, right? Anyway, what can be said about the new incarnation? Well, Słomiany didn’t deliver any outstanding and top form writing performance, it’s a just typical piece of Polish underground press the a-weary Slavonic soil was trying to absorb. Typical because of typewriting machine use, sometimes chaotic and messy layout (especially when it comes to the interviews), yet it’s easy to notice Słomiany does a conscious work and tries to put the whole in the right way. But the first which strikes the eyes is menu. Yep, he got answers from many famous foreign bands, yet, throwing cold water over, these answers are mostly poor or just hopeless cases bringing nothing interesting to the subject. For sure there’re some exceptions like in the case of Therion where compatriot Piotr signalized, among other things, many problems with Islamic refugees in Sweden. Man, in 1994! Then, pretty good talks with Sadist and The Gathering or Nephrite. In turn Greek Nightfall starts off with quite long informative answers to end the whole in very lame style. The worst ones? Yeah, Norway… Emperor and (especially) Mayhem totally sucks. But it is not a surprise in those times.  

Ok, as for Polish bands, the situation is just better with the best ones coming from Infernal Death zine (though I have never read a poor Przemek stuff), Anaphobia zine (too short, unfortunately…) or Remo from Sacriversum. And aside from these mentioned, the remainder, however preceded by biography note, is very simple, in most cases with run-of-the-mill questions / answers, leaving rather poor impressions. That’s true that specific sense of humor can be detected here and there, especially when Słomiany put his remarks in foot-notes. On the other hand, in dramatically dwarfish Immortal Rites chat, when the band is asked about the scene in Łask city, “wooden” is the repartee. My goodness! Or the ending words of Diarrhoea, but it made me laugh for good!  

With regard to reviews: 47 pieces of music and 8 (eight!) zines only have been brought on the table, in short style, without wordiness luckily, sometimes with the final mark incoherent to the content itself. What else? I got two short (again!) reports, one from Lublin scene (this time nothing about wood) made by Mr. Jaszak from Sadistic zine and second from Italian scene (no wood as well, even Italian) written by Max / Eternal Rest Promotion which shows many names, sadly with no addresses.  

Definitely it was the beginning of the road to reach something more in this field, although I couldn’t verify it through the years. And if Ripping Sky is a definition of underground with information on young crews, with many flyers put in every its corner, with low quality pictures and unfortunately without any live escapades, it can’t be compared to the zines made in XXI century. For sure many typos and serious spelling errors making my eyes open veeeery wide don’t help. So, I just treat this item like a curiosity, not a treasure from the dark past, but an ordinary stuff of Polish underground press. Great it’s hand-numbered. My copy is 351.  

3,5/10
-Tlacaxipehualiztli

(written in April, 2016)       


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