After three years of being completely inactive in writing anything, here's something new and really fresh. This time it's not a musical thing, it's not even a zine. Yep, it's a first book here entitled „Zine'tegrowani” written in Polish by Wojciech Lis. Details: 188 pages, hardcover, glossy paper, provided by Monomaniax Productions in December of 2024. So what's inside? Well, no surprise detected, as the author continues his archeological journey that started many, many years ago: we're drowning into Polish zine reality of the eighties last century. Yes, I admit, even if I know him well from the zine past (his NNCh was a splendid time machine!) and some tape tradings we did, I lost a contact with Wojtek's work after the booksy debut called „Jaskinia hałasu” (2012) written with Tomasz Godlewski. Now, this newest piece of history looks really daintly: after some words of introduction, the first interview attacks with a diabolic force. Yep, exactly, it's a chat with Przemysław Nowaczyk and his „Diabolic Force” child which was one of the first zines from Polish underground (March, 1986), and as a bonus two issues of this zine are enclosed. Then we've got sequentially interviews with Sebastian Chosiński (collaborator of „Diabolic Force”), Mariusz Kmiołek („Thrash'em All” zine / magazine), Wojciech Kajtoch (professor of Jagiellonian University), Janusz Merz („Heavy Metal Attack” fanzine), Cezary Żuchowski (collaborator and supporter of „Heavy Metal Attack”), Marcin Wawrzyńczak („Eternal Torment” zine), Mateusz Warszycki („Metalstorm” zine), Szymon Krause („Thrash Hordies” zine), Piotr Piasecki („Infernal Death” zine), Jarosław Szubrycht („Diabolic Noise” zine), Krzysztof Golec (Slashing Death band's promoter), Dariusz Robert Gowieńczyk („Siege of Power” zine), Tomasz Ryłko (journalist), Piotr Czepiel („Suck My Dick” zine), Tomasz Krajewski („Holocaust” zine), Janusz Guć („Purgatory” zine), Janusz Grycel („Mayhemic Slaughter” zine), Wojciech Witkowski („Beermacht Noise” zine) and Rafał Sosin („Death Metal” zine). Indeed, an upper crust of the scene!
And believe me, the breath of past years is all-pervading: scans, flyers, archival pictures (some of them have been used for the first time), press cuttings – something great for such an archeology freak like me. As for the interviews, Wojtek provides it with almost the same questions, sometimes the answers are short, maybe a bit laconic, sometimes long or very long, fully interesting, For sure there're two chats that stand out from the crowd. The first one is with Wojciech Kajtoch, maybe less zine content inside, but it's been given in more global aspect – a real testimony of the dark past I'd say. The latter with Tomasz Ryłko on twenty-one pages brings many complex answers: sport (not only football), society, film, radio (I remember his insane radio broadcast recorded on tapes by my friend, hail Bart!), movies, label, cassettes – all in metal dimension, yes, it's a highlight here! However its ending isn't optimistic at all due his view on our present days: it's intimidatingly true...
Nicely and smoothly it goes. But there is a blot on the landscape as it contains a dozen of typos, especially when the first letter of a sentence is missed. And some Wojtek's questions haven't got a typewriter font (good idea, by the way!) and text becomes to merge together with the answers. What's more, there's wrong title of one of his book on the back cover. These small trips don't colour my final opinion on this release. It's a superb stuff to read, the author knows all the angles. For sure this book is not for metal maniacs only, but for all interested in PRL times. Hope it will be translated into English soon.
9/10
- Tlacaxipehualiztli
(written in March, 2025)