May 2020, 44/A4, hand-numbered,
xeroxed, Polish, interviews: MARTWA AURA, VACANT BODY, MORBID WINDS,
SATHANAS, HYPERDONTIA, GRAVEWARDS, BURIAL IN THE WOODS, ELIXIR OF
DISTRESS.
I did not go wrong this time and
purchased the recent, still hot issue with the number eight
immediately after hitting the bowels of the underground. As for size,
layout and such stuff I could copy and paste my previous VGL reviews.
It's been released in the same form, it does not really develop
anymore and... I do not need any changes. The front cover greets with
a dark, obscure picture and on the start I have another three bands
that screwed up and didn't answer. Really strange as all are on
Polish Fallen Temple roster. Pawel cares for wood resources and
there's no single place left empty, just take a look on page number
4, as he put one review under Martwa Aura chat. Ok, let's go the
content: the eight consists of eight interviews, but let me describe
the weakest ones for starters. Hyperdontia, despite having quite huge
impact here and there, completely failed. Pawel explained the case in
words of introduction preparing pretty much interesting questions,
but in the end I got terrible answers and two of them without any
words of explanations. What's more, there are many editor's necessary
footnotes which isn't a standard thing for VGL. The contest on the
biggest lame of the issue is finally settled. In turn, Sathanas gave
a shedload of laconic answers shorter than questions making this
intie average and totally forgettable. All right, I guess all my
whinings are over, because the rest is pretty decent, good (Martwa
Aura that opens, Vacant Body – the shortest with only ten questions
yet definitely concise, Gravewards, very interesting with ten
questions as well, unfortunately it ends too abruptly) or just very
good. Polish Morbid Winds, new blackish beast, proudly opens the
remaining trinity, giving fully informative friendly chat made in
last April. There is no surprise here as Diabolizer (in alliance with
Cryptic Lust), the band's drummer and Worship Him zine editor knows
the subject perfectly. In similar way Elixir of Distress shines
through pages, however I found it as a great complement to the
interview from R'lyeh 15. And the third one lastly: Burial in the
Woods led by modest Gerileme again with very interesting chat,
definitely to check it out. The answer on question two has got a
funny (or not, it depends...) typo though.
As compared to 7, the font has been
changed into smaller size, however still being readable and not
causing an eye pain. The old sin with midsentence capitalized 'and'
conjuction didn't disappear, there are some spelling mistakes as
well. Due to reduced amount of pages, the review section offers 20
zines (in the case of this zine, I even would write only 20...) and
135 musical different formats written with using the same rules as
always. Flabbergastingly, this time the Chilean ungerdround isn't the
leading force. The live reports are present too (7 described visits).
Then, the page 2 features nice science and history section – good
move, clever and interesting treat, especially when it comes to the
person of Herodot. So, allow me to capsule this issue: VGL doesn't
disappoint providing a few hours of pure hellish underground reading
once again. I expected solid stuff from experienced editor, and I got
such. And for sure, questions on non-musical topics (for instance,
ecology, Earth's overpopulation, historical facts, burials) are an
added value. Fully recommended, no two ways about it.
8,8/10
-Tlacaxipehualiztli
(written in June, 2020)
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