This Deicide hardcover book is part of the "Screaming Ancient Incantations" 4-cassette boxset limited to 1000 copies, released by Darkness Shall Rise Productions in 2023. Since DSR still has the book available separately from the box, I decided to get one right away. Needless to say, it's a very good and thoughtfully put together book that fans of Amon and Deicide will certainly enjoy. The book opens with an exclusive interview with Steve Asheim, specially compiled by Steven Willems for this boxset. Eleven pages in all, where Steve tells interesting stories about his first big metal concert, his musical influences, the Tampa scene, the Morrisound studio, Amon's two demos, the first three Deicide albums, touring at the time, among other things. This is followed by 14 pages of Amon material, such as band and live photos, demo covers and credits, concert posters and reviews. Then comes a section on the debut album "Deicide". The 42 pages are full of super cool band and live pictures, gig and tour posters, interviews and reviews from various metal magazines and fanzines. This section also includes a great 4-page interview with Monte Conner, as well as liner notes by renowned musicians such as The Magus, Alex Colin-Tocquaine, Manu Joker, Mathias Lodmalm, Dan Swanö, Faust and Mortiis. Oh, and the obligatory album cover, credits and all the lyrics are there too. The next section is dedicated to "Legion", so you'll be treated to 62 pages of pure awesomeness. Alongside the album cover, credits and lyrics, you'll once again find plenty of killer band and live photos, and even photos taken in the studio during the recording of "Legion". For this part, Frank Harthoorn, Ed Warby, Alex Krull and Piotr Wiwczarek were interviewed and the liner notes were written by Jeff Tandy, Andy Kaufmann, Bob Bagchus, Silenoz and Michal Huk. The last section of the book focuses, of course, on "Once upon the Cross". This 32-page section contains the album cover, credits, all the lyrics and lots of fantastic photos. In addition, there is a 5-page interview with Seth van de Loo and liner notes from Thomas Sulzbacher, Trevor Nadir, Michele Toscan and NecroniosferatuS. Finally, on the last page of the book, you will find the DSR's acknowledgements. In short, if you found it interesting, the book has 168 pages in total, with excellent print quality and most of the photos in color. Die-hard fans of Amon and Deicide should order this excellent book from one of the links below!!!

The Romanian underground fanzine, aptly named Slowly We Rot, was launched in 2012 and has published 24 issues so far, which is 2 issues per year. To be honest, it's a pretty diehard commitment to the underground and its depths that you rarely come across these days. So hats off to the editorial staff. I also have to admit that I was not aware of the activities of this cool fanzine until now, but thanks to a fabulous deal, Adrian sent me the latest issue along with some old ones, for which I am very grateful. Now let's talk about the quality and content of Issue #24. First of all, it is printed on premium quality, glossy A4 paper, with a total of 48 pages in black and white. The design is old-fashioned to the core, with an easy-to-read font size and high-quality images. But what I like most is the dedication of the editorial staff (there are five of them, by the way), which you can feel directly from the great and deep interview questions or any of the reviews written. Secondly, their publication really tries to focus on the most obscure and lesser-known underground acts who are in dire need of support, which is very admirable. However, some of the bigger names in the death & black metal underground are also featured in this issue, which is absolutely great, especially as they are some of my favorites. The most interesting interview in this issue is with Tobias Cristiansson from Necrophobic. I loved reading every inch of the conversation. This interview was conducted by new collaborator Daniela, who has also interviewed death metal greats such as Unleashed and Benediction. A great addition to the staff, for sure. I also quite enjoyed reading the laconic Severe Torture and Illdisposed interviews. But there are many and varied interviews in this issue, so I'll leave you with the names of the other bands interviewed: Mausoleum, Unhinge, Divine Defecation, Evilucifer, Dödsmarsch, Nightrage, AmongRuins, Necrocock, Sathanas, Tsjuder, Wedding Party, Cerberus, Karnak Seti, All Is Ashes, Sanity, SoulreaperS, Satanic Priest, Chanid, Blemish, Blasphemous Goat Vomit. As you can see, there is quite a lot to read there. To this should be added the mandatory review pages for material published in 2023 and 2024, except for one released in 2020, which represents a total of 51 reviews. They also launched a new column called "Topic of the issue", in which 14 bands were asked for their views on paranormal activity, supernatural events, demonic possession and exorcism. There is also an "In their own words" page, which accompanies the bonus compilation CD of 16 tracks with over 73 minutes of playing time, with commentaries (if available) by the bands concerned on their own compositions. To sum up, Slowly We Rot is a fantastic fanzine that does its best in the name and under the banner of the underground. This is a highly recommended underground publication for underground people!!!

The 10th issue of Tales of the Morbid Butchers fanzine was delayed for some reasons and was published only a few months after the planned release date. But it's finally here, and the content is, as always, vast and varied. It's immediately noticeable that the cover of Issue #10 is printed on glossy, premium quality paper, while the inside content is of the same quality as before in terms of design and paper. This time you get a total of 212 pages, in the usual A4 format, printed in black and white of course. The editorial staff, namely Dr. A, Size, sorger, Sz. and Neverheart, have collected a huge amount of material, both interviews and reviews. There's also a 6-page interview with me about my underground activities (Castrum, Unfocused, Hulla and Encomium 'zine), which I really appreciate and am grateful for the opportunity. The other interviews are with Aldaaron (France), Animal Man Machine (Greece), Bafomet (Japan), Burning Apparition of the Master (USA), Darkstorm (Poland), Feaces Christ (Germany), Funeral Whore (Netherlands), Iron Steel (Hungary), Insane Hellride Entertainment (Hungary), Ködfolt (Hungary), Razor of Death (Poland), Satanic Warmaster (Finland), Sodomy (USA), Spectral Despair (Hungary), Sun & Moon Records (Romania), Morgh (Hungary) and Rigorist (Hungary). This issue contains a lot of concert/tour reports, filling 29 pages, which is quite a lot, isn't it? And of course, there are the inevitable vinyl, cassette, CD and fanzine reviews, which you can enjoy on exactly 100 pages this time. If that's not enough, you'll also find Kovács Kálmán Zsolt's special report on South and Central America, 25 pages of experiences. Well, a lot to read for sure. This jubilee issue is limited to 150 copies and, as always, is published entirely in Hungarian, so don't wait too long and get it now to support the underground's print publications!!!