This is the 2nd issue of ANTICHRIST written in English and that's great, 'cause this way a lot of Ukrainian hordes can be presented to the fans abroad (sure in case, if the worldwide distribution works fine for them). The 36 A4 pages packed pretty well and the design is quite good even if it strains the eyes sometime, mainly because of the small font size used for the reviews. The cover comes in full-color, while the rest of the pages are done with the usual black & white solution. Pages are all glossy and a really quality print supports them! Now about the content itself. Featured interviews are with such bands as PATHOGEN, GORETRUST, LIVIDITY, METAL CHURCH, SAURON, ABRASIVE, UTLAGR, SCRATCHING SOIL, AASGARD, DEAD TO THIS WORLD, ADASTRA and SCARED TO DEATH. All of them are very well introduced ones and it is really great to notice that questions are mostly interesting ones, although I would advice even more variety to them, 'cause sometimes they are the same for a few interviews. It would be also cool if there would be an introductory for each interview, 'cause most of the interviews begin with the same lines, i.e. questions! The other half of the issue contains reviews, lots of reviews I would say. They are all informative ones (short reviews are quite seldom there), but the poor English of the editor sometimes make confusion between the written facts and thus the overall conclusion comes in a rather blurry way. Nevertheless, the spark and dedication towards metal is definitely there, so I wish just some linguistic improvements for the future. About 1/4 of the content packed with different musical ads, which is good as well, but I would better concentrate on packing those places with other interviews & reviews! All in all, we have a decent issue published by ANTICHRIST, which is an up and coming magazine from Ukraine!

In almost 2 years this edition progressed from a simple newsletter to a very informative and what's more quite interesting magazine. The content is as rich as possible and the interviewed bands have been cleverly selected. Some of the interviews became very descriptive and thoughtfully worked-out, for example the ones with MENTAL DEMISE (the best one for this issue), PSILOCYBE LARVAE, ODOR MORTIS, BRODEQUIN and DEEPRED to name a few. Rather in-depth chats so to say. The same goes to the demo/CD/'zine reviews, which are about 250 (!) and were written in a rather scrupulous way, though the editor's manner here and there is too egoistic to me. Nevertheless, it's a normal thing as far as we have a deal with the editor's own point of view and taste towards one or the other release. And that is what makes all the 'zines different, right? But I am not sure that this so-called egocentric way is the right one for an underground publication. Maybe for big trendy sweet-toothed magazines it's OK, but not for a metal edition. The other thing I disliked concerns the editor's bad habit to change and rewrite original answers of the interviewed band and thus giving them other meaning (here I talk only about one interview, which was answered by me personally and that's why I know what I'm talking about) that makes me really angry, because that way the reader will get untrue information about one or the other band. Well, enough of negative criticism better let's see what bands were interviewed besides the above mentioned ones. So they are the following: ALASTIS, WEEDS IN VOGUE, MANTAK, BARRACUDA, SLEEPING GODS, ORDALIUM, EXMORTEM, GOD DETHRONED, WOLFSANGEL, DERANGED, KAAMOS, BURIAL PLACE, EMERALD NIGHT, LUNATIC GODS, THE FORSAKEN, DIATHRA, SPAWN OF POSSESSION, SACRIVERSUM, ABADDON INCARNATE, CORPUS MORTALE, CASTRUM, FLESHGORE, OBLIGATORISK TORTYR, POSTHUMOUS BLASPHEMER, LEAD WEIGHT, HOUWITSER, SOLEKAHN, ENSIFERUM, IBEX THRONE, LEUKORRHEA, NECROTERIO, VAMPIRIA, MY SHAMEFUL, BLACK FOREST, JASAD, MAR DE GRISES, AUTUMN, VILE, BEHEADED, TVANGESTE, CORPUS CHRISTII, DIS PATER, DYING ROSE, INEXIST, PYREXIA, DATURA, FALL OF EMPYREAN, VOKODLOK and SUHRIM. As you noticed there is plenty of stuff to read on. All this comes on 120 A4 format pages with a splendid layout, color cover and KRISIUN poster on the back. Killer achievement, isn't it? I don't really know any other Russian metallic publications, which managed to reach such a big amount of information included in one issue. So this way I pass my congratulations to the editor and wish him never to re-arrange other people's way of thinking in the future. You will also find there talks with some record labels (More Hate, Deathbell, Terroraiser) as well as a big dose of ads and other cool stuff, of course. Very worth one instead of the bad things I've experienced towards the reviews and the interview I gave for this magazine! If your knowledge of Russian language is enough developed then go ahead and buy this massive issue right now!

Quite a few issues passed since I last reviewed FATAL FORUM. Here we have its seventh number, which design-wise progressed just simply amazingly. It looks maximally killer and now I can compare it to the level of the Polish Thrash'Em All, of course, only design-wise. Let's see the content. 102 A4 pages waiting you to be explored there. You can select as per your taste between the following interviews: PUTRID PILE (That one truly became a good one, was quite interesting to read it!), COPROBAPTIZED CUNTHUNTER, KATAPLEXIA, CLITEATER (Another good one with a slight sense of black humor, ha-ha...), FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE (Despite the standard questions, it was quite interesting to read the answers!), EPICRISE (It's a laconic, but pretty enjoyable one, executed in a straight grindcore way!), CARNAL DECAY, ARCHONS, LIVIDITY (Support the underground!!!), SEBORRHEA, HAIL OF BULLETS (Short, but killer interview!), KRAANIUM, THE DAY EVERYTHING BECAME NOTHING, SYNERGISM OF HUMANITY, DEFEATED SANITY, INFECTED BRAIN, KATALEPSY, DESTRUCTIVE EXPLOSION OF ANAL GARLAND, SORDID CLOT, CORPSEFUCKING ART, DISFIGURED, DORMANT CARNIVORE, HUMAN MASTICATION, CARNIVORE DIPROSOPUS, CENOTAPH, STICKOXYDAL, PERVERSE DEPENDENCE and VAGINAL ICECREAM. Plus there's also a special label-interview with Dima of D.A.C. Productions, a few live reports and about 26 pages filled with sick reviews on different underground productions. Here and there I've noticed the editorial team repeats itself, both in reviews & interviews, but with such a big content it's a normal phenomenon I suppose. Anyway, wish in the future better to have less material done, but with more passion & dedication executed! I have also to admit that the black humor became quite of a trademark for this edition, so don't be surprised about this, ha-ha... This professional, Russian-written magazine comes with a meaty CD sampler offered by Coyote Records! Don't know how much is the price for this issue, but it definitely worth the attention!

This 10th jubilee issue embraces a well-worked-out content & a totally underground dedicated approach, which is a trademark of this edition from the very beginning. I really like the "try to be always interesting, informative & up-to-date" way Erik does the interviews and writes the reviews, 'cause they are supportive and honest in all aspects. After 2 pages of abundant summary regarding past issues and the activity of Shrunken & Mummified you can proceed to the following interviews: PERVERTED SON / EVIL OFFERING / Demons Jail Fanzine, Zero Budget Productions (Like it very much, 'cause this interview will make you return to the atmosphere of the good old 80s, when total support, honesty & dedication ruled the underground!), VULVATHRONE (Can't stop laughing, funny guys for sure!), TERROR FROM HELL, BLACK SISTER / Problem? Records (This one is a HC-oriented interview, but fits very well into the content and I had a great fun reading it!), DEATH INVOKER, LANTERN, Zapisnik Fanzine, PERSECUTOR (This Polish guys made me really happy, 'cause their dedication towards the old-school metal heritage is simply awesome! Check them out!), GRAVEYARD DIRT and PAEDIATRICIAN. There's also about 24 pages filled with reviews on demo, fanzine, CD, vinyl products plus a few gig reports along with killer scene reports from Slovenia and Cuba. This issue is definitely a massive one plus as usual you can expect a professional b/w design with high quality print on 44 A4 pages. In conclusion I warmly recommend this fanzine to all the extreme metal freaks lurking in the underground and below!

The debut issue of this Odessa-based underground fanzine comes on 24 A5 format low-quality printed b/w pages. Design-wise, first of all, I would recommend for future issues to separate the interviews in a better way, 'cause they eventually messed up at some pages. Secondly, to add a foreword to each interview and to place them at the top of it, 'cause sometimes it's really hard to figure out where is the beginning or even the end of one or other interview. Thirdly, I would advice to add more band/live photos to the interviews as well as album/demo covers to the review sections, respectively. OK, enough said about the outlook, let's see the content instead. There are 8 interviews in total with such more or less known Thrash & Death Metal acts as FATAL ENERGY, ÒÈÐÀÍ, BESTIAL REVILER, CASTRUM, ÃÐÎÌÀÄÀ, DEATHINCARNATION, CRUSHER and VIOLENT OMEN. Most of the interviews are done in a meaty & informative way, but unfortunately there are a few short ones, which weren't as interesting to read over. There's also a two-paged gig report about legendary German Thrashers NECRONOMICON and their intervention in Russia. Plus you can dive for a short into album/demo reviews, which unfortunately were limited just to 3 pages. Great to notice that the main purpose of the editorial team is to support the small and local acts instead of the bigger ones plus to focus the attention on Thrash & Death Metal styles in general! I've really enjoyed reading this first issue of Thrash Metal Revival, despite some minor objections that every debut issue suffers from, and looking forward to its continuation and improvements both content and design-wise! Ah, forgot to mention, it's written in Russian and has an 18-track compilation CD-R as a bonus!

This newborn Russian-written fanzine from Magadan is nothing else than the continuation of an older edition called Cruel Existence, but with a little bit other design, approach and page size to be shriveled to A5 format. It has 72 laser-printed pages in total packed with an amazing quantity of reviews. Just imagine 48 pages of reviews typed with a quite small, but still readable, font-size!!! Mostly materials from the past few years were reviewed there, but found some really old stuff from 1987, 1989, 1994, etc. years reviewed as well. I suppose those old materials were reviewed with a kind of "tribute to the past" attitude. I should also point out the versatility of the musical styles reviewed inside, 'cause you can find there everything beginning from blues, rock up to metal. But what's more important at this point that all those reviews were written quite skillfully and with a total dedication to each band per review! In such a cool manner were the interviews executed too. You can select between the following ones: MORTIFER, PARRICIDE, BARBARITY, KAAMOS, GOTHIC SKY, CELTIC LEGACY and THERM.EYE.FLAME. There's also a CRYSTAL SWORD bio, an MHM-2008 festival report and some pages of poesy and literature in addition. I see a great future for this edition; though as usual have some advices hereby. First of all, I would add there as much as possible album covers for the section of reviews and secondly band photos to the interviews, 'cause without those images the whole fanzine looks a bit bare & design-wise monotonous to me. So these 2 things must be definitely improved for the second issue! What else to write. It's a good start and I am looking forward to the second number of Underground!!!