This fourth edition of Germany’s ANCIENT SPIRIT TERROR zine unfortunately is supposed to be their farewell issue as Stefan and Vasili have decided to exclusively focus on organizing their "Unholy Metal Mayhem" gigs as well as putting out tape releases from now on… What a pity, cause slowly but surely ANCIENT SPIRIT TERROR had evolved into one of Germany’s best underground zines of all time! And with this issue they not only delivered their biggest (140 pages, including a 12 pages long special on the Greek Black Metal scene!!), but also their most impressive one in terms of the layout, printing quality and selected bands. I don’t know if you’re familiar with this feeling, but whenever I get a new zine, I first of all rush through the pages to see what it has on offer… In some cases I look forward to reading it, simply because I’m already familiar with several featured bands and in other cases it’s just the whole atmosphere of the zine that captures me. Well, ANCIENT SPIRIT TERROR is a combination of both! A lot of the bands I was already familiar with (ASPHYX, GOATLORD – content wise almost in Necromaniac style, ERODED, PROTECTOR, ANGELCORPSE, ETERNAL DARKNESS, MORTUARY DRAPE, CELTIC FROST, FUNEBRARUM, ANAEL, DENIAL OF GOD, ANATOMIA and GRAVEN), while others were still totally new to me (HELL MILITIA, FLUISTERWOUD, PESTNEBEL, BLOODSTONE, DARKMOON WARRIOR, NEGATIVE PLANE, HOLOCAUSTIA, IBEX THRONE, REIGN OF TERROR, GOATVOMIT, DARKMOON WARRIOR and AXIS POWERS). But everything is presented in such an appealing dark’n’moody manner that I really had a tough time to decide where to start reading the whole goddamn’ monster. But as soon as I had begun, I spent several hours in a row, reading interview after interview and review after review. The interviews are highly interesting in their content and mostly very in-depth and the reviews very well written, while the visual side is professional, yet totally underground based with the usual borders and stuff and by no means of the often very boring high glossy type. The entire zine is actually extremely dark as a whole, which perfectly fits to its content. A bit irritating though is the use of different font sizes throughout the zine and the way texts were formatted (partly centered, partly left-justified or as justification, in columns or as continuous texts). But as it always fits the layout of the pages in question, it’s not really such a big deal. This issue is once again highly recommended and without a doubt worth every little cent! You can order your copy for 8 Euro (+ 1,45 postage inside of Germany) from Vasili Vasilopoulus, Postfach 104108, 44041 Dortmund, Germany, email: ancientspiritterror@yahoo.de. As usual international orders should contact Vasili for postage rates first…