Of course there’s nothing wrong in running a zine on a completely professional level (using high glossy paper, a full colored exclusive coverart, impressive layout, top printing quality etc.), but on the other hand this here is something I still enjoy a lot (often even more than the professional zines) and what I would call a real fanmade zine… Unfortunately we very rarely get our hands on xeroxed, A5 size, cut and paste zines these days that come up with a rather chaotic looking (I’d like to call it Punk style), undergroundish layout, yet know to deliver some interesting content nevertheless. CARBONIZED CELLS from France is such a zine! Judging the debut issue by the introductional words of editor Julien, it seems that he’s already pretty much aware of all the weak points of his first effort: his English is not exactly the best and he considers himself a bad reviewer, that’s why there’s no real demo, EP or album reviews included in here, just some recommendations of stuff that he enjoyed listening to lately and some zine reviews and a festival report from the Agresound Fest, so we should give him some time for improvements . What I really appreciate though is the fact that Julien tries to focus quite a bit on the underground of his own country instead of simply picking the highlights from all around the globe. So, apart from STENCH OF DECAY (Finland) and XANADOO (Singapore) the featured interviews in here are exclusively with French bands / labels: BLOODY SIGN, NECROS, RESISTANCE and UNDER SIEGE RECORDS. All in all this issue is still far away from being perfect (hey, the VOICES debut issue wasn’t any better as well), but a promising start for a very dedicated and honest new zine anyway. Issue # 1 sells for 2,- € (France), 3,- € (Europe) and 6 Dollars (world). All prices already include postage, trades are welcome as well. Contact: Julien Morys, 2C, rue de Colombey, Appt C3, 57070 Metz, France, email: carbonizedju@gmail.com. All further info at www.myspace.com/carbonizedcells or http://site.voila.fr/carbonizedcells