Issue # 15
(80 pages, A4, printed, in English)
Another one bites the dust… please forgive me for quoting an old QUEEN song here, but it perfectly sums up the situation when it comes to printed fanzines these days… After 15 issues Germany’s CHAOS MAG is also closing their coffin now in order to focus on other, more important things in life (the fine vinyl only label Joe Black Records being one of them). It’s really a pity though, especially if you followed the evolution of this always very cool zine over the years… I may not have been the biggest fan of their new layout direction (I prefer an old school look when it comes to Death Metal zines), yet gotta confess though, that issue # 15 has once again turned out to be a helluva professional and always very creative looking issue and a worthy farewell for sure! Already the amazing looking (full color, yet very dark and gloomy) cover artwork courtesy of Killustrations is the best they’ve ever had! Content wise you’ll get a lot of in-depth interviews again, this time with bands such as HATE ETERNAL, RESURRECTION, SINISTER, VADER, BEHEMOTH, EXMORTEM, VACANT COFFIN, BOOK OF BLACK EARTH, MACHETAZO, DARKNESS BY OATH, AMON AMARTH, EVOCATION, SEANCE, THE UGLY, UNANIMATED, THE CROWN and a massive Rogga Johansson special that covers many of the bands that this guy has been involved in over the last couple of years (PAGANIZER, RIBSPREADER, CARVE, DEMIURG, THOSE WHO BRING THE TORTURE, BONE GNAWER and PUTREVORE). If that’s still not enough for you, you can also find out all necessary details about PULVERISED RECORDS from Singapore in an in-depth label special or read the shitload of reviews that cover a big part of this issue again. What I don’t really like is the fact that the majority of the releases all received a rather good rating… a little more criticism would have been nice in order to seperate the real good ones from the crap (and there HAVE been several shitty ones for sure!). Very amusing is the little extra they’ve included this time… Instead of coming up with another free compilation CD the CHAOS crew created a free "True Black Metal Memory"… You definitely need to see that!! This dark sense of humor immediately brought the cool COTHURNUS zine back to my mind (which unfortunately also closed doors a while ago)… So, if you’re sick and tired of reading reviews and interviews in front of a computer all the time, make sure to invest EUR 5,00 (Germany), EUR 6,00 (Europe) or USD 9,00 (rest of the world) in this totally professional magazine! R.I.P. CHAOS MAGAZINE! Contact info: chaosmagazine@gmx.de, www.chaosmagazine.de
Frank Stöver
• CHAOS MAG - Issue # 13 (Stefan Franke)
• CHAOS MAG - Issue # 12 (Frank Stöver)
• CHAOS MAG - Issue # 11 (Frank Stöver)
• CHAOS MAG - Issue # 10 (Thomas Georg)