You’re sick and tired of reading underground publications in front of a computer screen? You can’t stand the evolution of fanzines either, with their aim to come across as professional as possible (by using high glossy paper, a full colored pro-printed or photoshopped cover, computer generated layout etc.)? Then you should pay attention now, because the debut issue of Norway’s CHRONICLES might be of interest to you. Editor Steinar Selstø also works for Heavymetal.no and Scream magazine, but in this case he definitely entered a time machine to come up with a zine as old school as you can get. The 58 full sized b/w pages are xeroxed, the layout is very simple (most of the pages just have borders, pics and a band logo) and the whole issue was even stapled together in an old fashioned way. According to Steinar "the zine is a tribute to the art of zine making…" and in that he definitely succeeded. The zine doesn’t feature any reviews ("reviewing music has not been a motivation or focus" he explains in his editorial), but instead you get to read highly interesting, very in-depth interviews with ARES KINGDOM, PENTAGRAM CHILE, PATRONS OF THE ROTTING GATE, BLOOD MORTIZED, SOL NEGRO and AUDIOPAIN. The zine gets completed with very cool historical snippets from various old zines, mainly presenting statements or ads from people who are nowadays active in quite famous bands. To read all that (again) after so many years easily makes up for the lack of reviews in there and is definitely highly entertaining. This debut issue is limited to 300 copies and sells for 50 kr (Norway), 8 Euros (Europe), 9 Euros (rest of the world). All prices already include shipping. Trades are welcome too. Even the way to contact him is pretty old school ("no website, blog, Facebook… and there won’t be either"): Chronicles, Safirvegen 24, 3931 Porsgrunn, Norway, steinar.selsto@gmail.com.