It’s really sad to see what one of my all time favorite underground magazines has evolved into with their newest edition… I always had a lot of respect for Sindri and Jarne and their unconventional way of presenting themselves and their incredible magazine. COTHURNUS never was (and certainly never will be!) your ordinary mainstream publication as the selection of weird bands and the straight into your face way of writing of both editors has most certainly turned off quite a few people in the past already… That has always been more than fine with me. But with their 2001 edition they probably went a step too far after all… The entire issue is heavily lacking in the high quality features of the past. Which means: all the articles in which they usually tend to attack useless bands, stupid promoters & record labels and other wannabees have almost disappeared and got replaced by fictional sarcastic, ironic or satirical write-ups with no real connection to the activities within the extreme Metal underground. The number of reviews which usually ended with “0 points” (always my personal highlights of each issue) have become almost non existing this time as they obviously preferred to concentrate on the stuff they consider worth a listen. Despite the obvious high printing- and layout quality, I also dislike the whole visual side of this issue. The idea not to print the magazine in the ordinary upright size (but lengthways!!) is indeed very cool, but the use of pictures with political or historical background (for example war related) in combination with politically related subjects in the writings and bands like TOTENMOND, 2 TON PREDATOR or TIMO RAUTIAINEN & TRIO NISKALAUKUS didn’t necessary make the whole thing more appealing to me. So, only the features on NECROPHOBIC, NIFELHEIM, THY SERPENT, GOD DETHRONED, BEWITCHED, NOCTE OBDUCTA, DRAUTRAN and SHINING still do remind on a usual brutal underground mag. I hate to say it, but if you’re looking for a publication in order to get information about new promising bands / releases, you better pick up one of the other featured mags here. If one of your favorite mags is TITANIC (a German satirical mag), you will possibly die in laughter reading these 76 pages… A very courageous release! Contact and ordering info: www.cothurnus.de