"Thank you for sending out a copy of LOTFP: The Shameless. Unfortunately, C.o.C does not have a review section for other zines but I would still like to send along these words of encouragement. Please feel free to use any portions from below that you'd like to help promote your zine.
The reviews, focusing on some thirty unsigned or seldom-noticed independent acts (from Doom, Speed and Traditional Heavy Metal) are in-depth, sincere and it's obvious the contributors have done some real digging to put this issue together. The end result is 26 pages of commentary capped with editorials by James Edward Raggi IV and Dave Burns, who contrast an almost neurotic, off-the-cuff style of ranting with confrontational reportage. Burns in particular has taken some hits recently, if not for his assumed paranoia than for his wordiness, but here his stance is imperforate.
Using as his example groups like Verbal Deception, a Trad. Metal band who releases their own material out of Calgary, Alberta, Burns points his finger at the trend within the Heavy Metal press that blindly and lazily favors established label releases (i.e. promos sent free of cost) over independent artists. Regarding the major print zines, this is hardly a bombshell, but evidently even "properly" established bands do not fare as well today across the board either. To illustrate this point Burns also highlights the well known Death Metal group Deceased, formerly part of the Relapse roster, who released their last album, As The Weird Travel On on the small label, Thrash Corner Records in 2005.
As noted in his article, "No Place For Disgrace," my own review of the Deceased album for Chronicles of Chaos followed about two months after his for Hellride Music (mid-May to early-August). I remember feeling annoyed that there was so little information out there at first and that none had accumulated between the time I spent listening to the record and when I finally set my thoughts on paper. Many older bands were reforming, as they continue to do, receiving considerable attention, but Deceased had never really disappeared. Compared to many of these veteran groups they had hardly experienced what might be called a creative down period. Not until the album received distribution through Season of Mist/Caroline in September was it finally noticed, mostly in print. Amazingly, the Internet seems to be behind the dead trees on this issue.
Of course, today one sees the record everywhere but despite being readily available from major retailers like The End Records (Just as it most certainly was in May when I first obtained it) and the Relapse e-store, it remains curiously unmentioned by the bulk of today's writers. And yet everywhere it has been covered it has rightfully received nothing but the highest praise. (A recent Google search yields a brief but glowing review from Metal-Observer.com touting it as one of the best Thrash records of 2005. The date published is January 31, 2006)
In addition to this reminder of how independent artists are dismissed and at times even shown hostility despite thoughtfulness in their work, I would like to add mention of the general lack of interest shown toward aesthetics by the majority of amateur and professional journalists.
Sadly, despite their best efforts and many stunning collaborations between them, the hard-work, great skill and craft of many underground illustrators grows increasingly under appreciated, as does the odd but important reference to various art and literature from time to time by writers/musicians -- Unless, of course, these are noted immediately on the accompanying press-sheet.
Thus, even when noticed, these are taken as an opportunity for the writer to focus only on physical aspects of packaging, invest in assorted (and not always relevant) pop-cultural references and too clever similes while forming new and ironic memes, rather than help to elaborate, in as much as possible, what is actually being presented. This is a general mark against the writer and his regnant style today (apart from the stock practice of puffing a review up with as many band references as will sufficiently lend the author "credibility") but at times the label also plays a part.
To use the most egregious example I know of, which was briefly touched on by LOTFP's own Andreas Schiffmann in his interview with She Said Destroy, Candlelight Records had for some time routinely distributed their advanced album copies in generic slipcases marked with only the label's logo.
Thankfully, this no longer seems to be the case but it will still take much more effort on behalf of these reviewers to transform out of their crude appearance as that last bit of assembly line machinery awaiting these new products -- as rapidly fed as they are discarded -- and start doing some legwork of their own."
The reviews, focusing on some thirty unsigned or seldom-noticed independent acts (from Doom, Speed and Traditional Heavy Metal) are in-depth, sincere and it's obvious the contributors have done some real digging to put this issue together. The end result is 26 pages of commentary capped with editorials by James Edward Raggi IV and Dave Burns, who contrast an almost neurotic, off-the-cuff style of ranting with confrontational reportage. Burns in particular has taken some hits recently, if not for his assumed paranoia than for his wordiness, but here his stance is imperforate.
Using as his example groups like Verbal Deception, a Trad. Metal band who releases their own material out of Calgary, Alberta, Burns points his finger at the trend within the Heavy Metal press that blindly and lazily favors established label releases (i.e. promos sent free of cost) over independent artists. Regarding the major print zines, this is hardly a bombshell, but evidently even "properly" established bands do not fare as well today across the board either. To illustrate this point Burns also highlights the well known Death Metal group Deceased, formerly part of the Relapse roster, who released their last album, As The Weird Travel On on the small label, Thrash Corner Records in 2005.
As noted in his article, "No Place For Disgrace," my own review of the Deceased album for Chronicles of Chaos followed about two months after his for Hellride Music (mid-May to early-August). I remember feeling annoyed that there was so little information out there at first and that none had accumulated between the time I spent listening to the record and when I finally set my thoughts on paper. Many older bands were reforming, as they continue to do, receiving considerable attention, but Deceased had never really disappeared. Compared to many of these veteran groups they had hardly experienced what might be called a creative down period. Not until the album received distribution through Season of Mist/Caroline in September was it finally noticed, mostly in print. Amazingly, the Internet seems to be behind the dead trees on this issue.
Of course, today one sees the record everywhere but despite being readily available from major retailers like The End Records (Just as it most certainly was in May when I first obtained it) and the Relapse e-store, it remains curiously unmentioned by the bulk of today's writers. And yet everywhere it has been covered it has rightfully received nothing but the highest praise. (A recent Google search yields a brief but glowing review from Metal-Observer.com touting it as one of the best Thrash records of 2005. The date published is January 31, 2006)
In addition to this reminder of how independent artists are dismissed and at times even shown hostility despite thoughtfulness in their work, I would like to add mention of the general lack of interest shown toward aesthetics by the majority of amateur and professional journalists.
Sadly, despite their best efforts and many stunning collaborations between them, the hard-work, great skill and craft of many underground illustrators grows increasingly under appreciated, as does the odd but important reference to various art and literature from time to time by writers/musicians -- Unless, of course, these are noted immediately on the accompanying press-sheet.
Thus, even when noticed, these are taken as an opportunity for the writer to focus only on physical aspects of packaging, invest in assorted (and not always relevant) pop-cultural references and too clever similes while forming new and ironic memes, rather than help to elaborate, in as much as possible, what is actually being presented. This is a general mark against the writer and his regnant style today (apart from the stock practice of puffing a review up with as many band references as will sufficiently lend the author "credibility") but at times the label also plays a part.
To use the most egregious example I know of, which was briefly touched on by LOTFP's own Andreas Schiffmann in his interview with She Said Destroy, Candlelight Records had for some time routinely distributed their advanced album copies in generic slipcases marked with only the label's logo.
Thankfully, this no longer seems to be the case but it will still take much more effort on behalf of these reviewers to transform out of their crude appearance as that last bit of assembly line machinery awaiting these new products -- as rapidly fed as they are discarded -- and start doing some legwork of their own."
When we hung out with Verbal Deception at HC 1 last year, we actually thought they were lying about being in a band with that pirate description. The fact that they throw eye patches out to their audience is actually pretty funny.
