(fanzine)Beta Vulgaris #12 is one of the best fanzines in Croatia.

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Although this is a webzine, I used to do lots of fanzines back in the nineties and early 2000s from No Faith, Domination of Darkness…It is so nice to see that there are still physical copies of fanzines here in Croatian scene, which is my homeland scene. This zine is coming from south of Croatia, namely beautiful Split. What first comes to mind is that the zine is pretty big, many pages, with lots of stuff to read. I was instantly reminded of excellent zine from Croatia called In medias res that was really something back in the days. This zine is in Croatian language, so if you don˙t understand, too bad, maybe you can find someone who can translate a bit to you or something. There are columns, interview with Parole 80, features about anarchosindicalism, antifascism from Split area, some more feature, poetry, feature on Brigada Flores Magon and much, much more. As you can see, this is not zine focused only on music, but also on political side of things in punk, being nice because not many zines do that nowadays. It is lots of reading material for little money or exchange so write: bvulgaris@riseup.net

 

(review) Soul Mate-Learning e.p.

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Another great band that comes from mighty Southamerican scene, from Santos, Brasil. Soul Mate are from there and they play a mixture of melodic punkrock and hardcore. This e.p. contains 6 songs, one of them being kind of intro to the rest of the material. The music changes from fast skatepunk, to more calmer and emotional atmospheric moments like in slower and more pop oriented Instead Of or fast and superb instrumental New Birth. The vocals are good, the musicianship is tight with some progressive almost metalic technical elements in the songs. The singer reminds me at some moments of Chris from Propagandhi and that is a good thing, not trying to copy but having that similar colour of voice. This is a complex and a bit different e.p. than your typical skatepunk, so enjoy it as I did.

7.5/10

 

(featured band) ANOREXIA ISAN – A deep look into the other side of the coin

ANOREXIA ISAN, the Venezuelan rock band formed by John Bustamante, Ricardo Aumaitre, Marcial Robaina and Jean Luis Rojas, keep themselves releasing material with a common taste: social explicit themes.

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Since the release of their most recent LP THE SAD ALBUM, which is a trip through manic depression looking for redemption (which features LINDSAY MCDOUGALL from the Australian punk band FRENZAL RHOMB, and EUGE VALOVIRTA from the metal band CYHRA from Sweden), their recent deal with the indie record label NEPTUNE CROSS PUBLISHING in Washington D.C., and their announcement regarding an upcoming new EP which will be titled RECYBELIA, the band have been sharing material with a common point: videos which cover polemic themes of a global society, with a rock, punk, metal and post-hardcore soundtrack.

While the video for their song A MORNING OVERTURE goes through something which looks like the daily basis of a girl with suicidal thoughts, their most recent video entitled WORDS tries to be a reminder of the Columbine Shootings.

The Columbine shooting (April the 20th, 1999) was, at the time, the worst high school shooting in U.S. history and prompted a national debate on gun control and school safety, as well as a major investigation to determine what motivated the gunmen, Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17. Future school shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, continue to raise questions about gun control in the United States.

Both works look to be connected in a specific thing: clinic depression and mental health issues. So it seems to be easy to watch them as a call to think about it.

According to their singer and songwriter, John Bustamante, “It is well known for all of us that it is not easy to talk about things like these ones, because it could be really offensive for some people. But is really necessary to make the first attempt and take the first strike. To remain in silence in front of things like these ones, make us partners for possible tragedies. We could avoid a lot of bad stuff just by giving them a voice”.

While we wait for the songs which will be featured on their new EP, RECYBELIA, we invite you to watch both videos, and make your own thoughts about them.
A MORNING OVERTURE:
WORDS:
Listen THE SAD ALBUM in Spotify:
Twitter: @Anorexia_isan
Instagram: @Anorexiaisanofficial