Many of you who read this webzine will know already that I love horror in movies, as well in literature. Graham Masterton is besides King, John Saul, James Herbert and Dean Koontz one of my favorite horror authors. I just finished another one of his books and it is an awesome read about Japanese demon Tengu, the strongest of Japanese demons and crazy secret organization bent on revenge for Hiroshima and Nagasaki, trying to bring havoc with super soldiers possessed by this demon and couple of people trying to stop them before it is too late. The book is a mixture of body horror, maniacally murdering mayhem and gore with classic intense political thriller with horror elements. I love Masterton’s writing, how his novels are quick and fluid and easy to read, but at the same time intense and hard to let go once you start to read them. I especially love bleak and dark atmosphere that goes throughout this book and the ending is done very well. I recommend this one although it is not one of his top three books.
Adrian Smith is known to all metal audiences as guitar player for Iron Maiden, one of the biggest and greatest most legendary metal bands on this planet. But, little is known about Adrian’s second love besides music, that being angling, or fishing if you want. This book speaks about both of Adrian’s love with emphasize being more heavy on fishing and it is beautifully written and interesting, even to me who is not angler but the stories about Adrian’s fishing adventures I read with most avid interest. What is more interesting those stories about fishing adventures are interplayed with Iron Maiden’s tours and anecdotes and short stories from those tours seen through Adrian’s eyes and thoughts thus seeing the other side of only concerts, being weary travelling, some perils, food poisonings, getting to know other fellow musicians, intentionally or per pure chance. This makes this book an interesting read. I bought my book in Rockmark bookstore in Zagreb, if you are interested try to find it there.
Earth Island Books continues to amaze us with all of their book releases. This time, I read this book by Welly Artcore, Welsh punk who played in bands for decades and released more than 40 issues of his fanzine called ‘Artcore’. What I always loved to read in fanzines was tour reports and gig/festival reports. This book is one huuuge tour report divided in two parts. First part is when Welly joined legendary punk band Chaos UK on their American tour in 1994 and it was a blast to read, being a fan of this band and reading about all the road stories and succesfull and failed gigs, also about other scenes, venues and especially loved the part when Chaos UK and New Orleans sludge legends EyeHateGod toured together and it was chaotic but blast! Each gig, travel to each venue/town is divided into short chapters, so it was fun to read without too long chapters and this book did not get boring for one single second! Second part of this book, second tour if you like is about Welly’s own Welsh hardcore punk band in which he sang, being Four Letter Word and their trials and tribulations across USA and Canada with their tour in 1998. I don’t know which part of the book I liked better. Both are extremely interesting, especially Four Letter Word tour with story about now defunct legendary label BYO and Youth Brigade, 7Seconds and many other bands that shared stage with Four Letter Word on that tour.
This is a great book, so I recommend it to every one who love to read fanzines, tour diaries and punk hardcore!
KRAYKULLA-WEBZINE 