Category Archives: Reviews

movie, Reviews

(movie) Woooooo! Becoming Ric Flair (2022) – moving documentary about wrestling legend!

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I remember when I was a kid, my friends called me to their place to watch wrestling together. Then that was WWF Superstars and WWF Challenge on cable tv. I was immediately struck by the storylines, characters larger than life, matches, betrayals, brotherhood and sisterhood and although it is ‘only’ sports entertainment, I stick with wrestling even today and never miss ‘Monday Night Raw’ or ‘WWE Smackdown’. But I also follow AEW Wrestling who also have quality stories, great wrestling and characters. I also watch WWE NXT with younger talent coming to fold and one day get to main roster of WWE. So, when this documentary was announced on Peacock, I waited and the wait is finally over, I have watched it. This one tells the story about 50 year career and Hall of famer Ric Flair in two hours time, also known as ‘Nature Boy’ whose daughter Charlotte is nowadays WWE Women’s Smackdown champion heading into Wrestlemania season in three weeks from now. This one lets Ric tell his story in his own words mainly, from being adopted kid, to his wrestling start, being hit by lightning and surviving, also surviving plane crash, alcohol, drugs, having his son fatally overdose on drugs and his marriages and women adventures. I was left wondering how is this man even still alive after what I watched in this movie. There are touching moments of his final WWE match, his comeback from death and some of that brought moist to my eyes. I think, one day there will be biopic of his life for sure. Great one indeed. Hats off to the legend of wrestling!

10/10

Reviews

(review) Nakkiga/Arde – ‘Split’

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Arde from Berlin, Germany were already featured on the pages of this webzine with their last release. This time, they just let out a split opus with Spanish horde called Nakkiga. This one contains three conceptual songs by Nakkiga and only one almost fifteen minute long song by Arde called ‘Basalarr’, the name of the song is offering ancient mystical plant, that has life and strength and is very important to Basque culture. The song itself starts atmospheric and slow rolling, turning into fast blast beats, aggressive black metal screams, bordering with anguish and desperate cries and guitar work not unlike nineties old school black metal riffing. Then song later evolves again into atmospheric ambiental piece with guitars, wind swipes and chimes taking you into some other dimension and delivering calm and darkness into you, but also giving you strength to close your eyes, take a deep breath and go on with your life battling your inner demons successfully. So, although it is one long song, it could easy be divided into couple of different songs but it does not get boring for a second. Nakkiga side consists of three conceptual songs about the birth cycle of life, mixing pure black metal assault with aggression and melancholic melody, but also giving it a breath of crust punk attack in both bands’ music. I love the epic guitar work for example in ‘Denbora’, love the production and the sound wall that Nakkiga creates and I can only imagine how mighty this sounds live. Hopefully I will witness it one day. Vocals are tortured screams, but not too extreme, just the way I like it. This is one hell of a mighty black metal release.

Bandcamp

books, Reviews

(book) Ivica Čuljak – ‘Zvali su me Satan Panonski’

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Kada sam bio klinac, odrastao uz punk i metal muziku koje su ostale moj način života i dan-danas, kada nakon svih tih cirka trideset godina radim ovaj webzine već osmu godinu zaredom, Satan Panonski bio je hit među mladim punkerima u mom soliteru i mom društvu. No, frend mi je posudio kazetu i ja sam si mislio, pa dobro koji je ovo kurac, neko recitiranje, muzika se skoro niti ne čuje, kružio je mit sve veći i veći oko Ivice Čuljka zvanog Satan Panonski, njegove misteriozne smrti na bojištu 1992., njegovih godina provedenih u psihijatrijskoj bolnici Popovača zbog ubojstva i glazbu odnosno art je zamijenilo strahopoštovanje nas kao klinaca. No, tek kasnije, nakon što sam pročitao knjigu ‘Čizme slobode’ Ivana Glišića, te ‘Tijelo otpora Satan Panonskog’ naučio sam cijeniti konceptualnog umjetnika iza svog tog kaosa i krvi, iza Hard blood shocka odnosno načina na koji se Čuljak izražavao samo ozljeđivanjem, krvlju i stihovima. Iza svega toga stoji, danas odgovorno tvrdim jako pametan čovjek, umjetnik ispred svog vremena. Ovu knjigu je izdao Šareni dućan, a sadrži dva dijela odnosno zbirke ‘Mentalni ranjenik’ i ‘Prijatelj’ koje su objavljene zahvaljujući Zdenku Franjiću(Slušaj najglasnije) i obitelji Čuljak. Ovdje, u ovoj knjizi je zapravo sadržan sav Satanov rad, znači sve pjesme i proza koje je napisao i koje između redaka, ako se pažljivo čitaju odaju svašta nepoznatog o osobi Catchera II, Aveti, Satana Panonskog, kako god ga zvali. Ostaje žal da je sa samo 32 godine poginuo, tko zna koju umjetnost bi još dao underground sceni i kako bi se njegov život i rad razvijao. Zato barem imamo ovakvu knjigu kojoj se uvijek dobro vratiti.