THE MICK 50 master - Mick Mercer

DEVOLUTION Issue
22 £3.00
Colourful, varied, with an
odd CD, so that’s good,
yes? Well, you’re half
right.
It starts with an
interesting switch on the
norm, with ‘alternative’
male model Seef, tons of
reviews, Part 3 of a What
Is Goth? Examination,
with a look at how shit the
UK is. Laura Billing
shows some historically
inspired photo-surreality,
and the Dolls ‘n’ Divas
cards project is cute,
although maybe too twee?
Micky Satiar of Dear Superstar cops the Saint Or Sinner? Page,
before I nodded off during the Download Festival report. Mick
Priestly pops up in the middle and there’s a CD included of his band
The Green River Project. You’ll get a sneak preview of the
‘Doghouse’ movie (Dan Schaffer/Jake West). On other lifestyle
matters, you have The Alt Collective which seemed a nice idea, albeit
slightly baffling, a report on Heresy ‘n’ Heelz, model Wednesday,
photographer Elliott Morgan and Purpur Fashion, before Acey Slade
shows how optimism and effort works for bands. Then it’s the musical
meat of the issue with The Birthday Massacre, Spinnerette, VNV
Nation, Maleficent, a fairly unnecessary look back at Placebo, and
possibly the geekiest looking band in the world, Cancer Bats.
It’s bright and bubbly throughout. Great fun.
The CD is a five track offering of The Green River Project and their
retro-rock. ‘Dig Your Grave’, ‘No Return’ ‘Interlude: The Flight Of
The Bumblebee’, ‘’Nowhere To Run’ and ‘Summer – Presto.’ It’s so
horrendous I resent such shite being in the house, and it will be in the
bin outside before you have read this!
www.devolutionmagazine.co.uk
www.myspace.com/deolvutionmagazine
DOMINION Magazine
This new slim Goth magazine comes free inside TERRORIZER
magazine #189 (October), alongside a free CD (thankfully not sent
my way), and a Paradise Lost/Arch Enemy Poster. A welcome aid to
the Goth scene in general, appearing on a quarterly basis, it is written
and edited by Joy Lasher, who
you may know by other names.
16 colour pages, it is pretty
much stuffed full of content,
mirroring the Terrorizer style
generally, who don’t seem to
waste an inch of their pages, and
all highly professional. There
isn’t massive UK content, so it’s
good to see Maleficent get the
cover, as it is to find an
interesting news story, in
Griffinvox’s Greenpeace-backed
green campaign, Goth For
Earth.
www.myspace.com/
goth_for_earth
The large interviews are Metal-friendly, as you’d expect, so there’s
The 69 Eyes in poll position, flanked by Theatre Of Tragedy, with
decent pieces on Leaves’ Eyes and Epica. The smaller items mix the
content up more, perusing 45 Grave, Lahannya, Maleficent, The Eden
House, alongside tinier slivers on Pysdoll, TyLean, Omega Lithium
and Diablo Swing Orchestra.
There’s a stab at some lifestyle accoutrements, with jewellery and
knick-knacks but in a magazine this small I think they should bin that
for more music as it could have doubled the three brisk live reviews
included (NIN, KMDFM, Specimen), and while I am honoured to be
mentioned in the dvd/books section, if the mag remains at 16 pages I
think that could be dropped for more mentions of unsigned bands
(here represented by Fangs On Fur, Methodcell, Psydoll and
Touchstone) as something like Dominion can really help bands reach a
broader audience. The reviews are all lively with twelve records
covered – Theatre Of Tragedy, Anni Hogan, VNV Nation, Diablo
Swing Orchestra, Dope Stars Inc., Lahannya, Letz Instanz, Lunacy
Box, Kirlian Camera, Screaming Banshee Aircrew, Tapping The Vein
and Witchbreed.
If this can continue it is A Very Good Thing Indeed, as it is refreshing
to see a Metal mag giving up some space in this manner, and monthly
status would be even better.
I couldn’t find a Dominion-specific url, so for the first time in my life
I type:
www.myspace.com/dominionmagazine
www.terrorizer.com
EL CLAN
NADIE ESTA MEJOR MUERTA
Discos Intolerancia
Here’s an interesting band from Mexico, formed in 1991, debut album
in 1993, appeared at the first Goth festival in Mexico City with The
Last Dance and Human Drama, and gone from strength to strength,
offering some very noirish rock, as things follow fairly conventional
routes, but delivered with a dignified passionate sensitivity.
‘Nada Por Arder’ has punchy-drunken vocals woes, gliding
dramatically into play across a gentle throb of a tune which instils a
very cool atmosphere, then the drums agitate as the guitar oscillates
into action. ‘Parallel Worlds (Beware Of The Tree Of Science)’ is one
of the songs sung in English and I like their direct stance –
‘Knowledge and ignorance, Humbleness and arrogance, Crop fields
and land mines, Virginia Tech post-Columbine, Computers and bomb
cars, Innocence and soul scars, We can go into space, We can blow up
this place.’ They writhe in subtle fashion, reminding me much of
anther cool dark rock entity, Secrecy, and then hit out like The Mission
on heat. Serious themes obviously litter the album, although I miss it
all due to the language, but there’s quotes throughout the booklet from
Camus, Orwell, Philip K. Dick, Maximus, Jorge Luis Borges,
Flaubert, Baudelaire, Dumas and a host of others who I have never
heard of.
‘Embals-ámame’ is some demure rock, with a sly catchy chorus and
some rocky guitar outbursts but things are kept fairly low key.
‘Arcadia’ has a similarly sedate start but then starts to spill over into
flamboyant vocal decorative outpourings as the guitar mooches
magnificently, creating a weird hybrid. There’s no denying some of the
guitar touches are very rock, but the setting in which that exists is
rather unusual, keeping you constantly on your toes and it’s brilliantly
worked out.
‘Vengo Del Interior’ is prettier, the keys picking away behind the
vocals and the glinting guitar, and although I don’t know what it’s
about it’s clear we have a serious story being played out in genteel
surroundings, but heavy with meaning and there are grim twists