the latest issue of the Out of the Darkness fanzine arrived at the end of last year.. 19th number of this hardcore punk publication, based in Serbia is regularly released for already 9 years and it continues to resist the curse of this digital age and still sticks to the good old-school method of publishing a paper fanzine and they menage to put out a new number twice a year which is pretty respectable.. from the very beginning, Out of the Darkness has been the kind of fanzine written by people from the scene, about the scene.. it's mostly music-oriented, with a good mix of articles about the local Balkan scene and the international one, and now features a respectable number of authors and regular or occasional contributors from all over the region..
although I have to admit I've always been more of a fan of the more personal fanzines made by individuals or maybe a couple of authors, but with the general lack of fanzines these days, I'll take what I can get, and I'm not complaining at all with this one because I really can't remember the last time I read a fanzine, so I was really excited when this arrived with mail..
so, what do we have here?.. on about 116 pages of A5 format if I counted correctly you can read several interviews, as I often find the ones with individuals involved in the scene, and not just bands, more interesting, so I'd highlight the ones with the crew from autonomous spaces Nigdjezemska from Zadar and Kripta from Budapest which are interesting and informative because of the lack of their presence in online world.. featured bands in this number include Statico, Peripetija, and Pasmaters, as well as Tejka Vasiljević from the band You, artist and musician Nenad Gucunja and David Gamage from Earth Island Books.. besides the interviews, there are also a couple of columns, gig reports, and the inevitable reviews, which I was looking forward to because I was hoping to find out about other active fanzines, but unfortunately, there are only 2 fanzine reviews, while the rest are for music releases and books. I like that in record reviews is a relatively broad and diverse musical spectrum represented, somehow I was expecting strictly hardcore punk, but there's some crust and raw punk in there too..
and finally, a bit about the design: the cover is printed on slightly thicker paper, with awesome drawing made by the aforementioned Nenad, so those almost cardboard-like covers in color look great.. the font inside is quite large and easy to read, and the design is pretty clean and done in this computer-like style if you know what I mean.. I have no complaints on design, though a little more creativity in the layout to break away from the template wouldn't have hurt..
you can get the fanzine from the author or at various distros and places throughout the region.. I got my copy from always realiable Sumoggu Records for 5 euros and did I mention, some stickers was included with it as well..
- contact: outofthedarkness.rs@gmail.com
.png)
