Zine Review of ‘Message From the Homeland #5’

Consider this a relative of F.B.I. ‘zine. It deals with the basic issues of being human in an inhumane world (there’s a particularly touching column early on about Dave’s encounter with a homeless man, which drives this point home), the struggle against capitalism and racism, from a sort of New England hardcore kid perspective (witness the atavistic music reviews at the end, which are well written but reveal a taste for personality. It starts out with a columns section which is something of an improvement on the usual awful columns section: it has a theme (immortality), and is wisely understated as a section (unlike many columns sections in ‘zines, which announce themselves with great fanfare — only to be wandering and dull). There’s a rock-journalist-style interview with Godbelow (the not-tough guy tough guys?), an interview with Cave In that was what I expected it to be, then interviews with the Hope Conspiracy, Agoraphobic Nosebleed, Kill the Slavemaster (sadly illegible), Elliott, MC Wildcat... The high points for me are Ted Kaczynski’s parable (not the best short story ever, but seriously, the guy has the record to back up his ideas with), a very technical piece on Cryogenics and Nanotechnology, and the account of the April 16. protest in Washington, D.C., which was quite well done... you may have already read your fill of those activist’s reports by now, though, I fear. The layouts are occasionally difficult to read (when the tiny white letters are drowning in a sea of black ink, going under for the last time), and the pages of ads bug me (although we can hardly blame the ‘zinesters for that necessity — can we?). At the end are some reviews of decent depth, which I wanted to like... but it was hard for me when I read one band being negatively compared to “an ugly girl with a crush on you.” Come on, what the fuck — that shit is totally un-called for. Strange combination here of smart political stuff and generic hardcore market coverage... I expect it to go one way or the other in the future, probably towards the former. — b 17 Sparkhall Avenue, Toronto, ON, M4K1G4 Canada