November 1985


The following is the November 1985 installment of Puszone

Thanks to Scott Slimm for the article.




Ring, ring, rriinng, ring! A hand flails about to silence the irritating
disturbance, smashing personal artifacts as they are abruptly knocked to
the ground. The source of the noise continues, the morning alarm wakes up
the mind to reality. The deadline is here, where is that pen? Sleep in
the eyes, a bit groggy, but then the stylus touches down and the explosion
of the Puszone is here, wild and feverous as ever. Welcome to the Puszone,
where this month once again for $1.00, the second in the series of flexis
put out by Dig and Kalv in the U.K. is available to you through the Pushead
mail order. Entitled Anglican Scrape Attic, it features tracks by that
US speed metal outfit Hirax, Japanese bands Execute and Lipcream, and the
speedcore thrash dealings of UK bands Concrete Sox and Sacrilege. A great flexi
for this low price, so all you fans of the Putrid Evil flexi, don't miss out.

To the many bummed readers of the Christ on Parade article in the September issue,
the color section was printed black and made those sentences illegible.

Perhaps one of the finest German thrash outfits is Inferno. Epileptic flailing
fits into the realm of speed velocity are what they became quickly notorious for.
A new small label in the US entitled Subversive decided to put out a seven
inch by this Deutsch chaotic cranking attack. Son of God is a three songer
that piles it all in, with ferocious intensity, zipping chord changes of frantic
activity and smart lyrical assertions translated in both German and English.
Ta;ented at what they perform, Inferno promptly assail the decibels with feverous
excitement in "Visions of the Future", "Suspense" ad the stunning title track that
blisters with sheer force. Untamed aggression let loose with distinct characteristics
that are invincible in a growing field. Just the right amount of harmonies to keep
it bouncing in your head long after you've heard it. This single introduces a band
that has a wide following to a new audience, and it's well worth the infernal effort.

Did you catch them while they toured America? Who? Well Germany's premier punk ensemble
the Upright Citizens, whose US release of 15 outstanding tunes brought to you by
those folks at the BYO chalks in at one of the most harmonious hardcore records to
grace the turntable yet. Open Eyes, Open Ears, Brains to Think and a Mouth to Speak
is the lengthy title which opens with a new version of the classic "Future Dreams."
Then the musical madness stirs up the dust with many deliveries of fast to calm efforts
each packing all the right instrumental licks. Each song holds just the right amount
of adrenalin that will keep it charging throughout your cranium with occasional
outbursts through your mouth. The vocals of Anton are a bit abrasive, while he keeps a
good flowing melody that doesn't bite sour, enhancing the guitar work of Uli and Craoder's
very appealing bass lines. What adds the biggest result to the Upright Citizens' sound
is Mario's drumming. Using the whole kit, he works it eagerly without that repetitious
edge, splashing the decibels at all those cutting edge points. Together as a band the
Upright Citizens work hard to combine a well-laced international flavor of rhythms
that will appeal to the majority of hardcore lovers and even those who just slightly
dabble in it. A very good collection of some of the best Upright Citizens songs. On
BYO Records.

When you're expecting the unexpected, you really don't know what to expect. And who would
have thought that out of Ontario, Canada, would come a band called Sons of Ishmael
with a wacky cover on their seven inch called Hayseed Hardcore? And when you flopped
that disc down on your turntable and cranked up the volume, it would fry your eyes
right out of their sockets because it was so intensely fast with a crazed no-holds-barred
approach to the thrash attack. Yes, that's what happened. Sons of Ishmael took me by
surprise. Distorted guitarts hauling at a rapid pace as each song delivers a split-
second barrage of chaotic mayhem. Short and sweet, this fourteen song EP bounces
with urgency and exciting quick rhythms in the tradition of the Midwest bands and
the likes of DRI or Gang Green. Ferocious describes how these maniac-paced tunes lurch
off the vinyl in doses such as "Parasites", "Social Drinker", "Break Free!", "Follow
the Leader", and all the rest. Incredible, this record will be well sought after and
again, due to finances, only 500 were made. On Death Enema Records.

Metallica recently played the Castle Donnington Rock Festival in England where the
fans were so ecstatic they threw a freshly decapitated pig's head on stage. According
to guitarist James Hetfield, "All of a sudden this bloody pig's head comes flying up-
these people are crazy- then the rest of the pig comes up piece by piece." And while on
the subject of Metallica, they have left for Denamrk to record their third LP entitled
Master of Puppets which is slated for release in December, a guaranteed hot one.
Also putting out new releases for this holiday season is Samhain, as yet untitled, they
are in the studio currently finishing up the LP.The Misfits' Legacy of Brutality
LP will also come out, some rare unreleased tracks from the earlier days of the Misfits.
Posion Idea are recording a new LP entitled Kings of Punk supposedly showing the
total speed and strength of this band. Poison Idea's lead singer Jerry will carve the words
"Kings of Punk" into his stomach for the full color cover. This will be an eyesore!
Also SSD has a new release coming called Break It Up along the same lines as
their How We Rock LP. Looks to be a blasting X-Mas!

Top of he ranks of up and coming fanzines are this month's entries: Pounder, a thick zine
devoted to speedcore type music with good interviews, interesting reviews, up to date
info and much more. #3 features Death, Possessed, Hirax, Raw Power, Wargod and more.
And how about you lovers of Maximum Rock N Roll? Where there's Maximum Rock N Paul. Paul
Hamerlinck's hilarious fanzine with the second issue featuring the Sex Pistols playing
baseball on the cover. Inside you'll find "Dance Lessons with Hank Rollins", "Punk Rock
Days are Over", "What Will They Be Doing?" and much more. A lot of fun and great for
a few laughs. Good comic caricatures also. Over in England there is a nifty little
zine called Raising Hell, chock full of bands, reviews, addresses, zines, comments
and lots of info.

Newsprint paper doesn't dominate comics that much anymore; various types of high grade
papers are now seen between those slick colorful covers. A lot has changed in the
world of comics, incluing art, stories and offbeat new approaches, so this is a stab
into that world by the Puszone. By par a personal favorite is DC's Swamp Thing,
recently reworked and getting the rave reviews with the team of Alan Moore on the
incredible stories, Steven Bissette and John Totleban doing pen and ink. Each issue
proves to be exceptionally strong. Check out issue#41(haven't we seen that cover
design before?). Mechanics is a collection of tales from the Love and Rockets
comic magazine, but newly colored and on quality paper. Done by one Jamie Hernandez,
whose style is sophisticated "Archie" but quite a bit beyond, especially with those
story lines. Interesting tales of women and men, published through Fantagraphics
Books
. You might recognize Jamie's art, if you're familiar with some of the art
Dr. Know or Stalag 13.

Who took the world by storm with his Rocketeer chaacter and his lovely rendition
of women? Well Dave Stevens, one of the fastest rising artists in comicdom, evidences
a sharp clean brush/pen style. Eclipse has just released the entire collection
of Rocketeer stories in comic form, with 6 new pages of story and art. An excpetional
book to get for sure, enjoyable stories and awe inspiring art. Brian Bolland's Black
Book
is a nice rendered edition of Bolland's stuff previously unseen in America.
You might be familiar with Bolland's art from the ever popular Judge Dread and
Camelot 3000 series. It's a one-shot of some crazed horror stories that are quite
creepy. DC's series, Crisis on Infinite Earth, has been giving the axe to some
old superheroes. First, Supergirl bit the dust and the next issue saw the death of Flash.
For all you old fans it can be quite a letdown, but the comics are trying things not
done before. And lastly an old favorite, Fantastic Four has been showing some quality
issues with John Byrne on story and art, well worked and captivating, lots of fun reading
while cranking those tunes.