MEATHOOKED ‘zine
Issue #1, Spring 1998
rating: 5, 5 of 6
Wow! This is one of the best ‘zines I have ever saw! Why? Well, in fact, simply because it has everything a good zine needs to have: long, well-crafted and thoughtout interviews (many of them are ‘live’ ones, at least regarding Finnish bands), lots of reviews (hey, don’t fucking touch ANCIENT CEREMONY and ANGEL CORPSE!), rather entertaining to read through (I really like the one on MYSTIFIER’s “The World Is So Good That Who Made It Doesn’t Live Here” CD: “This album is so good that who made it cannot listen to it” - and that’s all), as well as plenty of gig reports and various articles (such as “Extinction Is Natural?”, for example), also being enough interesting and exciting, although these guys’ English could be better (it’s not that bad, anyway). Speaking about the bands featured in this issue, these are: BABYLON WHORES, CRIMSON EVENFALL, DARKWOODS MY BETROTHED, ENSLAVED, GLOOMY GRIM, HAMMERFALL, NEGLECTED FIELDS, NOMICON, SOULGRIND, SWORDMASTER, TENEBRAE, THERION, TYRANT as well as Misanthropy Records and Mimes Brunn ‘zine (the longest intie here, I believe… and one of the most interesting, at least when it comes to answers). The design as well as the whole layout are fucking great! No doubts that Meathooked is the best-looking underground ‘zine I had ever hold in my hands… Honestly speaking, the printing paper itself is also very good (ah, it’s Finnish…! That explains everything, I guess) – you know, it’s just a pleasure to hold this mag in the hands of yours… Hmm, too much praises, don’t you think?
Email: meathooked@hotmail.com
(review by Herr Stalhammar)

Geoff Wilbur's RENEGADE newsletter
May 1999
rating: 5 of 6
This review will be rather short because (unfortunately) I've got RENEGADE the same day I was going to publish this issue. Ok, first of all I have to admit that this newsletter is very useful: eventhough there're no inties here, it contains plenty of articles instead + a lot of well-written demo reviews, a couple of live reports as well as some ads and classifieds. Devoted to hard rock, alternative / hardcore, R&B, ska and jazz, Geoff and co. mostly deal with unsigned bands and that's great I think! This issue includes articles on such acts as TONE DEAF TEENS, THE COMMON, MOTHERS OVEN, AUTOMATIC BLUES BAND + reviews on the stuff like DOG FASHION DISCO, HOTH, DESTROYER, TOWNE CRYER XXI, POINT OF ARES... To get your demo reviewed, send 2 copies plus band info (contact name, address and phone number) to: Geoff Wilbur's Renegade Newsletter, 580 Thames Street, Suite 449, Newport, RI 02840 or email Geoff at: renegade@efortress.com
All in all, this is undoubtedly decent edition (despite that I'm into a bit another kinds of music), so it seems natural that it has only one single drawback (at least, in my opinion): none of the demo reviews does feature band's email - only postal address. And I hate writing usual letters...
(review by Herr Stalhammar)