Depraved Literature part VII – Petrified issue II

Depraved Literature part VII – Petrified issue II

Authors: Thorns

Origin: Florida, USA

Release date: Winter 1993

Interviews: Emperor, Pan-Thy-Monium, Necromantia, Mortiis, Equinox, Typhon

Printed at 100 copies (photo copied) and 10,000-12,000 copies (news print)

This is one of the most classic US underground black / death metal fanzines, created by Jon "Thorns" Jamshid from Lakeland, Florida (also Fullmoon Productions). And no, being Floridian doesn’t mean he was into their mainstream death metal bands, oh no! The zine covers mainly the early 90’s European black metal scene and so it is always interesting to read some old interviews with well known bands such as Emperor or Necromantia, even if they don’t unveil anything what I would not know already. But damn, the style of answers from such Samoth are so different to what he was saying later, when the band became more popular and recognised – and that meant also to be more careful about what to say haha. Meanwhile here he even called to kill Chuck Schuldiner, what says a lot about the way of thinking of the Norwegian black metal bands in the early days of the scene. Oh, but this is what the scene was like back then – with that funny war between death and black metal bands, bombs at gigs, threats, attacks, etc. So, there’s a lot of history behind Petrified zine and its historical value is the main reason why everyone should find this zine / or scans of it / and give it a read. More so because the review content is damn impressive – just imagine all the best underground bands of that era, not only black metal ones (those which already had albums released like Immortal, but also those, which only did demos so far like Gorgoroth or Absu), but also some of the most killer death metal demos and EPs (from bands like Vomitory, Altar (Swe), Unholy, Crematory (Swe), Epitaph (Swe), Pan Thy Monium and so on)… Sadly, the quality of the interviews is rather poor – only very few questions, no more than 11-12, all very standard and typical, some almost childish… and mostly just lame, short answers (chat with Dan and Pan Thy Monium is probably the best here, but why would Dan Swano care about church burnings or the murder of Euronymous?!)… It’s a shame, really, but on the other hand I know that in the future issues Petrified contained more extensive chats and the whole zine went even more deeply into the (mainly Scandinavian) black metal cults. Anyways, this second issue was a nice read, although a quick one really, as these 40 pages have a lot of space waste (huge font, short texts on each page, etc)… It has legendary status anyway and is considered among the most cult black metal zines ever. So, I did enjoy it, but the two future issues are way better. The zine lasted until Winter 1996, with four issues.

Quotations:

“…We (Emperor) are not interested in supporting fuckin Dismember…” (Samoth, Emperor)

“…And please someone get this Chuck “Flower Power” of Death killed…” (Samoth again ha!)