In Effect Hardcore stands in solidarity with all the DIY hardcore punk fanzines out there and Attack Of The Fanzines (installment numbah 3) is here to highlight some of the better ones we ordered or were gifted since the early summer of 2021. We encourage our readers to contact and support a fanzine they may read about in this article. Order their next issue, tell them about a band you think they should cover, tell them about YOUR band, follow their socials. Even the small zines that may take 15 minutes to read take someone’s time, effort and desire to make it all happen. Getting feedback from strangers is/was a huge motivator and I am sure the zines included in this article are no different. Kick ass artwork by PHECK1 aka Steve Ritsua, coloring by Paul Turano, photos by the one and only Hardcore Shutterbug, aka Steven J. Messina. 

SOULCRAFT ISSUE #3

Eye catching artwork and a pretty sick current day lineup of bands interviewed were the things that really jumped out at me when I ordered the latest Soulcraft out of Volos, Greece. What showed up was an absolute gem of a fanzine with thoughtful and interesting interviews complimented by a clean layout and stunningly clear photos. The bulk of these 124 pages are interviews with bands like: Combust, Choice To Make, Mutually Assured Destruction, One Step Closer, Change, Chain Reaction, Never Ending Game, Mindforce, One King Down, Rampage, Icepick, and World Be Free... but diversity lies within these pages as there are additional interviews with visual artist Jon Gusman (Cauldron Of Burgers), photographers Spencer Chamberlain and Sam Jameson (Slam Jameson Art), graphic designer Ruben Buffery, New Morality Zine's Nick Acosta, the Axe To Grind Podcast crew and more including a hardcore crossword puzzle. Apostolos who does this zine is entrenched not only in the local Greek hardcore scene but is extremely knowledgeable on hardcore in general and it flat out shows when you see the kinds of questions he asks and read his intro to this issue. Besides a fanzine he also fronts the hardcore band Ghetto Gospel and runs the Worlds Appreciated Kitsch label. Half-sized zine printed on thick paper with great photos from various photographers. The actual photos selected and their clarity is unmatched. Including shipping this is not a cheap purchase but you are getting a quality product that will take a long time to fully absorb so in my eyes this is fully worth the asking price. Currently Apostolis is working on his second issue of “Still Life” which is a photo zine documenting his travels throughout Europe and beyond with a definitive hardcore feel. Click HERE to find out more about Soulcraft #3 and HERE for their Instagram. 

JERSEY SLIDE Volume 10

Jersey Slide #10 is 24 pages long, printed on full sized glossy pages and is in full color! This thing looks absolutely amazing. They pack a good read into these 24 pages as well with solid interviews with bands I genuinely wanted to read about. Harry from Regulate, Gary from Kill Your Idols, Jon Rule Them All, Sam from Triple B Records (if you were ever wondering what “Triple B” actually stood for you will get the answer right here!) Alex Hopton from Jersey's Reaching Out gave some good answers making me want to check her band out more now… getting people interested in finding new music is what doing a fanzine is all about! Tons of great photos from Carl Gunhouse and Steven Messina (aka the Hardcore Shutterbug) on the full color glossy pages make this whole thing just POP. On top of the interviews we get a short record reviews section, a revisiting the classics section (reviews of some of the editors' favorites), and Jersey Slide's root beer reviews… Matt who is one half of this zine has been a big root beer enthusiast for most of his life and also has an Instagram page dedicated to root beer reviews! Although this issue is currently sold out make sure to look out for Volume 11 which is currently in the works featuring interviews with: The Fight, Ekulu, All Due Respect and Tear It Up. Click HERE to keep up with the latest on Jersey Slide. 

OI! THE BLACKBOOK

This is another in the growing line of specialty zines put out by NYC fanzine maven Freddy Alva. In recent years Freddy has found a really good groove fusing underground music with one of NYC's most well-known and infamous pastimes in graffiti. In two previously released zines (much like the one you are reading about now) graffiti culture was melded with New York Hardcore as well as international punk and hardcore bands to create some very original and fresh content. The idea for Oi! The Black Book is similar in that they get artists from various backgrounds to create art using Oi! bands as the subjects. Although graffiti is a main theme it is not solely what you will find within these 76 pages as some of the artists go with styles other than graffiti. Oi! The Blackbook also introduces in some readable articles like the one by Todd Zimmer and how he got involved with S.H A.R.P. aka Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice, Top 10 Lists, and interviews with Phil Templar of The Templars and Sab Grey from Iron Cross. There are over 50 full page pieces of art that cover a who’s who of Oi! bands by graffiti artists as well as others who are also artists but may not fall into the “graffiti artist” category. Bands like Cock Sparrer, Last Resort, 4 Skins, The Oppressed, Blitz, Cockney Rejects, and many more are included. Although this is sold out you can follow this LINK to read more about Oi! The Blackbook’s description which also came with a flexi 7” by The Chisel. Freddy’s latest offering is a non-music related zine called “Queens Graffiti Legends” which is pretty self-explanatory from the title, this 112 page magazine can be purchased online by going HERE and make sure to keep up with allthings "Urban Styles" by going HERE. 

DOWN FOR LIFE ISSUE # 12

Booty kicking MAGAZINE out of the UK that is now 12 issues into its existence. We say magazine instead of fanzine here because of DFL's professional output with 84 full sized pages with great color photos that jump off the page. There is a lot to consume here with short features, longer interviews, reviews, scene reports (one from yours truly) and the ever present oddity with a look at some micro breweries that have put out beers in conjunction with bands like Helmet, Bad Brains and Hatebreed. As with most issues DFL mixes in older more "legacy" type bands in with newer names you may not yet be familiar with, with Descendents filling the legacy role and One Step Closer representing the newer breed. The layout here is amazing and is one of my favorite aspects of reading DFL which for me always seems to be skimming through the pages that really grab me at first and then coming back for repeated skimming to go over the stuff I may have missed the first time around. In this issue you will find features/interviews with The Bronx, Quicksand, Angel Du$t, AOD, Orange 9mm, Fiddlehead, Jello Biafra, Backfire! Countime, Send More Paramedics and Neon Christ. These come out twice a year and have sold out in the past so make sure to grab yours while they are still available and give them a follow to stay up on when future issues will come out. Click HERE to find out more. 

HARDCORE LEGENDS ISSUE #1

There are zines that sorta come and go… you consume them, throw them in the zine box and in many cases you won't have much of a recollection of them a year later... then there is the debut of Hardcore Legends out of the UK from our new found pal Payysse. The intro tells us about him watching "a billion You Tube videos" during the pandemic including lots of old punk/hardcore bands. Hardcore Legends' issue 1's mission is to document some of the funny, weird and ridiculous stories for our enjoyment... in hand drawn cartoon form! Where do we even start? This half sized zine is 44 pages long printed on black paper with colorful cartoon renditions depicting (alleged) "great" moments in hardcore history... with maybe some artistic license thrown in to add some pizzazz. Some of the more noteworthy inclusions here are Vinnie Stigma falling asleep before a show after eating McDonald's, Hardcore Legends' take on the John Joseph Lower East Side street walking tours, Jimmy G from Murphy's Law punching a horse at Mardi Gras, Freddy Madball being a huge Coldplay fan, Bad Brains' HR smoking weed with model Brooke Shields, straight edge icon Ray Cappo from Youth Of Today drinking a customary glass of red wine with his meal in Italy… while Karl from Earth Crisis finds out and immediately buys a plane ticket to drop a vegan "mega-fart" on poor Ray, and Harley Flanagan traveling back in a time machine to the year 43,000 BC to deliver a cease and desist order to an actual Cro-Magnon who was then ordered to be known as "Cro-Mags BC". Hardcore Legends is obviously a lighthearted take on a music scene that has its macho leanings. Would love to see real time reactions to the actual subjects depicted within these pages and wonder if any of them even know about this one of a kind zine. Some of these legitimately made me crack up laughing as well. Hardcore Legends #2 is in the works and from early reports on some of the proposed subject matter they should be causing even more trouble in 2022. Click HERE to grab a copy of their debut issue. 

RAZORBLADES & ASPIRIN ISSUES #12 & 12.5

Razorblades & Aspirin out of Richmond, VA is one of the most professionally done zines I have ever come across within the hardcore punk world with issue 12 sporting 80 plus full color and glossy pages with a slick layout. The cover and bands listed on it didn't exactly grab me at first but upon opening issue 12 I found out that this issue was big on interviews with amazing photographers from various corners of the underground and that the cover shot of Darby Crash from the Germs was taken by Ed Colver who gets 14 pages of coverage here. His work, along with Becky Digiglio, Kirsten Thoen, Joseph Carey, Adam Lowe, and Anthony Mehlhaff are highlighted through extensive interviews and photos. Other interviews within this issues pages include Protocol from Florida, Mess (aka The Terribles) from Mexico City, and Wrong War from Chicago. Other interesting reads include interviews with various "mom and pop" type record stores and how they are surviving during Covid times, Bryan Ray Turcotte, author of "Fucked Up & Photocopied" and Ola who runs Quality Control Records out of London. With over 100 record and zine reviews on board this will take a good amount of time to read if you want to go cover to cover. One other thing that really stood out here was the really cool advertisements that are spread throughout this issue with small record shops, labels and zines making up the bulk of the ads... there were a lot of bands and music that I was unfamiliar with and feel like the advertisements here are a good way to make some new contacts. As explained on page four of the introduction this issue was done mostly during quarantine and was more of a nostalgic "looking back" type of issue with more "looking forward" material hopefully on tap with future issues.

Issue 12.5 was a limited edition photo zine that was limited to 50 copies and again printed on full color glossy paper. 12.5 is half-sized and unique in that it is printed horizontally. All photos within were taken by Michael Thorn and shows that he is just as talented at taking photographs as he is doing a fanzine. The shots shown within these 60 pages are amazing with vibrant colors jumping off each page. The selection of photos is very eclectic and doesn't necessarily lean "too hardcore" or "too punk". UPDATE! Issue 13 came out in late September and features 80 pages and interviews with Zulu, Jerry A from Poison Idea, Restraining Order, and much more. Although issue 12 is sold out the Razorblade crew offers a digital download option for only 5 bucks! Click HERE for more info. 

POWERHOUSE: NOTHING TO PROOVE... A RETROSPECTIVE

Really cool 56 page "tribute" to the Oakland Brand Hardcore band Powerhouse who have recently gotten back together, played a few shows and are in the process of putting new music together. This one time issue was put together by Neanderthal Society and has the feel of a mini-book documenting the history of this band through old interviews, recent retrospectives, a discography, old show flyers and photos by Dayton Paiva, Jeremy Lux and Jerry Guzman. The old photos and flyers really make this issue pop as Powerhouse were a wrecking ball live and visually they had some really cool logos and album covers. The "Got Your Back" section is probably my favorite here though as there are some really cool stories turned in by scene heavyweights like Freddy Madball, Craig Setari from Sick Of It All, Scott Vogel from Terror, Brett Rasmussen from Ignite and more like Armando Bordas from Fahrenheit 451, Blackout Records' Bill Wilson, Joey Vela of Second Coming, Ian Miller of Redemption 87, and Zack Nelson of the 185 Miles South Podcast. The one unifying sentiment within these testimonials is that Powerhouse is/was a bunch of solid dudes who had people's backs... all while putting out some great music. This issue is limited to 200 copies and can be found through Neanderthal Society who also have a podcast and some pretty sick merch designs as well. 

PARADIGM ISSUES 6.1 & 6.2

If you need to check the pulse of the Los Angeles area punk and hardcore scenes look no further than these super informative issues that came out in the spring and summer of 2021 respectively. Both issues are printed full sized on black and white with 32 pages making up each issue. What I love about these two issues is they immerse themselves in all things LA hardcore and punk. Upon opening up issue 6.1 there is some local scene news with bands Chain Wolf, Jizz Grenade and Deviated State getting mentions alongside punk rock taco vendors Taco Punx and Tacos Ponky. Following this up is an 8 page spread on Countime who dropped the hard as nails "No Apologies No Regrets" right around the time this issue came out. Kari who runs Paradigm likes to go on location to interview the bands covered but what is presented is not strictly Q&A style journalism as she adds in her own words and flavor to make these really cool articles that include on location photos that she takes while conducting the interviews. PDW or Productos De Wilmas are handled much in the same way with a 6 page spread that ends with a local guide to restaurants, skate spots, record stores and more making for a unique read. Looks at local punk store "Vicios Punk Shop" and "This Is Our Scene" podcast further the local vibes given off in issue 6.1

Issue 6.2 has Deviated State on the cover and a total of 10 pages of coverage on this underrated band from the LA area. This feature is sort of a 2 for 1 with the first portion dealing with questions directly about the band which is followed up with 4 short "get to know me" type interviews with each band member where they ask about their hobbies and how they got into music. Watch Out who got started in March of 2020 are up next with a cool feature that includes some awesome DIY backyard show pics with Unexpected Fetus from San Pedro closing things out. Paradigm issues 6.1 & 6.2 are literally LAHC readable guided tours that cover more than music from someone who obviously has their boots on the ground out in Southern California. Paradigm lists that they come out 4 times a year and since we received 6.1 and 6.2 issues 6.3 AND 6.4 have also come and gone. They are available for free in the LA area at record stores and shows. With only 400 copies made of issues 6.1 and 6.2 you may have to be a little lucky to grab one but well worth the effort! You can find Paradigm on Instagram or at the next LA area backyard hardcore show. 

POWERLINE ISSUE #7

42 pages, full color, printed on glossy pages. Nice! Powerline is a Los Angeles based DIY zine with their heads screwed on straight. The two interviews that hit me here were with Kat Moss, lead singer for Scowl and Alexander Cejas, guitarist for Ecostrike... who lists John Mayer as one of his guitar heroes! Other interviews include Ian Shelton of Regional Justice Center, Ged from Field Of Flames, Taylor Huston from Sweet Soul and Jesse Price from Abrasion. Outside of the interviews there are a few short reviews and some advertising as well. Sold out but issue #8 is in the works, last issue had distro through Revelation Records so it shouldn’t be too hard to track down the next Powerline when it becomes available. Stay up to date on all Powerline breaking news by going HERE. 

SEX AND GLUE ISSUE #2

Half sized 28 pager out of Connecticut that features interviews with Colossus (Tom Sheehan from Indecision/Axe To Grind Podcast's latest), Chain Reaction out of Belgium (really good band), The Chisel (UK), Time And Pressure (who unfortunately broke up recently), and Passionplay from Providence, RI. A couple of reviews, an intro telling Brian's "mission statement" as a zine as well as how to make vegan cheese by Slutbomb singer Debra. I like the random mix of bands interviewed which is a good telltale that this guy is doing all of this because he truly likes these bands and it also shows when you read his questions. Sex And Glue also has a distro and podcast so check them out too! Although issue #2 appears to be sold out don't get upset because issue #3 is now available and features Wish, Bushido Code, Glacial Descent, Bitter Branches, Peace Test, Tuning, and Marvel Of Decay. Click HERE to find out more! 

DIVEBOMB ISSUE #4

After a few year hiatus Divebomb is back with a 16 page half sized jawn on black and white sporting the classic cut and paste style. Very short interviews with Last Gasp, Mindfield, The Fight, Wish and Hostile Takedown. 10 short reviews and an intro basically make up the rest of Divebomb #4. I like the layout and approach Divebomb takes, just wish it was a bit beefier and didn't take about 15 mins to read cover to cover. Find this in the Sex & Glue distro. 

STREETS OF HATE ISSUE #7

The majority of NY's Streets Of Hate #7 was made during Covid lockdown when Alex and Nicole focused on Streets Of Hate as a label. This 20 page half sized issue features interviews with Scotland's Despize, the Hudson Valley's Age Of Apocalypse (a band with a release on Streets Of Hate), and Chicago's MH Chaos. Rounding things out is Joey from Koyo breaking down the meanings to the songs on their current "Drives Out East" EP as well as a handful of music reviews (18 in total). Short and sweet DIY style with a pretty cool cover. Click HERE to grab a copy. 

WE'RE ALWAYS WITH STU!

We're Always With Stu! is a special one off fanzine dedicated to the memory of Brendan "Stu" Macguire who played in Bane from 2006 through 2012. Stu passed away last June after a long illness and this special edition zine was put together by his friend of over 20 years plus years; Todd Pollock. Todd is a well-known scene photographer and made this issue just before Bane played a reunion show in July with proceeds from its sale going to the Macguire family. 28 pages total, printed half-sized with tons of vibrant color photos of Stu throughout the years... mainly shown jumping or screaming… or both! The 28 pages boast a total of 43 photos of Stu with a short introduction at the very start. A nice gesture from Stu’s friend to put this together and then donate the proceeds! Rest In Peace Brendan Macguire. We were unable to get in touch to see if copies were still available. 

IN EFFECT HARDCORE FANZINE ANTHOLOGY

Not a fanzine but a book of fanzines! OK, some self-promotion here kids… If you didn’t already know the In Effect Hardcore website started as a fanzine back in 1988 and did 12 issues by the end of 1999 when it closed up shop (before resurfacing as a website in 2012). Shining Life Press has put together the entire In Effect “zineology” from the debut issue to the last. The 12 issues include interviews with: Outburst, Leeway, Sick Of It All, Gorilla Biscuits, Agnostic Front, Breakdown, Supertouch, Crown Of Thornz, Sheer Terror, Yuppicide, Murphy’s Law, H2O, Killing Time, Maximum Penalty, Cause For Alarm, Vision Of Disorder, Shelter, Madball, Fahrenheit 451, No Redeeming Social Value, Indecision, Underdog, Vision and tons more and they are all here.. Did we mention this book is over 700 pages long? Reviews, scene news, photos, flyers, tour diaries, tons of time specific ads, and some updates are all included… including back stories to most of the interviews which were often conducted outside of show venues and come with some funny and interesting stories. In Effect Fanzine was a 150% DIY operation dedicated to hardcore, done with a lot of passion by myself with the help of a scene of friends from all walks of life. If you were a fan of hardcore… specifically NYHC from the late 1980’s through the 1990’s you will be at the very least intrigued with the content. Not a cheap buy at 35 bucks but well worth it for the history lessons or the walks down memory lane. Find it HERE.