Isten Zine review

ISTEN ‘Zine #? (Finland)
2007
14 pages A4 – English written
A particular fanzine closer to a newsletter and I have mixed feelings about it. Created in 1984, ISTEN is undoubtedly a veteran among the actual fanzine underground, although the approach is quite different from fanzines I used to read.
ISTEN gets only two interviews: EIDOMANTUM and DROWNED. They are absolutely well down with high levelled English.
You can also read a tribune by Gezol of SABBAT and his view about metal, the rest is just thoughts, advices, memories and anecdotes about everything about real metal, given by famous names of the underground: King Fowley of DECEASED, Erik of WATAIN, Götz of DEATHEVOKATION, Perra Karlson of NOMINON, etc… If sometimes the quotations are funny or entertaining, I don’t see the point asking if vinyl is the only support for metal, except creating an endless debate that has already been done before and that could only unleash dissentions. And what about the music?
Doing a zine is supposed giving the will to people to discover obscure stuff so where are the reviews?
I see ISTEN as a circle of elitist people giving their opinions and prevent people outside this circle to sometimes understand what the guys are talking about if they don’t have enough metallic knowledge. I am not into this principle.
Contact: www.isten.net mikko@isten.net