NATHIAS (Malaysia)
Issue #8, April 2001
I received issue #6, #7 and #8 just couple of days before D. Legions dateline and I don't have time to read them all. Although issue #6 (1998) and #7 (2000) are still available but for me (after looking through the pages), issue #8 is much better layout-wise. NATHIAS is one of Malaysia's long running Extreme Metal underground publication and getting better every issue. I last read issue #5 in 1997 (I think, I can't remember) but I did not hope much to see another issue of this zine since I heard a lot of Suffian's projects has been stopped due to career commitment, relocating, etc. And suddenly, I received 3 issues and I am shock at first. First it is great to know NATHIAS is still alive and secondly the first editor that sent their zine for review! This issue is very well layout, clearly xeroxed and he understand the limitation of a xerox publication i.e. avoiding the background image and know the right tone when he use it. Interviews are in the same style that I remembered, questions are long where 1 question consists of couple of questions. Interviews are quite interesting although the questions is just the ordinary questions about music but the band know how to answer it well. Interviews with CIMMERIAN PATH (Lebanon), CRANIAL TORMENT (Greece), DAWN OF APOCALYPSE (Hong Kong), DEFORMITY BR (Brazil), DEVASTATION INSIDE (Italy), FUNERAL RITES (Japan), KORIHOR (Philippines), KRATORNAS (Philippines), KREMATION (Malaysia), KULT OV AZAZEL (USA), MAGANE (Japan), MOONSHINE (Korea), MYSTERIIS (Brazil), SANATORIUM (Slovakia), SCARED (Yugoslavia), SEASONAL ABYSS (Malaysia), SWORD OF DARKNESS (Vietnam), VINTAGE SOLEMNITY (Turkey), and VRYKOLAKAS (Singapore). 5 informative scene reports i.e. Arab Countries, Denmark, El Salvador, Peru, and Uruguay. 2 music-oriented articles entitled 'Exposing the Selfish Gene in Metal' and 'The Problems of Power in Extreme Metal'. There are also some interviews where Suffian put it into some column to make it interesting but honestly it does not matter if he added them to the regular interview section. For example in 'Rare & Exotic' has the profile on NAHUAL (Peru). The other band in this column CRYPTIC FATE (Bangladesh). Other 'interestingly named' column 'Archipelagic Supremacy' covers the metal scene in South East Asia region, 'International Highlight' provides updates of the worldwide metal movement, 'Nathiasifieds' advertises metal/underground related stuff, huge list of contact addresses in 'Hail Metal Hail', recommended websites in 'Metal Links', and some great poems in 'Gallery Of Poetry'. The price is RM7.00 (Malaysia) / USD4.00 (South East Asia) / USD5.00 (Rest of the World).

4/5