Black Moon

#5 $4.50 (1385 Route 35 Suite 169, Middletown, NJ 07748)
by Angela Dauthi

A wonderful ‘zine, full of fiction, poetry, reviews and interviews with the top names in the Goth/heavy/dark music world. Features on Napalm Death, Sofia Run, The Gathering, and the like. The poetry is, as all Goth poetry tends to be, depressing and badly written. This includes the stuff I write that I never send in because I know how bad it is. Black Moon also contains concise and accurate ‘zine and music reviews of Grip Inc., At The Gates, Fade, Journal of the Dark, and more. Also included is a movie review of the splatter flick “Psycho Sisters” and some ‘zines, most of which focus on the loud, dark, and horrible. The fiction is what really makes this one move, though. From matricide to runaway hair, Black Moon manages to get some real creativity in there. But the shining standout in this ‘zine is the Lovecraft farce “The Diary of Howard Clarke Long Phillips,” where the narrator, in true Lovecraft style, is writing in his journal while he is being attacked by otherworldly monsters. “THEM! Those oozing, slithering, mewling, gurgling, viscous, slopping, septic horrors; that snickering, bounding contagion from the midnight yawning gates of that place that is worse… Aaarrrggghhh, the lead in this pencil is wearing down. I must not press so hard.”