Chord

#12 (PO Box 15793 Philadelphia, PA 19103 www.chordrecordings.com) $5
by Scott Hefflon

Another solid issue of Chord (formerly All That). A big, thick issue without the glossy interior, yet with a considerable amount of color, Chord again includes a sampler CD of already released material spanning various genres. Totaling 24 songs, you’d be hard pressed to find a better source of “best of” tracks. As for the publication, Chord has always impressed me with a mixture of making “all the right moves” and blindly saying, “Fuck it, it’s my ‘zine and I’ll take the risk because I believe in (insert specific here).” Knowing what to do, and knowing when to tell better judgment to go screw is probably the best indication of intelligent people doing what they’re doing for the right reasons. Specifically, it’s almost 50% ads. While most of the ads look cool, offer important info on releases/services you probably care about, and, from what I hear, are pretty reasonably priced for indie labels, that’s still a lot of ads. Luckily, the magazine is thick enough to offer a lot of text and quality photography to offset their sheer number. Unlike the dime-a-dozen fold-and-staple run-out-of-the-bedroom pieces of shit that, for some odd reason, believe that if they kill trees to say pretty much the same poorly-written, ill-researched, anti-industry hogwash as everyone else, that it justifies the waste of precious natural resources because they said it, Chord offers a wide variety of opinions on a wide variety of subjects, yet remains loyal to their roots of hardcore, punk, and heavy music. While a specific review may seem 180° from another, to me, that means the staff of Chord has a variety of tastes and each is respectably grounded in their beliefs. For the reader, this means they’re more than welcome to heartily agree with one review, while adamantly disagreeing with another. This provokes thought, and thought provokes reaction. And reaction is a good thing. What’s the point in reading a magazine filled with agreeable opinions? Do readers really need that much justification that they’re “right”? Often times an honest-to-goodness ass-ripping is what’s necessary to clear the swirling fog of hype surrounding a sub-par band. Then again, cheap-shot mudslinging often fortifies one’s opinion of a band ’cause dammit, what the review says is true but I fuckin’ like them anyway! Without a bit of controversy, a bit of bare knuckle bickering, music is little more than a product to buy, the soundtrack to an empty and meaningless existence. Ahem, sorry. Features and/or interviews this issue include: Misfits, Views of Krishna Consciousness, Candiria, Emperor, Rise Above, Bloodhound Gang, Ahmet Zappa, Brett Gurewitz, One Life Crew, and a multi-page live review of The Genitorturers and The Impotent Sea Snakes with lots of semi-explicit photos.