Vincebus Eruptum No. 19: The Lead, in Bold
My appreciation for long-running Italian fanzine Vincebus Eruptum is well documented at this point, but I feel compelled to reiterate the admirable nature both of the work they do and the manner in which they do it. If saying that every time they put out an issue takes away from the impact of the statement, at least know it doesn’t take away from my actual enjoyment of reading the thing. As ever with issue No. 19, Editor Davide “Davidew” Pansolin and his crew have combed the heavy psychedelic and stoner underground to bring forth another quality collection of reviews and interviews in support of the genre(s) at large and their own efforts as the associazione culturale that they are and of course, the Vincebus Eruptum Recordings end of the operation, which continues to expand via releases from Sendelica, Lords of Bastard, and The Linus Pauling Quartet.
Wouldn’t you know it? It just so happens that an interview with The Linus Pauling Quartet leads off the issue! 
You’d almost think these things were planned out beforehand. But if there’s one thing that makes a ‘zine special, it’s the passion of the individual at its heart — Pansolin has a staff but still does a good portion of the writing himself — and Vincebus Eruptum is very obviously the labor of his love, in this case of the Texas five-piece, who in the course of the five-page leadoff feature lead him on a trip down memory lane of Houston’s psychedelic and noise scene in the post-Butthole Surfers ’90s. Very interesting stuff, and there’s even a chart at the end showing the different members who played in various bands, all the same people sharing music with each other in the way that city-wide scenes always become incestuous over time. The historical angle might make the Linus Pauling piece my favorite of the issue, but My Sleeping Karma also gave a fascinating talk about their new album, Moksha (review here), and it’s always cool to hear what the guys in Orange Goblin have to say, especially now that they’ve spent the last few years really kicked into gear as a full-time touring band.
Chats with Victor Griffin (Pentagram, Place of Skulls, etc.), Fantasyy Factoryy, Ides of Gemini and a talk with Gabriele Fiori (Heavy Psych Sounds, Black Rainbows) about the 2015 debut from his side-project Killer Boogie, Detroit (review here), all provide further points of interest, and then it moves into the review section, which brings looks at the latest from Pyrior, Acid King, Pombagira, Black Rainbows, Madre de Dios, Osso, Wild Eyes, Spidergawd, Sendelica, Child, Black Capricorn, Colour Haze and many others. They pack so much in that there isn’t always room to delve into the deepest details of a release — these are the things you have to do when you can only fit so many words on a page — but Vincebus Eruptum never fails to give an impression of what a band is going for, and of course their expertise is long since established when it comes to heavy rock. I trust their judgment as I do few other sources.
Unlike most issues that I’m fortunate enough to receive, I read No. 19 cover to cover in a single sitting. Usually I’ll jump around a bit, read something in the middle — My Sleeping Karma have the gatefold honor, right on the staple, this time around — then go back to the start, but from Pansolin‘s editorial at the beginning to the closing, packed-tight bit of news from Vincebus Eruptum Recordings after the reviews, I went front to back, and it flowed well in a way that, bouncing here to there, I hadn’t previously appreciated. Particularly so in light of Pansolin‘s editorial, which displayed a kind of wariness of the new school of heavy psychedelia. A quote: “What’s important is that these bands do not pretend to have found the Mecca feeling like having definitely made it for good just because they ended up on a label jam-packed with metal outfits because that does not mean to mechanically achieve greater exposure and instant success!” He also refers to it as “‘our’ heavy-psych scene,” which, as ever for that kind of statement, made me wonder who “we” are, and warned bands off from forgetting their underground roots just because more people are listening to the style of music now.
Striking, candid thoughts from someone who’s spent at this point more than a decade and a half in the European heavy underground, but if Pansolin sounds jaded up front, that’s gone almost immediately as soon as the interview with The Linus Pauling Quartet arrives, and Vincebus Eruptum, like always, is a party heralding some of the best heavy psychedelics the world has to offer. I’ll look forward to going front-to-back on the next issue.
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