Ablaze

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The Ablaze was a 1994-2003 existing German Metal magazine, which was known beyond the country's borders.

background

The Ablaze was founded in 1994 because the established metal magazines were boycotting black metal . So its fans hardly got any information about bands and concerts. A few fanzines did appear , but only irregularly and, according to Ablaze founder Marc Spermeth, with “disadvantages in the presentation, which was not necessarily due to the small budget.” “After long deliberation” and working on some fanzines, Spermeth saw it as his task to found a corresponding magazine himself. The first issue appeared in September 1994 with a cover story about Burzum and interviews with the Norwegian groups Immortal , Satyricon , Mortiis , the Greek band Necromantia and the German bands Ungod , Mayhemic Truth and Bethlehem . Then the magazine established a bi-monthly publication. The magazine was initially based in Berlin and later in Eichwalde . After the first editions were only available via mail or mail order , such as Last Epitaph , they dared to jump to the station kiosks. The Ablaze was thus one of the first extreme metal magazines to be available in magazine stores and thus no longer exclusively accessible to the underground . Accordingly, parts of the same accused the magazine of "selling out and betraying the underground". In the right-wing extremist part of the underground, the allegations mixed with anti-Semitic stereotypes, the Skaldensang described the editor Peter Schramm as "commercially horny Jews" and the Ablaze as responsible for the "sell-out of the scene". Spermeth sees envy or naivety as the only possible causes of the allegations, as the magazine has consistently pursued its ideals regardless of its actual commercial success. Editor D. v. Junzt wrote the article Underground will never become a trend for the 16th issue of the magazine ! , which the magazine understood as a plea for the underground of the scene.

In terms of content, the magazine offered extensive interviews, especially with bands from the Black and Death Metal sectors. The magazine said it had chosen the subtitle Metallic Voice of the Underground “with caution”, as it emphasized in the editorial of the first issue, as none of the editors intended “to run around with blinders in the future pretending to be whether the only underground metal there is is black metal ”. The editorial also appealed to all Black Metal fans to “not be as ignorant as the other side”. In addition to metal, the employee Alexander Heine also dealt with related topics from art and philosophy, about which he wrote articles for Ablaze . There were also isolated background reports on non-music topics, such as HP Lovecraft or Ragnar Redbeard . One or more underground bands were also interviewed in each issue. Later editions came with a CD, initially label samplers from Osmose Productions or No Colors Records , for example , and then specially compiled CDs.

In 2003 the magazine got into financial distress and appeared only very irregularly. In the same year it then ceased operations. Some journalists then switched to EMP magazine, Rock Hard or the former competitor Legacy , whose predecessor Deftone first appeared in 1997.

Self-image and controversy

Spermeth did not see the magazine in competition with other magazines such as Terrorizer or Nordic Vision , as the existence of other magazines does not bother him and “in a lot of details, for example the b / w layout that was kept from front to back and the extremely high one Number of exclusive photos, not to be compared with them ". The Ablaze saw itself as apolitical and mostly reproduced the statements of controversial musicians without comment. Critical voices were published on the letters to the editor. The magazine emphasized in the editorial of the 26th issue in 1999 that it would "not allow itself to be misused as a mouthpiece for dubious messages and exposed black sheep". “The critical, aggressive and provocative element of our music” shouldn't die, however. In the 37th edition, the Ablaze called for the metalworkers to stick together and to recognize their individuality. That is also the basic concern of the magazine. It does not want to "with the concentration on extreme metal and the undervalued underground bands speak against other opinions, but only advocate for our point of view". The editors concentrated their attention on bands that they liked musically, whereby the geographical origin of the bands was viewed as "completely unimportant" and ideological and philosophical backgrounds as "secondary". Spermeth said, however, that he “can't stand bands who speak Christianity” and that dark wave bands “who pretend to be Gothic Metallers are almost even more unpleasant”. The magazine preferred bands "who indulge in more extreme variants of Metal with innovation and independence", but because of their rarity also dealt with bands "who just do their thing well and honestly," as far as the editors could judge. The employees were also given the opportunity to discuss bands that were atypical for the magazine; The multi-page interview with Angizia was “entirely thanks to Jana Fliedner, as she was totally impressed by the band's music and wanted to do a feature”.

An interview with Rob Darken from Graveland , who made anti-Semitic and National Socialist statements , caused some controversy, which was fought out mainly on the letters to the editor . As a direct reaction, Graveland then lost their record deal with Lethal Records and switched to No Colors Records . The magazine conducted another problematic interview with the Austrian band Werwolf , who represented a concept of the superman based on Friedrich Nietzsche . The band appeared very militant and martial and tried to represent their concept of the stronger. Hagen, singer of the group, attacked the Austrian black metal scene around Abigor and Summoning sharply. He called Silenius von Summoning a “fairy tale fairy” and gave him the tip not to “get in his way”. The background was that Abigor and Summoning had left the Austrian Black Metal Syndicate (ABMS) around bands like Vuzem and Pervertum and this was viewed by some supporters as "treason".

Magazine of the same name

Since autumn 2007 there has been a German-language music magazine called A-Blaze (later: Ablaze ), which specializes in black and pagan metal and calls itself "The True Voice of Underground". It doesn't see itself as the successor to the original magazine, however. According to their own statement, the new establishment should have taken place, because it was of the opinion that with the disappearance of the old Ablaze a gap had arisen that they wanted to fill. The former Absurd drummer and self-confessed neo-Nazi Hendrik Möbus is said to be behind the magazine, who is supposed to write a large part of the content under various pseudonyms. In addition to V.ic V.icious, Sylvia Fuerst was given as the editor until 2012.

The A-Blaze magazine therefore also contains interviews with musicians from the NSBM and from their environment, including those from Absurd , Halgadom , Graveland and Der Stürmer . Members of the National Socialist Pagan Front were also interviewed. However, there are also interviews with non-political bands such as Beherit , Lifelover or Darkspace . According to the company, the magazine has an edition of 5000 copies. Most of the advertisers come from the extreme right-wing black metal scene, including Merchant of Death (the current Möbus label) and Ewiges Eis Records by Jens Fröhlich ( Totenburg and Eugenik ). The editors defend themselves against these allegations, refer to the "freedom of opinion and artistic freedom" and emphasize that the content would be written within the "framework of the applicable federal German laws".

In 2009 Sebastian “Marlek” Schlüter from the Geïst group attacked the magazine because a song from his side project Destroyer landed on the CD insert. As soon as the CD contribution arranged by the label became known, Schlüter immediately left the group and described the A-Blaze and the music groups represented there as “scrap”.

literature

  • Ablaze . In: Volkmar Kuhnle: Gothic Lexicon. The Cure, Bauhaus & Co: The great reference work on the Gothic scene . Berlin: Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf Verlag 1999. p. 14. ISBN 3-89602-203-2 .
  • Ablaze . In: The Gothic and Dark Wave Lexicon. The black scene from AZ. Extended new edition. Edited by Peter Matzke and Tobias Seeliger. Berlin: Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf Verlag 2003. p. 11. ISBN 3-89602-522-8 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Timo Kötter: Interview by Timo Kötter (WINTERTOD-Mag) with Marc Spermeth (ABLAZE-Mag) ( Memento from March 3, 2001 in the Internet Archive ).
  2. ^ Unholy Alliances , p. 171.
  3. ↑ Why the Ablaze is the way it is ( Memento from August 12, 2003 in the Internet Archive ).
  4. ↑ D. v. Junzt: Underground will never become a trend! ( Memento from September 1, 2003 in the Internet Archive ) A relentless inventory of the scene in 10 chapters by D. v. Junzt .
  5. ↑ a b c Excerpts from some editorials in Ablaze ( Memento from November 16, 2004 in the Internet Archive )
  6. ↑ Intro of issue no.5 May / June 1995
  7. Jump up ↑ Swords of Hatred. Interview with Rob Darken. Ablaze. No. 6 (September / October), 1996. pp. 52 f.
  8. ^ Statement by Michael Piesch. Ablaze. No. 6 (September / October), 1995. p. 6.
  9. ↑ The real horror. Interview with singer Hagen. Ablaze. No. 8 (January / February), 1996.
  10. ↑ Ronja Fuhrmann: No Nazis in the Magnet Club!
  11. ↑ Legacy editorial team: Who rises high, falls low - so it appears with Varg . In: Legacy . No. 65 (March / April), 2010.
  12. ↑ Wolf-Rüdiger Mühlmann: Lies, agitation, character assassination. Interview with Varg . In: Rock Hard . No. 275 , April 2010, p. 55 .
  13. ^ Martin Langebach / Jan Raabe: RechtsRock - Made in Thuringia. 2nd revised and expanded edition . State Center for Political Education Thuringia, 2010, ISBN 978-3-937967-57-8 .
  14. ^ Editorial of the second edition of the A-Blaze. (November / December) 2007.
  15. ↑ Forsaken by all spirits? In: A-Blaze. No. 6 (February / March) 2009, p. 43.

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