Non-profit old school metal zine Codex Obscurum launches

codex-obscurum-zineCodex Obscurum fills a void left open when the old school fled to the basement in advance of encroaching hardcore hybrids like metalcore and nu-metal: the print zine that exists to promote a community against impossible odds.

For those who weren’t there, back in the “old days” (like, 20 years ago), zines were the most common means of spreading information. You couldn’t buy death metal in regular record stores, society hated it and often tried to ban it, and most people regarded metalheads as declasse outcastes who should be viewed with suspicion.

Enter the zines. For the price of postage, sometimes plus a little more for printing costs, although most were paid for (unknowingly) by corporate stooge employers, you would get fifty pages of xeroxed hand-drawn mayhem delivered to your door, including interviews and reviews of your favorite bands, and the all-important advertising by mail-order distros that you otherwise did not know existed.

Codex Obscurum fills this void with its release this week. To get a copy, you “mail-order them, old school style. No profit, you’ll just be paying for postage costs.” The publishers describe it as “a New England based old-school print zine dedicated to music, art, and all things dark.” And it looks traditional: fifty xeroxed pages of wisdom, chaos and brilliance.

To order, send $3 plus shipping via BigCartel.

Direct all further questions to the staff through their Facebook page.

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18 thoughts on “Non-profit old school metal zine Codex Obscurum launches”

  1. The old ways are best! Fuck nowadays metal.

  2. kvlt attakker says:

    Warfare!

  3. Sounds cool, what’s in it? The facebook page is not illuminating.

    1. Facebook is for fat fucking armchair fucks, just order it via the post

  4. Arillius says:

    The first issue of the zine contains interviews with Varg and Skepticism, among many others. It also contains 30+ reviews.

    1. What’s the address, $2 + 2 IRC, tell us the score

    2. fahmah says:

      varg?! Oh yeah bitches!

  5. christians Go Home says:

    You have to have Facebook to request a copy? Fuck that…

    All well, what’s the point anyways besides nostalgia, receiving a zine in the mail. Interview with Varg for the 50th 11th time? What in the he’ll are you going to ask him now?

    Yawn.

    Where is the new music style that takes off from Metal coming?

    1. Facebook for the information and paypal for the payment is much more convenient than any other way and eliminates some pointless risk. Everybody needs a website now and Facebook is the easiest way to do it.

    2. obvious answer man says:

      The mail order address is literally right in the article, dummy.

  6. Dominating Fucker says:

    Zine look like a lot of hard work. Specially back in the 80s when there was no Windows Office and you would use a typewriter instead. Zines show the commitment and true love for Metal that is unique to metalheads. Back then when you woudn’t think it twice to sacrifice everything you got for Metal music.

    Got a similar feeling when I first discovered an obscure looking web site : http://web.archive.org/web/19980128060256/http://anus.com/

    Remember the old days? I was there!

    1. Tralf says:

      Jeez, this site’s content is old. Instead of just leaving deathmetal.org on cruise control with little soundbites on the latest B-grade death metal and 15-year-old reviews, they should go back and re-review the most important albums in the DLA. Their newer reviews are more focused and less pedantic; see

      https://www.deathmetal.org/bands/at_the_gates/at_the_gates-red_in_the_sky_is_ours_the/

      1. Jep, cover the goddamn classics already, fuck the nu

  7. pat redux says:

    Why so desperate for confirmation from daddy a.k.a. academia and the establishment?

    1. christians Go Home says:

      Because that’s what Black Sheep want….

      This site has good intentions, but with all the mentions of these clone bands from Texas, the obsession with hipsters, that political blog that’s a spinoff from this one, and the need for Metal to be taken seriously by the herd….

  8. Jay Cochran says:

    I’ll definitely be picking this up, and can already say that I highly recommend others do the same. Many of the contributors are, in all honesty, among the most intelligent people in Metal right now. Well worth the mailing price!

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