The black metal magazine Gallery of The Grotesque returns after a long, long hiatus, six years in fact since the last issue, and this is only the fifth issue to be published since Gallery started out back in 1999! What Gallery lacks in frequency, it makes up for with a massive amount of content: issue five is as thick as a fucking cookbook, professionally printed and perfect-bound and packed with 220 pages, printed on thick, high quality paper, and bound with a glossy cover; the zine is loaded with interviews with bands from all corners of the black metal underground, with lengthy discussions with Velvet Cacoon, Acheron, Black Witchery, Dead Congregation, Goatlord, Ares Kingdom, Profanatica, Nightbringer, Maledicere, Forgotten Woods, Crimson Moon, Black Majesty, Deiphago, Nyogthaeblisz, Destruktor, Wolfhetan, Scythian, Ignivomous, Perversor, and Roba El Khaliyeh, which range from fairly intellectual discussions of metaphysics and self-examination, to full-blown blasphemous Christ-hating rants. There's also a couple of interesting interviews with underground labels like Full Moon Productions, Nuclear War Now! Productions, Satanic Skinhead Propaganda and The Ajna Offensive, a great discussion with both of the guys behind Oaken Throne fanzine that was done before the magazine ceased publishing, and an interview with the De Sade/Sotos influenced underground S&M authoress Maija, which includes one of her short stories, plus lots of artwork and photos, and a smattering of record reviews. It's all assembled by Wilhelm from Starlight Temple Society, whose weird sense of humor makes some of the interviews awkwardly entertaining, and there's more of his bizarre satanic cartoon characters scattered throughout the issue as well. I've been a fan of Gallery's quirky coverage of the black metal underground since the last issue, so it's great to finally have a new issue to dig into. The magazine also comes with a compilation cd from Hell's Headbangers that features a ton of great underground black/death/necro horror, featuring tracks from The Royal Arche Blaspheme, Vomitor, Destruktor, Bestial Mockery, Inquisition, Profanatica, Sperm Of Antichrist, and many others.