Contact & Submissions

DIY Conspiracy is a passion-before-fashion, all-volunteer (web) zine run by internationalist punks. None of us get paid to review your music, and we can’t cover every single record (digital or otherwise) that lands in our mailbox. We choose to write about what interests us and what we can manage.

We prefer physical releases for most of our reviews because we believe hardcore punk music deserves more than just quick consumption on streaming platforms. We don’t want to contribute to a culture where records are listened to briefly by lazy reviewers just to generate more content on their website, boost a band’s ego, or meet a label’s sales targets.

Expect an honest review from us, which might not always be flattering or a positive one. Whether it’s a physical or digital release, it can sometimes take months for us to get to your record reviewed. If you’re looking for promotional content, look elsewhere.

We understand that sending vinyl, cassettes, or CDs can be costly and time-consuming. So, we do accept digital links, with Bandcamp being our top choice. We sincerely hate Spotify, and nearly all emails with Spotify links end up in the Trash folder.

If you don’t hear back from us, it doesn’t mean we won’t review your record or haven’t listened to it yet.

In general, we’re interested in the faster, more aggressive, and politically engaged types of hardcore punk, including anarcho-punk, crust, d-beat, grind, metallic hardcore, and the more experimental strains and subgenres. We also occasionally cover more emotionally charged hardcore, “real” screamo, emo-violence, etc. We’re usually not interested in skate punk, pop punk, folk punk, alternative rock, or more commercial-sounding bands, but sometimes we’ll cover records that fall into those categories if we like them.

We give priority to bands from different parts of the world that don’t often get media coverage. We like to cover bands with an urgent and strong political message. We like to cover bands with queer, non-cis and gender non-conforming members. There are too many North American bands with cis–white-male members that get coverage in both mainstream and underground media. If you already have coverage in all the other review sites out there, do you really need this one from us?

• Please don’t send follow-up emails! Follow-up emails are a huge turn-off for any reviewer and can do more harm than good to your review.
• Please don’t send attachments! We use Riseup.net as our email client. Riseup is not made for large file attachments. If you want to send us large files and promotional material, please use WeTransfer, Google Drive, Sendspace, etc.
• Please don’t add us to your mailing list without permission! This breaks European GDPR laws and clutters our mail servers!
• PR agencies and paid promo services will be ignored without hesitation. We’re an underground hardcore punk collective, not the kind of promotional media you’re looking for!
• Please don’t ask us to participate in any of your SEO link building schemes! Emails about links, guest posts, paid promotions, etc. go straight to the TRASH!