Zine Review: Counter #2 (Vegan Straight Edge Fanzine)
California’s vegan straight edge zine featuring interviews with Vegan Reich’s Sean Muttaqi, Day of Suffering, Moral Law, and plenty of unapologetic ’90s-style vegan straight edge militancy.
You know, when you’re vegan straight edge and into hardcore, you’re never supposed to shut up about being vegan and straight edge. Well, I’ve been both vegan and straight edge for decades now, and I still get excited when I come across new zines like Counter (aka xCounterx) out of Ventura County, California.
At first glance, this thing looks like it fell straight out of the ’90s movement. Grainy monochrome photos of legendary ALF raids, dark forests, hardcore gangs in ’90s bands shirts edited with black bars over their eyes, and of course masked urban guerrillas holding machine guns, all paired with slogans like “Your Crutch is Another’s Death” and “Action Speaks Louder Than Words.” The layout is fully digital, but it deliberately tries to recreate that old cut’n’paste ’90s style, and it looks okay.
Beyond the militant posturing and self-righteousness you might suggest, the second issue of Counter is actually well written and thoughtful. This one features interviews with Sean Muttaqi (Vegan Reich, Uprising Records), Day of Suffering, and Moral Law. I interviewed Sean myself a while back about his newer Oi! band Violent Disorder and always enjoyed communicating with him, though as expected the Counter interview digs more into his Vegan Reich days and the history of the controversial Hardline movement. I also really enjoyed the Day of Suffering and Moral Law interviews here. It’s a quick read overall, but a rewarding one if you’re a nerd about this scene.
After the interviews there’s an article about the Hardline movement itself, which I approached with a bit of skepticism at first. Thankfully, instead of glorifying a long-dead and controversial tendency, the piece takes a more critical angle while revisiting some of the author’s favorite Hardline records from the ’90s. *Of course*, most of the people involved in those bands are neither vegan nor straight edge anymore. Like many zines from the ’90s did, this one also ends with vegan recipes to balance out all the militancy and tough posturing beforehand.
In Europe, the zine is distributed by Bound By Modern Age Records. My copy already has some pet’s teeth marks on it. The author can be reached through Instagram or at [email protected].
Every dollar made from Counter is donated to Farm Sanctuary. Go vegan, stay vegan.
