Author Archives: Nathan Bean

About Nathan Bean

Tyrant/ Editor Nathan is a 'former member of...' numerous mediocre punk bands and internet gobshite and has been involved in the United Kingdom hardcore scene since the mid 90's. Now retired from active duty he spends his time writing about gaming, movies, music and comics, shouting at the television and threatening to start another band.

Cured Of Life: Ten questions with Guilt Ritual

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I discovered Guilt Ritual by accident earlier this year when I got talking to frontman Stephen Hupfer about some other nerd shit. Guilt Ritual are cool and sound like all the good bits of 90’s metallic hardcore with none of the bullshit. This interview is taken from my zine Harder They Fall issue 4 which will be up for pre-order in January. That issue also features interviews with Tom Pimlott, Ill Natured, Payday, Firm Standing Law, Insist plus loads of the mad shit that I write at 3 am when I’m deprived of rational thought and sifting through the rubble of my existence to determine exactly where where my life went wrong. Cool. Anyway, here’s Stephen….

Tell our readers about Stephen Hupfer’s secret origin…how did you find hardcore?

When I was younger I listened to a lot of Ramones, Korn and Eminem and had no idea what hardcore was. When I got to high school (2005) I became friends with this kid Jordan who was a year older than me. We were linked up due to our mutual hobby Magic: The Gathering and him wearing goth chain pants that I thought were so sick. One day he gave me a couple CD’s (Set Your Goals – Reset, The Warriors – War is Hell, & Bane – The Note) and told me about these concerts that’d happen every Friday in our town. I thought Bane sucked and The Warriors were the sickest thing I’d ever heard. I went with my new found pal down to this bar and saw 100 Demons & Since the Flood. I was really surprised to see a bunch of kids that were older than me that I went to school with moshing and just beating the shit out of people. For whatever reason hardcore was like the cool thing at my high school. Continue reading →

Salvations Malevolence- Dead Of Night

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I had wanted to include something Fighting Fantasy related for our Seven Nights Of Samhain series but I simply couldn’t get it finished on time. Those books were so influential to me and frankly now that I’m running the show over here, I wanted to shine a spotlight on them. Admittedly there’s already loads of great blogs and fanzines dedicated to Fighting Fantasy and providing great coverage but I had plenty of questions of my own. I wanted to explore the inspiration behind the settings, the names behind the ideas and art, the spin offs and the future.

So where’s the best place to start? The Warlock of Firetop Mountain is the ground zero but it’s also been covered to death by just about anyone with an interest in the series. Play throughs have been similarly rinsed. So I decided to start where I left off in 1990 and investigate where Fighting Fantasy went after I disappeared into an abyss of teenage angst, alcoholism and punk rock. 

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No Retreat, No Surrender Part 2

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Ok so the other week I filled you in on the back story to my first exposure of martial arts masterpiece No Retreat No Surrender. If you’ve just tipped up, get yourself informed here, then you can come back and get into the meat of it.

So after Jason gets beat up at Kelly’s birthday party he runs home and beats hell out of the stuff in his garage dojo. His dad can no longer teach Karate because JCVD snapped his leg so now he pulls pints down at some grotty local watering hole. I mean, it’s all starting to sound like one of them sad Bruce Springsteen songs isn’t it? Continue reading →

Wrapping the chain round your throat – Payday demo

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Look, I’m no ones cheerleader right? In days of yore I relished tearing a strip off anything and everything that wandered into my baleful gaze whether I liked it or not. Because it’s kinda fun to be a dick and I didn’t get into hardcore to be your fucking mate.

These days I like to think that I give everything a fair crack of the whip and if I don’t like it, well for the most part I keep my mouth shut. Unless it really sucks and I can piss on some softies chips. But if it’s good? Like proper good? Well then I consider it my personal mission to bellow from the rooftops and convince everyone else they should be into it too. Which brings us to Payday. Continue reading →

Trapped Under Dice: CH Xmas Mosh

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“Human sacrifice, dwarves and elves living together, mass hysteria”

Once more the hour had come upon us for that finest of recent traditions,the Corehammer Christmas social. Typically plans were made, promises of attendance sworn in blood and games organised. In previous years we have held court at Warhammer World, Foundry and the Element Gaming Centre in Stockport. But I like to mix it up and visit new places so this year we gathered at Mantic HQ. Tucked away on the edge of a residential estate in Bullwell, Nottingham, it took Ager and I a few goes to try and find the place.  After successfully navigating a gaggle of nightmarish traffic calming bollard children, we arrived. We were greeted by our host for the day Mantic’s very own perennially enthusiastic Scotsman, Andy Meechan, and ushered inside.

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Stand on your own- No Retreat, No Surrender PART 1

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NO RETREAT, NO SURRENDER, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Kurt McKinney, 1986

Whilst somewhat overshadowed by actual wars in which real people died, make no mistake eighties popular culture was a bloody battlefield of bitter conflict. Coke vs Pepsi, NES vs Sega, Roxanne Shante vs The Real Roxanne. All gruelling wars of attrition in their own right but they all pale in significance next to the harsh reality of my own personal Hamburger Hill….Betamax vs VHS…..

See my family didn’t have a lot of disposable cash. And whilst there was always a modest meal on the table, luxuries like video recorders were pretty far down the list of things we could afford. If I wanted to watch a movie I had to wait for it to come onto terrestrial television or hope that an invite from the kid next door  to watch a tape round there might be forthcoming. One day I will tell you all the story of how I feigned illness whilst at a classmates birthday party and weaved an intricate deception just so I could be left alone in the house to use their video player to watch Empire Strikes Back. I was eight years old.

In 1988 my dad returned home from work with a pep in his step. For a man who dug holes in the road for forty years of his life this was an unusual sight. Normally he’d drag himself through the door at the end of the day, defeated. Eat his dinner in silence then slump in the armchair and fall asleep watching the news. But today was different. He entered our home with a look of triumph upon his brow. ‘Look what I’ve got’. Out of a black bin bag he produced a bulky video recorder. My eyes flickered with delight as my Dad’s craggy features split and he smiled down at me and together, father and son hastened to the front room to set up the video recorder and commence our journey into cinematic heaven.

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November Hardcore round up – Part 1

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Let me tell ya readers, we are truly living in some coptic times. Maybe it’s the state of the world that’s got the youth riled up. Not a day goes by without some jackass banging another nail in the coffin of a hopeful outcome for this planet. Sucks for the world but hey great for angry music. My inbox has been inundated with so much fresh well executed hardcore, that it is almost getting boring to review it. With quality at such a consistently high standard it becomes very difficult for a writer, even one as erudite as I, to keep coming up with new ways to describe cool shit. To that end I actively encourage shitheel bands to get in touch with their ham fisted racket, so that I once again have a reason to hack up my scorn first thing of a morning. Anyway the hour is late and I’ve got shit to do so lets crack on with it shall we?

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Fighting Fantasy Charity Auction

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One of life’s great certainties is that sooner or later this world will find some way of knocking you on your arse. Even the best of us can get caught slipping and once the blows start landing and the damage starts mounting, it’s all you can do to cover up and ride it out. Sometimes it’s nice to reach out a hand and help folk get back on their feet. Instances like that reveal a lot about the character of the people around us and the communities we build and contribute to. With that in mind I thought it worthwhile drawing our readerships attention towards the efforts put forth by Joe Kelly and fantasy artists Russ Nicholson and Malcolm Barter who are hosting an auction of original artwork and rare game book materials in order to help out a mate who’s having a rough ride.

Here’s the LINK and Here’s the blurb:

“A member of the gamebook community has fallen on hard times, and myself, the incomparable Russ Nicholson and the esteemed Malcolm Barter would like to help them out.From our own collections we have donated a wealth of gamebooks and original art (including two original colour pieces from the Goldhawk Series) to be auctioned to raise money for our friend.

All books, book sets and pieces of art will be available for auction from Saturday 4th November 5.30pm GMT to 8.30pm GMT. The auction will run over three evenings. Bids should be PMed directly to Joe Kelly and I will update sale items with the highest bid. Bidding will be put on hold between each evening.

Prices given are minimum bids.

Postage will be extra. A single book will cost approximately £9 insured but untracked anywhere in the world. Insured and tracked will be approximately £15, posted from New Zealand. Artwork will be £3.50 signed, £12 tracked posted within the UK, international shipping cost will be more. Postage is included for the badge set, map set and Malcolm Barter art.
Payments will be made by paypal to joehell@gmail.com. All money received after paypal deductions will be forward to our friend (Russ, Malcolm and I are making no profit from these sales).
MINIMUM NEW BIDS SHOULD BE IN INCREMENTS OF £5 FOR ART, £2 FOR BOOKS.”

Jagged Visions: The Devil and Joseph Wilding

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It is often said that ‘The Devil is in the details’ and that is certainly true when discussing the meticulous work of Chester based artist Joe Wilding. His illustrations are dense with visceral ideas and hang heavy with sinister mood and potent symbolism. And whilst the man himself is as genial and personable as anyone you’d care to meet, his artwork never fails to horrify or stir a funeral mood. It’s this duality that makes Joe such a pleasure to collaborate with. I caught up with him recently to peer behind the veil and discuss the ideas behind his new series of limited prints (available HERE )…
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Corehammer Christmas Mosh & Raffle

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Yo, just a quickie. Our annual festive meet up is scheduled for November 18th at Mantic HQ in Nottingham. Games will be played, rips will be executed, snacks will be consumed. Much laughter and jackanapes to be sure. All are welcome. Fiver gets you in and you can get a ticket HERE

Organise some games, play some new ones, make new friends, raise some money, enjoy a little solidarity. No bullshit attitudes or nazi’s cheers. Stay the fuck home.

We are also running a charity raffle at our Christmas do to raise money for St Mary’s Sexual Assault Referral Centre. Thanks to some very generous and kind individuals and companies, the prizes for this are absolutely incredible, check out our Facebook and Instagram over the next few weeks for what’s going to be up for grabs.

You need to get a ticket to take the ride though, and while we will obviously be selling some on the day, we’ve got you covered if you can’t make it either. We will be selling them in packs of five (it doesn’t make sense to do less due to the Paypal fees etc, which is what the 40p is for), and will send you a photo of your tickets with your name written on them. They will be added to the draw on the day (which we stream live as it’s 2017), and you will have just as much chance of winning as anyone else. Anything you do win will be posted to you, wherever you live in the world.

People have been generous, you can be too. Link HERE

All money raised from entrance to the day and from the raffle will be donated to assist the good work that the folk over at St Mary’s Sexual Assault resource centre. Go have a read of their website HERE and get your head around exactly what they do.