Learning about your favorite bands on the internet is fine, but there's nothing like holding an actual magazine in your hands and reading the latest interviews, news and reviews. My list includes great metal magazines published in the U.S., Canada and the U.K. To be fair in my evaluation of the best metal magazines, I'm excluding the ones for which I write. So even though Outburn and Hails And Horns are excellent magazines and I highly encourage you to buy them, they aren't included on this list.
Decibel has only been around for a few years and have already established themselves as the premiere extreme music magazine. Editor Albert Mudrian has assembled an outstanding writing staff, and in addition to the usual interviews and reviews, Decibel does investigative and historic articles as well. Their Hall Of Fame articles are great, where they select an album for induction and interview all the band members about that album.
The Canadian metal bible is jam packed with news, interviews and reviews from some of the finest writers in the industry. One thing I really like is that they have several reviewers rate the month's major releases so you get a good overview of opinions. The print sometimes is a little small, but the amount and quality of content is outstanding.
The UK has several really good metal magazines, and this is the best one. It addition to interesting columns, reviews and interviews, they also have a section covering up and coming and extreme bands. The size of the magazine is also larger, which allows for bigger photos and a better layout of content.
Unrestrained! is a Canadian metal magazine that comes out quarterly. They interview dozens of bands for each issue ranging from the biggest names to the most underground. When it comes to a covering a wide range of genres, styles and countries, Unrestrained! is very comprehensive. It's a publication with a unique voice and it's a lot of fun to read.
This is another UK magazine, but it is readily available in most major bookstores. It covers more extreme and underground artists than Metal Hammer. They have a ton of live reviews in addition to the CD reviews and interviews. Terrorizer is a magazine on the rise. The quality of writing and photography has really improved in the past few years, and they have become one of the definitive metal magazines.
Metal Maniacs covers the biggest artists, but also dedicates plenty of space to up and coming and really extreme bands. The letters section is always interesting because of the volume of mail from prisoners. I also like their demo and zine review sections. The only negative is that they seem to be a month or two behind the rest of the magazines in the timeliness of their interviews and reviews.
This is probably the most commercial of the magazines listed here in terms of layout and content. They also include posters and stickers in their issues. It's easy to read and they are able to get interviews with some pretty major artists. Their annual "Hottest Chicks In Metal" issue has quickly become very popular.
Zero Tolerance is a British magazine that I've just started reading recently. It's harder to find than magazines like Metal Hammer and Terrorizer, and it's physical size is smaller than the usual magazine, although the number of pages is well over 100 each issue. They have tons of CD and live reviews, along with interviews. Those interviews tend to be with more extreme and underground bands, although a few more well known and maintream artists also get coverage.
This is another UK publication, and by far the most mainstream and the most British of those mentioned here. The British style seems to be a lot more hype driven, which makes for both high praise and scathing criticism. The artists covered are pretty similar to US publications, although you will naturally get a few more European bands in Kerrang.
