An excellent metal music magazine (Metal Hammer)

Member Name: alexela

Product:	Metal Hammer
Date:	19/06/09 (70 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Broad range of bands from the more popular to quite underground acts

Disadvantages: I can't think of any!

I bought my first copy of Metal Hammer several years ago now, I had become rather disillusioned with Kerrang as it covered very little of the sort of music I actually liked and at the time magazines like Terrorizer were still a fair bit more extreme than my taste in metal. Wandering in to Virgin one day (as it still was at the time), Metal Hammer immediately caught my eye, as on the cover were the singers of two of my favourite bands at the time and well, I just had to give it a read.

Opening it up, I found a whole array of articles, on numerous bands I had an interest in. There was far more content in it than it's weekly rival, which was to be expected, but as I read it I felt I was getting far more value for my money. It covered more bands, with decent articles about them and in depth interviews which both kept my attention and made me laugh. There were gig-listings, something I always looked out for, an entertaining letters page, gig reviews, a wide range of album reviews; it had everything I was looking for.

The most important factor for me though, was the style it was written in. I don't know exactly what it is, but for some reason, unlike the other magazines I had read before, I found myself interested in and reading all the articles, not just those on the bands I liked. I was finding out about all these new bands and because of this, discovered a wide array of new bands, helped along by the free CD Metal Hammer provide in each issue (two sometimes!).

Truth be told, whilst the format has changed somewhat over the years and bands that used to be saved for the back of the magazines 'Subterranea' section have gained enough popularity to have main magazine features, the writing style has continued to maintain my interest. I'm still reading about bands I wouldn't have necessarily given a listen to otherwise and still reading great articles on the bands I love.

Summary: Value for money!