a very groovy little magazine! :) (Rock Sound)

Member Name: strange_child

Product:	Rock Sound
Date:	11/03/02 (81 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: free Cd, increases your knowledge of the bands out there

Disadvantages: can get a bit boring

I first started buying Rock Sound about 2 years ago, when it had only just been brought out, and I have been buying it without fail since. The main attraction for me was without a doubt the free CD, and even though this brought up the price, it was defiantly worth it. Here I am going to go through the different parts of the magazine and explain why I do or don't like them;

<The free CD>
Without a doubt, this is the basis to most of the magazine. There is normally a famous band or artist as the starting track, and then smaller artists encompassing most of the areas of rock, punk, metal and so on. There is always a big article based on the band who do the first track, and they are also put on the cover, and then the other bands will have smaller articles about them during the magazine. I have found this a really useful way of finding out what different bands sound like without going to the trouble of buying an album, and this has shaped a lot of my musical taste.

<News>
As with most magazines, there is a couple of pages at the beginning devoted to music news; what albums are being made, what bands are on tour, and so on. I normally scan the pages for news of my favourite bands and then skip the rest because it's a bit boring!

<Corey's column>
There is a special column written by Corey, the singer from Slipknot. Whilst not being a particular fan of Slipknot, I find this column a really interesting read. He is a very interesting and despite what you may this, he seems quite intelligent, at least on a social level. He raises many 'philosophical' questions, and challenges the norms of society, for example this month he stated the reasons why porn is not bad, and I did agree with what he said.

<Letters page>
I do find this one of the most interesting sections, because it is a way for others to give their opinions, but it can get annoying. For example, you get people writing in, outraged bec
ause their favourite band got a bad review, or writing about how much they hate a particular band or group of people (almost always townies).

<Rising bands>
I think that it's really good that there is quite a lot of the magazine devoted to small, or rising bands. Quite often these bands will feature on the CD, and it is interesting to read about them.

There are a few things, however, that do annoy me about Rock Sound. They do seem to go on about new bands, and they will never be critical about an artist that is quite popular. This does seem as though they are stopping the free speech of their journalists (although the music reviews gives them this opportunity). It is because of this that I do prefer Kerrang! - I find it a more interesting read because some articles are controversial. It is a very good magazine, and I would recommend it to all those who are into rock and metal music, especially the younger or newer fans.

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