• Metal Hammer is a monthly heavy metal music magazine.
• Published in the United Kingdom by TeamRock.
• Metal Hammer articles feature both mainstream bands and more unusual acts from the whole spectrum of heavy metal music.
• Wilfried F. Rimensberger came up with the concept of Metal Hammer.
• Rimensberger was the promoter of the first MetalHammer festival.
• Leading metal acts such as Metallica, Motorhead and AC/DC
Introduction and History
Content includes;
• Recent artist news
• Features of band members and stories about bands
• Reviews of gigs and new album releases
• Videos of bands and other relevant music videos
• Radio station and podcasts with all metal music
• Competitions e.g. Meet the band, signed guitars, signed back catalogue of artists
• A web store, selling merchandise of different bands.
• Subscription to the magazine
Overview of the content
• Metal Hammer is published by TeamRock in the UK
• Metal Hammer is published in 11 different languages
• Israel, Japan, Serbia, Spain, The Netherlands, Italy, Poland, Hungary and France are just some of the countries Metal Hammer is published.
• Metal Hammer was the first Western youth publication in the Soviet Union
• Metal Hammer also has a television show.
• Metal Hammer works closely with EMI records, for up and coming artists or bands.
Publishing Institution
• Age Range: roughly 16 – 50
• Gender group: Mixed
• Clothing brands: Blue Banana, Attitude clothing and Grindstore
• Portrayed as a darker audience
• Keep themselves away from the mainstream crowds
Reader Profile
• Metal Hammer is known for its very aggressive photography, with artists and band member either pointing or shouting at the reader.
• A lot of added effects such as fire or broken glass is added to enhance the violence which is being portrayed.
• The masthead remains the same, however it is made transparent or a background is carried over it and it also changes colours to stick with the theme of the headline.
• Most of the time when they are portraying an iconic metal band or new album, they will fill the entire cover with them and only have one headline.
Layout trademarks
• Metal Hammer’s use of colour palette is mainly dark greys and blacks, connoting that the readers have darker personalities than most.
• The colours are almost always saturated giving the effect of a darker house style.
• The central images are very intimidating, as the bands are made to look aggressive, such as pointing at the reader or looking down at the camera to bring a sense of scale.
• I feel that this does not always apply to the target audience as a lot of people who read Metal Hammer are everyday individuals.
• Many people who read this magazine are also very personal people, who keep themselves away from bigger crowds, rather than being mainstream.
• The target audience can also be very colourful, with electric blues and hot pinks, but the magazine mainly connotes a darker image.
Does the magazine reflect the values of its audience?
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