2. Introduction and History
• 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
3. Overview of the content
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
4. Publishing Institution
• 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.
5. Reader Profile
• 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
6. Layout trademarks
• 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.
7. Does the magazine reflect the values of
its audience?
• 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.
