Heaven's Metal (Magazine)
Publisher: HM Magazine
Style: Metal/Hard Rock
Issue: #55
Cost: $2.95
My Grade: 1.5 stars
Similar to: Status Inc., Revolver, HM

At one point, back in the early nineties, Heaven’s Metal Magazine was considered ahead of the game, a progressive metal magazine when most were still trying to figure out which way is up. A unique blend of Christian and mainstream artists kept the perspectives fresh and thoughtful. It was discontinued in 1995 when the publisher changed the name to HM and expanded to include a variety of styles, including pop-punk and modern rock.

This is their horrible excuse for a comeback.

Someone decided late last year that it was high time to bring back Heaven’s Metal and its unique take on the industry… unfortunately the resurrected body was nothing but bones, picked clean of anything useful or enjoyable. It is printed on newsprint, to give it a ‘fanzine’ feel…but all that does is make it look cheap. The content is also extremely short, filling up (barely) 22 pages, and mostly with ads for labels and bands you haven’t heard from or cared about in years.

The interviews are poorly done, some including only 5 questions that ask just the absolute basic questions (i.e. – why did you start this band) without ever digging deeper; while others go on and on for pages with the interviewer going ‘ahhh’, ‘um ok’ or ‘yeah right’ for the majority of the questions. I cannot believe this excuse for journalism, this is lower then most indie zines printed off the computer.

The one redeeming quality is that this issue had a most disturbing/thought provoking back cover, a picture of babies crammed together with the title “A Million Dead Babies” – it proceeds to explain a vivid, and extremely bleak, picture of the future.
There are so many better metal magazines out there, I cannot and will not recommend this.

Reviewed by: Samuel Aaron