''Metal Maniacs'' was an American magazine that was based around heavy metal music.

History

Founded in 1989 by Mike 'G' Greenblatt and Katherine Ludwig of Metal Shop. Where its sister publication ''

Metal Edge ''Metal Edge'' was a magazine covering heavy metal music published by Zenbu Media. The magazine was founded in the summer of 1985, during the height of glam metal's success. Zenbu Media acquired ''Metal Edge'' in February 2007. Both ''Metal Edg ...

'' largely covered

glam metal Glam metal (also known as hair metal or pop metal) is a subgenre of heavy metal that features pop-influenced hooks and guitar riffs, upbeat rock anthems, and slow power ballads. It borrows heavily from the fashion and image of 1970s glam ...

, ''Metal Maniacs'' focused largely on covering the more extreme sub-genres of heavy metal such as

thrash Thrash may refer to: *Thrashing (computer science), where increasing resources are used to do a decreasing amount of work *Thrash (surname) * Thrash, mascot of the Atlanta Thrashers *'' Thrash Rally'', a top-down perspective rally racing video gam ...

and death metal genres. Originally a Sterling publication, it was acquired by

Zenbu Media Zenbu Media is a media company located in New York City, United States and founded by Steve Bernstein that is focused on the music industry, sporting the slogan "we live for music." Print Zenbu Media formerly published ''Relix'' magazine, ''Gl ...

in February 2007. The magazine's editorial board was based in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, and published ten issues per year. In contrast to ''Metal Edge'', which largely consisted of pinup photos of the era's more commercial stars such as Bon Jovi and Poison, ''Metal Maniacs'' focused predominantly on

thrash metal Thrash metal (or simply thrash) is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music characterized by its overall aggression and often fast tempo.Kahn-Harris, Keith, ''Extreme Metal: Music and Culture on the Edge'', pp. 2–3, 9. Oxford: Berg, 2007, . ...

bands and aimed to "treat (metal fans) like human beings that might possibly have something to say," according to Ludwig. The magazine featured a letters section in which serious discussions about the metal scene and politics could take place. Ludwig also used the publication as a personal pulpit of sorts, stating "I also liked to get in something about vegetarianism, hemp, feminism, and freedom of speech when I could." In February 2009, it was announced that publisher Zenbu Media would cease publication of ''Metal Maniacs'', along with the magazine's larger, more renowned sister publication, ''Metal Edge''. The company did not issue a statement to its readers, nor issue any refunds for subscribers. Associate editor JJ Koczan went on to found his own online magazine, ''The Obelisk'', in January 2009.

Digital relaunch

In 2010, the domain name of the magazine was put online again under new management from MetalHit.com. ''Metal Maniacs'' was revamped into a webzine without any involvement from its founders or previous writers. In December 2011, To 11 Media, Inc. purchased ''Metal Maniacs'' and ''Metal Edge'' from Zenbu Media and continues to publish both magazines in electronic formats.

References

Music magazines published in the United States Defunct magazines published in the United States Heavy metal publications Magazines established in 1989 Magazines disestablished in 2009 Magazines published in New York City Ten times annually magazines {{music-mag-stub