Kerrang!

The weekly heavy metal magazine known onomatopoeically to the world as Kerrang! started out life as a one-off special bundled with the late music magazine Sounds in 1981. Its success led it to being made a magazine in its own right, first published monthly, then fortnightly, then weekly - representin' the world of heavy metal in all its glorious and, in some cases, inglorious forms.

Kerrang! brought to the UK the first ever interviews with Guns N' Roses, Metallica, Faith No More, Marilyn Manson, Slipknot, Korn, Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park to name just a few, as well as Kurt Cobain's last ever UK interview before he commited suicide. It seems that wherever metal goes, Kerrang! will always be one step ahead, waiting patiently.

Twenty years on: Life is loud.

To reflect the changing face of metal in the 21st Century, Kerrang! underwent a severe image change in October 2000 gaining a new, cooler masthead and layout. Effectively, nu-Kerrang! was born. The magazine had also started filtering itself across other media genres, spawning a digital TV station, a website, a number of sponsored gigs dubbed K-Fest and an awards ceremony - televised for the first time in September 2001.

Because heavy metal has survived for so long by subtle shape-changes, Kerrang! will continue to follow suit, remaining the most respected metal magazine in the UK by both the fans and the artists. If anything happens in the world of rock, you can bet good money that Kerrang! will be the first to tell you about it.

www.kerrang.com

Kerrang! magazine is often referred as Kerrap! by the more serious and underground metal bands who loathe its focus on the more commercial side of the scene.

However, in the eighties, a parallel, more underground Kerrang! was launched, called Mega Metal Kerrang!. It covered the heavier bands of the time, such as Celtic Frost and the almighty Bathory. Sadly, it didn't have a long life, but years after its demise I managed to get a couple of second-hand issues and I must say it was a pretty good read.