Great guitar mag?

[Petre]

Anyone know of any really good guitar magazines for someone more oriented towards heavy metal? I thought about getting a subscription but nowhere nearby sells any guitar magazines :? . Just wondering what people generally read and stuff.

Im heavily into gear reviews and stuff

Cheers again lads
Petre

[hunter]

Dunno, but for me "Guitarist" is by far the best one.

[Muso]

There a japanese one called Young Guitar, Ive bought some off ebay for not bad prices. The maganises cover technical metal playing mostly, and I would say that it is definattley advanced.
I bought a Chris Impellitteri special one which contained spot on tab and backing tracks. I think the latest young guitar has dvds now with the actual player demonstrating techniques.
The major problem though is that the writing is in Japanese! but if you can read tab this isn't a problem I guess. Check out:

http://www.young-guitar.com/
 
Honestly though its an awesome mag but its a bitch to get in the UK.

[crispsandwich]

Guitarist is the best mag IMO. Total guitar is good but they aren't nearly specific enough in their reviews for me, although I do prefer their straight-to-the-point album reviews. I buy both. Their interviews are more interesting in TG too. But I prefer Guitarist. Better song tuition and it's got more stuff in it.

For heavy metal, Total Guitar is a better mag IMO. It caters more for a younger audience (more metal, classick rock and indie) than Guitarist, who cover blues, jazz, country and rock as well as a bit of metal.

[Jonesy]

+1 on Guitarist

...Total guitar just seems abit childish...(not always a bad thing 8) )

[_tom_]

+1 on Guitarist

...Total guitar just seems abit childish...(not always a bad thing 8) )

yeah it is, its really gone downhill.. Well actually maybe its not changed atall and I've just matured? I dont know but I used to like it, now I cant stand it and the cr@p songs they tab out all the time, you only get the occasional good one. For gear alone, Guitar Buyer seems to be a pretty good one.

[chrisola]

if only TG had the balls to run actual proper technique \ lessons on stuff it glorifies\promotes in short 1 page spreads and rave album reviews (eg Dragonforce, Satyricon, Darkthrone, Malmsteen, Children of Bodom, Helloween etc etc) then itd be ace!

They talk alot about 'who will be the future guitar heroes??' but they have missed alot of the good ones :(


I know they have to make money and sell issues (and get permission to print stuff) but I think the general readership would buy the mag just to hear some unusual stuff from around the world... there are so many amazing talents which could be used instead of endless flavour of the week bands.

 another 'Metal Special' issue with some of the big alt bands (like Exodus, Helloween, Gamma Ray, Bodom, Darkthrone etc) would be killer 8)

Young Guitar is good but its all technique really.. Guitar World is more adverts than content but its good, and they have done some great lessons\dvds.

I think we do ok on the whole for guitar mags! ;)

I wont even read Kerrang \ Metal Hammer though, different 'this band is the next Led Zep\Sabbath\Metallica' feature every issue and lots of poserific posturing and 'scene setting'. Last couple i bough for the cover cds, walked out of Smiths and just binned the mags!  :roll:

[Petre]

cheers guys! useful info here thx :)

But chrisola, about kerrang. I must say, i hate kerrang... the mag, the tv station, and its huge involvement with download festival. Last straw for me was crowning trivium "gods of metal"  :roll: . Yea trivium are great but they arent gods. They are good and stuff just there are bands with far more talent. Then of course trivium took the slot at download above bands such as Alice in Chains, Stone Sour. and on the sunday, Bullet for my valentine took a slot above bands of the likes of In Flames. Then Evergrey (if you havent heard you REALLY SHOULD) were put on the snickers bowl  :roll: (i know they arent big over here but in sweden they are legends)

/end rant

Sorry, i get carried away with these things
Petre

[_tom_]

Another thing about Total Guitar, is that they give EVERYTHING a good review! So annoying, not everything can be good!

[Searcher]

Another thing about Total Guitar, is that they give EVERYTHING a good review! So annoying, not everything can be good!

Most mags will do that.  The majority of the time the company whose product they're reviewing will send out a "review" for them to use.  Basically, it's advertising under another name.  Newspapers are full of this sort of thing, too, posing as real articles.

Anyways, I like Guitar Techniques, followed by Guitarist, and then Total Guitar.  None of them are great for metal, though TG would probably be better than the other two.  TG used to be much better, but they've gone the way of Guitar World and are so wrapped up in creating a sale-able image  for young people that anything interesting to musicians who don't care about image or industry wanna-bes has pretty much been flushed out.

[Jp.]

Anyways, I like Guitar Techniques, followed by Guitarist, and then Total Guitar. None of them are great for metal, though TG would probably be better than the other two. TG used to be much better, but they've gone the way of Guitar World and are so wrapped up in creating a sale-able image for young people that anything interesting to musicians who don't care about image or industry wanna-bes has pretty much been flushed out.

+1 to that,,, Its fine for me I'm mostly into blues rock so theres plenty on tap

[hunter]

Searcher, what you say is a little extreme. I did write for a magazine once (synthesizer mag tests) and the reviews are written by the mag editors, and if you read well between the lines, you will understand which product the reviewer like and which not. But a reviewer cannot "destroy" a product, especially if it comes from a major company that advertises in the mag.

You cannot go too confrontational, unless your editor-in-chief backs you up or the product is a huge screw-up. Anyway, there are not many really bad products being released anyway (depending on the price range for sure). But read the reviews well, if a product gets 4 out of 5 in sound, it will already be flawed. The effect won't have the same dynamics as the best analog pedal, and the amp with 4 stars didn't excite the reviewer with it's sweet and rich midrange. In today's business, where competition for gear is huge, a 4 out of 5 product is inferior. Or do you think BKPs would get 4 out of 5 for sound? Anway, you should always, always, always play stuff yourselves before purchasing. Also a wah might get a 3 or 4 in sound because it has a special frequency range that doesn't sound great with the reviewer's rig, but maybe it just hits the right frequency for your guitar, amp and taste and you could be the luckiest guy with it.

A guitar mag for me is giving an overview, nice stories, feeding my GAS and offering some new ideas for playing - and as said, Guitarist is #1 to me in that field, it's just real good quality journalism ...

[Searcher]

Searcher, what you say is a little extreme.

Fair enough.  I was generalising for magazines altogether, not just guitar mags.  There are certainly quite a few mags out there that don't come up with their own copy for every product they review.  But perhaps it's not as common as I was lead to believe.

[headtheball]

American mags are much worse for reviews, in my opinion. You tend to get a slightly rewritten press release and a number higher that 7 but less than 10 at the bottom.

I'd be all for a dual scoring system in Guitar mags. 1 score as an absolute, and 1 a "for the money" assessment. I mean, maybe the new behringer pedals are grand jobs for sub-20 quid,  but how do they really stack up?

[hunter]

I'd be all for a dual scoring system in Guitar mags. 1 score as an absolute, and 1 a "for the money" assessment. I mean, maybe the new behringer pedals are grand jobs for sub-20 quid,  but how do they really stack up?

Which is exactly what Guitarist do - 1 for sound/quality absolute and 1 value for money ...