When it comes to print journalism and metal, there’s not too much else out there anymore other than Revolver and Decibel. Granted, some magazines like Alternative Press and Rolling Stone cover the heavy stuff, but the only full-time ones are the aforementioned two. And Revolver has changed hands several times since 2006, with NewBay Media being the most recent owner of the magazine, which has switched to bi-monthly. However, they’ve just been acquired once again, by Project M Group, LLC, a digital media and e-commerce company, and it seemes promising.
The magazine, while retaining current Executive Editor Sammi Chichester, will bring back Brandon Geist as Editorial Director and Chief Content Officer. Geist had been there for nearly a decade before moving to Rolling Stone for several years. Jimmy Hubbard, who’s photography and video work you’ve seen everywhere, is also returrning as Creative Director. All those Mastodon in-studio clips you saw about the making of Empire of Sand? That’s him. He’d been at Revolver and it’s sister magazines Guitar World and Guitar Aficianado for close to a decade as well. Project M Group has some metal cred as well, as Chief Creative Officer Skip Williamson was behind Shawn “Clown” Crahan’s film Officer Downe in addition to producing Underworld and Crank for Lakeshore Entertainment. CEO Enrique Abeyta founded the company.
With the old staff back, and the Revolver Music Awards having a successful return last year, it seems like things are looking up for the magazine, and even if Decibel has a little more underground cred than Revolver, there needs to be a place for mainstream hard rock and metal to be covered, so it’ll be interesting to see what happens when the magazine relaunches this Fall.
