1980s Kerrang! was founded in 1981. The editor of the weekly music magazine
Sounds,
Alan Lewis, suggested that
Geoff Barton edit a one-off special edition focusing on the
new wave of British heavy metal phenomenon and on the rise of other
hard rock acts. Billed as a "
Sounds Heavy Metal Special",
Kerrang! first issue was published on 6 June 1981.
Angus Young of
AC/DC appeared on
Kerrang!s first cover. According to Alan Lewis, the first issue reportedly sold out within days of its publication, and the magazine began being published on a monthly basis. In February 1982, after only eight issues,
Kerrang! frequency was doubled by its publisher,
Spotlight Publications (owned by
United Newspapers). Starting with issue 148 in 1987, the publication went weekly. During the 1980s and early 1990s the magazine placed many
thrash metal and
glam metal acts on the cover, including
Tigertailz,
Mötley Crüe,
Slayer,
Bon Jovi,
Metallica,
Poison, and
Venom. The term
thrash metal was first coined in the music press by
Kerrang! journalist
Malcolm Dome, in reference to the
Anthrax song "
Metal Thrashing Mad". Prior to this
Metallica's
James Hetfield had referred to their sound as "
power metal".
1990s In April 1991, Spotlight/United Newspapers sold
Kerrang! to
EMAP Metro (now known as Ascential plc). Although
Kerrang! had an average weekly circulation of 58,685 by this point and was making profits of £1 million a year, By mid-2002, the magazine had a circulation of 83,988 copies per week. Following his departure, Paul Brannigan took over as editor in May 2005. In the mid-to-late 2000s, the genre focus of
Kerrang! shifted once more, with a new emphasis on
emo,
post-hardcore,
pop-punk and
metalcore music, coinciding with the decline of nu metal. Furthermore, the magazine continued to occasionally feature more established bands such as
Iron Maiden and
Metallica on the cover. In 2006, the magazine's circulation stood at 80,186 copies. In 2008, EMAP sold its consumer magazines to
Bauer Media Group. Brannigan left
Kerrang! in 2009 and Nichola Browne was appointed editor. She later stepped down in April 2011. Former
NME features editor and
GamesMaster deputy editor James McMahon was appointed as editor on 6 June 2011. In April 2017,
Kerrang! magazine, its website, and the
K! Awards were purchased by Mixmag Media, publisher of dance monthly
Mixmag, along with assets related to defunct style magazine
The Face. Mixmag has since formed parent company Wasted Talent, which relaunched
Kerrang! as a digital-first title, while continuing to publish a weekly print edition. Former Editor-in-Chief Phil Alexander was appointed Global Creative Director on 3 August 2017. Bauer retained ownership of
Kerrang! Radio and
the Box Plus Network will continue to operate Kerrang! TV as before. On 13 March 2020, after publishing a total of 1,818 issues, publication of the weekly print edition of
Kerrang! was suspended due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. The
Kerrang! website continued to run articles as normal. On 29 July 2020, the magazine debuted its first weekly digital 'cover story' long-form article, announcing
Corey Taylor's first solo album
CMFT (2020). In December 2021, a one-off print edition of
Kerrang! was published, celebrating the return of live music events in the UK. Sales of this magazine proved successful enough that a second stand-alone print magazine was published in April 2022. The magazine continues to be published on a quarterly basis.
International editions Emap launched
Kerrang! Australia in the late 1990s. Unlike its weekly counterpart in the UK, the Australian edition was published monthly due to stiff competition from free local music publications.
Kerrang! is also published in Spanish and German. Kerrang announced its aim to expand into the US in March 2018. In March 2018, following a magazine redesign,
Kerrang! announced it would be expanding to the United States, with an office in New York run by
Ethan Fixell. The goal would be to generate US-centric content, events, and brand partnerships. ==Website==