Future’s heavy metal bible crushes Hello and Heat to win Entertainment Cover of the Year
21/06/10 – Fan power and heavy metal heroes Slayer helped Future’s Metal Hammer magazine beat the US President Barack Obama and tabloid favourite, Peter Andre to be crowned “Entertainment Cover of the Year” at The Maggies.
The Maggies celebrate and award the best UK magazine covers of the year – with Metal Hammer beating mass-market opposition to scoop the Entertainment category with its bloody cover shot of Slayer, the iconic heavy metal brand.
Chosen solely by online votes, Future’s Metal Hammer beat entertainment stalwarts including Empire, Heat, Hello and the Radio Times to scoop the honour.
With a reputation for creative cover treatments, Metal Hammer celebrated the launch of Slayer’s “World Painted Blood” album with a gruesome, medical journal-style cover with four portraits of the brand, masterminded by Art Editor, James Isaacs. The exclusive shot was created using a combination of ceramic human skulls, an industry leading prosthetic make-up artist, and photographer Steve Brown.
Counting Slayer themselves amongst the most vocal supporters of Metal Hammer’s campaign to secure the Maggie award, the magazine encouraged its readers and ‘defenders of the faith’ at http://www.metalhammer.co.uk to vote – leaving a trail of mass-market entertainment titles in its wake.
Alexander Milas, Editor of Metal Hammer, said:
“We are dedicating this award to our readers, fans of heavy metal and Slayer themselves. Together, we mobilise a massive online community, who came to together to smash our common enemy, Peter Andre. It’s a real honour to beat some of the best-known magazines to become the UK’s number one entertainment cover.”
“Slayer are truly one of the greatest, most ferocious and iconic metal bands of all time, and their brand of blackened thrash has been making heads bang around the world for decades. Our winning cover was far from conventional, but celebrates the heaviest band of all-time in real style.”
ENDS
About Future
Future plc is an international special-interest media group that is listed on the London Stock Exchange (symbol FUTR). Founded in 1985 with one magazine, today we have operations in the UK, US and Australia creating over 180 special-interest publications, websites and events for people who are passionate about their interests. We hold strong multi-media market positions in games, technology, film, music, cycling, automotive and crafts. Our biggest-selling magazines include Total Film, T3, Classic Rock, Digital Camera, Guitar World, Official Xbox Magazine, Official Playstation Magazine, Nintendo Power, Maximum PC and MacLife. Our websites include gamesradar.com, bikeradar.com, techradar.com, musicradar.com, dailyradar.com and photoradar.com. Future produces nearly 4 million magazines each month; we attract more than 27 million unique visitors to our websites; and we host 27 annual live events that attract hundreds of thousands of enthusiasts. In addition, Future exports, syndicates or licenses its publications to 90 countries internationally, making us the UK’s number one exporter and licensor of monthly magazines.
For more information
Will Guyatt, Media Relations Manager, Future UK: 01225 822517, will.guyatt@futurenet.com
