Be it fan or commercial, what are the best and worst in your opinion
Best:Terrorizer.
Worst:Revolver.

You need a better OP than that buddy. And since I have my own zine, I won't include it in my top choices even though it deserves it.

Best: Extinction of Light
It is a very limited press fanzine from the bowels of hellish Pennsylvania. The focus of the zine isn't entirely about metal, though its entire attitude is. From the big middle finger, flaming pentagrams, and swastikas on the cover to the article on college students' new found love for vivisection to the EoL logo on that back that is in the shape of a swastika, this zine kicks your ass and doesn't even want your fucking name (since its wholly insignificant anyway). I have it on good authority that more issues might come out and there might be reprintings of back issues.

Worst: Virtually every big name zine these days.
The articles suck, the reviewers taste is pure shit, and everything is so humdrum and restrained that it makes me wonder why the fuck anyone buys these anymore.

I agree about the big name ones. However, terrorizer has it right. I don't know if you have ever read it, but it is great.

How do swastikas have anything to do with the attitude of metal, WebOfPiss?

I probably should have said that its entire attidude is full of hate and malevolence, rather than just attribute it all to metal. In any case, can you think of a symbol that is currently as hated and considered evil as that? That is more or less what I meant.

this is full of win.

I couldn't agree more.

I hate all main stream zine. Metal Hammer, Terrorizer... Don't ask why, i just hate them, messy ad zines and blaa blaa.

I don'y have much zines, at least I have my own Black Metal underground zine with topics I am interested of.

Best: Many. Blast! (not the Nuclear Blast's zine), Fornicator is pretty nice... Vaginalluftwaffe... Necroscope...

Worst: Main Stream

Finland has 1-2 good main stream zines, Inferno and Miasma. Simply zines.

I own two numbers of a zine called Evilution from Denmark. Awesome look, excellent in depth interviews and diversity. I'd definitely like to get more but i'm not sure if they still do this.

I like the ads actually. But I am weird that way.

Back in the early 90's I used to get The Grimoire Of Exalted Deeds, on a regular basis. Haven't found any zines I like these days, except some online. The mag I even get is Revolver, and that is only because I won a free subscription.

Best:Loud!, portuguese magazine that is absolutely fantastic. The reviewers there know what they're talking about.
Ancient Ceremonies comes close but I think that they have way too much black metal in the zine.

Worst:Probably Blitz.

Terrorizer has some bad reviews but overall enjoyable to read. Metal Maniacs was fucking awesome when it was still around.

Oaken Throne is pretty good, not sure if they're still making them though. The art was great, some good interviews in there too.

Another one I enjoyed was Laudatio Funebris (put out by Bubonic Prod.), but unfortunately they are done after only 3. I was only able to get the 3rd issue, but it's full of some good interviews with some great bands.

Best:
Worm Gear
Descent
Hellfrost (R.I.P.)

One reason I liked these is because their editors/creators were into a lot of industrial/noise/experimental -tinged metal and covered more newer or obscure artists than many other 'zines. Worm Gear and Hellfrost were both always overflowing with useful reviews.

Very few 'zines seem to be hugely worthwhile, I must say. One must strike a delicate balance, sitting somewhere between the commercialized Metal Hammers and the kvlter-than-thou shit that values attitude above actual musical content. Basically, when I'm reading a 'zine, I want to hear about bands, not misanthropic diatribes, and I want the information to be accurate and reliable. I've yet to find something that does this flawlessly, but I'll pick up a few different ones now and then, often for the posters that come with to be honest.

I think that is very good criteria for a decent zine.

best: Metal Hammer - this zine is pretty interesting with its different sections and cool stuff.
worst: Kerrang! - dont even know if this is classified as a metal magazine. this is the porno zine for scene kids to wank off to oliver sykes

The irony here is that I've yet to see a copy of Metal Hammer that didn't have at least one scene or mallcore band on the cover.

yeah... thats the only downside of Hammer. BMTH, Disturbed and BFMV are favourites for the cover. apart from that, its a pretty solid mag that covers all the genres of metal.

Wait, what's so cool about requisitioning a swastika to try and come across as "dark" and "evil"? Sounds like the zine writer is trying too hard to piss off his parents.

I took one look at metal hammer and set it down. Plastered with too many deathcore and mallcore bands.

Yep, exactly. Welcome to the world of underground 'zines. As I said, most of them are amateur rags full of tryhard shit talking and lacking considerably in actual good music discussion.

I am going to make one, and it will consist of nothing but reviews and interviews, and maybe an artwork/culture section, but no stupid fucking diatribe rant section, because they are all the same: teenage fucking angst ridden horse shit.

The only good part about metal hammer is their subterranean section in the back. For me, I like terrorizer the most but since i live in the states and thats printed in england, it costs 10 bucks and the articles are all on stuff that happened a while ago. The free CD is a good bonus though. I personally like decibel, it has a bit to much shall i say "core tolerance" but its overall a solid read and worth the 5 bucks.

I think the problem is that everyone seems to want to start one these days, as an attempt to be part of the "scene" or whatever.

I haven't read many zines that have come out in the past decade, because they are usually a lot of either (1) people praising everything they hear and kissing too much ass and going on and on about "metal brotherhood" or whatever, or (2) hating on everything and putting swastikas all over because they confuse being a moron with being "evil" and do this to piss off their parents.

On the other hand, I don't see why people hate on stuff with lesser-known bands, because (1)the amount of albums sold does not necessarily have much to do with the quality of the music and (2) I see it as trying too hard to be like mainstream magazines, in which case, you'd be better off buying a mainstream magazines, except that you can't trust their reviews because they have to review everything positively.

this. I completely agree. Now, my reason for doing it is because here in the southern US, the scene is rife with -core crap, and I thought that it couldnt hurt to educate the masses.