Katana VentraIP

Rock Sound

Rock Sound is a British magazine that covers rock music. The magazine aims at being more "underground" and less commercial, while also giving coverage to better-known acts. It generally focuses on pop punk, post-hardcore, metalcore, punk, emo, hardcore, heavy metal and extreme metal genres of rock music, rarely covering indie rock music at all. The tag-line "For those who like their music loud, extreme and non-conformist" is sometimes used. Although primarily aimed at the British market, the magazine is also sold in Australia, Canada and the United States.

For the place, see Rock Sound, Bahamas.

Categories

Monthly

1999

WhyNow

United Kingdom

English

History[edit]

The British edition of Rock Sound was launched in March 1999 by the French publisher Editions Freeway. The magazine was bought out by its director, Patrick Napier, in December 2004. The magazines offices are in London. Separate titles with the same name have been published under the same umbrella company in France since 1993,[2][3][4] and in Spain since 1998.[5][6]


The first issue was published in April 1999. Issue 2 featured British band Reef on the front cover, and later issues 3 and 8 featured Terrorvision and Foo Fighters respectively. In July 2011 a host of "Through The Years" articles were written to celebrate the 150th issue of the magazine.[7] 2017 witnessed the first annual Rock Sound Awards where £1 from every magazine bundle sold was donated to the One More Light Fund in memory of Chester Bennington.[8]


The magazine was known for including a free CD in most issues, which had tracks from bands' new albums that have not been released as singles. These were called '100% Volume' or 'The Volumes', with other past compilations named 'Music With Attitude', 'Bugging Your Ears!', 'Sound Check' and 'Punk Rawk Explosion'.[9] Sometimes whole albums were included with the magazine, particularly from bands wanting to gain exposure, including Futures' debut album The Holiday in March 2010, and Burn The Fleet's debut album The Modern Shape in May 2012.[10]


In more recent years, exclusive artist merchandise including t-shirts have been sold alongside the magazine via the Rock Sound web store.


In 2023, Rock Sound became part of WhyNow media group and a special edition magazine was published in partnership with Slam Dunk Festival featuring headliners Enter Shikari and The Offspring on the cover. A weekly digital cover feature, The Album Story, was also launched on ROCKSOUND.TV.[11]


Rock Sound's 300th issue was published in September 2023 with Fall Out Boy, Corey Taylor and Motionless In White appearing on the cover. The magazine will celebrate its 25th anniversary in 2024.

1999 – – Title of Record[18]

Filter

2000 – – Mer de Noms

A Perfect Circle

2001 – – Toxicity

System of a Down

2002 – – Oceanic

Isis

2003 – – The Neon Handshake

Hell Is for Heroes

2004 – – Panopticon

Isis

2006 – – The Bronx[19]

The Bronx

2007 – – Puzzle[20]

Biffy Clyro

2008 – – Board Up the House[21]

Genghis Tron

2009 – – Crack the Skye[22]

Mastodon

2011 – – The Hunter[24]

Mastodon

2012 – – On the Impossible Past

The Menzingers

2013 – – The Blackest Beautiful[25]

letlive

2014 – – Lower Than Atlantis[26]

Lower Than Atlantis

2015 – – That's the Spirit

Bring Me the Horizon

2016 – – Death of a Bachelor

Panic! at the Disco

2017 – – Last Young Renegade

All Time Low

2018 – – Trench[27]

Twenty One Pilots

2019 – – Fandom

Waterparks

2020 – - Weird!

Yungblud

2021 – - Scaled and Icy

Twenty One Pilots

At the end of every year the magazine lists their favourite 75 albums released in the previous twelve months.

Kerrang!

NME

Metal Hammer

Alternative Press

Official website