Look At This Fucking Cover! Check Out These Wicked Song Titles!

Sounds of Death wasn't my favorite 'zine by any means, but I liked it well enough. With the exception of Metal Forces, which will always be in an untouchable class by itself, SOD was probably the best of the larger, professional metal magazines done in English.  The major reason is that it was a more cohesive read (most of the time), because David Horn didn't rely on a staff of contributing writers with varying skills and tastes.  It wasn't perfect by any means, though--lots of formulaic interviews, one of the worst review rating systems of all time due to the overwhelmingly positive skew (what, do you get 6-7 skulls just for submitting something?), and Horn's love of using cliched similes and metaphors in reviews.

Here's a Virus review out of the "From the Vault" section of issue #7--I think this is the best piece from the entire SOD run.  The first three lines perfectly capture the days of blindly buying albums based on the artwork and outer layout alone.  Whether you want to admit it or not, cool aesthetics can do a lot for an otherwise mediocre band.  IT'S THE CAMPY CHARM OF METAL.

The "From the Vault" features may seem like no big deal at a time when the depths of metal obscurity are constantly excavated for reissues, reviews, and downloads, but seeing Energetic Krusher and Living Death mentioned in the mid-'90s--in a US publication with decent circulation, no less--was very satisfying.