Metal PR that knows the difference between subgenres
Campaigns for UK metal bands, built by people who understand that pitching a blackgaze record to a thrash writer wastes everyone's afternoon. Fixed price, approved list.
Metal has the most fragmented press landscape of any genre and the most knowledgeable audience. Both facts point the same way: precision matters more here than reach. A writer who covers doom will not cover metalcore, the readerships barely overlap, and sending the same pitch to both marks you immediately as someone who does not know the genre.
It is also a scene with unusually long memories and a strong sense of who is authentic. That makes a badly run campaign more damaging in metal than almost anywhere else, and a well-run one more durable.
The outlets a metal campaign is built around
The underground and specialist layer, which in metal is not a consolation prize. It is where the audience actually is.
Comprehensive UK metal coverage across subgenres, and genuinely accessible to unsigned bands.
Independent and prolific, with a real commitment to underground UK metal.
Extensive live and release coverage, receptive to developing bands.
Small-run print and digital zines within each subgenre. Disproportionate credibility inside the scene.
Community and internet radio metal programming, with small but fanatical audiences.
Doom, black metal, tech-death and hardcore podcasts, each with its own committed listenership.
The smaller UK metal festivals and promoter networks, which build the credibility the bigger titles later respond to.
Not press, but in metal the label and distro layer does a large share of the work. We factor it in rather than ignoring it.
This is an illustrative view of the landscape rather than the list you would receive. Your actual media list is built for your specific release and sent to you for approval before anything is pitched. Coverage is never guaranteed anywhere.
The tier above, named honestly
The national metal press. Reached by bands with underground coverage and a live reputation already behind them.
The principal UK metal title, with specialist writers behind each subgenre and a high bar for entry.
Skews towards metalcore, alternative metal and the heavier mainstream.
Digital home of that same territory, slightly more reachable than the print titles.
Specialist show with real influence over the UK heavy scene.
Festival billings function as credentials that reshape a whole campaign.
We list these so you can see the ladder, not to imply that one campaign puts you on it. If your release is genuinely in range of this tier, we will tell you, and we will tell you what it would take.
How we build a metal campaign
Subgenre precision, always
We establish exactly where you sit, and if you sit between two, we build two lists. Doom, blackgaze, metalcore, death, thrash, sludge, prog metal and post-metal have overlapping audiences but almost entirely separate writers.
The underground is the foundation
In metal, the specialist blogs and zines are not a consolation prize for missing the nationals. They are where the actual audience is, and they build the credibility that the bigger titles later respond to.
Artwork is scene currency
Metal audiences read cover art as a genre signal before they hear a note. If the artwork is wrong for the subgenre it undermines everything else, and we would rather flag that early than pitch around it.
Festivals as campaign spine
The regional and mid-size festivals give a campaign a hard peg and a credential. Where a billing exists we build the timeline around it.
What we work across
Doom and sludge. Black metal and blackgaze. Death metal and its technical end. Thrash. Metalcore and post-hardcore crossover. Progressive and djent. Post-metal and instrumental heavy music. Grindcore and powerviolence.
What's included
The same package regardless of genre. What changes is who we pitch, how we pitch them and when.
Metal PR by city
Where local media and the local circuit change how a metal campaign should be run.
Questions
Planning a metal release?
Send us the track and the date. We will tell you which outlets are realistic, what the timeline needs to be, and whether it is worth running at all yet.