Heaven's Metal Magazine first 10 years!

... is finally available!!!

The digitization of issues #1 through 54, the first 10 years of Heaven's Metal Magazine from 1985 to 1995, was the collaboration of several Christian Metal "fan-boys" who have a strong appreciation for the Magazine that was the go-to source during the dawning and height of faith-based heavy metal.

Ryan Jennings entrusted me with his very rare early issues, Phil Valentine worked tirelessly scanning over half of the issues, Mike Nair and Bruce Harapcio came in at the 11th hour with the final issues and pages we needed to complete the project.


Thank you to Doug Van Pelt for giving us permissions, overseeing this, and publishing them digitally on ISSUU for many to relive those killer years of Heaven's Metal, and for others to experience it for the first time.
God blessed the endeavors to bring these amazing magazines back to life!

https://issuu.com/dougvanpelt?fbclid=IwAR1Q8qApvEWe9yM8TNvR2YAsMZJz2V2jzFNX_yJMm4-yS_cuPh3ix1cMFG8

Heaven's Metal Magazines at ISSUU

Phil Valentine?  As in the radio talk show dude that was nationally syndicated for a few years but has been live and local on WWTN in Nashville and is also a successful author and now PODcaster?  Or, are we speaking of another Phil Valentine?  That isn't a very common combination of names.

Had to be a lot of work, good for them.

alldatndensum wrote:

Phil Valentine?  As in the radio talk show dude that was nationally syndicated for a few years but has been live and local on WWTN in Nashville and is also a successful author and now PODcaster?  Or, are we speaking of another Phil Valentine?  That isn't a very common combination of names.

That Phil Valentine was born in '59 and is in Tennessee, my Phil Valentine, who was instrumental in making half of this project happen, was born in '72 and lives in Ohio.

I know you put a ton of work into this (several years ago).  I'm glad to see it's finally available to the public.

Black Rider wrote:

Had to be a lot of work, good for them.

Staybrite wrote:

I know you put a ton of work into this (several years ago).  I'm glad to see it's finally available to the public.

Yep, took me nearly 2 years from 2012 when I pitched the idea to Doug to 2014 when I finally finished. I gathered together all the PDF format scans, did a load of scanning myself from issues mailed to me, searched and plead with magazine owners for scans of missing issues and damaged pages, spent nearly every evening after work and most weekends (to the chagrin of my wife) editing each and every page (including the ads), cleaned them up digitally with PaintShop Pro, and resized every page to a standard size.

When I submitted the final project to Doug in 2014, he was going thru personal issues in his life and in the process of changing hands for HM magazine... so it got shelved for nearly 5 years. I all but gave up on the whole thing until he contacted me yesterday - I am beyond elated, but can't help but feel there would've been a much stronger response back in 2015, the 30 Anniversary of the magazine. At any rate I am very happy that it's finally available to the masses 

An old video of the editing process in real time... very boring indeed

Congrats, Jim!

This must feel really good to see this finally come to life.

Thank you, it's been a long time coming

Tell me you snuck some goofy little things into there that didn't exist in the original magazines.  That would be totally hilarious.

Alright! Bathroom reading material!!

Staybrite wrote:

Tell me you snuck some goofy little things into there that didn't exist in the original magazines.  That would be totally hilarious.

Ya know, had I thought of it, I probably would've. I was very focused to finish the grueling job, nose to the grindstone, and it never crossed my mind. Would've been hilarious 

MikeInFla wrote:

Alright! Bathroom reading material!!

Yes ! Just don't get the screen wet 

Guilty/Forgiven wrote:

alldatndensum wrote:

Phil Valentine?  As in the radio talk show dude that was nationally syndicated for a few years but has been live and local on WWTN in Nashville and is also a successful author and now PODcaster?  Or, are we speaking of another Phil Valentine?  That isn't a very common combination of names.

That Phil Valentine was born in '59 and is in Tennessee, my Phil Valentine, who was instrumental in making half of this project happen, was born in '72 and lives in Ohio.

Good to know.  I knew our Phil was a Tennessee resident.  He has been on the air for 20 years on WWTN in Nashville.  He is a good man and has a huge conservative following.  I find his show quite informative and entertaining.

I am glad that this project finally came to bearing.  I know you worked hard on it.  I also remember you being quite bummed when nothing came out of all that work.  So, this must somewhat feel like having a child as you have had to wait so long for this to come out.  Recording an album feels a lot like that, and you have a lot of love and pride for that end result.

Quote :

Recording an album feels a lot like that

Never recorded an album, but I'm gonna say that's a good comparison. Simply because, like a good musician I was focused and determined and wanted the best results, after all that time, I felt I gave it my absolute best and put out a solid product for the masses.
Other comparisons to churning out an album would be: I spent most waking hours when I wasn't at work (don't tell my previous boss, but well, sometimes I did actually work on it on the clock - hey I had caught up all my work and had nothing to do! LOL!), working tirelessly to create a beautiful finished product, put my heart and soul into it, my wife became a Heaven's Metal widow, I stared at a PC screen and metal and hard rock pages for nearly 2 years to the point that I HAVE to wear glasses anytime I read now, and the months of clicking with the right and stretching the left pinky on CTRL and a finger on different Commands is most likely what exacerbated my carpal tunnel so badly that I had to have surgery.

So yes, I do feel a tremendous sense of relief that all that work that went into this project is finally made available. I really don't think many are aware of just what goes into it*, and what goes into heading up a project like this, gathering issues and scans from others who also have lives, scanning for hours, editing for even more hours, converting the workable TIFF to a PDF and combining all pages into one book, then sending it to someone whose life was in turmoil and couldn't do anything with it for another 5 years. Whew!!!


*aside from all who've read my posts where I pound into them what goes into it 

That's awesome Jim. Wow. What an amazing record. The coolest thing is that it's now there forever for everyone. You did that! Awesome.

Jen5 wrote:

That's awesome Jim. Wow. What an amazing record. The coolest thing is that it's now there forever for everyone. You did that! Awesome.

Thanks Jen, very few things in my life have felt "inspired", but the ones that were have truly made a difference in people's lives. This one felt inspired, so I pray that it not only blesses the rockers out there, but that the truth within the pages will sink into the hearts of those who need it.

Amen Brother

That's amazing work, those samples show that you care about the project. I have to admit I wasn't terribly interested in actually perusing them, but I see a photo of the Daniel Band and now I'm stroking my beard...

Guilty/Forgiven wrote:

alldatndensum wrote:

Phil Valentine?  As in the radio talk show dude that was nationally syndicated for a few years but has been live and local on WWTN in Nashville and is also a successful author and now PODcaster?  Or, are we speaking of another Phil Valentine?  That isn't a very common combination of names.

That Phil Valentine was born in '59 and is in Tennessee, my Phil Valentine, who was instrumental in making half of this project happen, was born in '72 and lives in Ohio.

LOL, there is yet another Phil Valentine. My Facebook friend from Australia. He ran a Christian zine back in the day.

oldschooldoom wrote:

Guilty/Forgiven wrote:

alldatndensum wrote:

Phil Valentine?  As in the radio talk show dude that was nationally syndicated for a few years but has been live and local on WWTN in Nashville and is also a successful author and now PODcaster?  Or, are we speaking of another Phil Valentine?  That isn't a very common combination of names.

That Phil Valentine was born in '59 and is in Tennessee, my Phil Valentine, who was instrumental in making half of this project happen, was born in '72 and lives in Ohio.

LOL, there is yet another Phil Valentine. My Facebook friend from Australia. He ran a Christian zine back in the day.

That's actually the same Phil. I had my lines crossed at the time and mixed up a Bruce Harapcio [AKA RAWK84] (from Ohio) and Phil Valentine [AKA Trouble72] (from Australia) who had his own Christian Heavy Metal magazine called "Godcore Zine" (he gave me one issue which is super cool to have).  
Bruce Harapcio is the one from Ohio... oops