Words still spewing, knuckles still bleeding

“The walls kind of close in sometimes, if you know what I mean.”

Tim Henderson is talking about his North York office, “the bat cave.” It’s the home of Brave Words and Bloody Knuckles, commonly referred to by fans as BWBK. Unfortunately for Henderson and fans of the Canadian bi-monthly heavy metal magazine, the statement could easily refer to BWBK itself. The large amount of computer equipment can easily be ignored in the bat cave, with the assortment of rock memorabilia and posters collected over the years grabbing your attention. But those computers are now the publishing house of BWBK.

At the beginning of this year, the magazine closed its print edition, around the same time legendary American magazines Metal Edge and Metal Maniacs did, all of whom opted to go with an electronic only format. BWBK’s only major Canadian competition, Unrestrained!, folded after publisher Adrian Bromley died suddenly of pneumonia in December.

“Metal Tim,” as he’s commonly known as, says he’d rather be on a beach right now, noting how much he hates the weather on this unseasonably cold, rainy Friday in October. However, he’s busier than he’s ever been and choosing the route he has may be more cost effective, but can invoke more responsibility.

“It’s harder because we’ve made the commitment to report on news 24/7… Today, I posted three Slayer tracks. We would’ve never had the rights to put those songs on a CD, just because of all the label politics. We’re offering much more content and much more audio than we ever could have with the magazine. And it’s up to the minute,” says Henderson, “I don’t miss the fact when I was building the news, for example, it was so dated (by the time the issue was purchased). I’m building the news and by the time this magazine gets into some kid’s hands in Florida, it’s so old and dated.”

Henderson started the magazine in 1994. It was originally printed on photocopied paper and sold for $1.95. In a few short years, the magazine was in full colour and distributed around the world. The magazine would come wrapped in plastic and include promotional items like band stickers and condoms. Another popular gimmick was the free Knuckletracks sampler CD that came with each issue.

“From the get-go it really helped sales. It was a great package that worked in unison, like one helped sell the other. It was cool as hell. We were lucky enough to sell the space on the CD, so for the most part it did pay for itself,” says Henderson. “It probably helped with distribution around the world, especially the US, because when people would see that full package they would say, ‘Oh now I know why it’s $7.99.’”

Henderson thinks some fans might’ve seen the eventual sale price as too high toward the end, but serious BWBK fans continued to buy the magazine.

His experience in retail, as the buyer for the hard rock and heavy metal department at the HMV megastore on Yonge St. in Toronto was a major part of the magazine’s success. Seeing the success of the magazine at his store, HMV distributed the magazine to stores across Toronto and eventually across Canada. Henderson also made his department such a success it became a hangout among metal fans in Toronto, who bought large quantities of BWBK magazines.

“I remember in the heyday, it would double and triple Spin or Rolling Stone at my store. I’m not bullshitting you. There would be weeks when the magazine would come out and sell a couple hundred copies. Goddamn, it was crazy,” reminisces Henderson, who describes his age as too old to have fallen in love with grunge and too young to have owned 8-track tapes.

Henderson is still surprised, looking back at how successful his magazine was when the musical genre he covered struggled.

“God, how did it happen? It is pretty incredible to think, being in a small market like Canada in a genre that in itself is tiny … on the grand scheme of things. Especially in the 90s when we were doing it, it was pretty small. It was a fight, but there was a community out there,” says Henderson. “Maybe in hindsight it’s remarkable, but when you’re in the trenches trying to get the issue out, time doesn’t fly that
fast.”

David Gold became a fan of BWBK in 1999, when working at an HMV store in Windsor. His metal band Woods of Ypres, bought space on the Knuckletracks CDs. He was disappointed in the demise of the print version of BWBK, but believes fans could’ve supported it more.

“Well it was sad. Especially with Metal Maniacs and Unrestrained!, and others all coming to an end at the same time. … But I understand their situation. People generally just haven't been as supportive of the magazine itself, which was really the most crucial part. There are hundreds of people who visit the Braveboard (online) forum on a daily basis who haven't bought a magazine in years, if ever. If you love something, you must do your job to show your love and keep it alive. Do your part,” says Gold from his rural cabin outside of North Bay, Ontario. He also feels a quantity of magazines going electronic-only will help fans realize times have changed and it’s time to move forward.

Henderson graduated from McMaster University with a degree in political science and economics in the early 90s. He dreamed of starting his own heavy metal magazine having been a longtime fan of international magazines like Metal Edge and Metal Maniacs, Japan’s Burrn! And the UK’s Kerrang! And Terrorizer. While working at HMV, he wrote for the long defunct M.E.A.T. Magazine, where he met Carl Begai. After moving to Germany in 1995, Begai later convinced Henderson he needed a European correspondent and has been such since 1997. He had great disappointment in the news of the print
edition folding.

“Me, Tim, we were devastated. Tim phoned me with the news, but I’d seen it coming for about a year,” says Begai from his current home in Nuremburg. “Tim works so hard at this. This is his baby and everyone knows it,” Says Begai.

In 2008, Henderson says the struggles for the print magazine really began.

“Although I’ll say our last issue, the Metallica issue was the most successful one in terms of revenues. We really went off on a high. But when we started to work on issue 114 it was just like, ‘this is hopeless. This isn’t going to happen.’ This year everyone slashed their print budgets and we just couldn’t keep it going.”

Begai says metal magazines survive in Europe because, while the Internet is used, there is more respect for print media. Companies not specifically related to the genre, such as breweries, will still buy advertising space, and see more value in the medium. He also says record companies are more respectful to the print medium.

“A label (in North America) might’ve advertised in a magazine for 20 years, but a lot of the people with the label might not have been there that long and they say, ‘it has to be online. We want up to the minute,’” says Begai.

He and Henderson both say it was the passion of the metal genre held by the staff that kept BWBK going through its struggles. Both believe BWBK will be back in print again, at the very least, on a special edition basis.

Henderson made an attempt in 2008 to access grants available to Canadian publishers, but it was in a time of budget cutbacks and he may have been too late.

“It was all self-financed by myself and the ad revenue… I can proudly say that every magazine, we paid for and the Canadian public didn’t pay a bloody cent,” says Henderson.

Though he recognized it was time for him to move on, closing the print magazine was a heartbreak.

“It’s a shame, but at the end of the day I’m not this rich publisher sitting in an ivory tower. We just worked from issue to issue. We had a pretty good run, man. But there’s no way I would suggest anybody do this.”