Relix Owner Buys … Metal Edge and Metal Maniacs?

Steve Bernstein, owner and publisher of 33-year-old Grateful Dead fanzine-turned-jam band magazine of record Relix and proprietor of Zenbu Media, has acquired a pair of metal — yes, metal — music magazines, FishbowlNY has learned. The deal is expected to be announced later today.

And how’s this for an inter-office dynamic? Both magazines — 21-year-old Metal Edge (“rock’s hardest magazine”) and the slightly younger Metal Maniacs — will join Relix and Global Rhythm in Zenbu’s New York offices. Can you say “hippies versus metal heads”? Jerry-Ozzy arguments that go on way too long?

Bernstein, meanwhile, is quietly building a multi-platform media company in the Flatiron district. In addition to the four magazines, Zenbu runs Relix‘s small record label and produces events including the Green Apple Music & Arts Festival and the Jammys, the genre’s unfortunately-named answer to the Grammy Awards.

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