Famed Metal Maniacs editor Katherine Ludwig has passed away from Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Katherine was the editor of Metal Maniacs, the only magazine at the time (early and mid 90’s) that covered extreme metal when no other outlets did.

Bands like Voivod, Kreator, Cathedral Neurosis and Corrosion Of Conformitiy found exposure in the pages of Metal Maniacs, the sister publication of the more popular Metal Edge Magazine. Mrs. Ludwig was battling Cancer for a while and the members of C.O.C. actually did some charity work to donate monies for some of her treatments. Reed Mullins from C.O.C. had this to say at the time…

“I only heard about Katherine’s medical problems a month ago, and the minute after, I was on the phone with Karl Agell to see if he’d be into doing a benefit for her. I’m not sure folks today know just how instrumental she was in introducing and exposing your typical ‘metal maniac’ of the early ’90s to so many bad ass bands. A lot of which, like COC, had never been given an audience like that before. We had been in fanzines with circulations of maybe a couple hundred, but Metal Maniacs was thousands and thousands! A great advocate for little known underground metal, as well as hardcore/punk bands, she promoted the Blind album to the point where by the end of the year it was on virtually everyone’s top ten metal albums of 1991. I can’t overstate how important she was to COC’s success. Without her, Blind wouldn’t have sold what it did. And after that, I don’t think it’s a stretch to say there probably would never have been a Deliverance album. Katherine Ludwig is wonderful person and I hope we can give back a little for all the goodness she gave us.”

R.I.P. katerine, and thanks for the Metal Memories!