 | |
| Label Bio |
The noise began 24 years ago…
A music starved kid named Brian Slagel, killing time in suburban Los Angeles, gets sick of watching the local metal scene being ignored by the major labels. Working days at legendary metal emporium Oz Records and nights putting together one of the first metal fanzines, The New Heavy Metal Revue, Slagel asks some distributor friends if they'd be interested in circulating a compilation of unsigned bands if he put it together. The distributors said yes and Metal Blade Records was born. Of course it wasn't quite that simple. Putting in long 17-hour days between Oz and Metal Blade, Slagel pieced together the bands that would grace the label's first release - The New Heavy Metal Revue presents Metal Massacre. Metallica, Ratt and Black 'N' Blue were just a few of the willing locals. Except before Metal Massacre, Metallica didn't exist.
So now for over 24 years Metal Blade Records has been setting the trend in heavy metal music without compromising it’s underground beginnings. Brian Slagel and Metal Blade Records have without a doubt had a major role in developing the American metal scene since day one and remains one of the most essential sources of metal music today. Since it’s beginnings in 1982, Metal Blade Records has unleashed some of the most influential and significant metal acts like Slayer, Metallica, Cannibal Corpse, GWAR, Six Feet Under, and King Diamond while developing new acts like As I Lay Dying, The Red Chord, Unearth, The Black Dahlia Murder, YOB, Goatwhore, and Cattle Decapitation just to name a few. Constantly growing and expanding, recently opening up Metal Blade Records Japan and the already significant Metal Blade Records Germany, and adding some of the best bands out there to it’s roster, it is obvious that Metal Blade Records is here to stay!
|