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Metal Blade Records | |
---|---|
Founded | 1982; 42 years ago (1982) |
Founder | Brian Slagel |
Status | Major |
Distributor(s) | The Orchard (United States) Sony Music (International) |
Genre | Heavy metal, extreme metal |
Country of origin | United States |
Location | 5632 Van Nuys Blvd #1301, Van Nuys, California U.S. |
Official website | metalblade |
Metal Blade Records is an American record label founded by Brian Slagel in 1982 based in the U.S. state of California. The label currently is distributed in the US by The Orchard, and internationally by Sony Music Entertainment. It was distributed by Warner Bros. Records in the United States from 1988 to 1993.
History
Metal Blade Records was founded by Brian Slagel, who at the time was a record store employee in suburban Los Angeles, as a way to increase the recognition of local metal bands. The label's first release was a compilation album called The New Heavy Metal Revue presents Metal Massacre, and included Metallica, Ratt, and Black 'n Blue.
In 2010, Metal Blade Records joined the RIAA.
IronClad Recordings is an imprint.
On January 18, 2017, Metal Blade Records was inducted into the Hall of Heavy Metal History for their large contribution to the Heavy Metal library. Brian was inducted by special guest Kerry King of Slayer. On August 29, 2017, BMG Rights Management published The Sake of Heaviness: the History of Metal Blade Records, a book on the label's history, co-written by Mark Eglington and the label's founder Brian Slagel.
In 2019 Metal Blade Records opened a store in Las Vegas, Nevada that sold rare and out-of-print items from them and their artists.
Notable artists
Current and former artists per Metal Blade Records' website, as of November 2024.
Current
- Accuser
- Allegaeon
- Amon Amarth
- Anaal Nathrakh
- Angel Witch
- Arch/Matheos
- Armored Saint
- Behemoth
- The Black Dahlia Murder
- Blood Stain Child
- Byzantine
- Cannibal Corpse
- Category 7
- Cattle Decapitation
- Church of Misery
- Cirith Ungol
- Criminal
- The Crown
- Cryptic Shift
- Cult of Luna
- Cut Up
- Dååth
- Death Ray Vision
- Defleshed
- Desaster
- Downfall of Gaia
- Ensiferum
- Entheos
- Exumer
- Falconer
- Fates Warning
- Goatwhore
- Gwar
- Hamferð
- Harms Way
- Hate
- If These Trees Could Talk
- Igorrr
- Ingested
- Intronaut
- Job for a Cowboy
- Killswitch Engage
- King Diamond
- Lizzy Borden
- Mantar
- Mercyful Fate
- Neaera
- OSI
- Monte Pittman
- Primordial
- Redemption
- Revocation
- Rivers of Nihil
- Sacred Reich
- Satan
- Serpentine Dominion
- Six Feet Under
- Sorcerer
- Talas
- Transatlantic
- Twitching Tongues
- Týr
- Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats
- Vio-lence
- Vomitory
- Whitechapel
- Wolfbrigade
- Wytch Hazel
- The Zenith Passage
Former
- 3
- Abiotic
- Abnormality
- The Absence
- Act of Defiance
- Aeon
- Anacrusis
- Ancient
- Anima
- Anterior
- John Arch
- Artillery
- As I Lay Dying
- Austrian Death Machine
- Autumn
- Battlecross
- Batushka
- Believer
- Between the Buried and Me
- Beyond the Embrace
- Beyond the Sixth Seal
- Bison B.C.
- Bitch
- Bolt Thrower
- Born from Pain
- Brain Drill
- Brainstorm
- Broken Hope
- Callenish Circle
- Cancer Bats
- Candiria
- Cataract
- Cellador
- Channel Zero
- Charred Walls of the Damned
- Chinchilla
- Coal Chamber
- Cradle of Filth
- The Crimson Armada
- Cripper
- Crisis
- Cryptic Slaughter
- Darkness Dynamite
- Dave Brockie Experience
- Dawn of Ashes
- Daysend
- Demiricous
- Destrage
- The Devil's Blood
- DevilDriver
- Diabulus in Musica
- Disillusion
- D.R.I.
- DragonForce
- Eidolon
- Engine
- Enthroned
- Epidemic
- Evergreen Terrace
- Evocation
- Falconer
- Fleshcrawl
- Fleshwrought
- Jim Florentine
- Flotsam and Jetsam
- Fragments of Unbecoming
- Galactic Cowboys
- Thomas Giles
- God Dethroned
- Goo Goo Dolls
- Grave Pleasures
- Gorerotted
- Hail of Bullets
- Hammers of Misfortune
- Hatchet
- Hate Eternal
- Haunted Garage
- Hecate Enthroned
- Helstar
- Hirax
- I Killed the Prom Queen
- Impious
- In Battle
- In Extremo
- In Solitude
- Into the Moat
- Jacobs Dream
- Don Jamieson
- Jim Breuer and the Loud & Rowdy
- King of Asgard
- King's X
- Kissin' Dynamite
- Lazarus A.D.
- Lightning Swords of Death
- Lord Belial
- Malefice
- Manowar
- Memory Garden
- Molotov Solution
- Mortification
- Mother Feather
- Mount Salem
- Nasty Savage
- Negligence
- Nightfall
- Nonpoint
- The Ocean Collective
- Omen
- Oni
- Overcast
- Paths of Possession
- Pentagram
- Poison Headache
- Powerwolf
- Psyopus
- Pyrithion
- Raven
- The Red Chord
- The Red Death
- Rigor Mortis
- Riot
- Sahg
- Sarke
- Shai Hulud
- Sister
- Skyforger
- Slayer
- Slough Feg
- Soilent Green
- Sonic Reign
- Sourvein
- Symphony X
- Symphorce
- System Divide
- This Ending
- Thought Industry
- Tombs
- Torture Killer
- Tourniquet
- Tribulation
- Trigger the Bloodshed
- Trouble
- Unearth
- Vader
- Vesania
- Viking
- Voivod
- Woe of Tyrants
- Wovenwar
- X-Cops
- Y&T
- Yob
References
- "Features". metalupdate.com. Archived from the original on November 25, 2010. Retrieved August 15, 2012.
- "Scorpions Among Nominees for Hall of Heavy Metal History". Rolling Stone. December 22, 2016. Retrieved May 16, 2017.
- "BMG Will Release a Book on Metal Blade Records on Their Iconic History Later This Summer". Billboard. Retrieved June 27, 2017.
- "Metal Blade Records opens store in Las Vegas, NV – rare and out-of-print items now for sale!". Metal Blade Records. Retrieved June 6, 2023.
- "Artists | Metal Blade Records". Metal Blade Records. Archived from the original on November 7, 2024. Retrieved November 7, 2024.