Status Corporate Official website www.metalblade.com Founded 1981 | Country of origin United States | |
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Distributors Diamante Music Group, RED Distribution (US) Artists Albums Jomsviking, Butchered at Birth, Show No Mercy, Hell Awaits, Eaten Back to Life Profiles | ||
Metal Blade Records is a heavy metal record label founded by Brian Slagel in 1982. The U.S. corporate office for Metal Blade is located in Agoura Hills, California. It also has offices in Germany, Japan, Canada, and the UK. The label is distributed in the U.S. by RED Distribution, and in Canada 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.
Metal Blade artists that have appeared on the Billboard 200 chart include The Goo Goo Dolls, Amon Amarth, Trouble, As I Lay Dying, Behemoth, The Black Dahlia Murder, Slayer, Cannibal Corpse, Fates Warning (the first Metal Blade band to have achieved this), Lizzy Borden, Anvil, Gwar, King Diamond, Job for a Cowboy, Whitechapel, Armored Saint, The Red Chord, Unearth, Between the Buried and Me, D.R.I., Corrosion of Conformity and Cattle Decapitation.
From 1985 to 1998, Metal Blade had a sublabel called Death Records, which released recordings by D.R.I., Corrosion of Conformity, School of Violence, Cryptic Slaughter, The Mentors, Cannibal Corpse, Atheist, Angkor Wat, Loss for Words, Dr. Know, Beyond Possession, and Dark Funeral.
In 2010 Metal Blade Records joined the RIAA.
IronClad Recordings is an imprint.