Metal Blade Records- 25 Years In The Making

Metal Blade is not only the little label that could, it is the label that has proven time and time again that it DID and it will continue to DO. Bringing the world metal was the basic manifesto of label head Brian Slagel and with this, metal in the world of today would not be the same. In 1982, I was a year old. That same year would find Metal Blade spreading its wings and flying for the first time….
Saying a lot has happened since then is an understatement. Metal Blade has released some of the best/most important metal recordings of all time and the culmination of Brian Slagel’s legacy came together in a birthday party concert at this year’s New England Metal And Hardcore Festival. Day two of this year’s festival was dedicated to celebrate 25 years of the label’s existence.

As a metal head/hardcore kid and avid concertgoer, the annual NEMAHF is a highlight of yearly fests and serves as the kickoff to the summer music festival seasons. Having the second day of the fest as Metal Blade’s birthday party, well, you had to expect a great day full of Metal Blade bands, and that’s just what everyone got. I got something extra special though. I got the rare opportunity to get the perspective of Metal Blade from those on Metal Blade when I attended the fest. In a few guerilla interviews I took a few minutes from the lives of the who’s who on Metal Blade….

VITAL STATS…
Name: Chuck Bouley
Who are you?: Former vocalist, Since The Flood
Quote: “Metal Blade’s amazing, they sought us out, maybe like a year ago! We were working with Trevor Phipps from Unearth on his label Iron Clad when they merged with Metal Blade, which just opened up the door for us. They saw us here at Metal Fest last year and we’ve been working with them one-on-one since and they’re a fucking great label! Great support, all great people who work really hard for us and we couldn’t ask for a better label. Being the only Hardcore, American band with them right now, it’s really opened some doors for us. We were hesitant at first but they have been super to us, they push us, so we have no complaints. They are good people, we are more than happy to be working with them.”
Favourite Metal Blade band(s): “Slayer, always! For everyone I bet really! I mean that would be the fantasy tour for us. It all comes back to Slayer. As for current label mates, Unearth for sure, and Demiricous, they’re fucking killer. Cannibal Corpse is cool too.”

VITAL STATS…
Name: Guy Kozowyk
Who are you?: Vocalist, The Red Chord
Quote: “Metal Blade has been great. When we signed on, they were the only label that wouldn’t limit stuff. Any label we were talking to would say…well, we’d ask ‘What do you think you can do for us? Where do you see us going? How many records do you see us selling?’ I think its cool for a label to not over-exaggerate what they do, but when most labels are telling us ‘Oh, you’ll probably sell 10 or 15 thousand cds and if you do 15 to 20 thousand, you’ll be like the biggest in your genre!’ Metal Blade said they were shooting for the stars with us. They said ‘We’re gonna sell as many records as we can! We don’t want to put a limit on it. We’re going to get you guys out in front of as many people as we can!’ since then we’ve gotten lots of play on MTV2 and Fuse, we’ve got 40 thousand scanned units in the US and its just weird…we were told we’d be doing 10 or 15 thousand, and we’re like 3 times that! Its pretty exciting.”
Favourite Metal Blade band(s): “So many great bands…Psyopus, Black Dahlia Murder, As I Lay Dying, Unearth, Cannibal Corpse- its definitely flattering to be on the same label that put out Bolt Thrower and Symphony X! Metal Blade put out some pivotal records! The fact that they were the label that found Slayer in the first place, you cant even deny it!”

VITAL STATS…
Name: Paul Mazurkiewicz
Who are you?: Drummer, Cannibal Corpse
Quote: “We’ve been on the label for so long, since the beginning of our career. A lot of the bands we like are on Metal Blade, when we were in ‘82 buying Metal Blade, we’d never thought we would be on it, now here we are 25 years later! And it’s going stronger than ever! We’re happy for them of course. It’s an awesome thing. We’re happy to be a part of it- we’ve been a band 19 years come this December, we’ve been on Metal Blade the whole time! We’ve made a good dent in the world, a positive one. We’re happy to have made it and we’re happy to have Metal Blade help us with it.
Favourite Metal Blade band(s): “Slayer!” 

VITAL STATS…
Name: Ken Susi
Who are you?: Guitarist, Unearth
Quote: “(Our experience with Metal Blade has been) Unbelievable! Metal Blade has been so nice to us! They’re amazing people. That’s why we signed to the label, more because of their character and who they are as people. (With Metal Blade’s help I’d like to be) in outer space playing a hot gig, the first metal band in space! We’re definitely going to be at Metal Blade for a very long time.”
Favourite Metal Blade band(s): “Oh man! Slayer, Cannibal Corpse, As I Lay Dying, All That Remains- kind of, they’re on Prosthetic. It’s a big family, there isn’t one band that like I am upset to be on the label with, there are so many good bands. Corpse is my all time favourite.”

VITAL STATS…
Name: Keith Allen
Who are you?: Vocalist, Architect
Quote: “We’re a baby band on Metal Blade still, we still have to step up and prove ourselves but its pretty good on Metal Blade! We hoping for a big push when our next album comes out, it looks good that we will. It’s cool that we’re on Metal Blade. We look forward to working with them and we have a good deal and hopefully a long relationship would be cool!”
Favourite Metal Blade band(s): “Cannibal Corpse is awesome, they have been around forever! We like Slayer but we wouldn’t want to play with them because the people that go to Slayer shows only want to see Slayer pretty much, but Slayer is awesome.”

VITAL STATS…
Name: Matt Fox
Who are you?: Guitarist, Shai Hulud
Quote: “(Being a part of Metal Blade is) fucking awesome! I cant even tell you…sometimes I write on the internet and tell people how happy I am, but now that you’re here, wow its fucking awesome, I can’t tell you! I am 34 now, I bought ‘Metal Massacre 1’ in like ’86 or whatever it was, I bought Malice, I bought Cryptic Slaughter, I bought Hell Star, I bought Celtic Frost, I bought Voivod, I bought Slayer, fucking Corrosion Of Conformity- every record I owned, loved, and grew up on, albums that I still love today are on Metal Blade! Brian Slagel put out Slayer’s first two albums; he’s responsible for giving Metallica their first recording, that’s massive! And Metallica is by far my favourite metal band of all time! It’s really cool. Shai Hulud has been signed to two labels, two labels that we have WANTED to be signed to. I wanted to be signed to Revelation because of Burn, luckily Revelation picked us up. Then, ten years later, I wanted to be signed to Metal Blade for many and various reasons- biggest probably being Voivod- we sent our demo to them and they signed us! Revelation was a great place to start and Metal Blade is a great place to fucking end up!
Favourite Metal Blade band(s): (see above!)

There you have it. A label that is a year younger than myself has seen more metal than most of us could ever imagine. Upon the silver anniversary of the label that virtually created, helped spawn, or fueled the splintering of metal and hardcore into its sub-genres, the bands affiliated with Metal Blade seem to be happier than ever. Metal Blade Records has worked long and hard to reach this goal. Undoubtedly, as long as there are metal heads, there will be a Metal Blade Records. I hope to hit the Metal Blade 50th birthday party in 2032. Maybe then the kids at that show will be laughing at me for going nuts to an aged Red Chord as I snickered at the spectacle that was Lizzy Borden’s performance- still have nightmares of the atrocity in fact! One last thing. did you notice the common denominator between all the bands? Slayer. Fucking SLAAAYYYYY-ERRRRRR!

Yeah, I had to do that. Every metal head screams that out a few times in their lives.

Happy Birthday Brian and Metal Blade!

- Michael Kopko (with additions by Spencer Lavigne) 












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