Metal Blade Records

Metal Blade Records

American independent record label founded by Brian Slagel in 1982. The US office for Metal Blade is located in Sherman Oaks, California. It also has offices in Germany, Japan, Canada, and the UK.

The noise began in 1982…
Founded upon owner Brian Slagel’s enduring drive to find great bands and get their music out to as many people as possible, since 1982 Metal Blade has brought wave after wave of powerful, innovative, and often genre-defining music to the ever-hungry metal masses. It is this ethos that has seen Metal Blade build up a stunning and diverse catalogue, weather the various storms facing any independent label, and in an age of declining record sales boast the most successful years of its existence as it strides into its fourth decade.

Now a truly worldwide force with various offices around the globe, Metal Blade remains fiercely independent and continues to adapt to the constantly evolving music industry.

Share
Metal Blade Records
  • DVNE
    1 item

    DVNE

    1 item

    Dvne is a 5-piece metal band from Edinburgh, UK. Taking influences from a myriad of genres including post metal, doom, and progressive rock. Combining fierce riffs and melodic textures, Dvne travels an epic dark sci-fi universe with hints of psychedelia.

  • Ensiferum

    1 item

    A melodic power/death/folk metal band delving into Viking legends for lyrical inspiration, Helsinki, Finland's Ensiferum (Latin for "sword bearer") had to continually coexist with various simultaneous metal projects undertaken by its members. Founded in 1995 by guitarist Markus Toivonen, Ensiferu...

  • Killswitch Engage

    1 item

    Killswitch Engage first shook the structure of heavy music upon climbing out of snowy industrialized Western Massachusetts in 2000. A musical outlier, the band pioneered a union of thrashed-out European guitar pyrotechnics, East Coast hardcore spirit, on-stage hijinks, and enlightened lyricism th...

  • Unearth
    13 items

    Unearth

    13 items

    Unearth is an American metalcore band formed in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1998. The group consists of lead guitarist Buz McGrath, vocalist Trevor Phipps, drummer Mike Justian, bassist Chris O'Toole and rhythm guitarist Peter Layman.

  • Brian Slagel - An Exclusive interview for Thunderflix

    With the excitement of adding Metal Blade Records to Thunderflix, we decided to do a bad ass interview, with great footage on top of the conversation we had with the one and only Brian Slagel.

  • Between The Buried & Me

    4 items

    Between the Buried and Me, often abbreviated as BTBAM, is an American progressive metalcore band from Raleigh, North Carolina.

    Between the Buried and Me has been classified as progressive metalcore, progressive metal technical death metal, metalcore, and avant-garde metal, along with various mu...

  • Primordial

    5 items

    Primordial are an Irish extreme metal band from Skerries, County Dublin. The band was formed in 1993 by bassist Pól MacAmhlaigh and guitarist Ciarán MacUiliam. Their sound blends black metal and doom metal with Celtic music.

  • Cannibal Corpse

    21 items

    Since 1988, Cannibal Corpse have been at the forefront of death metal, shaping and defining the genre, creating a seminal, incomparable body of work over the following decades. In 2021 they raised the stakes again with their 15th album, Violence Unimagined, growing ever more complex and intense,...

  • The Black Dahlia Murder

    3 items

    The Black Dahlia Murder is an American melodic death metal band from Waterford, Michigan, formed in 2001.

    Following the release of a 2001 demo album and a 2002 EP, the Black Dahlia Murder signed to Metal Blade Records in 2003, who released their debut studio album Unhallowed that same year. Out...

  • As I Lay Dying

    13 items

    American metalcore band from San Diego, California. Formed in 2000 by vocalist Tim Lambesis.
    The band has released seven albums, one split album, and two compilation albums.

  • Týr
    2 items

    Týr

    2 items

    Týr is a Faroese folk metal band. They have been characterised as one of "the islands' two most successful metal bands". Their subject matter revolves almost entirely around Viking lore, mythology, and history, taking their name from Týr, the god of war in Norse religion.

  • Behemoth
    16 items

    Behemoth

    16 items

    Behemoth is a Polish extreme metal band from Gdańsk, formed in 1991. They are considered to have played an important role in establishing the Polish extreme metal underground.

    Until the late 1990s, the band played a traditional black metal style with secular lyrical content, but soon changed to ...

  • Amon Amarth

    9 items

    Formed in 1992. The band takes its name from the Sindarin name of Mount Doom, a volcano in J. R. R. Tolkien′s Middle-earth. Their lyrics mostly deal with Viking mythology and history, and so they have been linked with viking metal, although the band themselves prefer to be referred to as melodic ...

  • Whitechapel

    1 item

    Whitechapel is an American deathcore band from Knoxville, Tennessee. The band is named after the Whitechapel district in East London, England, where Jack the Ripper committed a series of murders. The group comprises vocalist Phil Bozeman, lead guitarist Ben Savage, rhythm guitarist Alex Wade, bas...

  • Armored Saint

    2 items

    Leaders and stalwarts of the American heavy metal scene since the early 80s.

    Armored Saint is an American heavy metal band formed in Los Angeles, California in 1982. Since 1990, the band has consisted of John Bush on lead vocals, Joey Vera on bass, Jeff Duncan on guitar and the Sandoval brothers...

  • Fates Warning

    1 item

    Fates Warning have been a formidable presence in progressive metal for more than 35 years, helping to shape and drive the genre without ever compromising their integrity or losing relevance.

    They return in 2020 with Long Day Good Night, the most epic and longest album of their storied career.

  • The Ocean
    11 items

    The Ocean

    11 items

    Founded at the dawn of the millennium, the group of musicians helmed by guitarist Robin Staps shows no sign of slowing down even with over 20 years under their belt. Coming together around a shared vision of limitless sonic exploration and unrelenting heaviness, they gained a formidable reputatio...

  • King Diamond

    2 items

    King Diamond is a Danish heavy metal band formed in 1985 by vocalist King Diamond, guitarists Andy LaRocque and Michael Denner, bassist Timi Hansen and drummer Mikkey Dee. King, Denner and Hansen had recently departed the group Mercyful Fate, and decided to form a new band under the King Diamond ...