Jimmy Kay from The Metal Voice recently interviewed Metal Blade Records founder and CEO Brain Slagel.
On the show they did a deep dive on the first two iconic Mercyful Fate albums and E.P., ‘Melissa’ and Don’t break the Oath, which have been re-released (as well as the rest of the MercyFul Fate and King Diamond Catalog on Metal Blade Records).
Also in the chat Slagel also gave an update on Mercyful Fate’s future recording plans.
Slagel was asked in the conversation about Mercyful Fate’s plans to record and release new music, he said, “So here are the plans. So there’s two (new) songs, one of which you know they’re playing in the set (“The Jackal Of Salzburg), which was supposed to be out prior to all of this (tour) but everything’s delayed. So the first thing is they’re going to finish up (that song) as soon as this tour is done. They’re gonna finish up that song, it’s mostly recorded and we’re gonna put that out to the digital people on the internet, so you’ll be able to stream that. I don’t know, sometime in the next few months so there’s that. They (Mercyful Fate) have another song they’ve written that’s also going to be out there as well, so there’ll be two Mercyful Fate songs out there. We’ll probably do some sort of vinyl thing with the two tracks as well. Then we’ll have a King Diamond album following that up and then we’ll go back to kind of the way we did in the 90s where the next record will be full Mercyful Fate album.”
Metal Blade Records continues its 40th Anniversary Celebration in 2022 with a slew of new events and a kickass exhibit. The fiercely independent label that launched Metallica, Slayer, Armored Saint, Cannibal Corpse, Amon Amarth, and dozens more iconic heavy metal bands, invites fans to live shows in Brooklyn, New York, and Las Vegas, Nevada, home to the Metal Blade Museum, a specially curated exhibit stocked with timeless memorabilia and artifacts spanning the label’s history, from 1982 through the present day. Metal Blade Records founder Brian Slagel will personally host the first tour of the Metal Blade Museum for 20 ticket holders at noon on Wednesday, July 20.
Metal Blade Museum Tour Las Vegas, Nevada Wednesday, July 20th, 2022 Metal Blade Museum Hours 12pm to 5pm (All Ticket holders who arrive at 12noon will get a Guided Tour by Brian Slagel)
Technical death metal merchants RIVERS OF NIHIL headline the first Metal Blade Records 40th show on August 6 at Brooklyn’s famed St. Vitus venue, with a DJ set from REVOCATION‘s Dave Davidson.
Only a limited number of tickets will be available to the public!
SACRED REICH, an integral part of the thrash movement still churning out classics on Metal Blade, tops the bill on September 17 at The Space in Las Vegas. A Metal Blade Records 40th show at the Las Vegas House Of Blues on October 5 will feature a major headlining act to be announced later this summer.
At these events celebrating the label’s history, Metal Blade will raffle 40th Anniversary swag bags. Fans can purchase celebratory shirts and other merchandise, including the “decade” themed tees launched alongside the Metal Blade 40th Playlists, collected here: metalblade.com/40thanniversary
Jimmy Kay and Alan Dixon from Canada’s The Metal Voice recently spoke to CEO and founder of Metal Blade Records Brian Slagel. In the interview Slagel spoke about the upcoming re-release of Metal Massacre Vol 1 on April 22, 2022 for the 40 year anniversary and provides an update on King Diamond plus a whole lot more.
When asked about which version of Metal Massacre Vol 1 will be released “It’s kind of the two versions combined into one basically, I’ve always wanted to do this. I thought it was going to be a nightmare to put together because back in the day we just did a 5 year licenses for the songs and we lost the rights for 35 years and I thought I don’t know if everybody wants to do it again. It took me two hours and I reached out to every band and they immediately said yes no problem we are in. It’s got every song that was ever on the original Metal Massacre Vol 1, both Steeler and Ratt. Metallica they used the second pressing (second song) the one without Lloyd Grant on it. We are only doing it on Vinyl cause I wanted to keep it to close to its roots cause all we did was vinyl 40 years ago and we are only doing 7000 (copies) of them. I wanted to make it really special and limited. “
When asked about how he included Metallica’s original song ‘Hit the lights’ on the original Metal Massacre Vol 1 compilation “The Michael Schenker group played a venue called the Country Club in Reseda, Los Angeles, California on December of 1980. Which I found out later everybody from Metallica to Armored Saint were there. All the bands were at that show even though no one knew each other. So I was there with my good friend John Kornarens who basically helped me with the fanzine and the compilation album. So after the show John sees a kid in the parking lot wearing a Saxon European T shirt. Now in 1980 nobody in L.A. knew who Saxon was let alone would be wearing a European T-shirt. So John runs up to the kid and says where did you get that shirt? And the kid (Lars) said I just moved here from Denmark two weeks ago I didn’t think anyone knew who Saxon was and John said no no we are totally into it, my friend Brian and I are really into it so you got to meet him. So a couple days later I don’t remember if it was his house or my house but Lars, John and I got all together and started going crazy over the NWOBHM. Lars moving here from Denmark didn’t think he would know anybody, he didn’t think he would find any friends who were into the scene, so we all became friends because of that. So fast forward to a year and a half later so I am putting together this compilation album (Metal Massacre) and Lars called me up and said hey if I put together a band can I be on the record? I said sure we need bands on the record why not. So I guess the story was he and James (Hetfield) recorded everything and then Lloyd Grant played the lead and that was the original ‘Hit The Lights’. So they brought me a cassette tape at the very last minute, it almost didn’t make it on the record. Lars was probably an hour away from not getting it on time. So they brought a cassette and it cost $50 dollars to bump it up to Quarter inch tape and none of us had the money. Luckily John Kornarens had 50 bucks so he paid the 50 bucks and Metallica ended up on the record. And I didn’t hear it (the Song) until later, the recording wasn’t great but the song was pretty decent.”
When asked about any updates on a new King Diamond album “I had a really good conversation with King Diamond the other day, and he’s working on both King Diamond and Mercyful Fate. I might have heard a demo or two that sounded really, really good. I don’t know when either of these records are gonna come out, cause King likes to do things at his own speed but I was very happy with what I’ve heard so far. So hopefully everybody will be pretty happy. But there will be a new King Diamond record, I’m hoping, in 2023. And there will also be a new Mercyful Fate record sometime soon.”
At the brink of the 80’s, LA was cementing itself as the rock ‘n’ roll nucleus of the United States. A longtime fan of the local rock scene, Slagel spent many nights inside LA’s locales seeking out the most authentic, heaviest, unique bands to hit the West Coast. Alongside friend John Kornarens, the two split the Metal Massacre project in half – Slagel responsible for artwork and mastering facilities, while Kornarens secured a studio to make the record. “We were using the Yellow Pages a lot, total amateurs navigating the record like a high school project,” adds Kornarens. And that compilation was the foundation of Slagel’s METAL BLADE RECORDS, one of the premiere heavy metal record labels of all-time.
This year Metal Blade Records is celebrating their 40th Anniversary! To celebrate such a huge accomplishment they will be releasing a limited-edition vinyl “Metal Massacre,” out April 22nd.
Metal Massacre Volume 1 Track Listing 2022 Re-Issue: SIDE ONE: 1 – STEELER – “COLD DAY IN HELL” 2 – BITCH – “LIVE FOR THE WHIP” 3 – MALICE – “CAPTIVE OF LIGHT” 4 – RATT – “TELL THE WORLD” 5 – AVATAR – “OCTAVE”
SIDE TWO: 1 – BLACK ‘N BLUE – “CHAINS AROUND HEAVEN” 2 – CIRITH UNGOL – “DEATH OF THE SUN” 3 – DEMON FLIGHT – “DEAD OF THE NIGHT” 4 – PANDEMONIUM – “FIGHTING BACKWARDS” 5 – MALICE – “KICK YOU DOWN” 6 – METALLICA – “HIT THE LIGHTS”
Yesterday (March 5th), Metal Blade Records and BMG have released the audio book edition of For the Sake of Heaviness: The History of Metal Blade Records – written by label founder and CEO Brian Slagel with Mark Eglinton, and featuring a foreword by Metallica‘s Lars Ulrich. Read by Brian in his own casual and informal style, this new audio edition of For the Sake of Heaviness is an inside look at how he built Metal Blade from a one-man operation in his mom’s non-air-conditioned garage to the preeminent international home of heavy music that it is today.
Throughout the story, Brian steps aside to present first-person insights and extended guest interviews featuring friends, colleagues, Metal Blade staffers, and a long list of artists, including Metallica‘s James Hetfield, Slayer‘s Kerry King, King Diamond, and many more. Each of these segments is performed in the audio edition by John Bush of Armored Saint.
To purchase the audio edition of For the Sake of Heaviness, please visit: amazon.com
In Summer 2017, Metal Shock Finland’s CEO/Founder and President Tarja Virmakari had a pleasure to interview (for Truemetal.it) BRIAN SLAGEL, talking about his book “For the Sake of Heaviness: the History of Metal Blade” in detail. In case you missed it, check it out HERE!
METALHEADS FOREVER, one of the biggest metal entities out there (having today more than 102000 members), led by David Maloney, have posted online the September 2017 issue, featuring interviews with ALPHA OMEGA Roster acts FUELED BY FEAR and F.WAY alongside interviews with Metal Blade‘s BRIAN SLAGEL(done by Tarja Virmakari from Alpha Omega Management/Metal Shock Finland/Truemetal.it). See the direct links below. The September issue includes also the interviews with OVERKILL, BELPHEGOR, ENSIFERUM, EXODUS, several reviews and many more!
On August 29th, Metal Blade Records and BMG released“For the Sake of Heaviness: The History of Metal Blade Records” – written by label founder and CEO Brian Slagel with Mark Eglinton, and featuring a foreword by Metallica‘s Lars Ulrich. Celebrating the storied label’s 35th anniversary, “For the Sake of Heaviness” is an inside look at how Slagel built Metal Blade from a one-man operation in his mom’s non-air-conditioned garage to the preeminent international home of heavy music that it is today.
On August 3rd, Metal Shock Finland‘s CEO/Founder and President Tarja Virmakari had a chance to interview (for Truemetal.it) BRIAN SLAGEL, talking about his book “For the Sake of Heaviness: the History of Metal Blade” in detail. See below the list of main topics. Join the conversation below, enjoy!
To read the interview on Truemetal.it, in Italian, go here.
The main topics of the interview:
(0:20) Now that the book is written, what are your feelings?
(1:14) When was the moment you decided to write it with Mark Eglinton?
(1:55)The name of the book: “For The Sake of Heaviness” is the song of Armored Saint…
(2:29)Lars Ulrich wrote in his foreword: “When you tell the story of Brian Slagel and chart the course of Metal Blade Records, the three words that come to my mind are loyalty, consistency, and dependability.” How do you respond to his definition?
(3:20) Reading the book, it’s clear that you really live what you do! so the passion is your real life-style, philosophy! But please tell me, was there a moment that you just wanted to give up and change the direction?
(5:03) How important was the work of the talent scouts? You tell in the book that often you went to gigs, looking around for new bands, who played live, after a hard work and long time they had spent in the rehearsal rooms. While today anyone can record a demo with the simple computer intake and softwares…
(6:47) Talking about different metal genres, I think now-a-days it’s pretty difficult to categorize some bands, also because new sub-genres are born nearly every day, but to your opinion, is it so important today to stamp the bands under the specific styles?
(8:44) Your personal favourite sport has always been ice hockey, and you’ve had some many great opportunities to put it together with metal, would you like to tell me some of your greatest memories?
(11:20) Metal Blade has been involved in almost every movement that has happened in heavy music since 1982. You havent really followed any mainstream trends, but you’ve singed the bands that you like, despite their music style or what the others think about them. Is this the leading guideline for the success of Metal Blade?
(13:29) Also your mother’s role in all this was very important…
(14:28)I’m part of Alpha Omega Management, and as Bill Metoyer is part of our team, too, I just have to ask about him and his contribution… you also mention him several times in the book.
(16:09) you wrote: “it’s unrealistic to hope that you’re going to hit the board with every dart you throw. That’s not going to happen, but I’m a firm believer in the idea that, to be successful, you’ve got to keep throwing the darts.”
(17:39) To your opinion, where is the record business going?
(20:51) “For the Sake of Heaviness: The History of Metal Blade Records” comes out On August 29th, what will happen the day after?
(21:38) With the exclusive box-set, besides the book, there’s also a music casette including great songs from the Metal Blade history! The choice to put them on a handwritten casette was something that tells a lot of your “old school” passion.
(22:40) A classic question (honestly this one comes from my 12-yrs daughter): if you would find yourself stuck in a desert island for a month, which 5 albums or things you would take with you?
(23:40) What is your message to all those bands out there whose dream is to become “somebody” and who would want to be signed by Metal Blade?
To order “For the Sake of Heaviness: The History of Metal Blade Records”, please visit: smarturl.it/mbr35th – where an exclusive box-set is available, with the following contents:
–For the Sake of Heaviness: The History of Metal Blade Records book
–For the Sake of Heaviness cassette
–Metal Blade Records 35th anniversary bookmark
–bookplate autographed by Brian Slagel
* box dimensions: 9.375″ x 6.375″ x 1.25″
See below for the For the Sake of Heaviness cassette track-listing:
SIDE A
1. Fates Warning “Guardian”
2. Lizzy Borden “Lord of the Flies”
3. Omen “Holy Martyr”
4. Cirith Ungol “Black Machine”
5. GWAR “Gor-Gor”
6. Cannibal Corpse “Stripped, Raped, and Strangled”
7. Six Feet Under “War Is Coming”
SIDE B
1. Mercyful Fate “Egypt”
2. King Diamond “Voodoo”
3. The Black Dahlia Murder “Funeral Thirst”
4. Unearth “Black Hearts Now Reign”
5. Amon Amarth “Twilight of the Thunder God”
6. Visigoth “From the Arcane Mists of Prophecy”
For the Sake of Heaviness pulls back the curtain to reveal the definitive look at how Metal Blade began, what they’ve accomplished, and where they’re going. Slagel reveals the early advice he gave that helped guide Motley Crue‘s career; how he helped Metallica replace their bassist – twice; his detailed work on Thin Lizzy and Alice Cooper re-issues; his behind-the-scenes role in the careers of Slayer, GWAR, Mother Love Bone, Alice in Chains, Faith No More, Goo Goo Dolls, and Lamb of God; and his unlikely ventures with kindred metal heads – from hockey star Ken Baumgartner, to celebrity chef Chris Santos, to The Howard Stern Show‘s Richard Christy, to comedians Jim Florentine, Don Jamieson and Jim Breuer.
Metal Shock Finland (World Assault ) 