chantel nouseforaname’s Reviews > For The Sake of Heaviness: The History of Metal Blade Records > Status Update

Talk about no gatekeeping! Just pure shameless promotion for the love of it, to help the thing you love grow. I love the discussion about how Brian Slagel signed death metal band Cannibal Corpse. Pretty awesome.

When Metallica released Master of Puppets in 1986 and went on the road opening for Ozzy, you could tell they were going to be a monstrous band. … It absolutely exploded. It was no longer a case of there being a bunch of struggling bands playing in their own private underground echo chamber. The metal scene had become something very significant.

Metal Blade was kicking ass and taking names in the metal scene and had no budget. I respect the hustle. I feel like there’s a lot of quiet subtext present on how much of an influence Latin Americans had on various forms of metal coming out of Cali in the 80s/90s Tom Araya & Slayer being one of the best selling, most discussed & most innovative. Brian Slagel is humble and realistic about the reach of small labels.