Metal Blade Records history by Dan Slessor:
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.

What perhaps makes this achievement all the more notable is the fact that Slagel never even intended to start a label. Working in an LA record store and writing for various publications, Slagel was acutely aware that many great bands in the local metal scene were being ignored, and he decided to release a compilation of tracks drawn from these ranks. "There were a lot of really good bands and I was just bummed out that nobody could hear them. It just seemed like I could help them out and have some fun at the same time, and that compilation was the first Metal Massacre," he states. Collating tracks from then unknown bands including Ratt, Bitch, Cirith Ungol, and Metallica amongst others, the compilation sold out immediately. "How important is Metal Blade to our career? They're only the reason we are enjoying the worldwide success we have today," states Metallica's James Hetfield. "Without Brian's openness to some raunchy teens with a crap sounding cassette tape we would be who knows where, and playing who knows what!" With the popularity of the tape spurring Slagel on, the first seeds of Metal Blade were sown. "After the success of those compilations I just started putting out records of bands that I was friends with, but without ever really intending it to be a label at all," he explains. "After I put out four or five releases I started to feel like something was happening, and I decided to quit the record store and quit college and see where it went."

Battling through the first few lean years, when the label consisted solely of Slagel working out of his mom's poorly ventilated garage in the San Fernando Valley, it gradually grew in both revenue and stature. Within a few years Metal Blade would go on to release the debuts of Slayer, Armored Saint, Trouble, and Corrosion Of Conformity amongst others, fanning the flames of the burgeoning metal scene and launching careers of bands that would go onto reap global success. "Without Metal Blade, there is a damn good chance we never would've made it out of L.A," says Slayer's Kerry King. "That was the one bit of luck we needed. You can be the most awesome band on the scene, and if no one notices you, you don't catch on. And Brian Slagel is still one of the biggest metalheads I know!" This genuine love and devotion to metal is central to the relationship many of the artists have with Metal Blade, and King Diamond credits much of its relevance and strength to this passion. "I refer to it as having 'boots on the ground'," the mighty Dane states. "It's not like a major label where some people might be into what you're doing but a lot of them just see it as a job – there's a genuine love for metal there. Through staying true to that and doing their own thing they've carved out a very specific niche that they control, and as an artist it's wonderful to be a part of that."over the years. Clearly without those people we couldn't do what we do, and to everyone out there who has helped us along by being a fan we are so very grateful to you."

Read more: http://www.metalblade.com/us/about-us/

Eli “Paperboy” Reed is a survivor. He’s been making Soul-inspired music since before it was cool and tearing up stages all over the world with his heart-stopping falsetto screams for close to a decade. From humble beginnings outside of Boston, at 18 Reed moved to Clarksdale, Mississippi and cut his teeth playing in juke joints all over the Delta. From there he took the well-trod path to Chicago where he spent a year as minister of music in a Southside church. Soon after returning to Boston, he was bit by the songwriting bug and released his first full length, “Roll with You” in 2008. The world began listening. Soon there were calls coming in from everywhere; television shows in the UK, festivals in Australia, and a jaw-dropping schedule of national and international tour dates. Major label deals were signed and his star kept rising, now with the help of song placements in major movies, television shows and commercials. The albums “Come and Get it” (Capitol) and “Nights Like This” (Warner Brothers) went on to do more than $2.5 million in total licensing, while Reed and his crack band continued to wow audiences on five continents. Now, after some much-needed time off from the road, Reed has returned to the studio and crafted a new album that is at once back-to-basics and startlingly current. “My Way Home” represents a return to the sonic character that Reed’s career began with, but it does more than that: It captures the essence of his sound. A sound that, over everything else, prizes feeling, energy, and, yes, Soul. 

I am NO CARRIER, founding artist, Severus Records label www.severusrecords.com

I would love to work on videogame music one day.

Music is life.
CONNECT.

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NO CARRIER, an electronic music experimentation project, traveling along the blurry lines of electronic music.

Started in late 2010 and has produced many tracks in less than a year. The project started out as a fork from two members of an alternative rock band that decided to use the studio hours to plug in laptops and make some noise.

NO CARRIER uses Audacity(r) the free, open source, cross-platform software for recording & editing sounds
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Equipment and Software:
Machines, Computers, Controllers. Audacity.

From Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Feel free to visit http://www.beatport.com/label/severus-records/43445 and http://www.beatport.com/artist/no-carrier/433989

Revolver USA is a music distributor. We sell independent label digital downloads, CDs, vinyl, DVDs, magazines, books, and related items to stores all over the world and to other distributors, as well as direct to consumers via our Midheaven Mailorder division

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For North/South American Bookings: Trey@billions.com
For UK/Europe: Steven@toutpartout.be

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