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METAL BLADE Head Honcho Says Heavy Metal Is Poised For Second Coming

September 6, 2007

Brett Johnson of VenturaCountyStar.com reports: After 25 years as a key player in the heavy metal scene, Metal Blade Records head Brian Slagel thinks that the genre is poised for a second coming like the one he helped launch in the 1980s.

He can also report that one of his label's stalwarts, the band GWAR, no longer throws uncooked hamburger at its audiences.

"No raw meat, but they still have plenty of liquids," Slagel said.

Slagel would know; he saw GWAR play in Louisville, Ky., two days before this mid-August interview at the independent label's Simi Valley headquarters. Before the week was out, he was off to Europe tending to business affairs there.

Slagel, 46, is still busy poking fingers in the metal pie even as current events — the label's 25th anniversary tour kicks off tonight in New Orleans — offer cause for a pause or two to reflect on bygone salad days.

They were something; Slagel's saga might be one of the genre's best shoestrings-to-success stories. He's widely credited with giving METALLICA its first big break; heck, he was hanging out with Lars Ulrich before the band ever existed. Slagel also worked with SLAYER, RATT, MÖTLEY CRÜE, the GOO GOO DOLLS and others before those groups became big.

Today, Metal Blade is still considered an important part of the genre. It has called Simi Valley home since 1993 and now has offices in Germany and Tokyo. Slagel counts 53 bands, including overseas acts, on the label's active roster. Last week, the label scored a Top 10 hit on the Billboard 200 album chart with AS I LAY DYING's "An Ocean Between Us". The disc sold 39,000 copies to debut at No. 8.

Read the entire article at VenturaCountyStar.com.

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