After this morning's news confirming that Roadrunner Records will be closing their UK, Canada and Germany offices, could this day go down in music history as the end of the road for metal fans across the world?
Looking at Roadrunner's impressive roster of artists, it's clear that the label was a pioneer in its support of an often misjudged genre, helping to define and popularise Metal and heavy Rock on a global scale.
Originally launched in 1980 in the Netherlands, the label opened US headquarters in New York six years later, continuing on to open offices in the UK, Germany, France, Japan, Australia, Denmark and China. The label had some notable early successes, including Metallica and King Diamond, who became the first artist on Roadrunner's roster to enter the Billboard Top 200 charts. But it wasn't until the closing of that decade that Roadrunner was really put on the map, thanks to two releases by Obituary and Sepultura (Slowly We Rot, Beneath The Remains), which are now considered seminal albums of their genres.
Type O Negative became the first Roadrunner band to receive a certification from the RIAA for their 1993 album, Bloody Kisses, which was certified in 1995. They also became the first Roadrunner band to receive radio play. More recently in 2000, Iowa-based band, Slipknot, became the first Roadrunner-backed band to go platinum.
So to celebrate the end of an era, let's take a look at some of the most iconic bands to come out of Roadrunner Records:
Slipknot's My Plague, taken from their 2001 album, Iowa:
Machine Head's Locust, from their latest album, Unto The Locust:
Metallica (one of The Big Four) performing one of their biggest hits, Welcome Home (Sanitarium), live in Canada from 2011:
Here's Megadeth performing Symphony Of Destruction live in 1992 in Italy:
Fire It Up performed live by Black Label Society form their 2005 album, Mafia:
Korn's Twisted Transistor from 2005:
As well as an extensive artist roster, Roadrunner Records has also been behind some of the best albums of the last couple of years, from some of the biggest artists including Mastodon's 2011 hit album, The Hunter and Slash's eponymous 2010 album and his forthcoming, highly anticipated release, Apocalyptic Love, which is due out on the 21st of May.
Goodbye Roadrunner Records, you've served us well!