Several classic albums from Metal Blade Records will be reissued by Vinyl Me Please as VMP Anthology: The Story of Metal Blade, an exclusive boxset that will document the development of the label throughout different points in its hard-hitting history. The boxset, which will be pressed on an 8-album, 9-disc set on 180g 2-colored splatter vinyl limited to 1000 presses, can be purchased here, with deliveries set to go out in May.
Founded in 1982, Metal Blade Records was integral in launching the popularity of death metal thanks to its impressive roster of artists such as Cannibal Corpse, The Black Dahlia Murder and Job for a Cowboy. The record has only grown since then, joining the RIAA in 2010 and gaining induction into the Hall of Heavy Metal History.
Several of the classics included on this compilation are GWAR’s America Must Be Destroyed, Cannibal Corpse’s Butchered At Birth, King Diamond’s Voodoo and The Black Dahlia Murder’s Miasma. The other records that will be collected are Amon Amarth’s Twilight of the Thunder God, Fates Warning’s The Spectre Within, Omen’s Warning of Danger and Armored Saint’s La Raza.
Butchered at Birth is largely considered to be the record that cemented Cannibal Corpse’s trademark death metal sound, departing from the more thrash sound of its predecessor while using lower, growled vocals. America Must Be Destroyed is GWAR’s third album and their second on Metal Blade Records, which had lyrics inspired by the group’s obscenity charges. Voodoo is King Diamond’s eighth album, and conceptually deals with a house near a voodoo graveyard during the 1930s. Miasma is The Black Dahlia Murder’s second studio album, which highlighted the band’s melodic death metal sound.
VMP Anthology: The Story of Metal Blade
1. Omen – Warning of Danger (1985)
2. Fates Warning – The Spectre Within (1985)
3. GWAR – America Must Be Destroyed (1991)
4. Cannibal Corpse – Butchered At Birth (1991)
5. King Diamond – Voodoo (1998)
6. The Black Dahlia Murder – Miasma (2005)
7. Amon Amarth – Twilight of the Thunder God (2008)
8. Armored Saint – La Raza (2010)
Photo Credit: Sharon Alagna