 It's gonna go Yes, okay We are alive on the metal voice with the metal blade records CEO founder president You know me and Alan we know we've always talked about the East Coast with Johnny's Azula over the years But you know, we I think we always needed to have you Brian on the show It's that missing link, you know a metal that we needed to and I'm really happy that we're speaking to you today, right Alan We have to say yeah, and say congratulations to a the 40th anniversary of metal massacre Coming out April 22 or limited edition vinyl now Is this the is this the original metal massacre with with the Lloyd Grant playing on hits a ladder Is this the the later version? Well, it's a it's a it's a different version It's kind of the two versions combined into one basically I've always wanted to do this and I thought I was gonna be a nightmare to try to put together because obviously We back in those days. We just did five-year licenses for the songs and we you know lost the rights for 35 years I thought you know, I don't know if anybody's gonna want to do it again And it took me two hours and I reached out to every band and they immediately said yes no problem We're in and then you know, obviously we talked about talak and they're they were of course in and they said hey Can we do an additional 2,000 copies just for the Met Club? Only so like of course and we had to go back to the bands again and they all said yes So it's fun. So it's it's actually It's got every song that was ever on the original metal mask So it's a both stealer and rack a stealer left after the first two pressings I guess and then rat and then Metallica they use the the second Pressing as well, which was the one with the without Lloyd Grant on it But that's what they wanted to use. So I said whatever you guys want to want to use It's all fine with me obviously and black and blue, right? Black and blue. Yep. Yep. So yeah, everybody everybody's all Is this gonna be released? This is the first question I got is this gonna be released on CD or strictly on vinyl? So we're only doing it on vinyl. I wanted to kind of keep it to its roots basically, which was just a All we did was vinyl obviously in 40 years ago and just sets and and those things came a little bit later And we're only doing well, I guess there's only 7,000 of them I wanted to make it really special and super limited So I think they're I think the mail order is all gone. I know the Metallica version sold out in two hours So but what is available is there are some in stores in both Europe, Canada and the US So go to your local record store and hopefully they still have some copies left How many versions were there the original metal massacre? I got up to volume five But there may be six even I was there anymore after that or how many were there in total? Yeah, we've we've done over the years. We've done 13 of them We kind of stopped at metal master 10 because at that point Basically, there were a million labels and bands were getting signed and the whole idea in the first place was to get give bands some sort of You know ability to be heard so we stopped it then and then a few years later a couple of guys who worked for us Said hey, why don't we bring that back because there's a whole bunch of new bands that might not be able to get signed So we've done a few since then You know, it's interesting we're from munchie all the Quebec region and you know Def dealer was on metal massacre later on Voie vaude, of course, you know, and we know the stories and we know the guys so to us It's kind of like we've come full circle here But I don't want to talk about those bands today Maybe we'll talk about it another time, but just let's talk about the bands It's sort of propelled into the stratosphere versus the ones that never really quite took off on metal massacre Malice, let's throw a malice right off the bat. Here's a great American power metal band Queens, right ish, right? Tell us about that signing and and these are all demos. Everybody should know these were the demos. They are so cool Yeah, so basically there was just the scene going on in LA that nobody knew existed because this is obviously Years before the internet or cell phones or anything So, you know, I was a big fan of metal obviously I was working at a record store in LA and finding out that there were all These really cool metal bands around LA. So I decided to put together a compilation based on Kind of the independent mode that the new wave of British M&M metal had going on So these are just mostly my friends. I was friends with balance. I was friends with bitch I was friends with brat. So I'd seen all these bands around around LA And when I of course went to them, I said, hey, you know, we can get give me a song We can put it on the record And so with malice, we actually we needed an extra song because there weren't enough songs to really make a full record at That point. So they were nice enough to give me two songs So, yeah, so it was pretty fun really good guys. It I've talked about this a lot, but you know, it's kind of a bomber. I people always ask like why didn't this band become bigger, right? And you know, a lot of times it's just the wrong place at the wrong time the wrong label You know, a lot of bands that happened in the 80s, especially the heavier bands Went to these major labels who didn't really know what to do with them They just thought well metal is a big thing now and Motley Cruz sells a lot of records So we should find some metal bands and that unfortunately didn't go too well for a lot of bands that were not named Metallica or Slayer or exits So how many how many pressings were the original copies, how many pressings to do a total well So here's the way it went. So of course, I've had no Qualms about opening a record label. I think I would see that guy kid with a Fanzine and then we're gonna record store. So I didn't intend to be a record label. So I was able to scrape together Enough money to make 2,500 copies which immediately sold out and the next week all of the distributors are saying we need more I go, I don't have any money. So you guys pay me. I can't make any more. I don't have any money So one of the distributors and company named Gem, which was based in Cal in Los Angeles came to me and said Hey, we'll license it from you and we'll put it out. We'll put it out on on our thing. All right, so sure big mistake So I gave them the rights. They changed the cover That's why you see the silver cover with just the metal mask on and that's that the gem version of it I have absolutely no idea how many they sold because they never gave me an accounting and then they went bankrupt So I have no idea It could be 5,000 it could be 10,000 it could be 15. I have no idea So so we got the reds back from that and then put out the the classic metal masquer cover and Put you know put all the bands on it that that was the one where black and blue came in instead of Steeler and Put that out and I think we did. I don't know between CDs cassettes and vinyl. We had it over the years We probably did about 30,000 copies of it Maybe so there's there might have been at the most maybe 50,000 between all the different formats You know, I love these like, you know young guys with the dream and putting it together have no idea what a record label is I'm sure even publishing right you didn't understand back then or licensing or well. I didn't even have a lawyer For that the very first metal masquer. There were no contracts or anything So we had a guy who was working above the record store who was just starting out as a lawyer And he came down and said hey bring out this record. Do you have any of these bands under contract? Oh, no, so I can't afford a lawyer said well, I'm just starting out I'll be your lawyer for a very minimal fee I said, okay, so he became our lawyer and then we had to go back and you know get these bands to sign contracts That was kind of where Steeler went out because they had a bunch of stuff going on and they didn't feel the time They but they wanted to be on the second the second one So and the funny story about that is that lawyer is still our lawyer He's been our lawyer the entire time and he now represents One of the biggest producers in the world which big and danger mouse and you know whole whole bunch of huge artists and stuff But he still is still our lawyer. So so he has had a huge amount of success as well You know you like you said you're starting trading heavy metal cassettes and the parking lot of capital records Then you had the fancy new heavy metal Review then you started your own record company like looking back like I mean Is there anything you say, how did I ever have the truth but I go and do all this like you know 100% I But it was you know, we were just all so big fans of the music I had zero talent to plant instruments So I figured well the only way I'm gonna be able to help is do something behind the scenes So I actually thought because I went to I did really well in English in school and and I did a lot of Those sort of journalism classes and whatnot So I thought I was gonna be a journalist because I was writing doing the fans and I was also writing for Karang in the UK And I did some stuff with sounds in the UK so I just thought it was gonna be be a journalist and then this all of a sudden this record thing comes out and One of the distributors came to me and said well We know you don't have any money, but you seem like you might know what what you're doing We'll give you a pressing a distribution deal Which means that they would manufacture the records which I could do then I had to go to the bands And say if there's any way you can record something I can put it out, but I don't have any money to give you so you're kind of on your own and that's where it all started So yeah, I Back then we were just all such huge fans of the scene and just so we do it We wanted to everybody wanted to do whatever they could to make to make it bigger So with zero Thought that what we'd be talking about it 40 years later It was truly bliss, I guess You know what and things haven't really changed because me and Alan been doing this for 11 years Just promoting the bands and you know promoting the gigs promoting the records. So it's always been medals always been a Driven by the fans right the guys who are running the show the infrastructure will call it Has always been the fans and it still is and it still is right Everybody that's why I love the the metal world so much because everybody's fans the bands are fans The people working the labels are fans the people that do all the stuff that you guys do are fans like everybody in the scene Are fans so it kind of makes it you know a whole lot of metal family We're we're all in it because we love the music and you don't really see Really, there was a time in the 90s where There were some people involved that didn't really know what they were doing But that's thankfully all pretty much gone now and everybody that's involved Loves the music. So it's great Okay, I need you to connect. Okay. I'm sure you've answered this question Thousands of times in your book the metallica thing When I hear these stories And I didn't read your book. Just just I haven't I would like to read your book, but I haven't read it yet. Okay Um, and by the way, everybody pick up brian's book Thank you It's it's what is it called metal blade or it's called for the sake of heaviness I stole an armored st. Sloan title because I thought it was cool And it's it's a long time for the sake of heaviness the history of metal weight records history Okay, pick it up Now metallica. Here's this young guys you go. I have a oh toddler torii says hi brian. Oh cool Todd's a regular on our show. I just How's the tour? Um, tell us about the metallica thing here. It just it just blows my mind. I've heard about this and I read about this How do you promise like a band a piece of space a real estate on an album and you haven't even heard the album They didn't even have a song song song. Yeah, so so it's it's still to this day every time I tell it's still such a crazy story So the michael shaker group played a venue called the country club in receipt of california The summer of los angeles in december of 1980 which we found out later like everybody from metallica Armored saying like all the bands were all that show even though nobody can reach So I was there in my good friend john cornerance who was basically, you know The other guy helping me with the fanzine and also with the compilation album So he after the show he's in the parking lot. He sees a kid wearing a saxon european t-shirt now in 1980 Nobody in la knew who saxon was let alone would be wearing a european t-shirt. So john runs up to the kid Said where'd you get that shirt? He goes. Oh my god. You know who saxon is and I go Yeah, I said I just moved here from denmark like two weeks ago I didn't think anybody knew who saxon was like, no, no it totally into it My friend brian and I are really into it. So you got to meet him So a couple days later. I don't remember if it was his house or my house But lars and I and john all got together and started Just going crazy over the new wave of rich heavy metal because lars You know moving here from denmark didn't think he'd know anybody Didn't he find any friends that knew what was going on with seeing his big music fans So so we all became obviously fast friends because of that So fast forward to a year and a half later or almost two years later, I guess Well, yeah, you're so I'm putting together this compilation album and lars Called me up and said, hey, if I put together a band, can I be on the record? So make sure we need back the record. So we need Why not? So So I guess the story was he and james had jammed a couple of times, but nothing really was happening So when lars came back to him and said, hey, we can get a record in 1981 82 being on a record was a pretty big thing. So they got together and the three of them Uh, well the two of them Recorded everything and then Lloyd Grant we mentioned earlier played the lead and that was the original hit the lights And so they brought me Literally typical lars brought me that a cassette tape Uh, the very last minute he they almost didn't make it on the record because he was Probably about an hour away from from it not getting there in time because we had everything all set up to go So they brought a cassette and then we didn't it was $50 to bump the cassette to bought to a Quarterage tape And none of it had the money. Luckily John Cronarans had 50 bucks. Thank you. So he paid the 50 bucks Metallica ended up on the record and that I didn't hear it until you know later That that's what blows my mind. Right. It just blows my mind And I was like, wow, this is actually it's actually I mean the recording is that great, but the song actually is pretty decent. Yeah Did you and they went on they went on to do okay, I think Well, I just want actually this is the connection I want now so they're They're on metal massacre. They're getting they're picking up steam, right? At what point did you say, you know what? I want to work with these guys or I'm going to hand them off to Zuzula I know then they created that tape, right Yeah, so so yeah, so they they created the no life to leather demo, which I'd seen them live a couple of times I thought they were actually pretty good. I was like, well, this is a lot better I thought it was going to be and actually my aforementioned friend John Cronarans came into the record store one night Said hey, I got a cassette of a new band. I want to play but I'm not going to tell you who it is Trying to guess, right? So he plays me this cassette. I'm like, this is really good. I had no idea who it was I said, this is that's it. That's Metallica. Oh my gosh. These guys are really good So obviously, you know, I wanted to work with them and they wanted to work with me But none of us had any money and this is still in the early days when I had no money or no chance to get money So they came they came at one point said, hey, we've got an offer We can go record a record in a studio here for $10,000. I said, well, that's nice I don't even have $1,000. So $10,000. So So that never happened and then, you know, they did a new bass player So that then trauma was on metal massacre two, which was Cliff Burton's band And I'd seen them play in LA once and the band wasn't great, but he was incredible, obviously And so Lars again said, hey, we we want to get another bass player because we love Ron McGovney But you know, we need a god better, you know, they're getting better as musicians So I guess they felt they needed to upgrade it. So I mentioned that I mentioned Cliff to them and they came and saw Cliff And of course, you know what happened there and then they moved to San Francisco And that's when Johnny Z got ahold of the tape and was like, hey, if you guys can get to New York I can record the record and they asked me, I said, look, I I still can't record it So if you got a chance to record a record, go go do it You know, it's a whole grassroots movement like you had the west coast Johnny Z was working the east coast We had bonsai records right here in Montreal There was neat records overseas music for nations, you know, metal blade records have been around for many, many years now What was the sequence of metal blade compared to some of these other labels that just kind of fell by the wayside? Well, I think a couple of things First of all, we never I never sold it to anybody else And that, you know, some of those other labels like, you know, Roadrunner is another example You know, they sent sold the Warners and, you know, once you sell the company becomes a whole different animal So so I've never done that nor do I want to ever do that And I think we've also we've also embraced change And it's one thing I learned really early on because I I made the colossal mistake of when vinyl was going away And every time he stopped making vinyl, I was like, no, no, vinyl is never going to go away. I can't stop making it So I kept making it like an idiot and then one day Basically all the record stores in the world pretty much decided they were going to ship all the records back And you got to remember at that point the music business was still a consignment thing So I had to I got all these records back. So I actually owed our distributor a hundred thousand dollars Which of course I didn't have So, you know, we worked out a deal where we would pay it back over sales and stuff But I had to I had to basically run the company for about six months on credit cards So I got every credit card I could possibly get because they couldn't get a loan or anything back then So I did that. So that was a huge mistake. So I said, I'm not ever going to do that again So whenever there's something new or different or something happening, even even the tape trading thing, you know We we learn to embrace that and use it for For good or for positive for for us and the same thing with streaming and everything else So I think we've tried to stay ahead of the curve in terms of that sort of stuff the technological stuff and then obviously I'm just really lucky that the bands that I like and our staff likes other people like so You know, because it's just it's just stuff that we like So we've just been lucky to be able to to still be relevant, you know, 40 years later, which is pretty insane Which are the bands that you said that you had the opportunity and I guess money We played a big factor back then that you said, you know what? I would have loved to work with these guys, of course Metallica Or maybe there was a band that you did have the opportunity, but you go, maybe I just maybe they won't work Yeah, so that was there's a couple of them. Um But the the main one was Pantera Yeah So I used to do a radio show Z rock used to be this big radio station in in Dallas, Texas They became national for a while and And uh, you know, they were they were pretty big for a little while So I I knew the guy and still do know the guy that runs it. He now runs hard radio calm But anyway, so he would let me go down to Dallas and just basically sit on the air for as long as I want and play Whatever I wanted to which was super fun for me So this was in Dallas. So the Pantera guys would always call it And this is when they had the different singer and they were more of a kind of pop metal band Which wasn't really my style super nice guys So they got so they obviously got fill in the band and then they were managed by concrete management Who were very good friends of mine? Our our new york office was in their office for years and years and years and we did a lot of stuff They did the foundations forums and all this sort of stuff. So they were managing Pantera So they came to me and said Hey, uh, we have this Pantera record. Would you like to put it out? I said, uh, Yeah, after I heard it said well, yeah, but they needed a lot of money Um, a lot, you know, like like not huge amounts, but for the 90s, you know, close to like a hundred grand I think it was and I have even we were at Warner Brothers at the time and we even then I was like, oh I like this record. I like the I like you guys, but that's a lot of money to risk So I decided not to do that Which was probably a pretty big mistake But they went out again, they went on to be okay. So I don't could only do what you could only do that I hurt them in any way Yeah, yeah, yeah Was there any bands that you thought would be the next greatest thing and and for some reason it just didn't pan through that you signed? Yeah, I mean, look, there's a lot of You know, there's a lot of bands that we've had on the label for a long time that I always thought would be a lot bigger Uh, you know the armored saint fates morning, uh, lizzie borden, you know So many bands, but when I look back on that sort of stuff Uh, you know, I like to look at things more like a Like marathon than a sprint. So well, none of those bands became, you know, have gold records or anything like that They've all still been making music and making music for a long period of time It's still making really relevant good music now So and they're, you know, making good money off of music and able to survive And so I think that while it would have been great for one of those bands have a big Gold or platinum record might have completely changed the course of of how they became a band later on so So I I learned to to embrace that now back at the time you get there. I was very frustrated by A lot of that stuff because you know, it's out of your control. It's like, why didn't that happen? It's just you just you just don't know so and then the 90s hit And all the the other stuff happened and you know, we kind of knew that writing was on the wall for some of these Records that came out and in the early 90s Yeah, all right. Let's go through some the some some of the songs on metal massacre one And just quick little stories rat tell the world You know, so yeah, so let me just preface this when I put on this album when I heard it a long long time ago That was always the track that stood out for me because of steven pierces Tone, you know that unique tone, but go ahead Well, rat was an interesting band because they started off really heavy Like they when I first time I saw them I saw the first la show I ever saw was motley crown rat at the troubadour on a wednesday night for a dollar And rat was really heavy. They were like judas priests. They're all wearing black leather and they had the twin guitars And I think jakey lee was even in the band at that point So they were pretty heavy and then You know when I was putting the record together, you know motley because motley was originally going to be on that record I was doing a ton of stuff with motley at the time But their managers came to my mom's house and sat on her couch and said, hey, we have 900 motley crew records What do we do with them? So I go hey take him to this distributor green world who was our distributor and they'll they'll help you out So again, if I would have known now what I knew then So rat was just in they were in our world. They played, you know Bitch and rad and malice and omen and savage grace all these bands all played together I remember one show A place that I was booking called the valley west supper club, which was in tarzana california It was like right where I live right near where I lived I liked booking shows there because they didn't have to drive all the way to hollywood But bitch was headlining and a rat was opening and we were talking to robin cross be after that show He goes, man, you know, we just can't we just can't attract enough fans and it's just frustrating to go dude You're gonna be fine. You're gonna be okay. So so they obviously went on to to do a dude amazing thing. So And it's fun to still be friends, you know Stephen piercey was has been really phenomenal in this whole process really helpful and and Really happy to be a part of it. So it's been great It's obviously, you know, great seeing all their success Was their song on before they released their ep or was it during or after? I think it was right before Because the ep came out right after that again on green road because I didn't know what I was doing or how anybody It's always back to that, isn't it? Right? It's that's just life. That's just like it's all right. It's all good And I get I was surprised to see black and blue on here because for me That was something like mid 80s and instead of the early 80s for some reason in my head and I'm only in the same thing Yeah, you know, they were they were part of our scene in in that in that world. We all knew each other We all hung it we used the Betsy Betsy from bitches Mom's house was the epicenter of everything back then and all the bands after going to Hollywood and seeing shows We'd all end up back there and they were just, you know, super good guys and they again They were you know, the early stuff was pretty heavy for for for black and blue It was only kind of later when they got side of the major label to the major label saying, ah, you know It's now so they kind of switched it up and I mean that scene kind of went in two different directions Really, it was like there was you know in the beginning everybody was kind of pretty heavy and pretty metal And then motley kind of took that turn a little bit to the right to the more commercial end and then, you know rat and Black and blue and pandemonium and a bunch of other bands kind of followed that way and then you armored saint Bitch side kind of went the other way. So it's kind of interesting What about bitch Betsy Yeah, they were they were my Oh, sorry They you know, here's the first woman really back then before you know, like more of a metal right a metal Woman female fronted band will say right and who could forget that album cover All right So they were they were you know, probably my closest friends back back then her her boyfriend was the guy His name david caruth and he would come into the record store all the time and buy You know buy music. I just knew him as a customer. I didn't know he was a bad I didn't even know there were any bands playing in la And I think he was the one that first told me said, you know, there's bands playing in la metal bands playing in la So there are I had no idea So that's when I went to saw you know rat and my crew and start seeing bitch and these other bands And so they were my close close friends and still are And I was so frustrating because that's another band that we thought should have been a lot bigger than they were I mean they're they were doing something different. Their show is crazy. You have female fronted lead singer Very sexy all this sort of stuff But but we ran into all these these obstacles that you know, you think you think about today, but It's like, you know having a woman fronted heavy metal band back then was kind of not really what anybody wanted to see It was made it made it very difficult for them And then the name bitch Like we couldn't get them played on the radio back then because you at that point in the early 80s You couldn't say bitch on the radio So that's why eventually we put out a record called Betsy trying to work that into things But it didn't quite work out. But but great people and they're still bitches still out there kicking at playing shows today Yeah, I think she played with Thor and in california. Yep What would be some of the challenges, you know, like you said you started off small room in your mother's house You were the ar guy you were the covers designing the covers Looking back. I mean, would you be able to do that today? Oh, absolutely. Well, absolutely not Excuse me. Um, yeah, you know, I was just back then, you know, I don't think any of us thought about anything I was working 17 18 hours a day every day doing everything but it wasn't an incredible Learning experience, you know, just doing all that stuff Everything from the promotion to the pressing to, you know, it was a one-man label really for three years So I did it but I did learn so many things doing that And I learned way more the first year just working doing that sort of stuff and I learned into how many ever many years I was in school So it was fun. It was back then it was just fun. None of us thought of it as work Or chores or anything. It just was fun. The whole thing was super fun and the scene was fun And it was fun being able to work with my friends who, you know, put out records And it wasn't until kind of the late 80s when things got got a little bit more business-like that it became Still fun, but not quite as much fun Are you planning on doing the more of these metal, masker volume releases every year? You know, I don't know Like I said, I never thought that this one would be we'd be able to put this together And it was so easy that it is kind of interest It's kind of crossed my mind now that we might be able to do some more It's a little trickier though because on this the first one I still knew all the band So it was really easy for me to reach out to everybody and get be able to get the rights On some of the subsequent releases, there are some bands that have been gone for, you know, 30-some odd years I don't know how to get ever find them to to to get the rights back because we'd have to get the rights back to everything So it's crossed my mind. So maybe we'll do a best of metal masker. So I don't know. We'll we'll see We'll hook you up with deaf dealer. Don't worry. We'll hook you up I'll put you in touch Um, go ahead Alan. Sorry I don't know. I mean that again, look you lived the dream that we were hoping to have and because of you Because you did we were able to share a lot of music here and you know your influences worldwide because of these signs that these contacts you had And again, like you said, they're all your friends at the time and they grew into these these great popular bands So Yeah, well, thank you guys for supporting it because obviously it's not for guys like you then, you know, the nobody's gonna hear it So, uh, I appreciate all that and yeah, it's still it's still fun today And it's still the same way like all these bands are all really really good friends of mine I'm the reason I'm why I'm here in Dallas is that I went to see the 40th anniversary metal blade tour with cannibal corpse wide chapel Orification they played in new york when it was snowing. So I'm like, I'm not doing that And they played in la at a venue that I really can't stand because it's not a really great place to see it That's why I came down here and I've seen the cannibal guys once they played psycho fest In august of last summer. So I saw them briefly There but I haven't seen the wide chapel or vacation guys in two and a half years And I haven't been on a tour bus in two and a half years. So walking on a tour bus was so weird It's like, wow, this is because that's normally what I do I'm you know seeing the bands and hanging out on tour buses and it's like, wow, it was pretty crazy But it was good to see all those guys. They're all all All the bands in the labor are label are all friends and that's uh, kind of a fun thing about it What do you remember about bunzai? Working with michelle niece and uh in rock on stock remember more rock on stock. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah I was there I was there quite a few times Yeah, you know that was back in the early days when obviously we only had distribution really in the us And we didn't have anything in in other territories. So when bonsai came up and said, hey, we have distribution in canada Would you want want to license some of your records? I said, sure same thing with music for nations in In england and roadrunner records and in the rest of europe So and then we reciprocated where we did things like deaf dealer and some of the stuff that he put out We would license for the us. So so it was a it was a cool relationship for for quite a long time It got a little I think I got a little weird at the end Yeah, yeah, I mean look, I always I always like michelle. He was a good guy I went to I've been to montreal, you know first few times I went to montreal was with him there, obviously So um a lot of fun and you know, he he provided a great service back in the day Yeah, that's nice. We were there every friday night. That was uh, that was our Thing back then every friday night. We'd be at that record store with all the latest A lot of metal blade bands were there with the album covers and He just didn't have enough money to buy more than one at the time and You had to choose so like the carefully is I guess Same same here that was always a struggle was like I have 20 bucks. I can only buy one record Which one do I buy now for 10 bucks a month? Do you get this anything you want? Yeah, that's right Here's a great question from k-man. He goes, what are the hardest challenges running a label in 2022? I've been neglecting all these questions coming in here But because we're on, you know, what are the biggest challenges for running a label in 2022? Well, I mean, there's a lot of things obviously, um, you know navigating probably the biggest challenge now is navigating the The actual market of physical product because the you know the the stuff that goes through the screaming services Is easy to just put it up there and it streams and it does its thing But now as we kind of transition into more streaming and less of the physical product We have to be very careful how much physical product we make because we don't want to make too much of it And we also don't want to make too little of it So because it's same thing with the especially cds. It's a consignment thing So if we make 30 000 cds and we should amount to all the stores and the stores decide that they don't sell Or they don't like them or whatever they can ship them all back and we got to you know Eat all that money. So so we got to be careful doing that. I think we've gotten pretty good at that The vinyl thing is is fairly easy just because it's such a huge medium now And it's so difficult to get vinyl made because of all the pressing plan issues and everything else So so that really no matter what we do we sell out of all that so But the physical the other physical stuff is tough and also You know just making sure that that the bands have whatever they need and they're happy and all that sort of stuff So how about some uh, again, you know, you don't have to say anything Maybe some spoilers of stuff that are coming up with metal blade But again, we can leave that up to the bands. I don't know if there's anything that you'd like to promote or well Yeah, I mean the the two things that I get asked about all the time are king diamond and merciful fate with the earth So um, one of the reasons I have an apartment here in dallas is to work with king Of course, which I haven't been able to do in person for Two years now, but a really good conversation with him the other day And he's working on both king diamond and merciful fate I might have heard a demo or two that sounded really really good Uh, I don't know when either of these records are going to come out Uh, because king king likes to do do things at his own speed It's like, hey, whatever whatever works for you is totally fine with me But I was very happy with with what I've heard so far. It's so hopefully everybody's pretty happy and obviously You know merciful fate is doing A bunch of festivals this summer but knock on wood As long as they don't get canceled, uh, and then by also playing psycho fest in in las vegas, which I think Will definitely be the only u.s. Date. There's a possibility. There could be a canadian date somewhere along the line here, too But but we'll see so so those are the things that ask I guess asked about all the time But there will be a new king diamond record. I'm hoping in 2023 and there will also be a new merciful fate record sometime soon ish When you walk into king's home, is it like You know, is it just is it weird or is it candles and or is it just a regular home? No, I mean it's funny because I've known him for so long and he's Again another dear dear friend of mine that you kind of you kind of forget about that sort of stuff But there's definitely some he's got some stuff He recently moved into a really nice new house that that's more his More his more suits his personnel a little bit more kind of looks like a big castle almost But he's got a lot of really cool stuff in there And you know, I've been into his house so many times now I don't really even think about it. But if you bring other people to his house for the first time, you know He's interviewing managers and stuff and he's got so many crazy stories about things artifacts there I always kind of forget about that stuff But it's it's a little bit of what you would think it would be like but it's also a very normal House, so it's not it's not like the entire house is black with all sorts of crazy stuff But there's there's definitely some some trinkets around pretty cool. Yeah You know, I Andy LaRocque come friends with him and he gave me this shirt when I met to see him And I met King and I have to say this about King Diamond He didn't have to talk to me. He actually stood there had a conversation with me Just like that just a normal conversation And you know, he's such a really nice guy and he's very smart and just great person Yeah, I agree a hundred percent when we first started working with him You know people didn't know what to make but I had a couple people say like hey be careful He's he's he's tough to deal with I mean, I knew him but just knew him as a friend He seemed like a nice guy to me. I mean, he's rarely ever had any problems with him. He's he's great And and he does he does he does enjoy the art of conversation So I do I do know if I see him calling that I have to make sure I have plenty of time available Because he likes to talk he did he did my friends that metal show with the Eddie Trump Jim quarantine and Don Jameson And I was the one that kind of broke King Diamond being on there there and Eddie asked me or one of the guys asked me So you get is he gonna be okay to talk? He's gonna be able to talk. I said, oh, don't worry You have a nice you have a nice long segment to be good King is the best for myself I was just standing there. Just I want to I want to end with this sound I was like standing here King's talking to me all I could think of myself King diamonds talking to me King diamonds talking to me King diamonds talk Because you know, I love King Diamond Was he in makeup or or not and he was in makeup too. Yeah So that's the only time that's the only time he gets weird when because I know him as king Obviously, so it's kind of weird when you talk to him in makeup. It's a whole like, whoa, this is kind of different Yeah, it's cool. It's cool. I'm just wondering if there's any fates warning That's one of my favorite side things on your label if there's any news for fates warning or archmethias Yeah, so um, obviously fates warning put out put out their new record in the pandemic And they were not able to tour that record yet. So there will for sure be a world tour when those sort of things are Easily happening again Uh, there will eventually be another archmethias record which of course makes me very very happy because I mean, I'm a huge fan of john arched. I'll always have bends. He's Another wonderful human being but also just an incredibly talented guy And actually I have a second book coming out and I talk a lot about fates warning in that book It's kind of a deeper dive into a lot of the bands and there's an extensive talk with john arch about About, you know, his stage fright and why he got out of the business and stuff But but he still sounds amazing and there definitely will be another record I don't know when it's another one of those things where I'll let jim and john figure it out Whenever they're there whenever they're ready, but john But both john and jim did confirm at some point there will be another one But for fates warning probably going to be a little while before there's another record Just because that one came out again during the pandemic last year and they've got a tour it So I would imagine you're probably looking 2024 maybe something something like that So all right book. What are we talking about a new book? When's that coming out? Yeah, so, um, I was Really blown away and humbled by the reaction to the first book because you know, we're not write a book It's like, I don't know what you kind of put yourself out there It's like, you know, I don't know if we're gonna like it or hate it or whatever And the overwhelming response has been so positive. I was I've really absolutely blown away at no No idea. So then, you know, people kept asking me. Hey, what about a second book? I really thought about that one was hard enough But a lot of people wanted a deeper dive into Into some of the smaller bands like a band like death dealer or another great canada band sigh Um, so they wanted a deeper dive into a lot of that stuff And plus, you know, I wanted to to have more stories about you know, my friends Like i'm on a marth and cannibal corpse and fates warning and armoured saint and all that sort of stuff So I've written the book the book is done And this little thing they'll call the pandemic is kind of mess things up in a couple of ways. Number one We couldn't really put anything out for a while because the book market was not great during the pandemic And number two, there is a crazy paper shortage Oh So and so the books the book has been done for almost a year and it's still not going to come out until May of 2023 Because of the paper Come to Canada. We got trees, man. Right. Right. And we had to like secure the paper as a whole So, yeah, so 2023 2023 we'll definitely have to have you on when it comes out. Oh, please do. Yeah. Yeah any time I guess the last question would be armoured saint Any any sort of tidbits news spoilers Oh gosh, um, again, you know, some of my oldest and dearest friends Love all those guys. So there, you know, again, they put out a record during the pandemic that did really well And I think one of the best armoured saint records that they've ever done Win hands down and john bush who is definitely in my top 10. Maybe my top five all-time Metal singers just sound so great on that record Excuse me. Sorry scientists mayhem in march here. Um March madness for scientists for me, but um, yeah, so they've got to they've got to go out and tour But they're going to go out and tour if you if you don't know, they're doing a big tour with wasp That's the end of this year. Like I believe in october, which kind of recreates the original metallica wasp armoured saint tour that happened in 1983 I think it was so that'll be super fun It'll be really good to see those guys go out and do that and you know, there's There's definitely more armoured saint music coming. I mean, it's probably going to be a couple of years, but Definitely, I know that during the pandemic. I guess the one one of the silver linings Was that every band that is in existence was spending the pandemic writing music And a lot of the stuff I've heard From bands that wrote music during the pandemic is all very heavy and you know, a great example That's the new volbeat record, which I love. I always like volbeat this new records It's a really heavy record because people are angry. They're stuck at home and they're Not happy or whatever So, uh, so we're gonna get a lot of really good creative angry heavy metal in the next couple years. I think Symbol I can't pronounce the name symbol to stun a game asks. What about Eric Wagner? Is Eric Wagner on metal plate? I don't remember. Yeah, so yeah, so the first three trouble records were all on metal plate They they have the rights to two of the back. We still have the rights to one of them. So, yeah Again, those guys were all really good friends of mine and and Eric was such a really sweet nice guy I had a really great conversation with him in Europe at health fest Whenever the last time skull played there It's like I I can't remember time frames now because this whole two years this first for me I might have been five six years ago But I hadn't seen him for a while. So we we sat had a had a chance to sit down I mean just chatted for about an hour an hour and a half and Such a really good sweet dude and incredibly talented. It's really was was shocking, you know to hear what happened to him so Rest in peace Eric Wagner one again up just a One of the you know early metal great singers of all time for sure All right, so on the last I go ahead Alan. Sorry. I'm just I was just We're almost out of time. We're just wrapping up I mean we've got tons of Metal blade artists coming up the east coast the next two months Make sure you check them all out. They're like you said they some of their strongest materials have been released for these tours And I just want to say congrats again on the 40th anniversary and everything you've done and uh Many many years to come Thanks. Yeah, let's hope so. Let's hope so April 22nd pick up your vinyl edition of metal massacre. Hopefully It won't be on backorder, right because of vinyl delays or anything like oh, no Well, we only we only make 7 000. That's it. Okay So I wanted to give it really special for everybody. So I'm afraid what the aftermarket's gonna look like but you know It is what it is. Okay. Well, brian a pleasure to have you on you're welcome back anytime to promote whatever you want to promote It's great speaking to I'd love to dig Into the past even more in the future and that's it. That's pretty much it many last words Yeah, well again, thanks to you guys for having me on I appreciate that literally any time you want Just let me know and obviously thanks to everybody that's out there Obviously none of this would have ever happened if we didn't have the support of everybody out there So I'm very appreciative for all that and very thankful for everybody Supporting the label for 40 years now, which is still kind of crazy. Amazing. Amazing. All right. Thank you so much everyone Thanks for tuning in. Thanks brian. Thanks guys. Appreciate