Combat Records or Metal Blade Records?

For the older guys, which record label did you like better growing up? Metal Blade or Combat. Make mine Metal Blade. I still listen to the majority of their classic roster. Personally, I believe if it weren't for Brian Slagel, soooo many bands may never have been signed that have totally influenced the face of metal today. Sad to say Slagel's turned Metal Blade into a bit of a joke these days.

To be honest, I had a hard time telling those labels apart back in the day. But the majority of albums I listened to were released under the Metal Blade moniker. I bought tons of albums based solely on the fact they were on that label.

I'd have to go with Metal Blade as well.Looking back through my collection lots of greats were released under them.

Hmmm... tough one.

Combat/Relativity had Savatage and Mercyful Fate, plus they released early stuff by a bunch of the Noise Records bands (Helloween, etc.) so I had quite a lot of those albums. They also released numerous goodies by Nuclear Assault and Scatterbrain to name just a few.

Metal Blade on the other hand had Slayer, Anvil, Heretic, Trouble, and countless other great bands on their roster at one time or another.

I guess it's a draw for me.

It's a draw for me too - if an album came out on either Combat or Metal Blade, they were must buys back in the day.

I never gave much thought to the record labels back then, so I don't know if I have any preference. If I were to take a look, I probably have more Metal Blade stuff but like Joker said, back in the day either label were usually "must-haves".

Metal Blade was one I was into early on. But Combat, Shrapnel, Megaforce, Noise were all great labels in the 80's. In the late 80's and early 90's, I purchased just about anything released on Intense Records, and most of the metal released on R.E.X. as well.

Let's not forget MegaForce Records (Metallica's KILL'EM ALL and S.O.D. to name just a few) and RoadRunner Records (which sucks now but had a killer lineup of thrash bands on their roster in the early days)

Shrapnel had a nice roster of shredders back then too. Was RoadRunner Records and RoadRacer the same company, just a name change at some point?

MetalGuy71 wrote:

I never gave much thought to the record labels back then, so I don't know if I have any preference. If I were to take a look, I probably have more Metal Blade stuff but like Joker said, back in the day either label were usually "must-haves".

Just comparing current & former artist lists on Wikipedia, I think I might have more Combat bands. Lotsa Megaforce too. Huh, who knew?

MetalGuy71 wrote:

Shrapnel had a nice roster of shredders back then too. Was RoadRunner Records and RoadRacer the same company, just a name change at some point?

They were always "RoadRunner" in Europe but I believe they named the U.S. division "RoadRacer" early on to avoid infringing on the (copyrighted) cartoon character name. Somewhere along the way they must've cut a deal with Warner Brothers and were able to drop the "Racer" and become "RoadRunner" worldwide.

It is almost a draw for me, both labels introduced me to so many bands, that I considered underground bands back then.

Pure Metal was another label in the 80's that I would purchase anything they released. I picked up Whitecross, Saint, Lightforce, etc.

ultmetal wrote:

Pure Metal was another label in the 80's that I would purchase anything they released. I picked up Whitecross, Saint, Lightforce, etc.

Yep - me too! Don't forget about Bride's early stuff was on Pure Metal, as was Tempest (Jamie Rowe of Guardian's first) and the awful Rosanna's Raiders.......

I never really knew about Combat as a child/youngster. Noise, RoadRunner and Metal Blade where the labels I knew about, and bought albums from. Oh, and Music For Nations.

Combat without a doubt. I was more into Bay Area thrash, and most of the bands from the Bay Area were on Combat - Forbidden, Exodus, Heathen, Blind Illusion, Possessed, etc. Combat also licensed most of the Noise stuff in the USA (Kreator, Voivod, Helloween, Deathrow, Celtic Frost, etc.).

Add Agent Steel, Forced Entry, Dark Angel, Nuclear Assault, Cyclone Temple, DBC, Death, Devastation, Megadeth and the crossover bands like Agnostic Front, Crumbsuckers, Ludichrist and The Accused, and you just can't go wrong.

I like quite a few Metal Blade bands as well, but they were more into the classic heavy metal sound than thrash metal. Some of the bands on their roster were also quite generic. I like Sacred Reich, Flotsam and Jetsam and Slayer a lot, but I prefer Exodus & Forbidden a lot more. ;-)

I guess I was into Metal Blade and Megaforce before Combat because I was into metal before thrash was really around. I remember getting the first Metal Massacre and being blown away by much of the music on that. Metallica, Ratt and Cirith Ungol all became favorites of mine from that compilation.

Probably MB because they had FATES WARNING.

I love that classic power metal sound so I have to go with MB but both had some great bands.

It's a draw for me. Both labels released so much great stuff it's really difficult to choose which was better.

Combat has that nostalgia factor cause you don't see much product around anyplace with that name on it anymore. If you do, it gets the heart pumping. You know you found something kewl.

Music For Nations had some great bands and quite the variety of styles.
Metal Blade gets a thumbs up for the Metal Massacre series but went downhill pretty quick (IMHO)

COMBAT by a mile! Combat only released one bad album, ever, in my book [Two-Bit Theif].

to be honest, growing up i don't think i had a preference between the two. looking back now, i'd probably say Combat though.

I don't know which label i had more albums from but it seemed like Combat had the better thrash stuff and Metal Blade was a mixed bag of metal. Combat was to thrash in the 80's that Victory records was to hardcore in the 90's.

My vote would go to Combat. I had lots of their releases back in the day!