Swing of the Blade follows Brian Slagel's critically acclaimed 2017 book, For the Sake of Heaviness, which offered insight into how Brian, a metal-obsessed teen at the time in California, built the revered Metal Blade Records label. Brian received requests from metal fans eager to hear more of his stories and metal wisdom, and the new book Swing Of The Blade lives up to this promise.
The foreword comes from legendary guitarist Kerry King of Slayer to help demonstrate Brian's much-loved and respected reputation in metal. Metal Blade Records was the first label to sign Slayer and was crucial to Slayer's early career.
The book offers fond memories of Brian looking back at his career and giving honest insight into running a music business and the realities of it, the good and bad. He is very straightforward and honest in his anecdotes which is refreshing.
One of the best things about the book is reading about the start of the LA metal scene in the early 80s, which Slagel helped shape massively and had a keen ear for the next big band or sound. He also gives more details about his longstanding relationship with heavyweight acts such as Metallica, Armored Saint, and King Diamond, as well as his immense love for Iron Maiden, which is interesting and humbling to read as well mentioning the bands he scouted that didn't manage to get who went on to become massive such as GHOST and TOOL or bands he couldn't take on at the time due to money such as Pantera and of course most notably Metallica. Although the label's first release was a compilation album called The New Heavy Metal Revue presents Metal Massacre and included Metallica amongst other bands. Metal Massacre originally came out on June 14, 1982, as a showcase for unsigned Los Angeles metal bands. It featured Metallica's first-ever recording, "Hit The Lights", so marks the pivotal beginning of Metallica's career. The seminal album was re-released last year as a special re-issue to mark the 40th anniversary of the label.
The book is especially interesting when focusing on the lesser-known acts that Metal Blade Records signed who aren't as big as they should be, such as Fates Warning, Cirith Ungol, Cryptic Slaughter and Armored Saint. It asserts Brian's passion and drive to make bands known, as it has the desired effect when reading about them. Also, you want to go and hunt down the bands, albums and tracks he is listing, whether you have heard them before or not. Armored Saint's story is particularly interesting to read about.
Swing Of The Blade is a great must-read for metal fans, offering an inside look into the business, the music, the scene in general and the passion and drive that has kept Slagel and Metal Blade Records an unstoppable and driving force in the metal world for four decades. It will make you want to revisit some of the past great metal releases mentioned or discover some acts you may have missed, which is very much in keeping with his mission.
Swing of the Blade: More Stories from Metal Blade Records was released 8/5/23 via Metal Blade Records.
You can buy the book via the Metal Blade Records site here:
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