XXX - Three Decades Of Roadrunner Records

Roadrunner Records is an American record label that concentrates primarily on metal bands. It is a subsidiary of Warner Music Group. It is based in New York.

The label was launched in 1980 in the Netherlands. Roadrunner's initial business was importing North American metal-band recordings into Europe. In 1986, Roadrunner opened its US headquarters in New York and later opened offices in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Japan, Australia, Denmark, and the latest in Canada.
Early successes included albums from King Diamond (the first Roadrunner artist to enter the Billboard Top 200 albums chart) and Annihilator. The label also handled early Metallica releases in the Scandinavian region. The end of the 1980s saw the release of two albums that are now considered classics of their respective genres: Obituary's Slowly We Rot and Sepultura's Beneath the Remains.

The 1990s saw the arrival of acts such as Life of Agony, Machine Head, Suffocation, Type O Negative, and underground grunge rockers Willard. As the 1990s wore on, several of Roadrunner's bands managed to make an impact on the mainstream, most notably Sepultura and Type O Negative. Sepultura's 1993 album, Chaos A.D., became the first Roadrunner band to crack the Top 40 on the Billboard album chart. Type O Negative became the first Roadrunner band to receive a certification from the RIAA; this was a Gold award (and later Platinum award) for the 1993 album Bloody Kisses, which was certified in 1995.

The band also became the first Roadrunner band to receive radio play. In 2000, Slipknot became the first Roadrunner band to go Platinum. Nickelback were also very successful on the label (except they were on another label at home in Canada). Derek Shulman ran the label in the late '90s.

Beginning in 2001, Roadrunner was distributed by the Universal Music Group through a share of the label owned by The Island Def Jam Music Group. This deal has now expired.

On December 18, 2006, Warner Music Group signed an agreement to purchase a majority in shares (73.5%) of Roadrunner Records' parent company, Roadrunner Music Group B.V. This deal became finalized on January 29, 2007 after receiving regulatory approval in Germany.

On June 11, 2008, Roadrunner Records was voted as the "Best Metal Label" by Metal Hammer at their Golden Gods Awards, an award that it has won the past four years in a row. The award was accepted by Sharon Den Adel and Ruud Jolie of Within Temptation, one of Roadrunner's biggest acts.

However, Roadrunner has also been accused of being a label only interested in current or trendy alternative music, reflected by their roster of mainly popular and metalcore acts. The most notable example of this is the treatment of the main death and thrash metal bands on Roadrunner's roster throughout the 90s including Obituary, Deicide, Death, Gorguts and Pestilence who were either dropped or left the label after ill treatment.

One of the earliest names on the label, King Diamond (who was originally signed to then-Roadracer with the legendary Mercyful Fate before embarking his solo act), left the label due to alleged lack of promotional support for the 1990 King Diamond release, The Eye. Type O Negative left Roadrunner in 2006 following a dispute over the label releasing a "hits" compilation, The Best of Type O Negative, without prior notification to the band, which led them to accept a more appealing offer from SPV Records.

In 2008, punk cabaret chanteuse Amanda Palmer was told by the label that they wanted to re-edit her video for "Leeds United" to make her look slimmer, causing a firestorm on the Internet from fans. On April 6, 2010, Palmer announced on her Twitter account that Roadrunner had dropped her. The most recent complaints about Roadrunner have come from one of the label's biggest bands Megadeth.

Roadrunner Records was significantly affected by Warner Music Group's legal dispute against YouTube, including having their account's YouTube partnership canceled. Most of the videos on their channel, however, are still viewable. There is even a disclaimer talking about Warner's dispute right on the channel.

On November 11, 2010, Warner Music Group announced they had acquired the remaining of Roadrunner's stock. Roadrunner will continue to operate as a distinct brand within WMG, according to sources. Cees Wessels, the label's founder, remains CEO.

On April 26, 2012, it was announced that Warner Music Group were to make substantial cutbacks throughout Roadrunner Records worldwide operations. According to staff working at the company, The UK offices and the Canadian offices of Roadrunner Records are to be closed completely, with severe levels of cutbacks occurring across the rest of the label worldwide. It has also been announced that the Roadrunner office in The Netherlands is to close, and that the label's founder Cees Wessels is stepping down from his role of CEO.



Participating Bands

36 Crazyfists ‎
Airbourne ‎
Annihilator ‎
Biohazard ‎
Black Stone Cherry ‎
Brujeria ‎
Carnivore ‎
Cavalera Conspiracy ‎
Chimaira ‎
Coal Chamber ‎
Cradle of Filth ‎
Cynic ‎
Death ‎
Deicide ‎
DevilDriver ‎
Dog Eat Dog ‎
Down ‎
Dream Theater ‎
Fear Factory ‎
Glassjaw ‎
Gojira ‎
Hatebreed ‎
Heaven & Hell ‎
Ill Niño ‎
Jerry Cantrell ‎
Karma to Burn ‎
Killswitch Engage ‎
King Diamond ‎
Korn ‎
Life of Agony ‎
Lynyrd Skynyrd ‎
Machine Head ‎
Megadeth ‎
Mercyful Fate ‎
Murderdolls ‎
Nailbomb ‎
Nickelback ‎
Obituary ‎
Opeth ‎
Porcupine Tree ‎
Roadrunner United ‎
Rush ‎
Sepultura ‎
Slipknot ‎
Soulfly ‎
Spineshank ‎
Stone Sour ‎
Suffocation ‎
The Dresden Dolls ‎
Theory of a Deadman ‎
Treponem Pal ‎
Trivium ‎
Type O Negative ‎
Whiplash ‎



XXX: Three Decades Of Roadrunner Records (2013)



Disc 1: Foundations

01 - Mercyful Fate - Evil
02 - Whiplash - Power Thrashing Death
03 - King Diamond - Abigail
04 - Carnivore - Carnivore
05 - Obituary - Slowly We Rot
06 - Annihilator - Alison Hell
07 - Deicide - Sacrificial Suicide
08 - Suffocation - Infecting The Crypts
09 - Biohazard - Punishment
10 - Type O Negative - Christian Woman
11 - Brujeria - Matando Güeros
12 - Cynic - Veil of Maya
13 - Life of Agony - Through And Through
14 - Treponem Pal - Excess & Overdrive



Disc 2: Horns Up

01 - Nailbomb - Wasting Away
02 - Machine Head - Imperium
03 - Dog Eat Dog - No Fronts (Jam Master Jay's Main Edit)
04 - Death - Crystal Mountain
05 - Sepultura - Roots Bloody Roots
06 - Coal Chamber - Loco
07 - Soulfly - Eye For An Eye
08 - Fear Factory - Shock
09 - Slipknot - Spit It Out
10 - Spineshank - New Disease
11 - Chimaira - Pure Hatred
12 - 36 Crazyfists - Bloodwork
13 - Ill Nino - What Comes Around



Disc 3: And Metal For All

01 - Killswitch Engage - My Last Serenade
02 - Trivium - Pull Harder On The Strings Of Your Martyr
03 - DevilDriver - I Could Care Less
04 - Cradle of Filth - Nymphetamine Fix
05 - Hatebreed - Destroy Everything
06 - Cavalera Conspiracy - Inflikted
07 - Roadrunner United - The Dagger
08 - Porcupine Tree - Fear of A Blank Planet
09 - Dream Theater - On The Backs of Angels
10 - Opeth - Heir Apparent
11 - Megadeth - Head Crusher
12 - Down - Witchtripper
13 - Heaven & Hell - Bible Black
14 - Gojira - L'Enfant Sauvage



Disc 4: Rock For The Ages

01 - Nickelback - Side of A Bullet
02 - Jerry Cantrell - Anger Rising
03 - Stone Sour - 30,30-150
04 - Karma To Burn - Ma Petite Mort
05 - Glassjaw - Pretty Lush
06 - The Dresden Dolls - Girl Anachronism
07 - Airbourne - No One Fits Me (Better Than You)
08 - Murderdolls - Dead In Hollywood
09 - Theory of A Deadman - Bad Girlfriend
10 - Black Stone Cherry - Lonely Train
11 - Korn - Get Up! (Featuring Skrillex)
12 - Rush - Headlong Flight
13 - Lynyrd Skynyrd - Still Unbroken




Genre: Others
Subgenre: Heavy-Hard Rock-Death-Groove-Thrash-Core-Nu
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Added: 13/11/2014