BraveWords.com's Top 30 METAL BLADE Releases Of All Time - #30
January 16, 2012, 12 years ago
To commemorate the fine 30th Anniversary of metal’s most venerable and storied label, Metal Blade Records, the writers of BraveWords.com have gotten their metalheads together and come up with a list of the Top 30 coolest, most legendary, rockingest, most influential, most deserving of fame and notoriety, releases founder/CEO Brian Slagel and crew have issued since forging the fire way back in mom’s garage in 1982. As has become tradition ‘round here, we are presenting them – through January and February – in reverse order, leading eventually to the penultimate slab of iron ever to carry an esteemed Metal Blade catalogue number.
By Mark Gromen:
Might seem strange, with all the folk/pagan/Viking bands out now, but at the dawn of the new millennium, their numbers were few. In a year dominated by TOOL, SLIPKNOT and SYSTEM OF A DOWN, could anything be a more far afield surprise than Swedes (formed after throwing in the towel with MITHOTYN) playing tales of medieval life at a galloping pace, all told via the world class vocals of Mathias Blad (who’s in fact sung in Broadway-styled repertory companies)? Even today, when most, if not all the lyrics are in their native tongue, hook-laden melodies still catch the ear as easily as they did on this debut.
#30) FALCONER – Falconer (2001)
