Your journey into metal may have started last week, last year or in the last decade, but you will almost certainly have come across the Roadrunner label within that time. Arguably one of the most important, and certainly one of the largest metal labels, their roster reads like a who’s who of mainstream metal, and the chances are that you have at least one Roadrunner CD in your collection (and probably many more) no matter what genre of metal you love. The last time Roadrunner celebrated an anniversary it was their twenty-fifth and the label did it in style, bringing together what must surely be one of the largest lists of metal artists ever in order to record a selection of new tracks under the auspices of four ‘team captains’ (Rob Flynn, Matt Heafy, Dino Cazeres and Joey Jordinson) – an unprecedented (and remarkably successful) venture that yielded a fine album and at least three unassailable metal classics in the process.
For the label’s thirtieth anniversary, the affair is a touch more predictable, being a career-spanning, four disc box set, but it is a timely reminder of just how many amazing careers Roadrunner has launched. Divided into four neat sections: ‘Foundations’, ‘Horns Up’, ‘And metal for all’ and ‘rock for ages’, the box set peers into each and every corner of Roadrunner’s bloody history whilst endeavouring to provide the discs with some form of continuity and, for the most part, the task is achieved successfully. Priced at a wallet friendly £19.99 (at time of writing), the packaging is not as exciting as it could be – this would have been a fine opportunity to present fans with a book of rare pictures and reminiscences – but for the price you’ll not find a better mix of metal to chug beer and bang your head to.
Disc one is titled ‘Foundations’ and this is where it all began. Roadrunner started here, and no matter how far the label may have stretched the notion of metal (Nickelback, Junkie XL), the label’s opening gambits were auspicious indeed. Boasting tracks from metal titans merciful fate (‘evil’), long lost thrashers Whiplash (‘power thrashing death’), early metal super-group Brujeria (‘Mantandos Gueros’) and goth-metal legends Type O Negative (‘Christian woman’), the first disc demonstrates exactly why Roadrunner became such a powerful force. Just hearing the creepy sample that introduces Biohazard’s ever-green classic ‘punishment’ is enough to send shivers down the spine, whilst the likes of Obituary and Deicide make as strong a case for American death metal as you could ever wish. This disc is likely to prove the highlight for old school metallers and it is fair to say (most unusual for a compilation) that there is not a single poor track in sight.
Disc two, ‘horns up’ charts Roadrunner’s uneven course through the nineties and naughties, highlighting the label’s dalliance with nu-metal and electronica-charged oddities, and it is here that the set is likely to prove rather more divisive. Some of the label’s most enduring artists reside here with the likes of Soulfly, Fear Factory, Sepultura and Slipknot all rubbing shoulders; but also here you’ll find the lest lauded likes of Coal chamber (albeit with the amusing hit ‘loco’), Spineshank and Dog eat dog, the latter band’s annoying mini-hit ‘no fronts’ somewhat incongruously following Machine Head’s near-unassailable ‘imperium’, with the result that the disc is somewhat uneven in style and pace. For those of a certain age, the music found here is the sound of long summers between 1993 and 2003, but for others it is a powerful reminder that heavy music became deeply fragmented during that long decade and Roadrunner’s judgement, as often brilliant as it was, was capable of faltering. For me the disc is largely an enjoyable nostalgia trip, but it is certainly one where you’ll want the skip button close to hand.
Disc three, ‘and metal for all’ shows how Roadrunner emerged from the metallic recession that was alternative rock and nu-metal to become stronger than ever. Heavily focusing on the label’s recent successes, here you’ll find tracks from Porcupine Tree (‘fear of a blank planet’), Dream Theater (‘on the backs of angels’), Opeth (‘heir apparent’) alongside cuts from Megadeth, Gojira, Trivium and even the aforementioned Roadrunner United project. If disc two was a bit of a mixed bag, disc three more than makes up for it by delivering a crushing reminder of the label’s current roster and the emphasis on expanding into the realms of progressive metal. Certainly not for the faint of heart, disc three is possibly the most exciting disc here, and it demonstrates just how far roadrunner have come over the years.
Disc four, ‘rock for the ages, is another disc where the skip button may well come in handy. Detailing the label’s various experiments it underscores the notion that Roadrunner are hardly afraid to experiment, but it also contains some of the label’s most controversial signings. Here you’ll find tracks from Korn’s dubstep influenced album, ‘the path of totality’ (the Skrillex-infused rampage ‘get up’), a selection of dusty classic rock and classic rock wannabes (for the former you have Rush and Lynyrd Skynrd; for the latter Black stone cherry and Airbourne) and even a clutch of inexplicable signing decisions (Nickelback and theory of a deadman) to remind you that Roadrunner are not infallible. This is the only disc where the genre hops distractingly as the likes of Dresden Dolls are shoehorned in between Glassjaw and Airbourne, whilst Korn’s eclectic antics do little to endear themselves to rush fans at the tail end of the disc. There is still plenty to enjoy here, but it’s sequenced in a way that suggests this was the disc upon which all the artists no one really knew how to categorise were dumped and it is unlikely to get as much airplay as the other discs in the set.
Overall ‘XXX’ is a fine listen that details Roadrunner’s many strengths as a label. Risk-takers, Roadrunner singed numerous bands over the years whose commercial prospects looked grim, only to provide them a stable home and a lengthy career against all the odds. Acts like Fear Factory, Sepultura and Machine Head are all going strong to this day, whilst of the acts that have fallen by the wayside, many produced classic albums during their tenure with Roadrunner. The box set also, perhaps unintentionally, shows how Roadrunner lost their way in the nu-metal years, leaning too far towards that genre at the expense of other signings, but how it came back stronger, and more eclectic than ever with a strong progressive edge to its signing decisions. With that in mind, the second disc is certainly weaker than the first and the third, although for many longer-standing fans the second disc does offer a trip down memory lane, recalling metal’s brief dalliance with the charts (remember that year when ‘Iowa’ somewhat remarkably hit number one in the UK?) and the subsequent fallout when it became apparent that a large number of metal bands had forgotten how to write guitar solos. The fourth disc is something of a curio and it is hard to imagine anyone playing this disc on a regular basis thanks to its inconsistent nature and the inclusion of Nickelback, but even here there are gems to be found and it does much to demonstrate the wide and inclusive nature of Roadrunner’s tastes. With thirty years of experience, Roadrunner have, perhaps more than any other label, done much to make metal a household name, and what is arguably the most remarkable aspect of this box set is that most metal fans will be familiar with the majority of (if not all) the names here, highlighting the label’s enviable success ratio. Thirty years? Hell that’s young! Long live Roadrunner, and with luck we’ll be here in another thirty years celebrating the label’s continued growth and good taste.
Disc 1 – FOUNDATIONS
1. MERCYFUL FATE “Evil”
2. WHIPLASH “Power Thrashing Death”
3. KING DIAMOND “Abigail”
4. CARNIVORE “Carnivore”
5. OBITUARY “Slowly We Rot”
6. ANNIHILATOR “Alison Hell”
7. DEICIDE “Sacrificial Suicide”
8. SUFFOCATION “Infecting The Crypts”
9. BIOHAZARD “Punishment”
10. TYPE O NEGATIVE “Christian Woman”
11. BRUJERIA “Matandos Güeros”
12. CYNIC “Veil of Maya”
13. LIFE OF AGONY “Through and Through”
14. TREPONEM PAL “Excess and Overdrive”
Disc 2 – HORNS UP
1. NAILBOMB “Wasting Away”
2. MACHINE HEAD “Imperium”
3. DOG EAT DOG “No Fronts (Jam Master Jay’s Main Edit)
4. DEATH “Crystal Mountain”
5. SEPULTURA “Roots Bloody Roots”
6. COAL CHAMBER “Loco”
7. SOULFLY “Eye For an Eye”
8. FEAR FACTORY “Shock”
9. 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
1. KILLSWITCH ENGAGE “My Last Serenade”
2. TRIVIUM “Pull Harder on the Strings of Your Martyr”
3. DEVILDRIVER “I Could Care Less”
4. CRADLE OF FILTH “Nymphetamine Fix”
5. HATEBREED “Destroy Everything”
6. CAVALERA CONSPIRACY “Inflikted”
7. ROADRUNNER UNITED “The Dagger”
8. PORCUPINE TREE “Fear of a Blank Planet”
9. DREAM THEATER “On the Backs of Angels”
10. OPETH “Heir Apparent”
11. MEGADETH “Headcrusher”
12. DOWN “Witchtripper”
13. HEAVEN & HELL “Bible Black”
14. GOJIRA “L’enfant sauvage”
Disc 4- ROCK FOR THE AGES
1. NICKELBACK “Side Of A Bullet”
2. JERRY CANTRELL “Anger Rising”
3. STONE SOUR “30/30 150”
4. KARMA TO BURN “Ma petite mort”
5. GLASSJAW “Pretty Lush”
6. THE DRESDEN DOLLS “Girl Anachronism”
7. AIRBOURNE “No-One Fits Me (Better Than You)”
8. MURDERDOLLS “Dead In Hollywood”
9. THEORY OF A DEADMAN “Bad Girlfriend”
10. BLACK STONE CHERRY “Lonely Train”
11. KORN feat. SKRILLEX “Get Up!”
12. RUSH “Headlong Flight”
13. LYNYRD SKYNRD “Still Unbroken”
