Historically, the record label is seen as a governing body of cigar-chomping starfuckers who want to neuter your album in the name of their bank account. Not so much with heavy metal labels – like all grassroots movements, metal is a culture built and nurtured by its fans, who learned early on that a world frightened and contemptuous of their favorite art wasn’t going to help them publish it. As such, most metal-centric record labels are the babies of metalheads themselves, inspired by punk’s DIY ethos and dedicated to giving back to the music that hopelessly completes them.
But of the many metal labels out there, the ones we truly love are those that remind us of why we got all these insane tattoos. Those labels whose rosters, missions, and/or places in history make us fall in love with metal all over again are the ones to which we owe more than we can express. And while the UK and Europe have a greater experience with DIY labels going massive (Nuclear Blast, Roadrunner, Earache), for us in the US, where metal isn’t as accepted by broader rock audiences and bands like Iron Maiden are still regarded as outsider art, it’s an honor to watch these indies thrive after years of struggle and hard work.
Here are 11 American labels who have made us fall in love with metal time and time again.