Nuclear Blast

For nuclear detonations, see nuclear explosion.

Nuclear Blast
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Founded	1987
Founder	Markus Staiger
Status	active
Distributor(s)	RED Distribution (U.S.) Fontana Distribution (U.S.) Universal Music Group (Canada) eOne Music (worldwide)
Genre	Heavy metal, hard rock, hardcore punk, extreme metal
Country of origin	Germany
Location	Donzdorf, Göppingen
Official website	http://www.nuclearblast.de/

Nuclear Blast is an independent record label and mail order record distributor with subsidiaries in Germany, the United States and Brazil. The record label was founded in 1987 by Markus Staiger in Germany. Originally releasing hardcore punk records, the label moved on to releasing albums by melodic death metal, grindcore, power metal and black metal bands, as well as tribute albums.

Music

More recent signings include names such as Danzig, Slayer, Cradle of Filth, Edguy, Nightwish, Symphony X, Suffocation, Machine Head and Fear Factory.

History

Nuclear Blast was formed in 1987 after founder Markus Staiger travelled throughout the United States for four weeks and saw a gig of his favorite band BL'AST!. The label's first release was a vinyl compilation called Senseless Death (NB 001) featuring US hardcore bands like Attitude, Sacred Denial, Impulse Manslaughter and others.

In August, 10th, 1997, Nuclear Blast held a concert in Longhorn/LKA, Stuttgart named 10 Years Nuclear Blast Festival at which the following bands performed:

• Amorphis
• Crematory
• Dimmu Borgir
• In Flames
• Therion
• Dissection
• Dismember
• Pyogenesis
• Am I Blood

Swedish band Meshuggah became the first band in the history of Nuclear Blast Records to crack the Billboard 200, landing at number 165 with their 2002 album, Nothing. Meshuggah also became the first Nuclear Blast band to be reviewed in Rolling Stone magazine.

In 2004, Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish released Once on Nuclear Blast, which rocketed to the top of the charts in multiple countries, including Finland, Germany, Norway, Greece, Sweden, Austria, and more. It became the first release in the company's history to reach number 1 on the German charts. Slayer released the album Repentless in 2015 which went to number 4 on the Billboard 200 making it the highest charting Nuclear Blast release in the USA.

See also

• List of record labels
• List of Nuclear Blast artists

External links

• Nuclear Blast Europe
• Nuclear Blast USA
• Nuclear Blast publishing catalog at MusicBrainz
• Nuclear Blast on Discogs
• Nuclear Blast Europe Twitter
• Nuclear Blast USA Twitter
• Nuclear Blast Europe Facebook
• Nuclear Blast USA Facebook
• Nuclear Blast YouTube
• Meet the Team : Nuclear Blast - [PIAS]'s Blog, 27 January 2015

• Nuclear Blast (2014). CRADLE OF FILTH - sign worldwide record deal with Nuclear Blast Records!. Nuclear Blast. available at: http://www.nuclearblast.de/en/label/music/band/news/details/3641073.216100.cradle-of-filth-sign-worldwide-deal-with-nb.html. (accessed 13/12/2015).