Enter Night_ A Biography of Metallica - Mick Wall [38]
Metal Massacre quickly sold all 2,500 copies of its initial pressing, mainly thanks to Slagel’s work at Oz Records, where the store’s main independent distributors – Gem, Important and Green World – ‘bought them all right away. In fact, about a month later they wanted more.’ After a short-lived manufacturing and distribution deal with a small fly-by-night operation called Metalworks, which pressed up a few thousand copies but which Slagel says he was ‘never paid a dime for – it was kind of a whole nightmare’, Slagel negotiated his own distribution deal with Green World, later known as Enigma. It was through Green World that his Metal Blade label would blossom into an actual record company, rereleasing the original Metal Massacre album – the new pressing of which would also replace the original Metallica four-track with the new, eight-track version on No Life ’til Leather – and putting together a follow-up release, Metal Massacre II. From there it was a short step to releasing stand-alone records by single artists. ‘I was a one-man record company,’ Slagel says now, ‘involved in the recording of it, the mastering of it, I did all of the artwork, did all of the promotion…kind of everything.’ Early Metal Blade releases included albums by other original Metal Massacre artists, Bitch and Demon Flight, followed by EPs from newer names such as Armored Saint and Warlord, both of whom would first be heard on Metal Massacre II. The fledgling label really hit pay dirt, however, in 1983, with the debut album from Slayer, Show No Mercy. Although Slagel admits he ‘didn’t really see a big connection at first’ between Slayer’s gargantuan rhythms and Metallica’s sheet-metal riffs, Slayer would go on to become one of what is now regarded as the Big Four of thrash metal, and the only really serious rivals to Metallica’s crown as ‘inventors’ of thrash, a claim that would grow in credulity as the years passed. Unlike Metallica, who would move early to broaden their musical horizons (and audience), Slayer refused to soften their approach or seek mainstream approval; the earnest, faith-keeping Clash to Metallica’s more maverick, rule-breaking Sex Pistols.
Suitably encouraged, in September 1982 Brian Slagel decided to put on a dedicated Metal Massacre show in San Francisco, at a small club called the Stone. Nearly two hundred people showed up, the largest crowd most of the bands on the bill had ever played to. Metallica, who were the big hit on the night, had only been added to the bill as an afterthought. ‘The bill was going to be Bitch, Cirith Ungol and I can’t remember who the third band was going to be,’ says Slagel. When Cirith Ungol was forced to pull out at the last minute, ‘I called Lars and asked if Metallica would like to do it, no money but a gig.’ Typically, Lars agreed – then worried later about how they would actually get to San Francisco. It was to prove a wise decision that would have far-reaching consequences. As Lars observed in his gig diary, it was Metallica’s ‘First real great gig. Real bangers, real fans, real encores. Had a great fuckin’ weekend. Fucked up a lot onstage!’ Certainly, they weren’t note-perfect, says Slagel, but the band was slowly starting to hit its stride, encouraged by the very different response their music received in San Francisco. Unknown even to Lars, the No Life ’til Leather demo had been a hit on the underground scene in San Francisco, thanks in no small part to the proselytising in Ron Quintana’s Metal Mania fanzine. At the show, they were amazed to hear the audience actually singing some of the lyrics to the songs. Afterwards, some even asked for autographs! ‘It was a trip,’ says Ron McGovney, ‘we couldn’t believe it.’
They were also starting to write new material that reflected their improved status as a gigging band. Added to the seven No Life ’til Leather tracks, all of which they performed at the Stone, was another new number recently worked up in Ron’s bungalow: ‘No Remorse’ – a tour de force built around at least three different riffs, dating back to James’ pre-Metallica