Roadrunner Records didn’t become heavy metal’s biggest label overnight. Although the imprint was founded in 1980, it wasn’t until its American office opened six years afterwards that it began to deal in properly seismic numbers. From that point until well into the 2000s, its A&R team had a seemingly psychic ability to sign bands right before they became massive: the likes of Slipknot, Machine Head, Type O Negative, Sepultura, Fear Factory and Trivium all earned megastardom while on the roster.
With Roadrunner now in its fifth decade of activity and releasing A+ tunes by everyone from Gojira to Code Orange, the catalogue has grown imposingly big. So, here’s the essential guide: Hammer has compiled the five albums that best demonstrate the history of this monolithic label.
