Roadrunner Records

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Roadrunner Records

Parent company	Warner Music Group
Founded	1980
Founder(s)	Cees Wessels
Distributing label	Atlantic Records Group (In the US) WEA International (Ouside US)
Genre(s)	Rock, Metal
Country of origin	NL
Official Website	http://roadrunnerrecords.com/

Roadrunner Records is a major record label that concentrates on metal bands. The label was launched in the Netherlands in 1980 and was originally called "Roadracer Records". Roadrunner's initial business was importing North American metal into Europe. In 1986 Roadrunner opened its US headquarters in New York City and later opened offices in England, Germany, France, Japan and Australia. Early successes included albums from King Diamond (the first Roadrunner artist to enter the Billboard Top 200 albums chart) and Annihilator. The label also handled early Metallica releases in the Scandinavian region. The end of the 1980's saw the release of two albums that are now considered classics of their respective genres: Obituary's Slowly We Rot and Sepultura's Beneath The Remains.

The 1990's saw the arrival of acts such as Deicide and Type O Negative. As the 90's went on, several of Roadrunner's bands managed to make an impact on the mainstream, most notably Sepultura and Type O Negative. Sepultura's 1993 album, Chaos A.D., became the first Roadrunner band to crack the Top 40 on the Billboard album chart. Type O Negative became the first Roadrunner band to receive a certification from the RIAA. This was a Gold award for the 1993 album, Bloody Kisses, which was certified in late 1995. The band also became the first Roadrunner band to receive radio play. In 2000, Slipknot became the first Roadrunner band to go Platinum. Some consider their later switch of band types for more commercial fare to be a fall from grace. Beginning in 2001, Roadrunner was distributed by the Universal Music Group through a share of the label owned by The Island Def Jam Music Group. This deal has now expired.

Some of their current most successful artists include Still Remains, Cradle of Filth, DevilDriver, Killswitch Engage, Trivium, Machine Head, Nickelback, Opeth, Megadeth, Dream Theater, Slipknot, Soulfly, DragonForce, 3 Inches of Blood and Stone Sour.

Some of their most recent acquisitions include Black Label Society, Betzefer, The Dresden Dolls, Megadeth, New York Dolls, Porcupine Tree, Within Temptation, CKY, Dream Theater and most recently Madina Lake..

Notable former artists include Biohazard, Annihilator, Coal Chamber, Deicide, Chimaira, Fear Factory (still signed to Roadrunner's international divisions), King Diamond, Life Of Agony, Obituary, Death, Sepultura and Type O Negative.

On December 18, 2006, Warner Music Group signed an agreement to puchase a majority in shares (73.5%) of Roadrunner Records' parent company, Roadrunner Music Group B.V.^[1] This deal became finalized on January 29, 2007 after receiving regulatory approval in Germany.^[2]