Metal Blade Records 30th Anniversary with Gypsyhawk, Sacred Reich and Armored Saint

*sniff, sniff*  Metal Blade Records celebrated 30 years in the music business at The House of Blues Friday, December 1st, with a killer line up and a sold out house! What an honor to be in attendance at such a historic celebration! Lots of industry people and metal celebrities were in attendance. The vibe was rockin' yet sentimental.

Gypsyhawk kicked off the celebration for the event with their usual no holds barred rock n' roll style! This hard rock foursome was signed to Metal Blade in 2011 and showcases the promising future of the label and the fact that Metal Blade has "still got it" when it comes to signing great bands. It's a breath of fresh air to see a band like Gypsyhawk re-energizing the classic hard rock sound amidst a market that's so saturated with metalcore and screamo bands. They had a stellar set list which included my favorite song of theirs, "Eyes of Ibad"! I love that song! The crowd warmed up to them pretty quickly, especially when they played Hedgeking and Commander of the High Forest.

                                Is that Animal on drums? Where did Ian go?

Sacred Reich followed them with a very short but sweet set. Brian Slagel explained why the set was so short at the end of the night but I was talking and I missed the explanation. Oops! They're playing again soon, though. 

Armored Saint was the headlining act and they played a super thrashy, high energy show! They even had special musical guests throughout their set, including Johan Hegg from Amon Amarth to sing "Hit the Lights"! Oh man, it was so amazing! For the last song, Eric Harris of Gypsyhawk got to come out and sing a Thin Lizzy song with Dug Pinnick from Redemption. It was a badass ending to a badass evening!

                                          That big blonde blur is Johan Hegg.

                    Eric Harris is on the far right. Too bad most of my photos are blurry.

Three cheers for Metal Blade Records and their continuing efforts to sign great bands, regardless of the difficult and changing music industry. May they have many more years of success!

Check out the Metal Blade Records website to see what other awesome bands they've signed.

I'm seeing Gypsyhawk again tonight at The El Rey with The Sword and the next event on my concert calendar is Holy Grail at The Slide Bar in Fullerton on Monday the 17th.