1 Year Ago...

I cannot believe it's been 1 YEAR since my last blog post! Working at a record label can get extremely busy, and free time can only be described as...wait a minute, what's free time?!

Just wanted to take a minute today to express our thanks to everyone who purchased the new SYMPHONY X album, Iconoclast. It landed on 6 Billboard charts!

We couldn't have done it without your help. It's your support that keeps the bands and this label going strong!

If you still haven't picked it up, you MUST! This album has such an apocalyptic vibe, definitely one to go down in history \m/

- Mike Ruiz
Nuclear Blast USA

EXODUS - Puro Pinche Desmadre at The Key Club!

Don't you just feel honored when you know you're about to become a part of a historic event?! This just happened for both EXODUS and Nuclear Blast USA this past Friday, June 11, 2010 at The Key Club in Hollywood, CA for the album release show for Exhibit B: The Human Condition.

Not only did the Satanic Hispanics of Los Angeles get to witness the new songs performed live...the band even made an exclusive 'Exodus Satanic Hispanic' shirt JUST for this LA show!

The entire concert was even streamed live on the internet for thrashers across the globe thanks to our friends at Stickam.com (special thanks to Josh, Andy, Ivan and Eric!). We heard there was nearly 40,000 people watching the stream, and about 7,000 people in the chatroom! You can watch the re-broadcast anytime at stickam.com/exodus

Check out the video below and if you were one of the COUNTLESS stage divers, hope you get to see yourself in there! Pictures of the show can be found at our Flickr page too!

Important note for Los Angeles people: If you were one of the few people who knew about the 'free' parking on Cynthia street and Doheny, I got some BAD NEWS for you! Looks like the city added permit parking to that block recently and while walking back to the car, we were welcomed with a $60 parking fine. FUCK YOU BEVERLY HILLS!

PS. For anyone who wants to know why I also hate Beverly Hills parking, read my previous blog post here. It seems I have the worst luck whenever EXODUS and I cross paths. I got another ticket the last time too! Oh the irony...

Let's see how the universe pays it forward to me this time around...
- Mike Ruiz (Nuclear Blast USA)

Soilwork Takes Over Chinatown!

The Godfathers of Swedish modern metal, SOILWORK, recently held a public listening party for their new record The Panic Broadcast which took place on Friday, June 4, 2010 at The Mountain Bar in the Chinatown district of Los Angeles, CA.

The event was open to the public (21+). Photos from the event are available viewing here. Photos are also available on the bands MySpace and Facebook pages.

It was a fun event to be at where anyone who was there was able to hear the entire album way before release date! We hope everyone who went enjoyed their time and most of all, the music. We sure did! Best of all, Peter Wichers and Dirk Verbeuren were there to chat with all the fans who showed up.

The event lasted from 8:00pm till about 10:00pm. While we were leaving, my friend Hannah and I decided to play with some funny kid rides outside the bar. I'll only include one picture here since the rest get a little crazy, haha ;-P

The night was still early and everyone decided to hit up a bar called Saints and Sinners. By the way, thanks Hannah for giving me directions to the place in a British accent, that really helped, haha. I had never been to the place before, it was a small place, really dark inside, and the bartenders are fire breathers! Too bad I found out too late and I couldn't get a picture of them and the flames, they only did it one time too ;(




- Mike Ruiz (Nuclear Blast USA)

The Boys Are Back In Town!

Today we had a special visit at the office from the tour bus that HYPOCRISY and SCAR SYMMETRY will be using for their upcoming North American tour!

As you can see, the tour is being sponsored by Marvel Studios & SEGA’s Iron Man 2 the video game, which is in stores now! How cool is that?!

The bus was at our office since we needed to load in their gear, stage props, merch, CD's and all kinds of cool stuff for all of you metalheads to enjoy across North America ;-)

Also on the tour are Hate (Poland), Blackguard (Canada) and Pirate Thrashers SWASHBUCKLE.


This is truly extreme music for extreme people. Are you prepared for A Taste of Extreme Divinity?

For upcoming tour dates, please visit Hypocrisy's MySpace Page.



Don't forget the FREE LIVE CONCERT STREAM on Monday, May 24th!

HammerFall - Bas Rutten's Elite MMA Gym!

They are IMMORTAL and they will live on!

Pictures sometimes speak louder than words, in this case, it's also video! On April 2, 2010, Norway's Sons of Northern Darkness IMMORTAL returned to The Avalon in Hollywood, CA.

If you'd like to check some photos out, visit the Nuclear Blast Flickr page and there's some more here. The venue this time around were very 'camera friendly' with the crowd so lots of people were able to record tons of clips and thanks to good ol' YouTube, we've collected some clips for you!

Check some out below:

After the show was over, everyone who had a VIP meet and greet ticket met with the band backstage to get some items autographed. There were fans who had some rare stuff to get signed and some cool shirts too!

These pictures are from a type of 'promo' sheet that IMMORTAL sent out to record labels before they released the album, Sons of Northern Darkness. As fate would have it, the band would ink a deal with Nuclear Blast Records afterwards.

I remember seeing this shirt on eBay a few years ago getting bid amounts up to $60 bucks! It's a real killer shirt. (I like band shirts with the 'red logo and white art' look. It gives it a mega old-school feel).


Here are some photos that were taken back in the early 90's. This fan has been saving these pictures all these years for a chance to have them signed by Abbath himself. He succeeded!

I'm sure some people are aware that The Avalon turned into a nightclub afterwards, with some bizarre music. 
The night was still early (the show ended around 10:30pm I think) and Kim and I decided to stick around, crash The Avalon and unleash some dance floor desecration! haha. Besides, we received some free drink tickets earlier and we decided to put them to good use and get drunk off of plain orange and cranberry juice (served in paper cups! haha). We didn't care if we looked like fools, we were just being complete goofballs.

By the way, if you live in Southern California, and felt that earthquake...a friend of mine said 'I think our infiltration of the dance floor on Friday caused some sort of cosmic imbalance between the forces of metal and techno' haha, so sorry about that guys! It seems the phantom lord wasn't too happy with our dance moves ;-)

Thrash Attack!!! EXODUS + TESTAMENT invade the Hollywood Palladium!

Don't have a clue how we all have survived such a crazy week. Let's start off with March 31 - the day that Thrash declared their moment in history with EXODUS, TESTAMENT and Megadeth under one roof at the Hollywood Palladium. By the way, did I mention that the show was SOLD OUT?!

My co-worker got word that people were selling tickets last minute for up to $300 on the streets, craigslist, etc. Crazy! This is why you shouldn't wait till the last minute people ;-)

The morning started off with a quick trip to the venue to drop off some posters for the band to sign. The quick little trip can be seen below. Some pictures from the rest of the night can be viewed here and here.

The day after, the Thrash continued with EXODUS as we headed to the video shoot for the tracks 'Downfall' and 'Hammer and Life' from the bands album, Exhibit B: The Human Condition. Some clips from that can be seen on the footage above too.

Later in the afternoon, I was asked if I could pick up something for one of the guys at a deli down the street. On our way back to the studio, Kim and I get stopped by the cops (lame!). Apparently, one of my brake lights weren't working so they gave me a citation (double lame!), wanted to search my car, and then let us go since they couldn't find anything. When they were done hassling us, I said "see ya" and Kim added "wouldn't wanna be ya!" haha, good one Kim!


Thanks again to the 8 lucky fan extras who showed up and banged their heads extra hard for so long throughout all the re-takes. Also to the 3 lucky fans who showed up for their exclusive photo shoot with the band members.

The shoot ended around 8:45pm and Loana dP Valencia (EXODUS' publicist) suggested we take some of the guys to a Mexican restaurant in East LA called El Tepeyac since we were really near. So off we went and let me just say...this place has some MAJOR SIZE Mexican food.

While we were there, one customer ordered a burrito the size of half my arm. I think it was one of those 'eat it all and it's free' kind of deals. Kim bought a veggie burrito, and they accidentally made two, so the restaurant just let us keep the extra one on the house and I ate it. I have to say, it kinda made my day since my last trip to get food costed me a police citation, and this trip rewarded me with a free meal. I guess it's just the universe's way of giving things back ;-)

By the way, on our way back to the studio from El Tepeyac, I was stalked AGAIN by two police cars for a few blocks. Looks like East LA is flooded with them, so also be on the lookout for that guys!

Anyway, stay tuned since we'll be posting another blog with behind the scenes pics and a short teaser clip for the videos!

- Mike Ruiz (NB USA)