Metal Blade Records is a record label which was founded by Brian Slagel in 1982. The U.S. corporate office for Metal Blade is located in Agoura Hills, California. It also has offices in Arizona, Germany, Japan, Canada, and the UK. The label is distributed in the U.S. by Sony BMG Music Entertainment/RED Distribution. It was distributed by Warner Bros. Records in the USA 1988–1992.

Metal Blade artists that have appeared on the Billboard Top 200 chart include The Goo Goo Dolls, Amon Amarth, Trouble, As I Lay Dying, Behemoth, The Black Dahlia Murder, Slayer, Cannibal Corpse, Fates Warning (the first Metal Blade band to have achieved this), Tactics^{[disambiguation needed ]}, Lizzy Borden, Anvil, Gwar, King Diamond, Job for a Cowboy, Whitechapel, Armored Saint, The Red Chord, Unearth and Between the Buried and Me. The only Metal Blade artist to ever achieve gold or platinum record was the goo goo dolls

Metal Blade Records was founded by Brian Slagel, who at the time was a record store employee in suburban Los Angeles, as a way to increase the recognition of local metal bands. The label's first release was a compilation album called The New Heavy Metal Revue presents Metal Massacre, and included Metallica, Ratt, and Black 'N Blue.