Spinefarm | |
---|---|
Parent company | Universal Music Group [1] |
Founded | 1990 [2] |
Founder | Riku Pääkkönen |
Distributor(s) | PIAS Group [3] |
Genre | |
Country of origin | Finland |
Official website | spinefarmrecords |
Spinefarm Records is an international record label responsible for notable rock and heavy metal releases from Sleep Token, Scorpions, Bullet For My Valentine, Killing Joke and Black Veil Brides, among others. Founded in Finland in 1990, Spinefarm was acquired by Universal Music Group in 2002. [1]
Spinefarm Records began as a mailorder distribution company, founded by Riku Pääkkönen. The company evolved into a record label for Finnish acts such as Nightwish, Children of Bodom, and Sonata Arctica. [2] Since 2002, Spinefarm has been part of Universal Music Group, but operates as an independent business unit. [4]
Pääkkönen sold the original Ranka publishing catalog to Warner/Chappell Music in 2008, including several songs by Spinefarm acts like Children Of Bodom, Finntroll, and Nightwish. [5]
Former Roadrunner Records President Jonas Nachsin was appointed Spinefarm's General Manager - Worldwide in 2013. [6] Spinefarm/UMG acquired the English label Candlelight Records in late 2015. [7] In 2017, Spinefarm Music Group announced the launch of the country, blues, and southern rock-oriented Snakefarm Records. [8]
As of 2024, Spinefarm Music Group includes the Spinefarm, Candlelight, and Snakefarm labels.
Parlophone Records Limited is a record label founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company as Parlophon. The British branch of the label was founded on 8 August 1923 as the Parlophone Company Limited, which developed a reputation in the 1920s as a jazz record label. On 5 October 1926, the Columbia Graphophone Company acquired Parlophone's business, name, logo, and release library, and merged with the Gramophone Company on 31 March 1931 to become Electric & Musical Industries Limited (EMI). George Martin joined Parlophone in 1950 as assistant to Oscar Preuss, the label manager, taking over as manager in 1955. Martin produced and released a mix of recordings, including by comedian Peter Sellers, pianist Mrs Mills, and teen idol Adam Faith.
Nightwish is a Finnish symphonic metal band from Kitee. The band was formed in 1996 by lead songwriter and keyboardist Tuomas Holopainen, guitarist Emppu Vuorinen, and former lead singer Tarja Turunen. The band soon picked up drummer Jukka Nevalainen, and then bassist Sami Vänskä after the release of their debut album, Angels Fall First (1997). In 2001, Vänskä was replaced by Marko Hietala, who also took over the male vocalist role previously filled by Holopainen or guest singers. Although Nightwish have been prominent in their home country since Angels Fall First, they did not achieve wider success until the release of the albums Oceanborn (1998), Wishmaster (2000) and Century Child (2002).
Virgin Records is a British record label owned by Universal Music Group. They were originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman. They grew to be a worldwide success over time, with the success of platinum performers Paula Abdul, Janet Jackson, Devo, Tangerine Dream, Genesis, Phil Collins, OMD, the Human League, Culture Club, Simple Minds, the Spice Girls, Lenny Kravitz, the Sex Pistols, and Mike Oldfield among others, meaning that by the time it was sold, it was regarded as a major label, alongside other large international independents such as A&M and Island Records.
Universal Music Group N.V. is a Dutch–American multinational music corporation under Dutch law. UMG's corporate headquarters are located in Hilversum, Netherlands and its operational headquarters are located in Santa Monica, California. The biggest music company in the world, it is one of the "Big Three" record labels, along with Sony Music Group and Warner Music Group. Tencent acquired ten percent of Universal Music Group in March 2020 for €3 billion and acquired an additional ten percent stake in January 2021. Pershing Square Holdings later acquired ten percent of UMG prior to its IPO on the Euronext Amsterdam stock exchange. The company went public on September 21, 2021, at a valuation of €46 billion.
Machinae Supremacy is a Swedish/Finnish band that combines modern heavy metal, power metal and alternative rock with chiptunes. Self-defined as "SID metal", many of their songs use a SidStation that features the SID chip of the Commodore 64. They have released 32 original recordings for free download on their site, with approximately 100,000 downloads a month.
Roadrunner Records is a Dutch―American record label focused on heavy metal and hard rock music. Founded in the Netherlands in 1980, it is now a division of Warner Music Group and is based in New York City.
Angels Fall First is the debut studio album by Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish, originally released by Spinefarm Records on 30 September 1997 as a 500-copy limited edition. This edition is highly sought after by collectors and in 2012 a copy was sold for $1137.23 on eBay. It was subsequently released to the general public on 1 November, with four additional songs. The album was released in the US by Century Media in March 2001.
Follow the Reaper is the third studio album by Finnish melodic death metal band Children of Bodom, released in Finland in October 2000 by Spinefarm Records and in 2001 internationally by Nuclear Blast Records.
Hate Crew Deathroll is the fourth studio album by Finnish melodic death metal band Children of Bodom, released in 2003 under the Century Media label. It is the final Children of Bodom album to be recorded with all five original members, as their original rhythm guitarist, Alexander Kuoppala, would leave the band in 2003. It was successful both in Europe and the USA, which is demonstrated by the appearance of the "Needled 24/7" music video on MTV2's Headbangers Ball. "Needled 24/7" also featured on the heavy metal documentary Metal: A Headbanger's Journey and the 2012 horror comedy video game Lollipop Chainsaw.
Tarot is a Finnish heavy metal band. They are most famous for being one of the earliest metal bands in Finland, and for the song "Wings of Darkness" from the 1986 album Spell of Iron. While having enjoyed a broad underground popularity in Finland, the band has never been notable elsewhere until gaining new success in recent years, with their singer and bassist Marko Hietala in the largely successful Nightwish for nearly two decades. With a more global audience, the band re-recorded Spell of Iron for its 25th anniversary.
Thy Serpent is a Finnish black metal band from Espoo. It started out as a solo project by Sami Tenetz in 1992. A full lineup was acquired in 1995.
Tokyo Warhearts is the first live album by Finnish melodic death metal band Children of Bodom, recorded in 1999. It was recorded and filmed at Club Citta on 10 and 11 July 1999 in Tokyo. The album was re-released on 29 May 2001. The band and their record label, Spinefarm Records, had plans to release the show as a DVD along with the CD, but they reached the conclusion that there were some mismatches between the video and the audio, as there was video footage from two different shows.
The Island Def Jam Music Group (IDJMG) was an American recording music unit, formed on New Year's Eve 1998 by Universal Music Group. It consisted of labels created under the operations of Island Records and Def Jam Recordings. On April 1, 2014, Universal Music Group publicly announced the disbandment of the Island Def Jam Music Group, leaving IDJMG and its affiliated subsidiaries as separate sister labels.
"Sleeping Sun" is a power ballad and the fourth single by Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish. It was released as a maxi single with three other songs on 2 August 1999 to coincide with the total solar eclipse that would occur on 11 August.
"The Carpenter" is the debut single by Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish, the only from their debut album, Angels Fall First. This is the only Nightwish single to feature lead vocals by both Tarja Turunen and Tuomas Holopainen. It was performed live for the first time in over twenty years with Floor Jansen and Troy Donockley in 2018 during the Decades: World Tour.
Candlelight Records is a British record label based in London, founded by former Extreme Noise Terror bass guitarist Lee Barrett in 1993. The record label originally specialized in black metal, but quickly expanded to various other forms of heavy metal, extreme metal and hard rock, including death metal and melodic death metal, thrash metal, symphonic metal, metalcore, gothic rock, post-rock and post-metal.
Sauna Open Air Metal Festival, shortly Sauna Open Air or just Sauna, was one of the largest music festivals dedicated only to heavy metal and related styles of rock music in the Nordic countries. It was first arranged in 2004 and takes place in the Ratinanniemi park in Tampere, Finland. From 8 June to 10 June 2006, over 20,000 people arrived to watch such bands as Cradle of Filth, Finntroll, Iggy & The Stooges, Lordi, Twisted Sister and W.A.S.P.
Dayseeker is an American post-hardcore band formed in Orange County, California, in 2012. The group consists of vocalist Rory Rodriguez, guitarist Gino Sgambelluri, bassist Ramone Valerio and drummer Zac Mayfield. They are currently signed to Spinefarm Records and have released five studio albums. Their most recent studio album, Dark Sun, was released on November 4, 2022.
The following is a list of the Metal Hammer Golden Gods Awards winners.