Metal Race

Metal Race (also styled Metal Race Records) is a Russian independent record label whose catalogue is dedicated to old-school metal. According to its own description, it releases "old school Thrash, Death, Black Metal music only, or music of these genres created with old school sound and spirit". The German-language Wikipedia entry characterises it as a Russian metal label that mainly signs and releases bands from the thrash metal and death metal genres, and notes that its programme includes both current first releases and reissues. The label operates primarily as a physical-media specialist. Its releases are typically issued on CD, with regular jewel-case editions and limited deluxe digibook or digipak editions that add bonus tracks, demo recordings, expanded booklets and archival photographs. Limited pressings are a recurring feature of the label's output; one announced reissue was described as a run of only 100 copies. Alongside new albums, Metal Race has built a substantial part of its identity on reissuing classic 1990s Russian and Eastern European thrash and death metal records, restoring and remastering demo material for bonus inclusion. Metal Race sells directly to listeners through its own website, which functions as both a label page and an online shop. The site presents a full catalogue that can be filtered by format, genre, label and name, and it supports international mail order: customers select their country to refresh regional prices, place orders through a cart system, and pay chiefly by PayPal, with shipping and payment details confirmed by e-mail after the order is accepted. Order handling follows a defined status flow from processing through accepted, paid, assembled and shipped to cancelled. Among the releases documented for the label are Exhumation's "City of Decay" (2011), Grinder's "Sirens" (2014), Mortifer's "Бессмысленная Война" (2014), Ravenous's "Book of Covetous Souls" (2015), Trizna's "Forgotten Tapes" compilation (2015) and Grenouer's "Death of a Bite" (2018). The label also announced a batch of thrash reissues and new releases including Кома's "Born to Be Great", North Syndrom's "Seek What We Lost" and Fallen Nation's "Violence in Outer Space". Metal Race is a niche, independent operation rather than a major-label subsidiary, and it is closely tied to the Russian and post-Soviet extreme metal scene while shipping to collectors abroad. Its public communication is bilingual, with an English-language section of the website aimed at the international mail-order market.

Metal Race is a Russian independent record label devoted to old-school extreme metal. Its own description states that it releases "old school Thrash, Death, Black Metal music only, or music of these genres created with old school sound and spirit", and the German-language Wikipedia entry describes it as a Russian metal label that mainly signs and releases bands from the thrash metal and death metal genres, with a programme that includes both current first releases and reissues. The label's documented catalogue spans the 2010s. Exhumation's "City of Decay" appeared in 2011, followed by Grinder's "Sirens" and Mortifer's "Бессмысленная Война" in 2014, Ravenous's "Book of Covetous Souls" and the Trizna compilation "Forgotten Tapes" in 2015, and Grenouer's "Death of a Bite" in 2018. This mix of new albums and archival compilations reflects the label's dual role as a home for current acts and a caretaker of older material. Reissues are central to the label's identity. Metal Race has re-released classic 1990s thrash and death metal albums from the Russian and post-Soviet scene, often in expanded physical formats. A representative announcement described two reissues from the 1990s alongside a new release: Кома's "Born to Be Great", issued both as a regular jewel-case CD with an eight-page booklet and three bonus tracks (including a demo and a live version) and as a two-CD deluxe digibook whose second disc contains the "Urban Mutant" demo album recorded live at the band's rehearsal studio between 1993 and 1997, with a booklet of previously unpublished photographs, archival press material and commentary by Alexander Gudvin; and North Syndrom's "Seek What We Lost", a deluxe digibook with a twelve-page booklet of unpublished archival photographs and a bonus 1991 demo, "We Hate", restored at Lykantropia Studio. The Кома deluxe edition was explicitly limited to 100 copies, illustrating the label's use of small, collector-oriented pressings. Commercially, Metal Race runs its own direct-to-customer operation. The website doubles as a label page and an online shop with a full catalogue that can be filtered by format, genre, label and name. International customers select their country to refresh regional prices, place orders via an "Add to cart" system, and pay chiefly through PayPal; payment and shipping methods are discussed separately after order confirmation, and the order status progresses through processing, accepted, paid, assembled, shipped and cancelled states, with e-mail notification at each change. This structure positions the label as a mail-order specialist serving collectors in Russia and abroad rather than a mass-market distributor. No founding date, founder, headquarters city or ownership structure is documented in the available evidence, and the label does not appear to be part of a larger corporate group. Its public identity rests on genre purity, physical-format craft and the preservation of old-school metal heritage.

• 2018

  Releases Grenouer's album "Death of a Bite".

• 2015

  Releases Ravenous's "Book of Covetous Souls" and the Trizna compilation "Forgotten Tapes".

• 2014

  Releases Grinder's "Sirens" and Mortifer's "Бессмысленная Война".

• 2011

  Releases Exhumation's album "City of Decay".

• Announces reissues of Кома's "Born to Be Great" and North Syndrom's "Seek What We Lost" plus Fallen Nation's new album "Violence in Outer Space".

Independent niche label for old-school thrash, death and black metal, combining new releases with carefully restored reissues and limited physical editions sold via its own international mail-order shop.

• 2011

  Exhumation – City of Decay

• 2014

  Grinder – Sirens

• 2014

  Mortifer – Бессмысленная Война

• 2015

  Ravenous – Book of Covetous Souls

• 2015

  Trizna – Forgotten Tapes

• 2018

  Grenouer – Death of a Bite

• Кома – Born to Be Great (regular jewel CD and 2-CD deluxe digibook, limited to 100 copies)

• North Syndrom – Seek What We Lost (deluxe digibook with restored 1991 demo)

• Fallen Nation – Violence in Outer Space

1. 1Metal Race - Old School Metal Label (official homepage)metalrace.com
2. 2Metal Race – Info (official about page)metalrace.com
3. 3Metal Race – Wikidatawikidata.org
4. 4Metal Race – Wikipedia (German)de.wikipedia.org