NULEAR BLAST owner Markus Staiger has joined forces with former Roadrunner Records A&R chief Monte Conner (pictured left) in the formation of a new U.S. partnership – Nuclear Blast Entertainment.

The new record label, which will share most major operations with the existing U.S. branch of Nuclear Blast, will announce its first signings in the coming months.

Conner recently departed Roadrunner after a 25-year run that saw him sign most of the successful hard rock and metal bands on the label, including Slipknot, Sepultura, Machine Head, Trivium, Fear Factory, Stone Sour, Type O Negative, Soulfly, Coal Chamber, Life Of Agony, Biohazard, DevilDriver, Deicide and most recently, Rush and Gojira.

Plans are also underway to expand Nuclear Blast’s strength in the UK market and the label has now paired with former Roadrunner UK Managing Director, Mark Palmer (pictured right).

Palmer will open Nuclear Blast’s first UK office. Palmer had been with Roadrunner almost from the start and had built the UK branch of Roadrunner into one of the most respected and successful local record company teams the metal world has ever seen.

States Staiger: "I am absolutely thrilled to welcome metal veterans Monte Conner and Mark Palmer to the Nuclear Blast team. I am continually striving to strengthen Nuclear Blast on all fronts as a worldwide force, and with the addition of Monte and Mark I feel we just took major steps in two key territories.” 

Nuclear Blast was founded by Staiger in Donzdorf, Germany in 1987.

With offices in Donzdorf and Los Angeles and a worldwide staff of 150 people (including a thriving mail order business), Nuclear Blast is one of the biggest independent labels in the world.

Some of the label’s current artists are Meshuggah, Testament, Nightwish (Europe-only), Children Of Bodom, Anthrax (Europe-only), Dimmu Borgir, All Shall Perish, Epica, Exodus and Accept.

Nuclear Blast's exlusive distributor in Buglaria since 1997 has been WIZARD LTD.