Days after the announcement that Jonas Nachsin was stepping down as head of Roadrunner Records, the label has announced that their new General Manager is Mike Easterlin who previously served as head of promotion. According to Billboard, Easterlin was just recently promoted to General Manager of Fueled by Ramen, and will serve as the head of both labels, with a separate staff for each label working under him.
In addition to Easterlin, Roadrunner will also be headed up by David Rath (senior VP of A&R) and Madelyn Scarpulla (senior VP of marketing & creative services).
Roadrunner Records began in 1980 in the Netherlands and was initially designed to import albums from North America into Europe, with the US office of Roadrunner opening in South Bend, Indiana in 1986. The first Roadrunner artist to enter the Billboard Top 200 albums chart was King Diamond, and the first album to enter the Top 40 chart was Sepultura’s 1993 album “Chaos A.D.” The first Roadrunner album to reach gold status by the RIAA would be Type O Negative’s “Bloody Kisses” album from 1993, which reached its gold status in 1995. The first ever Roadrunner band to achieve platinum status was Slipknot in 2000.
The label was rather well-known in the death metal world as the home of various acts including Obituary and Death, as well as Deicide, who were quite vocal about their displeasure with the label and its business practices. Deicide remained on the label until 2004’s “Scars of the Crucifix,” which was released on Earache. In 1990, King Diamond parted ways with the label following the King’s claim of a lack of promotion for “The Eye.” In 2006, Type O Negative would leave the label following a dispute over the release of a greatest hits compilation that allegedly took place without the band’s knowledge or consent.
