Metallica's New Label Blackened Recordings Launches

“We're so psyched about our new adventure that we just had to tell you about it as we officially launch our very own record label, Blackened Recordings,” Metallica announced on their website yesterday.

Under the new label, the band now own all of their master recordings, including both music and long-form videos in a deal that was worked out a decade ago with Warner Music Group. The label will also handle its own marketing and promotion, and be distributed by WMG reissue subsidiary Rhino Entertainment, the Los Angeles Times reports. 

"We would like to thank everyone at the Warner Music Group for 28 years of a fantastic relationship, particularly since 1994 where we truly felt we had partners in every aspect of our business in North America," frontman James Hetfield said in a statement.

As we reported a couple of months ago, the first project to be released on Blackened Recordings will be Quebec Magnetic, a DVD due out on December 10, which features two fall 2009 shows in Quebec City during Metallica's tour for the album Death Magnetic. The setlist for those shows was voted on by more than 35,000 fans on Metallica's website.

Metallica is Kirk Hammet, Lars Ulrich, former-bassist Jason Newsted & James Hetfield

Drummer Lars Ulrich, who’s always been extremely vocal on the legalities of music ownership, said in a statement about the band's new venture: "It's always been about control for us as a band. Forming Blackened Recordings is the ultimate in independence, giving us 100 percent control and putting us in the driver's seat of our own creative destiny." — The Los Angeles Times