Roadrunner United was a project organized by American heavy metal record label Roadrunner Records to celebrate its 25th anniversary. It culminated in an album released worldwide on October 11, 2005, entitled The All-Star Sessions. Four "team captains" were chosen to lead 57 artists from 45 past and present Roadrunner bands, and produce and oversee the album's 18 tracks: then-Slipknot drummer Joey Jordison, Trivium frontman and guitarist Matt Heafy, Fear Factory guitarist Dino Cazares, and Machine Head frontman and guitarist Robb Flynn. The project was the brainchild of Roadrunner UK general manager Mark Palmer and Roadrunner USA VP of A&R Monte Conner. The album project was coordinated by Lora Richardson and was mixed by Colin Richardson and Andy Sneap. The All-Star Sessions spawned one single and music video ("The End"). The DVD included with the CD purchase is a documentary of the "Making Of" the songs. It features the sessions of the four team captains making their songs.[1]
On October 13, 2008, Roadrunner Records announced that a two-disc DVD of a release party-concert, featuring songs from the album performed live, would be released on December 9, 2008. The DVD features the full concert and a documentary.
The project design was inspired by association football, particularly the three European football clubs; Manchester United, the primary inspiration behind the project's name and most part of the logo, Real Madrid (the logo's crown), and AC Milan (red and black stripes in the background).
| The All-Star Sessions | |
| Type: | studio |
| Artist: | Roadrunner United |
| Cover: | RoadrunnerUnited.jpg |
| Released: | October 11, 2005 |
| Recorded: | February 16 – June 1, 2005 |
| Genre: | Heavy metal |
| Length: | 76:55 |
| Label: | Roadrunner |
(C) – Denotes the captain for the song.
The following were the primary songwriters/producers for the album and were referred to as the 'Team Captains', each getting to select the musicians they wanted for each song.
| UK Albums Chart[2] | 45 | |
|---|---|---|
| US Billboard 200[3] | 77 |
| The Concert | |
| Type: | Live |
| Artist: | Roadrunner United |
| Cover: | Roadrunner United - The Concert.jpg |
| Released: | 2008 |
| Recorded: | December 15, 2005 |
| Genre: | Heavy metal |
| Length: | 1:57:39 |
| Label: | Roadrunner |
| Producer: | Harlan Frey |
A concert celebrating the project, album and anniversary took place on Thursday December 15, 2005, at the Nokia Theater in New York City. The concert featured multiple musicians both past and present from Roadrunner bands, as well as musicians that did not originally perform on the All-Star Sessions album. The set list consisted of some of the most popular and famous songs released by Roadrunner Records as well as some of the original songs from the project's album. The 'core band', who performed on the majority of the songs, was Dino Cazares, Adam Duce, Paul Gray, Joey Jordison, Andreas Kisser, and Roy Mayorga.