As far as presence on the hit parade is concerned, 14 chart entries in one year set the company’s record to date. “I wanted everybody to be able to listen to the records that I found worth listening to (enjoyed).” “When I started with my first mail order in the eighties, I wanted to bring the music I was mad about to everybody,“ he remembers.
![manowar warriors of the world nuclear blast manowar warriors of the world nuclear blast](http://www.manowar-gallery.com/Gallery/Singles/Warriors_Of_World_United/warriors_part_I_ger_adv_b.jpg)
Markus Staiger’s original desire to make his music available to as many other people as possible has been fulfilled. On both the sectors of “Label“ and “Shop,“ Metal fans all over the world can find info concerning the label’s own bands and place orders on products offered from the online web shop. Supporting all this is the cultivation of the NUCLEAR BLAST website. From this point on, albums are offered for sale all over the world and NUCLEAR BLAST achieves global recognition. Towards the end of 1998 the Donzdorf label has a world-wide distribution structure. NUCLEAR BLAST works closely on such events becoming prime importance for the globalization of Heavy Metal. Fans from all over the world went their way for a couple of days to festival sites, giving many festival organizers an unexpected visitor record. It was simply indescribable.“Ībout the same time, Metal festivals enjoy an upswing (boost).
![manowar warriors of the world nuclear blast manowar warriors of the world nuclear blast](http://www.manowar-gallery.com/Gallery/Singles/Warriors_Of_World_United/warriors_part_II_sp.jpg)
“That a traditional metal album would bring them as far as it did, nobody even vaguely suspected. “I had the feeling that the band had a lot of potential and that the freshness they brought would take them much further,“ is how company boss Markus Staiger describes his impressions of the time.
![manowar warriors of the world nuclear blast manowar warriors of the world nuclear blast](https://cdn04.trixum.de/upload2/175200/175093/4/4ae25aa36315299f165d4132e899d64a8.jpg)
Of all the bands, it had to be the one playing the most traditional type of Heavy Metal, one which many critics considered to be “old-fashioned” and “not innovative enough.“ All the assumptions of “nine days’ wonder” are wiped away with one swipe. The album, in which not only the metal scene had placed their hopes (thanks to the enormous success of their debut) shoots to 15th on the German Media Control Charts and once again totally surprises the music world. HAMMERFALL’s second album Legacy of Kings in 1998 enters the charts at the highest position in the company history.