Metal Blade Records has partnered with acclaimed artist Vince Locke to design exclusive merchandise in support of Erik Rutan — the Cannibal Corpse guitarist and renowned Mana Recording Studios producer — who sustained severe losses during Hurricane Helene in 2024.
The below items are Erik Rutan approved and available for fans at this location: metalblade.com/erikrutan with all money collected going directly to Rutan to help him replace studio and musical gear for a new Mana Recording Studios – gear that Rutan has used to produce a massive list of metal albums over the last two plus decades at Mana Recording.
- Erik Rutan – MANA RECORDING STUDIOS Snap Back Hat
- Erik Rutan – Vince Locke (Signed Print) 11×17: Limited edition 60 signed prints, Vince Locke created and gifted this image, signed by both Vince and Erik
- Erik Rutan – MANA RECORDING STUDIOS T-Shirt
- Erik Rutan – Vince Locke Original Design T-Shirt: Vince Locke created and gifted this image.
Erik Rutan is one of extreme metal’s most respected and multi-dimensional forces, renowned not only for his blistering guitar work and songwriting in legendary bands Hate Eternal, Morbid Angel, and Cannibal Corpse, but also as a prolific producer and founder of Mana Recording Studios, where he’s helped shape the sound of death metal for decades.
Rutan began his career in the late ‘80s with Ripping Corpse, appearing on their influential Dreaming With The Dead (1991), then playing as a touring guitarist with Morbid Angel for Covenant (1993) Rutan then joined permanently to record the classic albums Domination (1995), Entangled In Chaos (1996), and Gateways To Annihilation (2000). In 1997, he formed Hate Eternal, taking on guitar, vocals, and full creative control. In 2002, Rutan left Morbid Angel to focus on Hate Eternal and Mana Recording Studios. The band’s discography – Conquering The Throne, King Of All Kings, I, Monarch, The Perilous Fight, Fury & Flames, Phoenix Amongst The Ashes, Infernus, and Upon Desolate Sands – has cemented Rutan’s reputation as a technical innovator and one of death metal’s most uncompromising architects.
Equally revered behind the console, Rutan opened his recording studio in 1999 and founded Mana Recording Studios in St. Petersburg, Florida. The studio has since become a premiere destination for extreme music, hosting sessions for a who’s who of death metal as well as other styles of music. His production, engineering, and mixing credits include a staggering list of landmark albums: Cannibal Corpse (Kill, Evisceration Plague, Torture, Red Before Black, Violence Unimagined, Chaos Horrific), Goatwhore (A Haunting Curse, Carving Out The Eyes Of God, Blood For The Master, Constricting Rage Of The Merciless), Krisiun (Conquerors Of Armageddon, Forged In Fury), Soilent Green (Confrontation, Inevitable Collapse In The Presence Of Conviction), Madball (Empire, Rebellion), Into The Moat (The Design, The Campaign), Tombs (Savage Gold, The Grand Annihilation). Agnostic Front, The Mountain Goats, Vital Remains, Belphegor, Through The Eyes Of The Dead, Rivers Of Nihil, Ether Coven, Aeon, Ephel Duath, Nile, Black Fast, Lizzy Borden, as well as the entire Hate Eternal catalog among many others.
Writer and extreme metal devotee, Ialdagorth has spent over a decade covering the darkest corners of heavy music. A black metal lifer, he spends his free time wandering the Carpathian Mountains, likely humming blast beats to the trees.
