Metal Blade cannot be overrated. They were the definition of Classic US Metal in the first half of the 80's and their output was damn near flawless during their early years.
In the beginning MB used their own serials for the records (MBR 1001, MBR 1002, MBR 1003 etc).

Early on they got picked up by Enigma Records, who distributed their releases and also added their own serials to each album. (first = E-1017, E-1018, E-1035 etc, later = 72072, 72159, 73224 etc).

These Enigma-serials were not exclusive to Metal Blade, but used on all labels distributed by Enigma, hence there are plenty of "missing" numbers.

The Enigma#s do not follow the numerical order of the MBR#s, nor the dates of release. Actually they barely make sense at all.

By the end of 1986 the MBR serials were being phased out and only a handful of relases after this carried an MBR-number.
To add further confusion, no less than 3 pairs of albums mistakenly ended up with the same MBR-#s.

With latest MBR King Diamond re-releases of "Abigail II: The Revenge" cat # is same in all versions , unfortunately no progress with confusing MBR serials..

This review is about incorrect data of MBR releases, sometimes its almost impossible to submit 100% correct info for discogs, as labels own data is incorrect .

Otherwise MBR is very good label with great bands and so on.