This Phoenix record label celebrates a big anniversary this weekend

Few hallmarks of Phoenix’s ’90s music scene are still standing these days. A handful of beloved record stores from that era still survive, including longtime crate-digger haven Stinkweeds. Almost everything else, be it venues or bands, now exists only in faded fliers or hazy memories.

King of the Monsters Records, though, stands as one of the few exceptions.

Founded in 1995 by Valley resident Mike Genz, KOTM is a DIY punk, hardcore and metal label that has released music by dozens of local bands and underground acts from across the U.S.

The project isn’t a traditional business. Instead, it’s more of a labor of love and side project that Genz has run part-time for decades, often out of pocket and at a loss.

“I don’t do it to make a profit. I never have,” Genz says. “I can count on one hand the amount of releases that have broken even or made money.”

King of the Monsters has put out “only like 70-something” releases in 31 years, Genz estimates. What its catalog may lack in quantity, it makes up for in sheer noise and volume.

KOTM’s roster over the decades has included a grip of loud and abrasive bands both local and otherwise. Some, like Tucson hardcore act Absinthe or Pittsburgh experimental metal fiends Creation is Crucifixion, burned brightly before fading into obscurity.

Others are not only still performing but have gained wider fame after releasing early material through the label, including Glendale deathcore pioneers Job for a Cowboy and Phoenix death metal standouts Gatecreeper.

This weekend, King of the Monsters marks its 31st anniversary with a two-day festival on Friday and Saturday at The Rosetta Room in Mesa. Its massive lineup of hardcore, screamo, grindcore and punk acts reflects the same clamorous and chaotic underground sound that Genz and his label have embraced since the ’90s.

Three decades of DIY

King of the Monsters’ origin story mirrors many DIY labels from the pre-streaming era: a project born of one obsessive music fanatic’s desire to share the bands he loved.

During the early ‘‘’90s, Genz was attending and organizing local shows, many of which involved his friends’ bands, whom he felt deserved a bigger audience.

“I was seeing all these shows and I just wanted (their bands) to be heard by others,” Genz says. “Nowadays, you have access to everybody and everything through Bandcamp and Spotify. Back then, it was pre-Internet with only a few places to hear about things.”

Genz launched King of the Monsters Records in early 1995 after friend and former Phoenix resident Justin Pearson, then a member of San Diego punk act Struggle, told him about his new powerviolence project, The Locust.

“He was like, ‘My new band is super fast, it’s short and it kind of sounds like Crossed Out,” Genz says. “I went, ‘I’m in.’ And that’s how everything came about.”

His longtime obsession with vintage Japanese kaiju films also helped shape the label’s identity and inspired its name.

The Locust’s 1995 split 7-inch with Southern California sludge punks Man Is the Bastard was one of King of the Monsters’ releases. The same year, the label released Absinthe’s 10-inch self-titled debut.

Like many early KOTM releases, both projects were built on friendship as much as music fandom.

“Brendan (DeSmet) from Absinthe has just been a friend of mine forever,” Genz says. “So that’s how that one came about.”

Like other grassroots labels of the mid-’90s, Genz sold records through mail order, word of mouth and other DIY channels. He connected with California-based distro company Ebullition Records and advertised in its now-defunct fanzine HeartattaCk. Meanwhile, local stores like Stinkweeds and Eastside Records started carrying KOTM’s releases.

“It was a great time,” Genz says. “Back then, it was a lot easier for me to sell records. Everybody helped each other out quite a bit. Everybody was in it for the same reasons and just to get the word out.”

Despite these early successes, King of the Monsters never grew into a Godzilla-sized indie record label. Genz says that was never his goal.

“I’d probably stop if it ever became truly successful or any bigger than it already is,” he says.

That’s not to say the label hasn’t had breakout artists on its roster.

In 2005, Glendale’s Job For A Cowboy released its debut album, “Doom,” through King of the Monsters. At the time, the deathcore band was largely unheard of outside Arizona and the record helped ignite its future success as one of the MySpace era’s biggest sensations.

“Doom” also became one of the few KOTM releases Genz says actually broke even.

“I’m really appreciative that they believed in what I was doing and approached me,” Genz says. “I’ve never done contracts or anything like that, so it’s always been built on mutual respect.”

Nearly a decade later, Phoenix death metal act Gatecreeper experienced a similar rise to stardom after releasing its 2014 self-titled EP through King of the Monsters.

Genz says watching Gatecreeper evolve from a local band into a globe-trotting death metal powerhouse has been surreal.

“I’m stoked for all those bands that have gone on to bigger and better things,” Genz says. “Gatecreeper touring the world and kind of dominating the metal scene right now is awesome to me.”

What to know about KOTM’s anniversary celebration this weekend

Genz says King of the Monsters’s 31st Anniversary Soirée on Friday and Saturday reflects the label’s past and present.

Influential underground acts like Florida grindcore punks Reversal of Man and Bay Area post-hardcore band Portraits of Past headline the weekend alongside such bands as Spiritiste, Bleach, Violencia and Common Wounds.

Some of the artists have released music via King of the Monsters for years. Others are simply bands Genz is currently obsessing over.

“It’s just friends’ bands that I’ve done releases for and bands that inspire me currently,” he says.

Genz originally hoped to stage the label’s 30th anniversary last year but says things never really clicked.

“I had a vision in my head of what I wanted it to be and I wasn’t achieving it,” he says. “I’m going to push it back a year and it all came together.”

Genz adds that King of the Monsters’ anniversary weekend feels less like nostalgia and more like a statement about its continued longevity.

“I couldn’t imagine not doing this label,” Genz says. “So I’m in it for the long haul.”

King of the Monsters Records 31st Anniversary Soirée. Friday, May 22, 5 p.m. and Saturday, May 23, noon at The Rosetta Room, 104 E. First Ave., Mesa. Tickets are $42.85 each day.