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Tuesday, February 09, 2010
Do free downloads work building a band?
Question: I noticed @digearache's recent tweet about CD release of Gama Bomb's "Tales From The Grave In Space" ("Early signs are - fanbase doubled." Does this mean you might consider doing more free downloads in the future? (For the record, I downloaded the album and then bought a "real" copy on CD!) From: mooglebug@gmail.com
Answer: Short answer is- its too early to say with absolute confidence that the idea worked, but it looks like it did increase the bands fanbase, yeah. In November we gave away the complete album legally as a band-and-label-approved download.The files have been downloaded over 50,000 times so far from our file hosting partner Rapidshare, plus undoubtedly many more on the torrent sites.Its an impressive number, but for the time being, the success or otherwise of a band is still judged by the number of physical units sold (Soundscan & OCC chart) not number of files transferred (Big Champagne).The music industry is still hung up on physical sales data and charts, and to be taken seriously by agents and festival promotors, bands need to appear in those charts.
I'd like to thank you for being part of what is to us and the band a pretty interesting idea- I guess it worked out great for you, if you downloaded the files in November, got to spend time with the album, and then liked it enough to actually purchase the CD in January. Thank you! One thing I'm dying to know is- were you already a Gama Bomb fan from before, or was it the free d/l which convinced you to become a fan and spend money? Thats the question....
The reason it is too early to tell is the album has only been out 2 weeks, and the numbers I am quoting are ship out numbers to stores in UK & Europe which have indeed increased over the previous album 'Citizen Brain' by about 75%- almost doubled. But that alone doesnt mean they are selling through to fans, its only the amount dealers have taken- we'll find out for certain in probably 3-6 months. The USA edition is not yet out- its released on March 9th so we'll have more info about stateside action later too.
The uncertainty comes from the fact that traditional record retail chains (HMV, WOM, Best Buy etc) have the right to return any unsold stock to labels for full credit, called "returns", which is the bane of the old style music biz. The promotion of the free download has been great, with Industry mags like Billboard and Music Week covering the story. However, the actual numbers sold are never predictable until all the dealers who took the CD declare they want more copies, and so by implication let you know that they dont have any gathering dust on the shelves, for credit.
Another reason we don't know for sure, is because the band have yet to play a gig after the physical release. That's usually the first sign of progress, when bigger crowds turn up unexpectedly for a show. This has yet to happen.
It's nothing new to release an album on the internet for free. Unsigned bands have done it for years, I personally know a ton of cool up and coming, newish bands who have done it- trouble is, none have become household names in the scene. It needs something more than just "heres our files", anyone can do that. In my experience its more about how bands interact with their fans using social media nowadays- if you have something new and interesting to say, using twitter/Youtube/facebook, and the old warhorse, MySpace, a band can create a powerful and loyal fanbase in record time.Most of the breakthrough artists in the rock scene during the last 4 years have done exactly that, and the labels which saw this free social networking opportunity early, broke through along with them.
Don't get me wrong, we are happy there are signs of progess in raising the Gama Bomb's profile, but I am naturally cautious about declaring it a runaway success. It could be the simple effect of its a better album, or the natural momentum created by the bands 2 earlier albums. Time will tell.
As for doing it again, we probably will, if we find another one of our developing bands in agreement with the idea, yeah why not.
Question: Dig, you mention that a band picture is something important when checking a new band out, and I remember you saying you didn't sign AngelCorpse because of the looks of the singer. How important are the looks of a band for you? Have you always had this concern, asked a band member to change style or something? When did it become important to you and why? From:
Answer: This is a tricky subject to talk about, as the image and style of a band is never really overtly spoken about at Earache, we've never sat down and changed the image of a band on the label for instance. But in general we find it is the fans themselves who are extremely quick to judge a band from the looks, style and clothes of the players. Fans do indeed judge a book by its cover, every time.
Yes, as I wrote in a previous blog,one of the main reasons I didn't sign Ripping Corpse (Erik Rutan's first brutal DM band) in 1990 or so, was because the band were long haired, black T-shirt wearing dudes, yet the singer was a Hardcore guy in white vest, short hair and baseball cap. It made the players seem disjointed and not cohesive, so I passed on the band. Death metal and hardcore simply did not mix back in the early 90's beginnings of the DM scene.
In Death Metal and grindcore circles, the band image is considered of secondary importance to the overall quality of the music.It took the mid-90's rise of Black Metal to suddenly force strongly coherent band image right to the top of every fan's agenda. Not many people realise that it was the corpsepainted and spiked armband Black Metal bands who hit the make-up box with such zeal, you could argue that in terms of presentation, they were the direct descendents of the Glam Metal era, or at least Kiss. This fact is rarely discussed.
Try to imagine for a minute a retro Norwegian Black Metal band with 3 corpsepainted and fully spiked-arm members, and a short haired singer in tattoos & Hatebreed shirt.Would you sign such a mixed up band? See what I mean- Its not gonna happen is it?
Fans in general are an unforgiving bunch, they can be as harsh in condemning a band for a fashion faux-pas as any coffee-table women's magazine.
In the underground metal scene of the 90's image was not that important, but when labels like Nuclear Blast and Century media began releasing their hugely successful Gothic metal acts Lacuna Coil or Nightwish, they totally raised the bar for how an underground metal band should be presented. Suddenly, sophisticated and elaborately staged band photoshoots were everywhere you looked, making Earache's mostly jeans 'n' T-shirt brigade appear completely out of touch with the times. In many ways the rise of the internet meant that bands with a strong and instantly recognisable image in a high quality photosession could gain a fanbase faster than ever before.
Many fans- especially ones in the notoriously image-conscious emo & deathcore scenes - can decide they like a band way before they have heard actually heard any music, the style of haircut alone can make the difference between being accepted or not.Bring Me The Horizon would be a great example of strong and consistent image.
Earache has had a few bands who made some strange decisions regarding image. When we signed Akercocke, the band had an extremely strong image as sharp-suited London satanists. We spent thousands of pounds on high quality photoshoots and sets depicting the band as suited and booted country squires, and the band totally stood out from the pack of BM bands. Fans loved the band for this. Yet on the eve of their debut USA tour the band chose to ditch the suits, instead they performed in jeans and T-shirts, and many US fans told us they had doubts that it was actually Akercocke who had just performed before them.Such is the power of strong imagery, fans were perplexed when the band decided to change tack. I wonder if Slipknot would ditch their masks prior to a tour? Somehow I doubt it.
Sometimes bands choose to make a quirky statement about themselves when given the opportunity to do so. Earache has a brilliant new school Death-Metal band called The Boy Will Drown who hail from Norwich, which is in the farming belt to the East of England. To show they are not hung up on image, they ironically dressed up as farmers for their first official shoot. This image spread all over the web, and I'm pretty sure it has alienated their potential fanbase of fellow death metallers, so it was basically ill advised.
Here's another disasterous shoot- this picture look like it contains a dude right out of a cheap knitwear catalogue, and some guy modelling generic sportwear. Little would you know that in fact the guys on the right of the pic are Kam Lee and Rick Rozz, both originators of Florida Death Metal, and this pic was the offical pic to promote 1995's Massacre album 'Promise'- an album which fans shunned.
Question: Hi there, my names Ali i am in a death metal band from Scotland called FACEGRINDER. I am wondering if EARACHE Records are accepting demos from unsigned bands at this time. I have been looking at several metal labels websites today and for unsigned bands like my own none are of much use as to where to send my demo or wether it would be listened to if i did send it.
I would appreciate a response greatly.
Cheers Ali From: ali_D123@msn.com
Answer: I dunno how other labels do it,some of the major record companies do not allow unsolicited demos at all. But the way to make Earache know about your band is- click on the CONTACT at the top navigation bar of the site http://www.earache.com. Then you'll see the staffers listed. At the top of that page is a flashing SUBMIT YOUR DEMO image- click that and fill in fields with your bands name, genre, myspace URL and playcount, then hit the button to submit.
As if by magic, the info ends up in the A&R dept inbox, and mine aswell..to give you the scale of the amount of bands who contact us this way- in 2010 so far, over 500 bands have submitted their myspace link.
Most do get played eventually, mostly its bands who have barely even formed, but some decent ones also arrive. If a band shows promise, we might decide to monitor a bands progress, to see how things develop.
3 tips for bands are 1) make sure your BEST song is first in the player. 2) a full band pic of you all together is important. 3) plenty of tour dates listed is always impressive and also means we might show up to check out the band.
Question: Congrats on signing Wormrot, they are now my fave band. Are Earache getting back into grind, and will you be signing more such grindcore from Far East countries? From: davegrindtilldeath@gmail.com
Answer: Yes, glad you like them- WORMROT is hands down the most exciting grindcore band in the scene at the moment. First time I heard them it was one of those extremely rare "Aaaaargh" moments, the band had that scarce commodity of being extremely fast but controlled and tight in the execution of the songs.Also they had an extra energy and zip to the playing which raises them way above the average grind band, in my opinion.
Earache had a lot to do with the birth of the grindcore genre, I was there in the studio during the recording of Scum, Reek, FETO, Extreme Conditions, and many more of what are now referred to as the classics of the genre.Those bands were'nt playing grind to forge a career, or be ironic, the intention was to bury the torpid Rock and Indie scenes in an avalanche of noise. My role was mostly sitting in the control booth, urging the bands to "play it heavier", "try it faster","make it noisier" etc.That, and write the cheque at the end of the session to secure the tapes.
Having been involved in the blueprints for the defining albums of the genre, it sort of had the unwanted effect of clouding my judgement of the pack of bands following in their wake. For many years, nothing much grabbed me. To my mind, hardly any new bands have that sense of purpose or urgency that the originals had. Too many bands nowadays pick up instruments and play grindcore as a career-choice - playing identikit noise is perfect fodder for the unskilled musician, I'm sure technological plug ins and presets must exist to help budding grinders get that 'grind" sound nowadays. Everyone has the sound, but no one has the "feeling'.
The best grind bands teeter on the ragged edge of the envelope- walking the line between uncontrolled chaos and precision attack- its very tough to pull this off, but Wormrot do it spectacularly, in my opinion, as Insect Warfare did before.
In actual fact, the first time I heard the band was from a 2009 downloadable sampler album made available courtesy of one of my fave blogs,Invisible Oranges. It was the xmas break and I needed a fix of new stuff to listen to, so grabbed the free sampler loaded it into Itunes, and proceeded to crank it. Mostly it was uninteresting, and I was at the point of turning it off, until the second-to-last song ( iTunes was playing in alphabetical order somehow) by Wormrot ripped through the air. Fucking hell, they were epic, the song "Born Stupid" was a killer. Wormrot gave me the same kind of feeling as Insect Warfare, by whom we had released the 'World Extermination' opus earlier in 2009, and had subsequently arranged a farewell UK tour for the band aswell.
A few days later - between Xmas and New year, I became aware that the sampler was compiled by a fella named Andrew Childers at Grind and Punishment blog, so turned to his blog for more information. He had just blogged his top 10 of the year, and Wormrot sat proudly atop his grindcore 2009 chart. This spurred me to download the album from mediafire and investigate them properly.
It was a revelation to find out the band were from Singapore, and an even greater one to find that every single song on the Singapore-only released debut CD "Abuse" was amazing, there were no filler tracks at all. Having the audacity to play a Yeah Yeah Yeahs cover marked them down as not afraid to defy convention. I emailed the band same day to make contact.
Luckily the band and label got on great right away, they were impressed by our grind credentials,while we were impressed by their ambition, hard work ethic, and willingness to put Singapore and Asian grindcore in the global map.
In record time- about 2 weeks- a deal had been struck to sign the band. The plan is to re-issue the Abuse CD with bonuses, and then more albums to follow. The band will embark on a worldwide touring trek to promote it.It's a fair bet if you are a fan of grind, WORMROT will play near you in 2010, so come out and support the best new band in grindcore!!
Why don't we re-issue obscure albums from the past?
Question: I was just reading a response to a question about downloads and the future of the recording industry, when a thought occured to me. In the past, (in this very forum), I have inquired about the possibility of Earache reissuing some of the more obscure pieces from the back catalouge, bands like Old Lady Drivers, Intense Degree, Filthy Christians, Sore Throat, ect. The response was always a "NO", based on the limited interest in those bands the first time around, and, obviously, the fact that every reissue bumps a new release by a deserving contemparary band. All this is understandable, but what about making some of these recordings available via download through the website? They would not necessarily have to be free....I bid on a copy of the Sore Throat CD with the 2 Earache LP's on it but had to back out after the price went over the $100 mark. I would GLADLY pay $10 or $15 just to hear the music! Of course, I can always go to a torrent site...but then I get no cover/lyrics/notes/ect. Just a thought...let me know what you think!! From: feltner.stephen@yahoo.com
Answer: Yeah I get asked all the time on this blog about the most obscure titles from the Earache back catalog, and why we dont re-issue them. As you say, its usually because the bands were fairly small and did not sell well at the time of release, so never even made it on CD at the time, and then slowly fell off our radar. In a roundabout way its this obscurity which has made those bands sought after by fans, and highly collectable now. $100 for a Sore Throat Cd is insane, thats more than it cost to record the damn thing!. Ironic, don'tcha think?
Where you need to head for is Cyclone Empire website, in Germany.They are a distro and small label, and also specialise in out of print classics. They spotted the demand for these obscure titles and convinced us to print 500 of Filthy Christians, Confessor and Sore Throat, which they will exclusively sell at reasonable prices, not stupid ebay collector prices. We just have to find the bloody master tapes first tho, so some are not advertised yet, but will be in time.
A little-known fact is that the cover of Filthy Christians album is the infamous photo of the assassinated Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme who was shot and killed in 1986, while out walking in the city centre of Stockholm. This national tragedy marked the end of innocence in Swedish politics, and Scandinavian society in general. His murder was never solved. The gruesome death picture is impossible to find anywhere online, Filthy Christians chose to immortalise the event on their album cover.
How do the original 80s Thrash bands feel about the new crop?
Question: Since its been a few years in i thought id ask this. what do you think the attitude towards the new wave of thrash has been from the old guard? ive noticed that their main champions of the old guard have been Robert Caggiano of anthrax and also scott who was in stampin ground, however im guessing this is because both are producers and so have regular contact with new bands all the time, also from rob's point of view at 33 he's actually the same age as some of the guys in the new wave of thrash bands. im just curious as to what you have noticed from a label's point of view. From:
Answer: Short answer is- extremely supportive. Thrash, young or old, is a genuine community. For proof look at the amazing level of support given by the veteran acts to the Mike Alexander (RIP)auction. Slayer invited Muni Waste onto their recent December UK tour.It was a great honor, as Kerry King has been very public in his admiration of the new Thrash bands, but Muni had to decline, as they were already committed to touring USA. Likewise Rob Flynn of Machine Head invited Evile onto next months (Feb 2010) Euro tour, but again they had to politely decline as they had their own headline tour going on.
This blog has been writing about New Wave of Thrash bands since mid- 2006 when the scene barely even warranted a blip on anybody's radar. Municipal Waste had a couple of records out but bands like Warbringer, Evile, SSS, Bonded By Blood, Gama Bomb & Violator were still touting demos, or self-released CDs.
In January 2008 Earache released the Thrashing Like A Maniac compilation, which was our attempt to showcase the upcoming bands, because I was fascinated by the youthfulness and energy of this new set of mostly teenaged or early 20 yr old bands who were influenced by the retro sounds of the 80's thrash scene, and wanted to recreate the original style for the modern day.
I also admired the guts of these bands because to actually get up on stage and play Thrash in bars and small clubs to an audience mostly unprepared for it, took an enormous amount of self-belief. Early on, Evile were once a last minute addition to the billing of a festival of local Nike-wearing Emo/screamo bands in Bradford.Playing unannounced they endured a hostile reception, the crowd- of about 8 people- were mocking the "dated" sounds, giving them the finger from close quarters. Charged up, they played through a totally ripping set, sporadic headbanging had even broken out by the end of it. They simply had to perform to impress the watching Flemming Rasmussen - who had flown over to check out the band prior to recording their debut.
Now as we enter 2010, its a different picture. Many of the new schoolers have albums out, and a few just released album number 2 in recent months, most of them are forging careers in their own right. A whole glut of Thrash-y albums on other labels have been released in the last 12 months.Even the most dismissive of pundits must admit now that a thriving scene is gradually taking shape.Thrash is a sought-after tag now, even mid-tempo Death/Black metal bands are getting dubbed "Thrash" by confused journalists, simply on account of having occasional 'thrash' tempos in songs.
You asked about the opinions of the Thrash veterans to all this - I'm glad to report, its very very healthy, many of them look on approvingly. In fact its more like a mutual back-slapping/appreciation-fest. Many of the old guard noticed quite quickly what was going, and instantly took a very close interest in the new bands. I guess they were fascinated by this new generation of young 'uns, half their age, who have revived and re-activated what was, lets face it, aside from the 'Big Four', an almost stagnant scene. The new bands breathed new life into Thrash, and in many ways have in turn re-energised the old guard into making return-to-form albums aswell.Like zombies, they really did bring the old-stagers back from the dead. How else do you explain the difference between St.Anger and Death Magnetic?
Many of the veteran thrashers go out of their way to support the new bands. Scott Atkins (ex-Stampin Ground) was maybe the first one to get exposed to the new acts,as a procession of newbie young Thrash bands - Gama Bomb, Mutant, entered his Grindstone studios, and emerged as polished acts, boasting world class productions to their name.
First off the blocks with a genuine helping hand was probably Dave from Gwar. His band kindly took Municipal Waste out on a full US tour early on, which exposed the band to more people and boosted their profile no end. Gary Holt from Exodus took out Evile for a full EU tour, the two bands got on famously (see pic top).
The veteran German bands have offered amazing support - Kreator took Municipal Waste out on a US tour, and Eviles first ever USA touring stint will be as Kreator support in March 2010, closely followed by Overkill tour of US aswell.
Schmier from Destruction enlisted Ol Drake as stand-in for a festival appearance, which I think clearly shows the level of admiration between the old and new schools.
Perhaps most famously, a couple of years ago Megadeth took Evile out on a full EU tour and this generous act boosted the bands profile across Europe enough for the band to headline out there, with Warbringer, right now. See pic, Megadeth & Evile.
Question: Hello.I recently bought cd Evile-Infected nations
(Earache Records LTD),stroke bar code-5055006537710
cd's back side-- SOUND PERFORMANCE 2086912121,MOSH377CD, IFPI LP76. Question: What country has manufactured this cd, England or Holland? Evgeny. From: evgenij-paraskun@yandex.ru
Answer: The Cd is made by Earache in the UK.However the plant used to manufacture the discs is called Sound Performance, we talk to their London office about the pressing of CDs. I think you might be right to suggest Holland because the actual factory used by Sound Performance is located in Holland. Because of the free movement of goods in the European Union, it doesn't make any difference to Earache where the factory is actually located, hopefully it doesn't make any difference to fans either?
Was Confessor's self titled ep ever released on cd in the slim jewel case form like all the other ep's at the time or just through Relativity/Earache in regular jewel case? Also, was Unseen Terror's Human Error released on cd before the 2001 reissue. Thank you kindly From: jared_hynes@hotmail.com
Answer: Confessor's EP was made on slim jewel case, released in UK on Earache in 1992, yeah. As for Unseen Terror, it was not released on CD anywhere until 2001. Read an interesting interview with Confessor here.
Jon Leon, bassist of White Wizzard argues that METALLICA & QUEENSRYCHE's huge 1991 albums effectively killed Metal, ushering in Grunge instead.
Jon Leon of Earache's Los Angeles-based NWOTHM band WHITE WIZZARD was asked to make a blog posting for HARDTIMES.CA website about metal.Instead of a mere posting, he wrote a bloody PHD thesis! On the subject of how Metal's 2 major breakthrough bands during the late 80s Metallica and Queensryche both made major lyrical about-turns for their follow ups in 1991.The unprecedented success of Metallica's Black album and Queensryche's Empire effectively brought the heavy metal era to a close, ushering in the grunge era instead.
Heres the posting in full:
The Day The Metal Movement Died: Metallica's "Black Album" and Queensryche's "Empire" by Jon Leon of White Wizzard
This is a piece I am writing to explore a time when heavy metal music was at its peak in the U.S. during the late 80s, and how it then suddenly got washed underground in the early 90s.
The calender year was 1988...
Metallica and Queensryche release 2 records:
Operation Mindcrime & And Justice for All.
They are growing rapidly popular with rabid fans. They are doing this outside the box of the media and corporate controlled radio markets. It was a movement, a power-wave of a new generation of kids and a new art form with an intensity and ability to affect the mind and soul in ways never dreamed possible.
It was the pinnacle of musical empowerment, and a juxtaposition of the thinking man's rebellion in an era that capitalism made most run around like sheep trying to get a piece of the new era of Reaganomics. The music had the ability to change and inspire. To awaken and provide self-empowerment fuel to offset the tactics of control set in place within the confines of suburbs in the Reagan-era version of the American Dream.
There was something fake within the fabric of the whole sales-pitch and Metal music, and its fans awoke to this fact. This was perceived as a threat by the ones holding the strings of society, and in my eyes set up a behind-the-scenes war on the music I loved, as well as on freedom of expression.
Some within the U.S. government and those that hold a firm grip of control on the masses, the rich one percent, were leading the charge of paranoia about Heavy Metal music and its power. The PMRC created by Tipper Gore was in full-swing. There was a war of censorship as well as a fear by those in power, the rich and elected officials, that this music and its movement were a combined force to fear. They saw a musical genre never before experienced that had the power to make kids think for themselves.
This happened in the 60s as well. There was a huge musical revolution that inspired people to rise up. It is evident if you look at the history of what went down in the 60s that those in power would do anything to destroy the movement and take back control over the minds of the youth.
They needed to reclaim control of this beast before it caused a possible revolution of thought and rebellion. We can all debate how much of this was rampant paranoia and more than a belief rooted in reality, but a lot of the people behind this also burned records and thought the fumes or smoke would contain the devil in them, so anything is possible.
They saw an even greater capacity with heavy metal to shake the foundations of control they had upon the masses of youth. This was a musical force that had a certain power that they did not understand and that they feared. The parallel to the 60s was very evident. But these were not kids on acid and other drugs running around in a somewhat false reality, with euphoric ideals of utopian convergence and world peace.
This was an art form that, when used in the way these two bands did in 1988, was completely grounded in reality. It was one that exposed the lies and corruption not with conspiracy theories of stoned hippies, but with cold hard truths. This was truly a greater force to be reckoned with if it was not brought down to size and ultimately controlled.
Sure, you had your L.A. sex, drugs, and rock'n'roll bands that fed the religious right's paranoid extreme beliefs. This trend helped feed the argument that metal was just a bunch of wasted youth, dressing like girls, and shooting up & fucking everything in sight.
That was more fear grounded in religious idealism, but it was an easy scapegoat. The Decline of Western Civilization, Part 2 (a movie I despise for purposely showing only one side and making Metal look like a joke) exposed this fact and helped the case along. It was easy to get people to dismiss Metal as a 5th grade immature art form that only really stupid people liked, and that it was beneath society as a whole.
This angle was played hard and some idiots in the genre did ultimately help feed the fire. But that alone would not bring the movement to an end. It was going to have to be something orchestrated from the top-down. The owners of record labels, radio, T.V., and print media would have to be paid off and manipulated. The behind-the-scenes stuff may have to be speculation, but the equation I have added up spells something that is open to debate and worth talking about at the very least. Any opportunity was taken to try and bring it down.
Look at the attempts to sue Judas Priest and Ozzy Osbourne for the notion they were somehow responsible for the suicides of kids that just happened to have the records playing of the bands in question when they killed themselves. I am skeptical if those records were even playing at the time, or that the paranoid parents and others involved just blamed the fact these records were just in the room at the time. It is a telling example of the idiocy and delusion of the times, and of religious paranoia at its best.
These people are more scary than any heavy metal band. These are the types that have caused wars, false imprisonment, and death in all societies for centuries. It is the fear of the cult of religion and an inability to understand that manifests delusion and paranoia. They in turn try to destroy all that is different or perceived as a threat. Heavy Metal was seen as the enemy by both religious conservatives and by the rich one percent, for different reasons, but teamed-up together they would ultimately set out to destroy this art form and the movement that was on the rise.
Again, maybe delusional in the paranoid notion that this could turn into a scenario right out of the Operation Mindcrime album, but the blueprint was set with the concepts of this record to make a statement that could not be ignored. No matter what, they just wanted it gone or at least controlled.
With that said, the 2 bands I want to focus on as the center of this debate are Queensryche and Metallica.
They released 2 very powerful albums in 1988 that lyrically and musically was the strongest combined statement any artist has ever made against the powers that be by exposing 100-percent truth, and these were the strongest bands around who possessed the power to create some serious waves of change.
The reason I am focusing mostly on these two records and bands is because of the parallels between them and four records they both released at the same time, and what happened after.
Queeensryche released Operation Mindcrime, an album that showed a band that consisted of some very smart guys that had an epic delivery few could match. They chose to write an album so powerful in its lyrical content, that even today you cannot read it without seeing the truths exposed about the rich one percent's ultimate rule over the people, the sheep-like way society is set up to feed the machine, and the ultimate soullessness in art and music that is in mass media. It spoke of revolution and change from an awakening to these realities. This had words on levels of movement leaders; guys that were killed for the power of being able to take words and use them in such a way as to open the mind and expose truth, and inspire revolution.
Maybe they did not even quite realize it at the time, but the PMRC must have shit their pants when they read this record's lyrics. Coupled with the fact that this band was growing from fans' word of mouth, a movement outside the realms of manipulation and media control must have made these guys high on the radar of a beast to be tamed as urgently as possible.
Take the narration from the song Spreading The Disease:
"Religion and sex are power plays-manipulate the people for the money they pay selling skin, selling God, the numbers look the same on their credit cards.
Politicians say no to drugs, while we pay for wars in South America.
Fighting fire with empty words.
While the banks get fat, and the poor stay poor and the rich get rich and the cops get paid - to look away - as the 1 percent rules America."
That is some serious shit to put out in a song on a record when the powers that be are already on edge. When the PMRC is reading everything and everyone is watching like hawks, it was a bold move. To have the concept of the album be about overthrowing the U.S. government with a movement was also bold. The lines in Revolution Calling:
"I used to trust the media to tell me the truth, tell us the truth, but now I've seen the payoffs -everywhere I look - who do you trust when everyones a crook?
I used to think that only America's way was right-but now the holy dollar rules everybody's lives-gotta make a million doesn't matter who dies..."
Or from the Venomous Speak:
"The rich control the government, the media, the law - to make some kind of difference, then everyone must know - eradicate the fascists, revolution will grow...
The system we learn says we're equal under law - but the streets they are reality - the weak and poor will fall - Let's tip the power balance and tear down their crown - Educate the masses - we'll burn the White House down."
Powerful stuff. I am not going to quote the whole record; there is a fictional story woven between its statements as opposed to the opposite. This album is a huge statement, and the story is just there to support it. It is calling the listener to rise up and wake up. It exposes so many truths in its sheer attack.
This was highly-intellectual and thought-provoking, quite the opposite opposite of stoned hippies' banter with half-truth conspiracy theories in the 60s. These guys were stone sober, smart, and getting bigger.
The 2nd album was also released in 1988. It is called "And Justice for All" by Metallica.
If any band defied the record industry's formula and rules, it was this one. They had blown up solely on fan support and enthusiasm. They were not an easy beast to tame nor attach strings of manipulation to. They were a very determined group of guys, not stoned on a couch, but instead extremely aggressive and motivated.
The album had lyrical content that though maybe not as blunt and to the point of revolution as Mindcrime, still made some serious statements.
Metallica had to be one of the few bands the PMRC had on its highest radar, with lines slamming the American judicial system's corrupt payoffs, from the title track:
"Halls of justice painted green - money talking - Power wolves beset your door - hear them stalking -soon you'll please their appetite - they devour -Hammer of justice crushes you - Overpower.
Lady justice has been raped - truth assassin - rolls of red tape seal your lips - now your done in - their money tips her scales again - make your deal - Just what is truth I cannot tell - cannot feel -
The ultimate in vanity - exploiting their supremacy - I can't believe the things you say - I can't believe the price we pay.
Justice is lost - justice is raped - justice is gone - Pulling your strings justice is done - seeking no truth - winning is all - fighting so grim so true so real."
And the song Eye of The Beholder:
"Independence limited - Freedom of choice is made for you my friend - freedom of speech is words that they will bend - freedom with their exception. Limit your imagination - keep you where they must"
These songs explored the corrupt court system, pay offs, and censorship efforts of the PMRC and other powerful entities.
It was also bold and amazingly intelligent. There were a lot of rebellious themes and anti-system messages on Justice. It inspired many people with its lyrical power and musical force.
Metallica were becoming one of the biggest bands in the world and were showing no signs of relenting.
After these two bands toured together in 1988, they had defied all the odds, having made huge statements and showed what power this music and movement could have.
We all anxiously awaited what would come next.
What did come next was both amazing and odd. The bands disappeared for a good amount of time, a couple of years. Within that time the dismantling of the movement had been taking shape and things were dying down a bit. The seeds for grunge and burnout rock were being sewn, along with many labels and radio jumping ship on metal.
Queensryche and Metallica would release two new records in 1991.
These albums were called Empire and "The Black Album."
When the albums were released they got a shocking amount of airplay for the first singles. The bands were getting airplay constantly and everywhere, it seemed.
These albums would end up garnering five and seven hits respectively and would go on to make both bands rich beyond belief.
The funny thing is, if you read between the lines some really interesting points and parallels exist.
For starters, both albums were devoid of ANY lyrical content questioning any government entity or the system or the powers that be. Nothing of rebellion or inspiring deep thought.
The lyrics were in fact quite dumbed-down by comparison; but even more stunning was track six of each album.
Metallica's track six, "Don't Tread On Me," was a track that lyrically actually called upon people's patriotism and glorified support of the U.S. government and the blind devotion of patriotism without questioning.
It was an odd 180 to say the least. Lines like "Love It or Leave It" were a sharp contrast to the lines on Justice. So much, that it was hard to believe more did not see the difference. To have displayed such a strong lyrical stance on the Justice album that was so anti-system, exposing the lies and inspiring people to question the system, it seemed odd that their follow-up album would be virtually silent in this regard. On top of it, there was this patriotic song that encouraged blind devotion to one's own country.
Queensryche's track six, "Empire," was equally head-scratching from a band that had released the most lyrically-sharp attack on the government and system in music history. This song seems to paint a PG-rated picture of a call to have more cops on the street to avoid the kind of uprising the previous album had almost seemed to push for.
There is a narration in the middle explaining that we do not pay enough for law enforcement. What a huge almost hypocritical contrast to put out an album and statement at the level of Mindcrime, and then to basically say in this one song that we need more cops on the streets, and kind of a "Hey, yeah we fucked up and we should not have wrote about a revolution or exposed all these truths. Conform to the system; we are going to now and make a lot of money."
I guess you could argue they got wise and cashed in. But it is just really interesting to me and always has been. So that is why I decided to write this. Now they are warning us that conforming and not rebelling and getting more cops on the street will save us from "Empire;" thanks, guys.
When you couple this with the fact that both albums were pushed in all various forms of media so heavily - possibly on some of the highest levels we have seen in history, it at least makes one ask some questions.
What happened here? Were the bands promised more media than they could imagine if they dumbed-down the lyrics and put a song out that was Pro-government and system while also almost condemning the statements they made on their previous albums?
Worse, were they threatened? Were a bunch of games played and manipulated to get the bands to conform on such a high level that they ultimately gave in? If so, who was behind it?
Whatever happened, it is clear that the bands were rewarded for this. Sure, you can argue that they just happened to write some great songs and both bands' timing were perfect and that it was all on purpose.
But what is even more odd is the passion and intensity of the previous albums' themes and the epic 180 here.
What happened next?
Suddenly, all backs were turned on metal when a new dumbed-down, burnout scene was pushed from Seattle.
Though there was some good music that was to be offered in that scene, the equally stunning way the industry and media markets turned their backs on Metal in 1992 right at the end of both bands' amazing run is something that everyone should at least consider.
Grunge rock was everything the government and rich one percent could want. Dumbed-down lyrics and burnout themes; keep them high and out of reality. That is how the movement in the 60s was killed, after all.
At least that is how I see it.
The next few years would see the Internet and some horribly uninspiring music pushed out. Metal never seemed to gain ground again. Swept underground and kept in check, the metal that was pushed was not the thought-provoking kind. Further, it was the way it was pushed and how things were manipulated to keep any kind of revolutionary movement from happening.
The idiots in Metal got exposed in movies like Decline part 2, and Metal was given its bad rep as an immature joke. And the bands that were actually saying something were given a censored foot in the ass with riches falling into their laps for playing the game.
This is when I learned the system is unbreakable. I used to care so much and read between the lies and be so outraged but now it's a different story.
I just like living free and being myself. That is the only way you can beat the system, by being an individual and thinking for yourself. In the end I just look back on that time and I really think it's at least an interesting string of events that went down. I do believe something was orchestrated to kill Metal in the U.S., and Metallica and Queensryche helped it along, whether they realized it or not.
And I am sure the powers that be took a look at each other when their plan worked, and said these words by Neil Peart in the song 2112 - a possible look into the future about a government that censors all forms of expression:
Question: What happened to grindcore band GOD? Did it have anything to do with Godflesh? From: Shaneoconnor454@hotmail.com
Answer: Wow, I've not heard that name for a long time, I hope you're "feeling lucky" because finding any info about them with a name like that, using Google is a big ask.Mostly what you'll find is information about an Australian Indie band who had some hits in the 80's.The GOD you mean was from London.
London's GOD was not a grindcore band, they played heavy-ish/fucked up Indie with jazz leanings.They existed during the late 80s/early 90s and mainman Kevin Martin, who played saxophone in the band, was an early and avid supporter of the new grindcore bands, he was kind enough to arrange and promote some of the earliest performances in London of Napalm Death and Godflesh. In fact the classic b/w live pic of Napalm Death with Lee and Bill was taken at Kevin's "Mule" club.
GOD were slightly older then the grindcore musicians, the London scene they inhabited included the likes of Loop, Silverfish, and up in Birmingham, Head of David and Slab.The daddies of that scene were already established in the music press, including Swans and possibly Einsturzende Naubauten before that.Not many people know that Naubauten bassist Marc Chung became a high flying music biz executive in the 90's working for Sony. Anyway, it was'nt a scene I was particularly interested in, as I was fixated on the much fresher grindcore sound which Earache was single-mindedly promoting at the time. To be honest, I had scant interest in those heavy/indie bands, they had the affectations of anger, cloaked in a veneer of middle class angst.People lapped it up, but to my ears all the bands sounded pedestrian and dull.
Kevin Martin existed on the periphery of the grindcore scene, but he was very well connected to the London media and magazines, he seemingly knew every journalist of an open-minded persuasion in London, so I felt it important to cultivate this chance connection for the better promotion of the Earache bands. Justin Broadrick got on famously with Kevin, they shared many common musical influences, and almost immediately the pair hatched plans to form a project band together- this became Techno Animal.From my perspective I felt in some ways like Godflesh was being put on the back burner while Justin engaged in various dead end projects, to satisfy a creative whim, but also prompted by the opportunity to trouser a few quid along the way. Collaboration mania broke out, everyone wanted a slice of the Godflesh sound and style- typical example would be Sweet tooth, which was a shortlived trio of Head of David, Godflesh and ex-Slab members.They made an album together which found its way onto Earache.A short while later noted Jazz saxophonist John Zorn would up the ante on the project bands, he would collaborate with Mick and Justin on the 'Painkiller' project for 2 albums.
Earache got into the 'collaborative spirit' even further by helping fund and market a a whole compilation CD Kevin was working on of the most radical UK bands around at the time. It was a comp which included a smattering of some of the Earache acts, as well established -for the time- names like Silverfish, and Kevins main band GOD.
Earache negotiated to release it for Kevin's label Pathological, and this became the Pathological compilation which boasted some of the best early recordings by Godflesh, Carcass and Napalm Death.You can read about that in an earlier blog ASK EARACHE: Earache & the Pathological Compilation (1990)
Blood From The Soul. 1990's HC + Metal supergroup.
Question: I had to ask about this project ( and i chose the word project wisely), what are your memories of blood from the soul? Im only wondering as I dug out a copy of their album recently. for me the band is comparable to epitaph band error except a decade before hand in that its a meeting of a hardcore guy, a metal guy and a industral musican. On a personal level I belive that record betters anything fear factory were doing at the time, and almost serves as a companion release to some of the material godflesh were releasing at the time! From:
Answer: Yes Blood from the Soul was most definately a short-term project, it was'nt a real band. It was the brainchild of Shane Embury (Napalm Death) who hooked up with Lou Koller of Sick Of It All- they had met on tour and became friends.The idea was to quickly get in the studio and produce an album during an extended period of downtime from the Napalm Death touring cycle. Shane being a highly creative dude open to other genres, (remember, death metal and HC just did not mix at the time) and the newest technology (samplers/drum machines were big at the time) meant he could indulge his wildest creative juices. It was a helluva innovative project on many levels.
To be perfectly frank the reason it was formed was so Shane could earn some income because by this point in 1992 the Napalm death members were full time professional musicians and any downtime was not helpful to their finances. I vividly recall the meeting when their manager explained their grand plan to me - all the Napalm Death members will use this downtime to go off and create their own projects. I was pretty horrified by this, as I have a long held belief that project bands are a waste of time really, because no-one 'cept the most die-hard fan of any band buys into them. Being mindful not to restrict the creativity of the members, we agreed to fund them all anyway, even though to my mind it was foolhardy.
Looking back, I reckon the runaway success of Terrorizer was a motivating factor.This appeared like a project but was a real band reactivated to record their debut after splitting up, and contained members who later joined Morbid Angel and Napalm Death. Also around this time Fudge Tunnel founder Alex Newport hooked up with Max Cavalera to form the Nailbomb project,which was released to great acclaim on Roadrunner and sold a lot of copies. Every project seemed to be successful, with minimal effort, so project mania took over!
Earache and Roadrunner did a musician swap- in return for our allowing Alex to record with Max, Napalm's Mitch Harris hooked up with Obituary's Tardy brothers and recorded the Meathook Seed project. Shane did his thing with Lou. Not many people know this but serious plans were also made for the second Terrorizer album to get recorded but the schedules of Morbid Angel's Pete did not match Jesse's so this idea was shelved. Also the Morbid Angel management were not convinced it was the right time to do it.
The only Napalm member who did not embrace the project mentality was Barney Greenway. In hindsight maybe it was this project era which made him estranged slightly from the other guys, well, that and the groove metal influences slowly but surely coming into play. Barney began spending his time hanging with the ENT guys.A few years later in 1996 he'd dramaticaly walk out of Napalm during a recording session, to join ENT for a short time, recording vocals for them instead on ENT's Damage 381 album.
Question: Was mick harris really a member of godflesh? ive read in a few sources that he briefly played with the band, being as mick also played in doom and extreme noise terror, if this fact is true I wouldnt be suprised. From:
Answer:Short answer is I don't think he was in Doom or Godflesh, but ENT yes.You gotta remember, the original UK grind scene, I mean at its very beginnings, was made up of a ridiculously small amount of people, I would say 25 tops, and decent musicians/players were very scarce.It was normal to play in more than one band. All of the people involved were fans of this then brand-new style - extremely fast metallised hardcore-punk aka grindcore. Grindcore was current, fresh and highly radical at the time, though its worth pointing out that to most folks, even some of the musicians involved, it was deemed a childish passing fad which could'nt possibly last more than a year or two. I mean, how could unlistenable noise possibly become a mainstream genre, or be the basis of a music career? It was a fair enough assumption I suppose.
Birmingham was the epicentre of the scene, no doubt about it, but there were already rival cliques and crews popping up all over the UK. You'd have the Bradford contingent, who were more influenced by the political/anarcho punk scene, compared to say the Nottingham crew, which included the likes of me. We preferred the ultra-speedy non-political USHC bands, so Bradford and Nottingham folks never really saw eye to eye.
Also places like Liverpool and Wigan had the beginnings of a crew with Jeff Walker (Electro Hippies) and Bill Steer (Disattack) forming early bands. Liverpool seemingly also had the biggest skateboarding population, so US skate-rock bands were high on the agenda there. West of Birmingham in deepest Shropshire were the diehard metallers - Shane Embury and Mitch Dickinson of Warhammer. This duo entered the scene as Napalm Death fans,but their collection of the fastest thrash and death metal demos of the day soon became tape-trader faves, and was highly influential on the grindcore sound.
Meanwhile in Ipswich were Extreme Noise Terror. ENT predated the grindcore thing by a few years, playing instead an extreme HC punk, minus any metallic riffs. Geographically they were isolated on the east coast, but being slightly older, and a gregarious bunch, they made friends easily.Also living closest to London they were billed on many of the HC gigs in the Capital, and so became one of the most visible bands on the scene.
Radio 1 DJ John Peel picked up on ENT for a Peel session first, right after fellow Ipswich Skate-punk band The Stupids, presumably because Peel lived close by Ipswich so they were both deemed local bands to him. I beleive Peel also gave patronage to Carcass because his birth-place was Heswell,a small place just outside Liverpool on the middle-class enclave of the Wirral, which was Bill Steer's parents place, and Carcass' mailing address.
Its worth mentioning that neither Bristol and London had a grindcore scene, Bristol punks were firmly in the Disorder/Chaos UK camp, both of whom at this point in time were traiblazing their unique super-noisy punk style all over the world. This style- among others- was definately a precursor and one of a whole melting pot of numerous musical style which influenced the grindcore bands which soon followed.
Birmingham was unquestionably the home of grindcore- and Napalm Death were certainly the first proper exponents of the sound, but even within Napalm itself, the band had splintered into several opposing camps. The founding Napalm Death-ers Nik and Justin quit the band while it was still making demos.No label was interested, and the future looked bleak, so both reverted to their core musical leanings - Industrial, avant-garde and dub. Justin got a lucrative gig pounding drums for upwardly mobile indie rockers Head of David.He then later formed Godflesh with drum machine and dubby basslines, while retaining the "grinding" metallic guitar sound. Nik Bullen quit music altogether, and returned to higher eduction, embarking on an academic career. Several years later, after Mick had also quit Napalm, all 3 original Napalm-ers would put their differences aside to make music together once again.The resulting band Scorn was a mix of Industrial, dub and avant garde with grinding guitars,later dropping the guitars for full on bass-heavy electronic dub.
After the original Napalm death line up had fragmented,Mick was prompted by the prospect of Earache belatedly wanting to release an album to revive Napalm.So he formed a new line up consisting of Lee Dorrian, Bill Steer, Shane Embury (replacing short-lived Jim Whitely on bass).None of them were recognised musicians, all were firstly diehard fans of the Napalm sound and ethos.
This line up existed during the eventual release of debut album 'Scum' and quickly recorded the follow up album 'From Enslavement To Obliteration'.This was the line-up which popularised and witnessed the explosion of interest in grindcore all over the world during 1987-89. But by the summer of 89 Lee and Bill themselves had quit the band.
STOP PRESS--some of the comments below point out that yes Mick did indeed play 3 shows on drums for Godflesh on a UK tour in 1991, before being ousted.I guess I'd forgotten about those. Mick did not record with Godflesh though. There's your answer!
Question: How come Earache never signed NAUSEA from L.A.? They were pioneers in the early Grindcore scene in California along with Terrorizer.. and had connections with Morbid Angel, Napalm Death etc
Just wanted to know your thoughts. From: the_suttonator@hotmail.com
Answer: Short answer is - in my opinion Nausea were not grindcore, they played political mid-paced HC punk, now more commonly known as crust-punk.They had no insane drum speeds or metallised riffs, so it was pretty much how anarcho-punk bands had always sounded during the 80s, but with slightly more growley vocals.The exact same accusation could also be levelled at Extreme Noise Terror in UK actually, and Earache didnt work with them until much later. Nausea were not leading anything new, even at the time, they seemed destined to be a footnote, despite you calling them pioneers, they were around at the time for sure, but that alone does'nt make them pioneering.
Apart from the music, the band were also somewhat sketchy in their line-ups, back then, they seemed incredibly mysterious,and prefered to run with their own crowd in LA most of the time. Nausea seemed to lack ambition, they weren't avid tape traders or letter writers which marked you down as a grindcore-nut at the time. Seems they had other options so being a pro-musician wasn't the be-all and end-all. Even when Nausea singer Oscar Garcia was roped in for the Terrorizer recording session, it seemingly made little impression on him.
Its true that Terrorizer actually made an album which helped define what grindcore was all about, and Oscar was indeed the singer, but World Downfall was made as an afterthought,as Terrorizer had already split up by that time.
In many ways the demise of Terrorizer was because members Jesse and Pete relocated to Birmingham, UK and Tampa, FL to play with Napalm Death and Morbid Angel respectively. They were poached with promises of a real career, which is how it turned out. Meanwhile Oscar remained in LA, he always was first and foremost in Nausea anyway.
I have a vague recollection that Nausea did get an album out eventually on local LA label Punk/Metal/ record store outfit Wild Rags, but it did'nt do much.
Looking for information online is hard nowadays-Luckily the band has a myspace but some idiot removed their wikipedia entry, citing not prominent enough band. Thats annoying because lesser bands than Nausea LA have a wiki.Oh well, I guess all those years of being mysterious has now backfired.
I turned up an Oscar interview online where he mentions my lack of interest. The interviewer Se@n's smart-ass comments about me are pretty wide of the mark, and unhelpful. Nowadays Sean does Damaging Noise blog.
Lastly- a warning about the "other" Nausea. Do not confuse LA Nausea with NYC Nausea who had a similar logo but were around a while earlier during early 80s as a political HC band, influenced by Crass.They were absolutely nothing to do with grind.
Napalm Death 'Breed to Breathe' clip is illegal in Germany
Question: Hello,
I recently bought the limited double disc edition of Napalm Death's "Utopia Banished" with the "The DVD" as bonus disc. Is the DVD censored? I can't find the "Breed to Breathe" promo video on the dvd neither in the menu or on the disc. From: mutant-christ@web.de
Answer: You cannot find the video clip Breed To Breathe by Napalm Death onsale in Germany because the authorities in that country told us its illegal to sell it or even display it. Thats why the clip is removed on the DVD edition you purchased, sorry.(maybe it mentions the clip on the packaging? if so it is a mistake.)
The band and the director made this clip is 1997 and if you know Napalm Death's music, they are definately not a gore-type band or a Cannibal Corpse type death/horror metal band, many of their songs have a social or political meaning. The title and lyrics deal with subject of life and death, so the director of the clip made many references to birth, as you can see in the conception footage used throughout the clip. He also highlighted death too, and the clip shows many examples of sudden death and violence.
To protect the youth of Germany from extreme images, which might cause psychological harm to children, all movies/ DVDs and I think also video games have an age rating system called FSK. A panel of experts sit and actually view the game or DVD, its mostly movies but also Music DVDs, and decide an age rating.The record label is informed of the FSK rating decision, which is final and must be displayed on the packaging, its usually 12, 16 or rarely, 18 if its adult themes.
Every DVD Earache has ever released has been through this process, its pretty routine, and most often our DVDs will come back with a 16 rating. In the case of the Napalm Death DVD, which contains about 6 of the bands video clips and tons of live footage, they contacted us to tell us the news that having watched the many clips on the DVD, they were very disturbed by the extremely graphic scenes in Breed To Breathe. They were actually so shocked - by scenes of burnt bodies in a car, and a guy jumping from a multi-storey building - they decided to refer the clip to a higher court to see if it was actually illegal material.
We were shocked too by the news.To be honest, we had actually forgotten how extreme the parts of the clip actually are, I can only guess that the director had access to some very gruesome footage, and had decided to include it.
In 1997, you have to remember the clip was made before any kind of streaming video was common on the internet, Youtube wasn't even launched until about 6 years later, so it was made with a very small, in fact, tiny viewership in mind.
The ability of DVDs and Youtube to distribute such clips in the last decade has meant many more people can finally see them.
The higher court ruled that the material is actually so gruesome, and graphic, it is akin to "snuff" parts, so was ruled actually illegal. The 18 rating would not be enough. We were asked to remove the offending scenes and the rest of the clip is actually OK, but we refused as it would compromise the integrity of the original video idea. It was easier all round to remove the song itself from the disk.
See what all the fuss was about for yourself: Napalm Death - Breed To Breathe 1997.
Question: With all this talk of free music downloading taking over, what do you think of Moshpit Tragedy records stance, the first label to offer all their music as free music? From: PhilNeal444@gmail.com
Answer: Yeah its very interesting model, but I dunno about if its going to burn down the industry! We spoke to Moshpit Tragedy's mainman Rayny Forster in 2008 when he was looking to find a larger label to take his project under his wing, or even to buy him out. Rayny is a super smart guy who has that great ability of self-promotion, and will no doubt be pretty successful in any endeavour. His choice of bands are cool too- hes a punk/crust/grind fan, so you can get Extreme Noise Terror or Phobia and about 20 more punk/crust albums - all for free download from his site Moshpit Tragedy.
Oh- you can also pay for them too- he has sliding scale of payment option, tho he confided to us that the majority of fans take the free option, which is fair enough.
Recently he announced - proudly- that all his releases will be download-only, no physical product. I applaud his conviction, because if we tried that with our bands, there would be a riot, as there is nothing our band members covet more seeing their album in their own hands, as a nice lavish Cd or vinyl edition of their work.
Rayny has a great promotional angle and decent taste in music, if he can persuade some biggish bands to join him then it could really spell trouble for the regular music industry.
Question: So im wondering who started this nwothm thing in your opinion, I actually think its a band from the other side of canada to cauldron. 3 inches of blood, sounds bizare I know however they were playing traditional style heavy metal to metalcore audiences. infact their formation as a hardcore band is what helped with their touring and punk esque ethic to DIYing everything. Im curious as to whom your opinion is to whom think the root of this nwothm is? From:
Answer: It's hard to credit who is responsible for the upsurge in interest in bands playing classic Traditional/True/Timeless Heavy Metal, but it sure wasn't 3 Inches of Blood, at least according to my definition of NWOTHM anyway.
There have been countless bands in recent years playing modern music with hints of a traditional metal flavour from the past.You could count Power metal (Hammerfall) or Doom (Electric Wizard) or even Sleaze-Rock (Steel Panther) or straight-up 70s rockers (Firebird). All these bands lay claim to be playing authentic proper Metal in the classic tradition.
What they all have in common is that as far as influences go, they skipped the 90s- a decade where Death/Black metal and extremity in music came to be highly regarded, rising to prominence so much that Black/Death metal had more or less come to represent the mainstream modern underground metal sound during 1990s onward.They also skipped the noughties (00s)- a decade defined by Korn/Bizkit and endless rap/metal, nu-metal clones,plus female gothic and any type of metal with an added 'core'.You could sum it up as a decade of crossovers, metal was mixed, remixed, cut-up,and matched to suit all tastes, even symphony orchestras were added to metal and nobody seemingly complained. Urgh- why?!! Now a stampede of pure, undiluted True/traditional/Timeless metal bands are set to take the stage.
(Disclosure-I'm not a journalist or pundit, I'm an Indie metal label owner. My label signed some of the bands listed in the below NWOTHM list and this blog aims to help promote those bands.At the time of posting, none of the bands are anything much, most have'nt even barely released their debut album yet.As an aside, Earache never used the term NWOTHM- that was coined by Metal Hammer mag, and seems to have stuck)
If you've followed metal trends for a while, you'll know, aside from the ludicrous Italian Power Metal bands, or the postings of Rich Walker's Miskatonic label, as well as the Kings of Metal themselves, Manowar, there has not been too many bands claiming "True metal" status in recent years. In the underground, its mostly been the Doom metal bands who have been the ones flying the flag for "true metal" for the longest time. Doom bands by definition have no problem with being retro,being originally all about Black Sabbath worship, then lately branching out into other 70s classic metal offshoots. Look at the Rise Above Records roster for a comprehensive list of the bands who revel in the sounds of this era, a great example is probably Grand Magus.
Being retro is a large part of what makes the Doom genre cool, but by and large the Doom bands have concentrated on perfecting the riffs of trad metal, ignoring the 3 octave vocal Halford/Dickinson-style "metal scream" which in my opinion is the defining essence of the new breed of NWOTHM bands. I have no idea why they ignored this - my guess is its 1) harder to perfect 2) derided as "cheesy" and 3) mostly the ages of the members of the bands means they are products of the Death metal era and so growly vocals are de rigeur.Doom has always been about the authentic riffs anyway.
The one band who did most to popularise true HM first would be Sweden's WOLF.
My own definition of NWOTHM could be summed up as early Maiden/Priest worship.I mean metal with nimble riffing, and great classic vocals.In essence the roots of the NWOTHM is the NWOBHM, unsuprisingly- the clue is in the name. The key element is the 'NW' meaning New Wave, alluding to influence from the original NWOBHM era which dated from about 1979-1982 in the UK.This time span witnessed a huge explosion of metal bands with an almost punky DIY attitude and threw up so many debut seven inch records - it was the evolutionary equivalent of metal's 'Cambrian explosion', and could be summed up as Heavy Metal's "Punk phase", where anything went, more DIY the better.
For me personally, any bands with 60s, 70s, 80s classic rock/metal influences, that makes them retro, and even quite cool in many cases, but to qualify as NWOTHM their strongest influence must undoubtedly be the bands of the original NWOBHM era.Scandinavian bands can substitute Merciful Fate for Maiden and still be authentic.
Earache has signed retro rock in the past, we signed both Clutch (as a quirky Philly HC band) and Sleep ( as straight-up Sabbath worshippers) in the 90's, Cathedral also, and in my opinion the bands playing retro rock nowadays are nothing original, nothing excites me from the entire Kemado label roster for instance, and the proggy or psyche touches displayed by certain metal bands claiming true metal status also leave me cold.
Retro-rock is big business nowadays, from the stellar sales of Wolfmother to the psyche touches in Mastodon, every band in the land has a retro-rock flavour, its standard fare almost.
To counter this, and cos my tastes are quite niche, in my opinion NWOTHM must be narrowly defined, its about 79 Maiden/Priest era, nimble riffs in normal tuning, not ponderous downtuned Iommi style riffs- actually and most crucially, its the punky slant that is missing from most of the other current retro bands, its this punky aspect which makes the NWOTHM bands by far the most contemporary-sounding metal bands around presently.
Also it goes without saying that regular recent-ish Metalcore bands who adopt a few half-assed high (ish) metal screams here and there don't cut the mustard, I'm afraid.3 Inches of Blood are basically OK, and have a few songs which were a really good stab at the style, I do quite like them -in fact I tried to sign the band recently without success.3 inches of Blood are a band stuck in the middle of two scenes, they were'nt fully NWOTHM when they had second short-haired screamo-singer Jamie.He ruined the band for me, his screamo vocals more or less ruining the effect of true metal singer Cam Pipes, who is excellent.
Question: Yo! It seems like, according to some people, that myspace is dying. People move to facebook which took over the un-hip masses (myspaces was only for computer freacks and alternative freacks of any age). Moreover, many other sitese came out like twitter, reverb nation, I Like etc... Ok, the question is: what should a band do now about internet promotion? Which are today's and tomorrow's most important portals? Which can be neglected? Because there are so many options that take you entire woking days... From:
Answer: The internet has allowed mass communication on a scale never before imagined,so now anyone with an internet connection has an extensive network of potentially the entire online human population at their fingertips, this kind of power was once only in the hands of the prime-time Television networks during events of global significance.Now its routine, just spark up your browser, and its yours.
Back in the mid-90s during the early stages of the 'net bands used free web-page hosting site Geocities to house their website, Mp3.com to host their songs and Yahoo groups to cultivate fan discussions and comments. Basically it was a pain to update 3 separate sites regularly plus, the bands of that era still had the 80s mindset, which was to interact with fans only when a new release was imminent, like every 20 months or so, to generate interest leading to a successful album launch.
The previous generation of bands also had wonderful things called 'fan clubs', where bands would type out and mail a newsletter or maybe even a cassette tape of new music to fans who had signed up and paid for such privileged one-on-one access to their favourite artists.
Myspace was the first site to combine all 3 factors, and it took the music industry by storm, its fair to say it revolutionised how fans have access to bands and vice-versa. Only launched in 2004 its instant huge success came from it being free, and from its 'killer app'- Myspace was the first site to stream music properly without installing extra software. It was a very much a musical revolution. Bands that took adding Myspace friends seriously soon found this new found power of interaction with fans intoxicating. By the same token, it gave fans unprecedented access to the musicians aswell. It was a win-win.
Many new teenaged bands took to this like demons, updating their activities daily or even hourly with fans, this open-ness and interactivity turned what were once mere fans into hopeless fanatics. Without even realising it,they used the power the site gave them to eventually launch successful careers some years later. Its fair to say that most if not all of the Emo and Screamo scene bands of recent years became popular by using Myspace, and are now household names in the metal music scene. Myspace founder Tom Anderson is surely overdue his spot in the Music Hall of Fame somewhere,I seriously think that.
Nowadays of course MySpace is showing its age,every site streams music now, and a generation of folks have migrated to Facebook and the current internet trend of Twitter, but personally I still use Myspace as my first port of call for checking out new bands, because the music is what I need to hear, so its not all doom and gloom for Myspace. Twitter is a hit because its essentially just short status updates- it mirrored the growing massive trend for short SMS texts which anyone with a mobile phone instinctively knows is the quickest way to communicate simple messages to others. Twitter just 'socialised' the process.
Back to your question - in short your answer is YouTube, mainly because Facebook and Myspace are walled gardens, or pretty much closed communities. It seems silly to even mention it, such is the power of the site, but youtube has been quietly revolutionising the entire music industry, as well as the television industry, movie industry and advertising industry. People have no idea of the scale and the power that Youtube wields, it has acheived absolute dominance in the streaming video field, almost by stealth.
Make no mistake- if you are a new band, you need to be filming yourself continuously and posting it to YT, because new music stars are are being born on Youtube, on a regular basis.Biggest recent example might be Susan Boyle, the middle aged Scottish singer failed to even win last years X-factor TV talent contest, but her striking performance later received over 100 Million plays on youtube, catapulting her to global fame. Her debut album was released last week selling 3 Million.
At the other end of the age-scale is Justin Beiber (see pic), a 15 year old teenage pop phenomenon in the USA whose debut album was released last week reaching top 10 on the Billboard chart.As a 13 yr old in Canada he started posting clips of himself singing covers of well-known pop songs to Youtube, which soon earned him a fanatical following of admirers. His clips would generate millions of views, which eventually caught the attention of R&B star Usher who signed him to the Island record label. His whole fanbase was originally created using Youtube.
The future stars of tomorrow will be created on the mobile networks,so an iPhone app which displayed real-time Twitter feeds combined with Youtube video streams from a band would be my best bet for a successful promotion method of your band.
Question: What do you think of the opinion that the only music being really affected by downloading is shite music? In that now people can try before they buy, and you no longer have the situation of someone going to a record store buying somthing taking it home and thinking this sucks! I read an article in the paper that the only bands its affecting really are buzz bands who would have a short shelf life anyway and if a band had some longevity towards them people would buy their records. From:
Answer: Yes, I take your point, but there are two type of downloading : the free download (from rapidshare/ megaupload or via torrents) and also, beleive it or not, you can also pay for downloading music aswell. Paid for downloads are typically from itunes for like 99c a track or $7.99 an album (you need a credit card or a prepay card).
I only mention this because your question seems to assume all downloads are free- many people do prefer to pay for music from itunes or other reputable sources like amazonmp3.com. This is to make sure the title tags are full and correct, the d/l doesnt contain any malware.In the case of new itunes 'LP' offering, you get the full artwork & lyrics included in the d/l aswell which makes it pretty decent value i think.
Earache is -unlike many other record companies- pretty open to fans downloading our bands music for free.We just did exactly this with the new Gama Bomb album Tales From The Grave in Space.Fans can try it out at http://www.earache.com/gamabomb its a free download, powered by Rapidshare.
If you like Gama Bomb, maybe you'll buy a CD or vinyl copy when its released on January 18th next year. We are OK with the fan having the choice, you either pay your money, or you don't. I gotta say the CD booklet for the release is totally stunning and takes the form of a comic book, which is worth buying on its own in fact.There is also a plan to release a severely limited box set (300 copies only) of the Tales from the Grave in Space album containing material unavaible elsewhere, and a limited edition shirt= this is a must-have for Gama Bomb completists.
The record industry as a whole is gearing up for the decline of the physical record.In many ways its going to evolve into a much wider reaching, ubiquitous "music is used everywhere, and for free" industry, because music and the promotion of musicians is what we are involved in.
There is a precedent for this, in the song publishing industry. Back in the 10s and 20s of the last century the music industry consisted of songwriters of the day, and their publishers, selling printed copies of the sheet music of the latest tunes, for families to play on the piano in their own homes.Hit songwriters of the day like Irving Berlin and Ira Gershwin were kings- operating out of the New York Tin Pan Alley district- because at that point there were no record players,and hence no record companies, because the easy-to-use gramophone record had not been invented yet.The songwriter was the star, and the performer was yourself at home playing the popular tunes of the day, on the piano.
This printed sheet music industry was huge - it was how music was copied and distributed in the pre war era, and so - in the UK especially- it laid the foundations of the modern music business, as many of the laws and payments for hit songwriters date from this era. Its hard to believe it but there are still no actual laws in place in the UK dealing with musicians or performers payments from recordings of music. Mainly because the technology to mass produce a recording- the gramophone record - had not been invented by that point, it wasn't even thought of by the lawmakers.
So in essence in the UK it is the actual songwriters who rule and the recording artists who perfom those songs, must drool, because the laws here for rights and payments to songwriters predate the concerns of the later-coming recording artists.
In the USA its the opposite way round as the record business grew a decade or so after Tin Pan Alley, and it grew huge around the new technology of the day.In the 30s the gramaphone-recording industry was newly invented and it was this technology which was the driving force behind the nascent US music industry. Gramaphone records replaced sheet music as the predominant method of music distribution, hence the actual recording artists became the stars, and the rights of the songwriters behind those hits became neglected and faded away.
Fast forward a century, and now digital distribution of music via the internet or mobile phone networks, is causing a similar siesmic disruption to the status quo.The Mp3 music compression algorithm was invented by a little-known German scientific research institute FRAUNHOFER and was released without any fanfare under a free-use license - but heavy users of Mp3s like Apple and other audio-tech companies do have to buy a license though. Now billions of Mp3s are distributed every day, and its is the main method of music distribution.
I recall seeing with slight horror a drab little Fraunhofer stand at a PopKomm music industry conference in Cologne in the mid-late 90's.I had a chat with them because I'm fascinated by new-tech, but most folks attending the conference ignored their stand as they appeared to be a distinctly un-rock n roll bunch of boffins. Who would have guessed that this innocuous little institute, along with the broadband internet- could have caused the current transformation and meltdown among the seemingly monolithic Recording Industry.
Music companies of the future cannot be anything like the ones of the last century, and those that try to hold onto the bygone ways will no doubt be seen as dinosaurs and become extinct.
Question: Being as you've talked about downloading alot on this blog im curious as to what you think about the "get rage against the machine to xmas no 1 campaign!"? Surely if this is sucessful this will break the november/dec lull period in releasing music that you talked about in the video concerning gama bomb, in relation to the comerical rubbish that gets released over the xmas period. I personally see it as the people making a stand. As someone whos very vocal about downloading i would love to hear your take? From:
Answer: Yeah this is one of the most radical ideas I've heard of in years, but its not about Downloading per-se, its about disrupting the X-factor talent show's domination of UK's popular culture and the charts. Basically in the UK, the number one single in the chart during xmas week is traditionally a hard fought race between labels and bands, because any band that can score enough sales to be at the top of the chart during that week (actually week prior to xmas) usually gains a prime time TV slot on the famous Top of The Pops chart show, during the BBC afternoon Christmas day programming.Its one of the most watched shows of the year, the viewship is massive and the effects on a bands career are immense, it sets their career, for life.
The TV exposure guarantees massive sales for the first few weeks of the year, as its a UK tradition among many families to watch the Top of the Pops together, and buy the number one as a present to young uns. Many UK Xmas number ones of the past became bona-fide classics, even if they were gimmicky at the time. Having an Xmas number 1 guarantees fame and fortune for the band that can score it.
The trouble started because for the past 5 years this Race for the Xmas number one has been won by Simon Cowells production line of talent-show muppets.Every year he cynically times the debut single release by the winners of his hugely-watched TV talent show. The "X-factor" winner's single generates huge numbers of sales, often 500,000 or more, which almost guarantees the band an Xmas number one, and the subsequent fame that comes from that.
This year some bright spark has started a Facebook campaign, using the internet and crowd-sourcing, to break this Simon Cowell production line of talentless morons, and the idea is quite simple. Every person who cares about music should download (a paid for download, like from itunes) Killing in The Name of by Rage Against the Machine between December 13 and 19th. It has to be a legal paid for download to qualify for the chart sales. If approximately 500,000 people choose to do this, then its possible Rage Against the Machine will be number 1 instead of the X-factor winner.
I think its a great idea, and would demonstrate the immense power of crowd-sourcing if it was successful. I dont think Rage's label (Sony, who also distro Simon Cowell's records, oooh the irony) or even the band have prompted this move, its a genuine fan-driven attempt to restore a bit of unpredictability to the UK Xmas number 1 race, but 500,000 buyers in 7 days is a phenomenal amount of buyer-power.
I'll certainly be logging onto itunes next week and will buy the song.
Question: Kind of fits in with your previous question of picks for 2010, im wondering what new deathcore bands do you think will be in a good position by the time 2010 is over? I live in the uk deathcore stronghold of the south west ( the genre has breathed life back into my local scene so i really like it!) however most of my picks are from the other side of the pond. I pick Chelsea Grin, The Myriad Burial, The Nauseating Stab and also earache's own And Hell Followed With for big things. Im curious as to what your picks in the genre are? From:
Answer: Yes dude thats about the newcomers summed up.Obviously,I agree with AND HELL FOLLOWED WITH they are making their album for Earache right now- I expect it to blow minds in around March of the new year. Chelsea Grin are superb, we tried to sign them actually- their management is Artery Foundation, who actually started off a few years back with 2 Earache bands- Shortie and With Passion from Sacramento, neither of which took off, sadly. Artery is now a major powerhouse in the scene with THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA.
heres AND HELL FOLLOWED WITH:
I also expect ANNOTATIONS OF AN AUTOPSY to grow huge this year- now signed to Nuclear Blast, Earache obtained the rights to their debut in USA, and its likely they could spearhead the scene by years end.
Question: hey Dig this is the time of year when magazines pick the cream of the crop for the coming year.So, have you got any tips for next year, seeing as you are involved in the music and have an ear to the ground on developments.
From : a.stine34@gmail.com
Answer: Well I never saw Lady Gaga coming in 2009, thats for sure, even tho her album The Fame became one of my faves of the past year. For Hip Hop 2010 will be all about Canadian DRAKE, on the Young Money Label, apparently he made his demo for $400 and the leading Hip Hop producers fell over themselves to work with him, offering staggering amounts, hes the new Eminem. DRAKE last month had 2 singles in USA top 10 so its already a fact, he's a major name in waiting.Hear why here:
In techno/dance scene, its all about the inexorable rise and rise of Dubstep, MAGNETIC MAN is the stage name of a teaming up of two of the biggest DJ's- Skream and Benga. Watch for this name all over the festivals summer 2010.
In Rock/metal I reckon our own Los Angeles traditional heavy metal band WHITE WIZZARD will rise through the ranks and by the years end could be a major force, but that might just be wishful thinking, I dunno. Not many people know the band had a major split in the ranks, so bassist/mainman Jon Leon seemingly pulled off the impossible, and recruited an even better band, topped of with an incredible new HM singer with 3 octave range, by the name of Wyatt Anderson.Here I'll post the new video for title track from 2010 album Over the Top when its ready: The video was shot on the vintage set of many old western movies- the location still exists, deep in the California desert at Palm Springs, but almost unbeleivably the band found the set was covered in snow when they arrived.
Question: Hello. Firstly, I think that it is awesome that you're taking the time and making all this effort to answer people's questions. Nice one. Secondly, I would like to ask a Dub War related question please. According to dubwar.co.uk, some demos that DW recorded in 1998 (presumably for what would have been their third full album) were made available as mp3s through metaltracks.com in 2005 and then the next year as part of the 'Total Collection'. I can't seem to find them anywhere, are they still available or, if not, is it likely that they might resurface at some point? Thanks very much! From: will.pedley@hotmail.co.uk
Answer: Dub War's debut album "Pain" in 1994 did very well,charting in the UK Indie charts at number one.This was a result because it was essentially a new and alien sound to rock/metal fans at the time- Ragga infused Rock/metal which Benji and Dub War singlehandedly pioneered in South Wales, away from the glare of the London music scene.The band sounded exactly like their own diverse range of influences- Rock, Ska, Punk, Ragga, Metal etc, and was a genuinely innovative, fresh sound in Rock for the mid 90s.
The follow up album initially did well also, spawning a couple of hits which grazed the top 40, but on release of "Wrong Side of Beautiful' in 1996, other bands like Skunk Anansie had stolen the fanbase and hogged all the press coverage of what Dub War were initially doing.
Dub War's fanbase halved overnight, which was unexpected and disappointing.Obviously this wasn't in the plan- so serious doubts started to creep into my mind about the band's chances of future success at that point. Unknown to the band, their deal with Earache was struck during our USA label license period with SONY, which meant the bands contract was fairly lucrative, it was a major label-style one, as SONY were effectively bankrolling the label in America at that time. By 1997 that label license deal was well and truly cancelled and Earache was once again a true Independent label, with limited resources (ie, my own pockets).
This meant that Dub War's deal for the third album was just too rich for Earache to afford, and so their deal hung in the balance, unless they could come up with some sure-fire hits. In 1998 the band made demos for the label- these songs were just "so-so" and didnt persuade me to finance the proper recording of the 3rd album. The band didn't take the news too well, and promptly disbanded, blaming Earache for being dropped and their resulting financial woes.
Mainman Benji briefly carried on working with Earache, despite the rest of his band leaving him high and dry, but again, his solo demos didn't impress me. Benji demoed a couple of numbers for the label which turned out to be a pure Hip Hop style.Earache has zero experience with Hip Hop, so with no rock music in evidence, Earache -very reluctantly, I must say- finally closed the door on Dub War.
The members weren't unsigned for long as they'd regrouped as Skindred and scored for the first time a proper, experienced management deal in Northern Management, who also look after Paradise Lost etc. Skindred bounced right into a major record deal with American label Beiler brothers, run by successful US record producers, and financially backed by Atlantic records, part of Warners. The Skindred debut album for Beiler sold an incredible amount in the USA.
It should be noted that the Nu-metal and Rap-metal scenes had exploded by that point, bands like Limp Bizkit and System of a Down were mainstream bands who had changed the culture and landscape of the rock scene, so Skindred's hybrid sound was more accepted by radio stations and finally caught on in a big way. The Dub War era that proceeded it was by then a distant memory.In Skindred, the band finally got the rewards their talents deserved.
Earache in 2005 launched its own paid-for MP3 download site- metaltracks.com was actually partially coded by staff at the label, and was effectively home-brew software, but it worked and a lot of fans did use it to download Mp3s from us. We added some of the rarest material we could find in the vaults, to bring attention to the site, and Dub War demos 1998 were among them. Sadly by 2007 the site was attacked by hackers looking to grab stuff for free, this brought the site down and made it unusable, and never worked since. It taught us a lesson in how fans attempt to get free music (or possibly the card details of our database of users, which they didn't get as that stuff was held at paypal site) and also showed how Earache was pretty lax about internet security at the time.
Your question is well-timed, because we have recently started talks with Benji about plans to release a DVD of the final Dub War show in January 1998, this was released on VHS back at the time.The idea is to include the demos and other missing final tracks to make a complete great value fan-package to make available the material from the fateful 3rd album era of Dub War.
No love for Aussie avant-black pioneers Portal then?
Question: Been reading your blog and also your twitter for a while now dig and ive been wondering. why is it you think when you say you dont like certain bands, the press goes on about them like they are the saviours of a genre in respect of the reviews and also the coverage they get? The two I can think of recently are Portal and Skeletonwitch, although to be honest i do actually like what portal are doing as a band because at least they are trying somthing different (although its heavily indebt to morbid angel). From:
Answer: Is this the Portal street team emailing? You're persistant mate, I'll give you that. Y'know, its very rare for me to pass comment -good or bad- on this blog on any new band, I'm not a journalist so my opinions on bands are mostly kept to myself.I empathise with new bands - we have plenty of newbies on this label aswell- most are simply trying their damndest to do their best and to get noticed in the scene, so public criticism is not very helpful.
Eighty percent of the mails this blog receives is from new bands who want an A&R opinion of their music, I'm trying to avoid turning this blog into an A&R forum for new bands. Also I've been in the game long enough to know that bands can go from promising to devastating in like 6 months, which makes a mockery of any criticism, and on the downside, can also ruin any chance of Earache signing them in the future.
I was asked twice about Portal on this blog, and don't like em, I just don't get what the fuss is about,its actually not avant-garde enough for me because it sounds like early Akercocke to my ears, though the headgear is a wonder to behold. If other people love em, then thats great.Most of the stuff on Profound Lore leaves me perplexed, to me, its like the sound of Black Metal in its death throes. When the tag "avant-garde" or worse still, "progressive" becomes the accepted bench-mark by which bands are judged, its gotta be the death-knell. When style takes precedence over substance then its time to hang up the guitars. One Profound Lore band I am digging is Krallice though.
Heres Portal:
As for Skeletonwitch, my tweet was prompted by my shock and surprise at seeing them adorn the cover of Terrorizer mag. I'm not saying they don't deserve the accolade, any band who tours as much as Skeletonwitch, who tour like dogs, deserves all the breaks. Mostly it was a reaction to the description of the band in the mag: "blackened death-thrash".Now that is a pretty honest depiction of how the band sounds, but its also absurd, 3 genres in one tagline is what I'm objecting to.
I've followed Skeletonwitch closely for ages, and came close to inviting them onto our new school Thrash comp "Thrashing Like A Maniac" but the deathy/black vocals ruined it for me, somehow made the band non-thrash to my ears.
The new wave of Thrash scene - which has been covered in this blog since 2006- is rapidly splitting into 2 camps.The 'pure thrash' bands- Gama Bomb, Bonded By Blood, Violator, and the 'Thrash, but with other influences' brigade, which journalists are predictably lapping up, as a hint of black or a dash of death, well, its more familiar territory to them. How long before corpsepainted thrash band is heraled as the best new thing. Well, at least they dont live in the 80s!
For the last year, Earache has received thrash demos by the bucketload from bands who obviously were playing Death or Black Metal a year or so ago, but switched genres, because its now cooler to play Thrash.
Somehow the bands which single-handedly brought new life into the ailing scene, and blazed the trail for modern Thrash, are all of a sudden derided because they have no deathy parts, or blackened parts, and no mosh parts.
Question: I couldnt help but noticing in your bands you nearly signed question you had a file marked "Nile". As a massive Nile fan with the ink to prove it im wondering what era of nile this was. would have it have been after their first label Anubis Records went out of business or would it have been after they departed relapse records? From:
Answer: Earache became aware of Nile quite early, the band were serious fans of, and protégés of Morbid Angel, and as Earache had released all Morbid Angel's output up to that point, we thought they would be a great band to work with. Plus, we liked their take on Death Metal with the Egyptian themes to the fore and considered them a leading upcoming DM band.
Additionally, the highly experienced management of Morbid Angel were involved in helping out Niles career aswell, so we had a connection that way.Earache thought it would be a simple matter to pick up the band. We were wrong.
Our offer to Nile was made in 1998, and the band chose to sign officially to Relapse who had, from memory, already released the bands debut on a one-off basis, I think?
Looking back, our monetary offer (advance) was low - our thinking was that the band would jump at the chance to be on the same label as Morbid Angel.Unknown to us, it was also the management policy to spread their bands around all the bigger metal labels, as having all their eggs in one basket is not an ideal scenario if anything goes wrong.Ironically, this 1998 era was when journalists and some fans were accusing Earache of turning its back on the Death Metal scene, so signing Nile would have made a nonsense of that arguement.
Seems Nile made a good choice anyway, as the band had an amazing run of success on Relapse.However,that deal ran its course and the newest album For Whom The Gods Detest was released last week on Nuclear Blast.
Earache is well used to not getting to work with the bands we want, our list of bands who we had shown interest in, but didn't sign, would extend to hundreds over the years.
Bands, or those who control the bands affairs (managers/agents) are in the ascendancy these days, they call the shots about the length and type of record deal they are willing to commit to.Most bands also weigh up the option of going it alone on their own label- using the internet as distributor- these days too.
Many weigh up the pros and cons and still decide to sign traditional record deals, which nowadays include Publishing and Merchandising options, and even live income options- these are known as 360 deals in biz-speak, and came about because of the declining (some say terminal) CD sales.
Labels now spread the risk of the heavy financial investment in a band, by negotiating some slice of the income from other, more lucrative areas,ones that cant be file-shared (yet), like song publishing and merch, which once were considered off limits.
Even highly ambitious bands can be scared off the DIY route by the practicalities of financing their recording, and all the expensive marketing that is required to promote the record it seems.
That's why labels still exist- because banks have a habit of saying "no".
It takes an eye-watering amount of money to release a physical CD or LP release into the global record marketplace, and for it not to dissappear without trace.
