Hesper Payne

Question: how often, if at all, do you have to pass up on a band you love musically but are just not financially viable, even if they are something that would fit on the earache roster. Any notable examples.

I'm just listening to the latest Gama Bomb, i read somewhere they are on a 360 deal (correct me if im misinformed) given that the label would be taking revenue from additional streams how would/do earache work with those areas e.g. tour/gig booking merch ect

A bit of a personal one. Some feedback from an independtant person with your experience in the area would be much appreciated. Ive been trying to get my band going for years now but cannot find any musicians interested in joining so its been me, the bassit and a session drummer (he's commited to a large, well known touring band and lives 200 miles away so not really a viable full timer) It wouldnt be so infuriating if people told us we sucked, but we get the opposite. Everybody and their gran seems to think we are great. Not just the usual friends and familly but complete strangers, even people who dont normally like metal, ive lost count of the number of EP's ive sent out on request and downloads and often find posetive reviews from 'zines the world over ive had no contact with. Despite this we cannot get a full live line up together and its driving me mental, ive tried everything i can think of, even moving to a major city to find people. I live to play live and want to push the band as far as i can but after six years have gotten as far as most bands in do in 6 weeks. Is there something we are missing? Do we really suck but everybody is being super nice about it? Is there some secret heavy metal jedi trick you can teach us to force the right people to join, or should we just give up (ive already tried this, it doesnt work the music is inside and wont leave me be untill its heard)

any advice, suggestions, constructive critisism would welcome.

cheers!

www.myspace.com/hesperpayne From: azashuk@yahoo.co.uk

Answer: Here's a funny thing- when I was a little kid we had a neighbourhood friend called Ester Payne -bizarrely, I was drawn to your question and clicked the link because your band name sounds similar.There is a Utah based USA band called Clifton who I followed the progress of aswell, just because it was the name of the neighbourhood where grew up. A stupid reason really I suppose- Clifton even signed to Century Media offshoot label, but nothing much happened.

Anyway- Regarding bands I'd love to sign but they aren't financially viable- wow there's literally hundreds of them. My label started as a DIY hobby label but luckily it grew large with some successful bands, and in doing so, became the main place of employment for a lot of people- the label staffers and quite a few bands make their main income from our activities.

We simply dont have the financial power/freedom to just do whatever we like.That's the reason we can't support poor selling, non-profit making acts for very long, because it drains our ability to promote the bands who are selling, and going places. By the same token, we very often pass on established bands who make unrealistic financial demands in order to be signed.Manowar made such unrealistic demands from Nuclear Blast after their German chart-topping album "Warriors of the World", that the label took the unprecedented step of letting the band go while mid-contract, so rival German label SPV stepped in and signed Manowar up for huge advances.Now SPV are bankrupt -the SPV bankruptcy proceedings even quote "paying too much for bands" as the reason - while Nuclear Blast is still going strong and enjoying massive success.

Its probably not the coolest answer, but its the truth. By the way, this hard-nosed 'profit motive' is not an exclusive trait of Earache's - it actually drives the entire western world we live in.

As for 360 deals- its not exactly true. We'd refer to 270 degree deal as being the more accurate description. If you take a pie chart and divide into quarters, roughly speaking, musicians can make money from 4 sources- the recordings, song publishing, merchandising and gig fees/touring. Mostly we have negotiated a slice of the income from 3 out of the 4 sources- touring is 100% controlled by the band and Earache does not share in this at all ( even tho we pay out for bands to go on the road in the early years).Hence 270 degrees.

Your band Hesper Payne is actually pretty darn good in places, but also has its bad parts too, which turn me off instantly.It's nothing too dire, but you ought to know that the opinions of a label A&R dudes like myself, are uneven.Average riffs are passable, but I hate a bad riff 10 times more than I appreciate a good riff, if that makes sense. One bad riff can ruin an entire song, an entire album even.Quickest way to improve a song is simply by weeding out that bad riff.

Out of all the songs I only like Horcums Slumber- but I REALLY love the opening 40 seconds of Horcums Slumber, that is truly world class,the vocals are great too, but by the later ambient passage around 3 minutes, I'm bored. I would recommend ditch the ambient parts, as you don't seem to be able to capture them well enough. They are what mark you out as progressive and probably what the whole essence of the band is about, but personally they don't do it for me.Being a straight up doom band is better suited.

Its weird you dont have an actual band photograph anywhere on the myspace- I guess it marks you down as one of the many one man bands, or non-band, as you truthfully point out in your question.

Wish you the best of luck with Hesper's anyway- if a few breaks go your way, Profound Lore could be calling in a few months, hopefully.

Breaking out of Ireland?

Question: As you know the Irish metal scene has never been the strongest. But when you listen to bands like Gama Bomb and Primordial and see how they're getting on you always have to believe that there is hope. So I guess my question is simple, if the band is good and the music is tight and you're gigging regularly how do you get noticed by a label such as Earache, or any label for that matter!? Is it that Ireland is ignored because of the small scene? or is the that we are isolated from the UK and America? Sometimes sending your demo to everybody you know and gigging in every venue you can think of isn't enough so what do you do if you want to make music your life? From: psykosisband@gmail.ie


Answer: I suppose the short, extremely glib answer is - move, dude. Get down the Dublin ferry terminal and hit the waves to Holyhead- a car is only Euro 79 and takes 90 minutes. I wouldn't say Gama Bomb have exactly 'made it' out of Ireland just yet, to us they are still a relatively new band, even if top fashion models can now be seen moshing at Gama Bomb gigs.They travel bloody everywhere- in fact, they are on UK and European tour right now, supporting the new studio album- grab the free download from http://www.earache.com/gamabomb by the way.I'm meeting them in a bit, as they play my hometown Nottingham tonight. I told you they get everywhere.

The thing about Gama Bomb is- they are seasoned travellers.Also being the friendliest of characters and having an encyclopedic knowledge of thrash gains them fans and friends everywhere they go.Even before they were signed to this label, the band were such regulars on that Dublin-Holyhead ferry, they might as well have named it after them.It impressed us no end that they were endlessly visible in the UK scene, playing Thrash Assault in Huddersfield and various small-scale, even tiny, gigs back in 2006-7 when the new wave of Thrash was still way under the radar of most of the metallic hordes.

Even after they were signed, Gama Bomb undertook their first proper-ish Uk tour by- get this- public transport. I kid you not.In all my career, I've never known any other signed band do this.For some reason they could'nt suss a van or driver so after every show they would stay at friends houses, then get up early to walk to the bus station or train station for the next gig.While carrying all their gear.

Endlessly playing your home town to the same faces is not how you build a buzz around your band.I've said it many times on this blog- you simply have to hit the road.Doing mini-tour swaps of like 4-5-6 gigs with local bands from far away is a good tactic, but to organise this stuff you have to network and communicate with like-minded bands from say UK or even EU.Further tips are explained in Martin Atkin's essential book for bands new to the touring circuit- Tour:Smart, its crammed with tips, written by the drummer of Public Image, Minstry & Nine Inch Nails.

If you need further proof heres a quote taken from the Pink Floyd Wikipedia: "Pink Floyd (the definite article was dropped at some point in 1967)[36] replaced their ageing Bedford van with a Ford Transit,[37] and used it to travel to over two hundred gigs in 1967 (a ten-fold increase on the previous year)".

Pink Floyd performed 200 gigs during 1967.Pink Floyd are the biggest selling rock band of all time.I guess it worked for them.

Psykosis-Toxic Fugitive

Who did Terrorizer art?

Question: Hello I wanted to know who created the album cover collage for Terrorizer's first LP "World Downfall"? Cheers From: the_suttonator@hotmail.com

Answer: It was Earache's earliest staffer- dude called Martin Nesbitt, who worked with me from 87-90, this was when Earache still operated out of my apartment.We wanted a typical scum/feto political type b/w collage, but instead of hiring an outside artist, it seemed easier - and cheaper- if Earache made it inhouse.Martin was handy with scissors, ye olde Pritt stick and Letraset(if you're under 20,look it up) plus he had an eye for design, so he cut and pasted by hand old newspapers and various newsworthy pictures of the time, to create the sleeve.The cover has become quite iconic itself over time.

Something Thrash/NWOTHM is stirring in Sweden

Question: Hi, so my simple question is something like this; Sweden is worldfamous for metal and mostly Melodeath, Death and Black Metal. But how up to date are you about what happens in the Swedish scenes that isn't "classical Swedish"? As an example there is a young striving thrashscene with great bands such as Raging Steel, Entrenched and Lethal. One thing that is blowing to be huge is the New Wave of Swedish Traditional Heavy Metal with bands like In Solitude, Helvetets Port, Ram and FourEver. Does Earache keep a close eye on these scenes too or is it the typical Swedish stuff you are most intrested in? From: cursedtolife@gmail.com


Answer: Sweden always spews up great new bands, Earache takes a lot of interest in the Swedish scene, in the past some of that country's greatest bands recorded for us, early Entombed,Carnage, At The Gates/The Haunted and Cult of Luna currently spring to mind.

Short answer is- thanks for the tip off dude, we know all about the upcoming Thrash and NWOTHM scenes, in fact we already released material by some of the bands you mention.

Earache made a new wave of THRASH compilation in January 2008 called Thrashing Like A Maniac, if you have Spotify, get it here.February 2009 we made a NWOTHM compilation called Heavy Metal Killers, again its free to stream on Spotify here.


Helvetes Port: Lightning Rod Avenger

OK, I'm signed- now what ?

Question: When you first sign a band what are the first things you do for them, say in the first 6 months or a year? Do you make a special attempt for them to get noticed or just let time take its course so to speak, and what do you find most effective in bands furthering their fanbase and 'getting their name out'

Cheers From: donHC12@hotmail.com


Answer: It's hard to fully explain what happens when you sign to a label like Earache- and its not much different at the other main metal labels. The main change once the deal is inked is the surge in the level of expectation of the band, by the label.You are expected to become a major breakthrough artist within 2 albums.To say its a competitive environment is a gross understatement.Momentum is the key thing, fast rising bands gain everyone's attention, and are accorded the most praise.Most people's attention span is miniscule, so the way to get noticed is to be constantly visible and in people's faces.Any new band is a major undertaking for a label.

Some labels we know will immediately assess the skill of the players in the band, firing the weakest, least committed member(s) and demanding replacments. Its not unknown for labels to insist the band even change their name, especially if another previous band has the same or similar moniker or has already got the URL.If someone else comes up as the first result in a Google search, its not good.

My label Earache wouldn't go this far, but I'm basically pointing out that your casual question about "allowing the band the time to take its course" is pretty naive. From the moment you are signed, it gets very very serious. Its simply a change in attitude, thats all- unsigned bands have it easy, gigs can be good or bad, its not a big deal, but once signed there is the expectation from the label, and indeed everyone within the industry that you'll be a success.

History is full of talented, great bands who never made it, its often because they simply lacked enough drive or ambition. Labels are not used to promoting failure- at Earache you'd be given sort of regular pep-talks in the form of - here's your stab at a chance to forge a music industry career,but only if you follow the relatively simple career advice. In short - its write great songs, and go tour them, tour them some more, don't split up in the process, cos its gruelling and hard work.Then repeat.

Unsigned bands have no clue about the amount of money spent by labels- medium sized Indie Metal labels can routinely spend a minimum of £100,000 and often more on each new band over the course of the debut and the follow up.The major labels like Universal/Sony/warners/EMI often splash out £1,000,000 per band, but these labels mostly stick to indie, commercial rock, RnB, dance or pop acts.

It is possible nowadays to raise money from your own fans, or future fans- sites like Sellaband.com help you raise the money, and lets you keep all your rights, though they take undoubtedly take a cut out of the proceeds received for their work. Promising bands can raise serious money, which is not a bad thing,you could even say - who needs a label? What is missing is the expertise, knowledge and career guidance which labels like Earache offer.Sure, newbie bands now have the means to raise capital, but the industry is infested with well-meaning-wannabees, complete fantasists and a few outright con-artists, who can easily drain all the money the fans gave you away with false promises and exaggerated claims, and no results. Its tough knowing who to trust.

As for spending the money, the actual recording the album is often the cheapest cost, most of the money labels pay out goes on touring the band, because in the early days of a career the gig fees paid to openers are tiny, often zero, but the costs involved in travelling around say EU or USA are extremely expensive.Touring USA for the first time for a new UK band can cost $25,000 easily, but the way to soften the financial blow is to get skilled at making and selling great merch. This is the secret to constant touring on a global basis - its paid for by merch.

Going up touring ladder circuit and rising up the bills of tours or getting festival slots takes great skill and involves the services of a major gig agency.I reckon its harder to get the bigger touring agents involved in new bands than score a record deal, the agents are too busy selling tickets with their main top draw acts to be using valuable time helping out new bands get started on the ladder.

What could be seen as Old-school type promotion activities cost a lot but do gain massive visbility.Money is spent on gaining radio play or videos on TV channels and press features in the main magazines - this is expensive but gains the band credibility, fast. Most of the money spent by labels is with the major bricks n mortar record chains.Unknown to most outside the industry,they charge outrageous fees to the label for the 'privilege' of a debut album to receive some paltry racking space in their retail outlets across the USA and EU.Even going into the A-Z section costs a packet. They maintain their floor space is valuable real-estate and it costs money to devote it to an unknown band.Bricks n mortar chains are struggling so charging labels is how they survive.Even internet retailers have cottoned on to the scam, and now charge labels for extra visibility and special placements on their sites, even tho hosting a few extra pixels on a webpage is almost free.

Digital and the internet is changing everything, very fast though.We advise bands to communicate with their fans more, much more. In this age of facebook, twitter, youtube and other free social networks, it makes interacting with fans a cinch. Some bands we know tweet, blog or bulletin on literally an hourly basis. Jamey Jasta from Hatebreed sends 25 tweets per day for instance. Doing a monthly newsletter, which was the the 90s equivalent,marks you as quite outdated. We also expect bands to also make and post video interviews on youtube regularly explaining to fans whats happening in their camp.A web enabled cameraphone and some basic video editing skills are important.

The pay off of course, is the prospect of a lucrative music career.By lucrative I mean the members can live OK off of their music.If you want the champagne lifestyle, you are reading the wrong blog dude- you'll need to be playing RnB or Pop for that.

It's true that lucky breaks do play a large part in breaking a new band through- but as they say in this industry, you make your own luck. New bands do come through the ranks into metal stardom on an annual basis,but its only maybe an handful each year.Recent examples might be Bring Me The Horizon or Gojira.Both were newbies even a few years ago, but by their sheer hard work and the talents of their respective labels (and managers) they are now packing out venues and both should enjoy long and fruitful careers.

I wish you well with your band dude, hope this gives some pointers how we do it, and doesn't scare you off.

Death Metal vs Deathcore

Question: Earache,

I was surprised based on the history of your releases, and also the tastes that you guys express throughout this blog, to also find that you have such high regard for deathcore.

When considering deathcore, I always find myself coming back to one issue - in striving to be "brutal" (yeah, I hate using that word)it seems to me that a lot of these bands have forgotten the most important element, feeling.

The Red Shore for example, who you have mentioned in a positive light previously, and who are certainly a solid live band, seem to suffer from a very common symptom of deathcore: ridiculously over triggered drums, and just generally compressed production, to the point where their recordings have absolutely no dynamics, and no feeling.

I think that's where a lot of the appeal comes from in early grind. You listen to bands like Carcass, and it's incredibly heavy, but also organic which lends it a certain sort of mojo. It possesses a certain level of honesty and real-ness that I feel is missing in deathcore.

What do you think about that? It seems to encompass a lot of issues including digital vs analogue recording and the like, but I suppose the main question is, at what point do triggered blast beats become so robotic that they lose their relevance, and in striving for "brutality" have a lot of these bands missed the point?

I mean no disrespect to these bands or people who love their music. And I love the blog, cheers! From: flytogothenburg@live.com.au


Answer: I've signed a fair few Death metal bands over the years, and yes, I don't see what all the fuss is about Deathcore- to me, its just the new generation of kids' take on DM, they are adding a whole bunch of Hardcore influences, I don't have a problem with it at all. To be honest most of the debate is just the older DM crowd bashing and ragging on the much younger, teenage deathcore guys.The arguements rage across the internet, occasionally it might get as silly as you can't play Dm with a fringe or bald head- only DM played by long hairs is real DM. That's absurd of course (unless its Ripping Corpse ha ha)

To be honest, Deathcore does actually sounds fresh to my ears,its like an injection of new ideas and innovations- I did Morbid Angel and Carcass etc 20 years ago but I'm not a nostalgic person, they were the originators and lay down the blueprints for what is heavy and deathy in metal, but it doesn't mean DM always has to sound like that forever.

But time moves on, and I'm pretty sure it is old school DM band Suffocation which somehow became the major influence and blueprint for Deathcore- who knew? Suffocation exhuded sheer brutality, they were the first to play DM styled breakdowns (taken from the HC scene, like Hatebreed) galore, and had arguably, the most brutal vokills in the scene.

As for the productions on the albums, I take your point- all of the early 90s bands recorded analogue, there was no digital recording programs on laptops back then. Technology also moves on, and recording digitally makes common sense for all newer bands, its probably a quarter of the cost of analogue studios, if you can find any left.

I think part of the problem is Deathcore is a catch all term for say the likes of Annotations of an Autopsy, Acacia Strain, Oceano but also includes bands like Bring Me The Horizon and Red Shore.There is a world of difference between those bands, to my ears the first 3 are pure brutal Deathcore, while the last 2 bands have other influences besides pure Death Metal- ie Swedish Gothenburg DM and plenty of HC are in the mix on their albums.Still heavy and relenting but slightly less brutal.



Oceano just played in London and destroyed the place, the power coming off stage was simply incredible, its one of the heaviest gigs I've ever seen.We had a few beers with the guys after the show- Pictured L--R is Jeremy & Adam of Oceano with myself (Dig) & Dan, the Earache label manager.

If you want to know who Earache considers the kings of brutality right now- its Oceano, see A Mandatory Sacrifice clip :

Deep Wound an influence on grindcore?

Question: I was reading in choosing death about how Deep Wound was one of the backbones of grindcore, im curious as to whether you agree with this or not? im curious as J Mascis acutally plays down Deep wound as a childish hardcore band from when they were kids ( im guessing dino jr has part reason for this), im just wondering should they really rank as highly as choosing death rate them being as you were there? From:

Answer: There was nothing that sounded like grindcore until it arrived, but all it really was, was speedy hardcore punk, down tuned, metallised and put through an accelerator.

So yeah I agree, at first listen Deep Wound aren't anything connected to grindcore, they predated grind by a few years, and were simply a teenage hardcore punk band.I personally used to love their first 7inch because I was always seeking out the fastest, rawest, gnarliest of new bands.The 7inch was a rare gem which had pride of place in my record collection, so I used to like showing it off, so used to copy it for everyone.

The opening track 'In my Room' boasted hella speedy chaotic drumming, courtesy as you say, of a 15 yr old J. Mascis.

They deserve their brief mention in Choosing Death, but I would'nt say they were the backbone of the scene, far from it. They did show the upcoming generation of what drum speeds were possible. Hardcore punk boasted a lot of ultra fast bands, and i used to love them all- faster the better.Faves were the DRI first EP 1982, and even the Dead Kennedys In God we Trust Inc record from 1981 was incredibly intense and speedy for its time.


Dead Kennedys Religious Vomit 1981

Artist Mark Sikora & Defecation band.

Question: Mark Sikora & Defecation.

Whatever happened to Mark Sikora? (The artist behind F.E.T.O.'s stunning cover). I believe he did flyer work as well (I know of one gig Ripcord played that had his artwork on it). Oliver/Cluster Bomb Unit told me he "thought" he was writing for a German music mag...but this was nearly 10 years ago. What were the dimensions for the origial artwork for F.E.T.O, as well as Skinny's art for Mentally Murdered. Why did Skinny take over the art reigns? What were each artist payed, and do they see royalties still...especially F.E.T.O. since it's never really gone out of press.

And speaking of Sikora again...he did the Defecation LP cover. Why didn't Earache release Defecation? And don't talk shit like you usually do Dig, saying it was "2nd tier" etc...give us a concrete answer! From: Noizepug73@aol.com


Answer: Mark Sikora-wow, that's a name from the distant past, I guess he has a certain level of fame from drawing the Napalm Death FETO cover- but he did the Unseen Terror album cover for Earache before that one.From memory, he was just a German dude who used to send us art drawings and sketches, he must have done some flyers for the early grind bands I guess, so he got on our radar, and got to make 2 album covers for Earache.

I think he worked on early Nuclear Blast album covers too- like the Japanese HC comp Farewell to Arms (pictured).We liked him because he was conscientious, and was professional enough so that he could work to a delivery deadline, which was unheard of at that time for illustrators/artists, this was the punk/HC scene remember!

His style was a wholesale rip-off of Jeff Walkers now-legendary, highly detailed, political pen & ink 'dots style' which he used for Napalms debut album "Scum" and some Carcass shirts and flyers. To be honest, that was Mark's main appeal-sure, he could do regular colour paintings as he did for Unseen terror - but he was mainly hired because Jeff Walker wouldn't or couldn't do another Napalm Death Lp cover, I assume because he was saving his art skills for Carcass' benefit, not Napalms. The level of competition and rivalry between Carcass and the rest of the UK grindcore/ death-metal bands is rarely if ever mentioned in the retrospective books on the subject, but was definately real, and unspoken.

Mark was paid probably a few hundred pounds on a flat fee basis for the ownership of the art.Actual royalties for cover artists are rare, lets not forget that no big thing was expected for FETO at the time of its release, its only in hindsight that it achieved any sort of legendary status.The size of Mark's FETO art was 12inches square exactly, Jeff Walkers original for Scum was probably twice or three times that size, hence much more detailed.I think Jeff has pics of himself with the original Scum drawing online somewhere, he still owns the original of that.

Mark Sikora was quite opinionated about music, I recall he came to visit our office in Nottingham - this was a year or two after we stopped using him, and we pretty much had a stand up argument about the Death Metal direction of Earache's bands, he was totally opposed to this DM trend and tried to persuade me to stick to his beloved political HC punk output, which was his favourite style. I guess he failed on that one.

Hence it was really no suprise to me that he moved into music journalism, he wrote for Zap mag and then Spex- which is a huge selling German music mag, covering arty indie music and leftfield/ambient dance, it could be likened to NME. Mark was young, always highly artistic, maybe you could say even slightly eccentric. When he visited Earache, he certainly did not dress like a metal or punk dude- I vividly recall he had a long colourful knitted scarf and some kinda knitted beanie hat-nothing wrong with that, I only mention it to show how much of an non-metal or punk character he was.There is a pic of him somewhere, with me in Earache's office, I'll post it here when I find it.

In later years Mark worked for the VIVA2 music Tv channel in Germany, akin to MTV2, and has made a few video clips for bands as a video director (see below).I know he is really into films, it would not surprise me if he directed a feature film anytime soon.

After Jeff and after Mark- the hunt was on for a new Napalm Death artist. The band needed a suitable artist who could draw in that now trademark Napalm style, originated by Jeff (who in turn took it from G Vaucher of Crass)-namely, political b/w dotty/illustration style.Skinny was the artist for the Mentally Murdered EP- I think he was a contact of Mick's, I think from Birmingham area, the actual original art for Mentally Murdered is in full colour for the 12inch and CD but was released on 7inch in black n white.We never used him again as Napalm eventually settled on Mid from Deviated instinct for art on later releases.

The follow up Napalm Death album -Harmony Corruption and Suffer the Children EP were both designed by a local Nottingham artist- his name escapes me right now- he also laid out the back and inside of Entombed's Left Hand Path debut for us-its his hand print on the inner bag. We needed someone reliable as Earache was making serious plans for its releases by that stage, trying to chart them in the charts meant we had to up our game considerably and big money was at stake. Flakey artists who did not deliver on time were the biggest pain. We found this guy simply by visiting the local Nottingham art group and hiring the youngest guy, but he was not a metal or punk fan. At least he could deliver art on a semi-professional timely basis so it saved us a lot of headaches.Looking back his art is not the most recognisable of all the Napalm eras.


As for DEFECATION- the truth is, it was a half-serious/ half-scam 'project' designed to get money from Markus Staiger of Nuclear Blast who was in the early days of setting up his label back then.Nowadays of course his label is a global powerhouse of metal on a massive scale, but back then Earache was the one making the sales breakthrough with the grindcore scene exploding everywhere.Nuclear were quickly in the market for grindcore bands, signing Righteous Pigs and Benediction- both tips from Mick Harris, Earache had already passed on both acts.We also passed on Master who Nuclear signed later on also, because of the success of Defecation.

The early pioneering grindcore scenesters were very few in number, it was maybe 25 people, tops- Mick Harris was the undoubted prime mover of both Napalm Death and arguably of the global scene aswell.He was in contact with nearly everyone else interested in the scene, including Mitch Harris in Las Vegas of Righteous Pigs.If you look closely at the Grindcrusher tour footage of Napalm Death Rock City 1989, you'll see Mitch at the side of the amps, watching. He would eventually join Napalm on second guitar a year or so later to beef up the sound.

Mick told me that he had the idea of specifically making a project band for Nuclear Blast,because Nuclear would pay him a lot of money for it, and it would involve Mitch who was then based in Las Vegas -and it would be a Master-sounding clone band.We had already passed on Master as I just didn't rate them, too mid-paced, too boring for my tastes, I was into hyper speed grind, so this project didn't appeal to me on a lot of levels.Napalm death was the number one priority so it was strictly a non active band, and I figured that if another label was to give Mick a whole load of money for equipment etc, that was OK by me, as it saved me doing it!

It turns out that Mick turned the screws on Nuclear,asking for more and more money, which to their credit, they did not flinch, I assume because they were desperate to gain a recording with Mick Harris on it, at any cost.Mick asked for and got whole new sets of equipment, flights to record the album in Vegas, a session which was shelved.Then a whole new second recording session with Mitch flying to UK was set up, and Mick eventually recorded at Birdsong, and delivered Purity Dilution.Undoubtedly it was a lot of hassle for Nuclear, but the LP became the biggest selling title during Nuclear's early years.

I recall Mick giving me an advance listen and i was shocked at the power of it, and was immediately gutted because it could so easily have been an Earache release, maybe it should have been, but Earache had limited funds so had to them invest wisely, and whims and projects were not really top of my agenda, as I had genuine, touring career-minded bands queuing up to go in the studio.

Looking back it is susprising that none of the Napalm death dudes ever made a Swans style project back in the day, I guess they could'nt get a label suckered into that one.

Midnight Black Earth- by Mark Sikora

The return of The Ultra-Fast bands? Maybe..

Question: Earache,

in the last few years there seem to have been some bubblings in the deepest depths of the underground. The story goes that every few years previous styles regain popularity and I suppose we can see examples in the resurgence of thrash (or rather the the resurgence of the popularity of thrash), death metal and so forth. It seems that at the moment, particularly in the north, there are a lot of bands playing the faster styles of hardcore, more primitive grind and power-violence. A lot of them seem to be making waves (even tape trading and tape demo's seem to have made a come back). It is due to this that I pose my question;

Do you guys in your infinite wisdom and experience of the music scene think that the return of 'the fast' is something that may make a major impact in the way that thrash and death have, or will it simply fizzle out?

Also, thumbs up on the Grind Madness at the BBC release. Picked it up at Damnation along with Ian Glasper's latest book and both have kept me rather happy today and clearly led me to raise the question I have! From: 0804513@leedstrinity.ac.uk


Answer: You're right about the demo cassettes- I've seen a few new bands touting tapes, its pretty cool in a retro way but I doubt people will be throwing away their Apple ipods for Sony Walkmans just yet.A original working 80s Walkman sells for decent money on ebay, but for £16 you can get a brand new Sony Walkman today.

As it happens the tape player is still the most successful audio product ever launched, most people don't realise you can play tapes anywhere- because older cars still have tape players, boombox blasters have a deck, and older all-in-one stereo systems come with a tape player.

As for the music, there have been pretty fast bands everywhere you look for the past 2 decades- grindcore and Black Metal acts have been blasting at top speeds, blistering listeners' ears for years, the math-core bands have used blast beats aswell, but I think you mean a different type of stripped down 'fast'HC band.

There are plenty of speed-for-speeds-sake ultra-fast hardcore bands in the North of England, as you say. The sound is stripped down, spazzed-out, not heavy, not metallised, definately not satanic- its just pure speed- and it is quite refreshing to hear actually. We released one of the trailblazers of this type last year- a band called Narcosis.

On this blog I'm often asked if 'such an such' scene is going to be big soon, or wether a certain scene is on the rise.The truth is most scenes are kinda bubbling under most people's radar all off the time, you don't have to dig too far underground to get into anything.Whether the fast-core scene will rise again? I would say its a long-shot because most styles need to be somewhat metallised for the metallic hordes to embrace it.It is pretty much up to you guys- the fans - to decide.

Heres two speedy North of England bands Earache released CDs by, in recent years:

Narcosis- Fuck off Dickhead!


Beecher- Dead for Weeks


Heres 2 North of England bands we didnt do, but both pretty speedy:

Reth- at Obscene Extreme fest



Joe Pesci- live dynamo club

Is Age a Factor in Getting Signed?

Question: I was just wondering how much youth matters to you at Earache? Are you more likely to sign a band if they are techincally competent but are all teenagers over a similar band aged 5 or ten years older?

I was just wondering your opinion, and how important/how big an advantage you think youth can be in the extreme metal scene of today!

I asked because you have quite a lot of younger bands on your label (Oceano, TBWD, Ignominious Incarceration) who are all amazing, but did their youth sway you towards signing them over someone else? Or is it as simple as because they are younger they have more drive and passion and are generally more likely to succeed and be noticed!

Cheers! From: donHC12@hotmail.com

Answer:In the battle of Youth vs Experience, youth wins every time. Youthfulness is a prized asset in all the creative arts- be it music, fashion, art, film etc, though I doubt age matters much in say, novel writing -look at JK Rowling for proof.

I should say that Earache has no signing policy based on the ages of the members, we actually don't even ask the ages of any bands we're talking to, that would be rude.Anyway, Earache signs bands strictly on the quality of their music so age doesn't matter- however, since we are usually in the market for very fresh-sounding bands playing what we feel is the most contemporary styles of metal/rock, it tends to be the younger bands who fit the bill. There are plenty of late 30 year olds playing Death Metal, but no late 30 year olds playing Deathcore, for instance.

It definitely appears there is golden age group when bands who's members are of a certain age range seem more likely to succeed, and become popular. Bands that are around ages 18-25 do the best,but even this age range is falling rapidly as many youngsters are getting better at their instruments, way earlier than before.

Maybe its to do with the uptake of guitar based video games and availability of instructional videos.Instructional DVDs where legendary rock musicians pass on their wisdom and experience to fans are massively popular- Derek Roddy's own instructional drum technique DVDs actually outsell his one-time band mates Hate Eternal DVDs by a wide margin.

Mostly the popularity of younger acts is just to do with the sheer exhuberence of youth, and the peer-group connection with kids who actually go to shows and consume most music - these are of the same age group and so can relate better to bands their age.

Younger bands do have some downsides, inexperience obviously being the main one.We've had our share of greenhorns on the label, most young bands are pretty naive about what a music career involves. Many have a simplistic view of the music industry- ie, band writes some songs in the rehearsal room, songs put on the internet or CD, do a few shows, then stardom and fame follows, as easily as night follows day.Wow, I wish it was that simple! That's one of the reasons I write this blog, to try to give some pointers to upcoming bands about what a music career is like- this blog is written from hard-bitten experience.

For many bands on this label success often dropped into their lap so doesn't "seem real" to them. If you read ex-Napalm Death or ex-At The Gates members' retrospective interviews, they usually confide that they were young and stupid when they quit or split from the bands when a highly successful career was imminent. Young bands do the dumbest things, they simply don't have the depths of emotions to deal with seemingly trivial shit which older, wiser heads can shrug off.

Parental pressure to continue at college or get a "real job" is a major concern with our younger bands. Liam the guitarist and leader of UK noiseniks The Boy Will Drown is currently completing a University course.Its no big deal for him, yet it subconsciously affects their touring schedule, the proof is in the fact they have yet to complete a major comprehensive touring stint.

Older bands - with members say past late 20's, early 30's- are wiser, they certainly known how the industry works, but they come with different baggage. Often they have other life choices, a steady paying job or relationship is most common, so getting in the van for 2-3 months playing music on tour in far flung places is not as attractive a proposition as it is to an 18 yr old with no ties.

Then there are the veterans. Earache doesn't tend to sign very many veteran bands - by that I mean those 70s or 80s era metal bands who are still going, and come with a ready-made and loyal fanbase built up over decades of touring with plentiful albums in their back catalogue.

New upcoming bands should take at look at the punishing work ethic of bands like Metallica, and AC/DC who are now aged in their 50s.Already immensely popular and among the worlds biggest selling metal bands, I bet they have played more concerts this year than most other acts half their ages.

Killer guitarists are becoming ever younger- but Tallan Latz is beyond belief.He is maybe the world's best guitar prodigy.

Scorn re-issues? 2 X CD Box is Out November.

Question: Given the recent dubstep explosion is there anychance of scorn's evanesence or silver rain fell getting the reissue treatment? Being as it can be argued thats those two albums are the roots of the genre. Plus id love to see an interview with mick as to how he feels now those albums have had an effect on mainstream music. From:

Answer: I think you must have read our minds because yes, we do have plans to re-issue SCORN Cds. The classic 1994 album Evanescence and the 1995 remixes called Elipsis are to be released as a lo price 2x CD slipcase package. I think November 12th is the release date on our webstores.They have been out of print for probably 15 years.

If you saw our repackaging of Godflesh Cds recently, its like that.

As you noticed- the recent dubstep explosion has caused quite a lot of interest in Scorn.This was obvious to us also, mainly through questions to this blog actually. Ok nowadays the scene of 2009 is not directly anything to do with Scorn but it is remarkable how close they sounded to the blueprints of dubstep back in 1994. They also were close to the sound of Public Image Limited, who are touring again.

SCORN- Days Passed



PIL- Annalisa


Scorn- Time went slow (off Gyral)

What happened to Biomechanical?

Question: Simple question.... What is happening with Biomechanical? Why are there no new posts of them anywhere? Are they done? From: whatthemeh@yahoo.co.uk


Answer: Simple answer- Biomechanical is one guy- John K, and he's currently put the band on hiatus,working a regular job, hence no updates. When I say its one guy, I really mean it, the band has always been the brainchild of John K, as the frontman and chief songwriter, the rest of his band were literally hired hands- this never made for a democratic unit, but thats how he operated his band.

The band released The Empires of the Worlds CD on Earache and we loved it because it was prime Classic Heavy Metal,- actually ahead of the curve of re-interest in the genre by the metallic hordes. It went down well, and the band functioned great.The follow up album Cannibalised - which formed the third part of the Biomechanical trilogy- was a harsh super agressive listen which did not go down so well with fans as the more classic HM album which preceded it.I think this poor reaction hit John K hard.

Maybe you read about the split in the ranks of Biomechanical a year or two ago, where his entire original line up quit on him after the recording of Cannibalised, it was pretty much a mutiny. Unphased, John spent a lot of mental energy and a ton of his own money- flights, transport, rehearsals etc- recruiting a new line up which toured the album for while but eventually this line up proved unstable aswell, and the new look Biomechanical kind of ran out of steam, members going their own ways.

Not many know that fellow London metallers Dragonforce were often sharing stages around London with Biomechanical in the early days, in fact, Dragonforce would be the support.Then the sudden surge and rise in popularity of Dragonforce - due to inclusion in Guitar Hero game- weighed heavily on the bands minds.OK its not directly relevant but I'm sure it made John assess his priorities.

John K has always had a steady regular job in London, I believe its as a sound recordist working in a Soho film editing studio, it pays him well, so the band was always a second option for him.He is working hard at the moment, in his regular job.

From our point of view, John is an excellent, talented songwriter, who definatly prefers writing and recording on his own.He can write in many styles, Metal just being one of them- proof is in the orchestral bonus songs of Cannibalised which are stunning, world class epic film score type material.

The official word is that the band is not over, its on hiatus awaiting the time John can dedicate himself to it again.

See what Biomechanical is all about :

Grind Madness at the BBC

Question: Just loving my copy of "Grind Madness at the BBC" - takes me back to being a 17 year old hitting play & record on my old tape deck loaded with a C120 to catch the whole 2 hour show! Ah the nostalgia!

Any chance you may do a "Volume 2" and feature the other much loved (and I suppose hated by some!) sessions from that time such as Stupids, Electro Hippies, Doom, Dr & The Crippens, Deviated Instinct, Prophecy Of Doom and Fudge Tunnel???

Fully appreciate they were not "Earache" bands as such, and realise there may be "technicalities" for the legal boffins to thrash out, but surely it could be done??? After all my recent copies of Carcass Dual CD/DVD re-issues of Heartwork & Swansong were, please correct me if I'm mistaken, not originally released on Earache?
Or am I totally deluded and such an undertaking would be a logistical, legal and financial nightmare???
Here's hoping!
Cheers

Jonny

PS - Oh hang on! Let me just double check my dusty copy of "Hate Songs in E Minor" Oh yeah! One of yours after all! Hehe! From: detante@hotmail.co.uk

Answer: Ahhh- John Peel- what can I say about this great man? He is directly responsible for me being here today, writing this blog about my label 20+ years after I started it.As a National Radio DJ he took such a genuine shine to the bands I was releasing, very early on in their careers, that he gave the whole scene a massive boost in exposure, which was totally unexpected. I think out of the first 10 releases Earache made, nearly all of the bands were invited to record a session for the Peel radio show on the BBC.Typical Peel- ever the musical maverick, he undoubtedly could spot a maverick record label when he saw one.

In hindsight I'm pretty sure none of us- myself or the bands- appreciated or had any clue at the time about the importance of these sessions while being recorded and aired.It was just another gig, another doss of a day out.We'd make the afternoon trip in the van to the BBC to blast out some songs in a professional studio, I mostly remember it as a chance to grab some decent food in the extremely cheap/subsidised BBC canteen.Read Mitch Dickinson's account of what happened during a Peel session.

If you don't live in the UK, you can't fully understand how important the BBC is in shaping popular culture. It's a truly wonderful institution, which takes no advertisements, and is instead uniquely funded by every single household in the UK paying an annual TV license fee of £142.This way of funding makes the TV and Radio programs it produces among the very best, because mere commercial factors do not apply, instead the emphasis is on serving the public with entertaining and informative programming.

The idea for our Compilation came from 2 different chance events.The BBC head of music licensing contacted us about the planned BBC Radio download and streaming service, to be launched sometime in the future, which will finally offer up all of the legendary John Peel sessions as Mp3's to the public, and presumably other BBC music archive material aswell.He needed our help to sort out who did what, and when because his paperwork he inherited was sketchy.At the same time Ian Glasper interviewed me for his latest UKHC book, so we got a sense of deja-vu.
We formed the idea to ask the BBC for permission to use the archived Peel sessions from the Earache bands from the time.The BBC's own records of the songs recorded had so many mistakes its unreal, many had the wrong song titles and in many cases just nicknames of the performers were on the paperwork: "Baz" "Johnny" etc.They needed to know what were original compositions and which were covers. Napalm Death recorded Japanese HC band SOB cover songs in one session.

Earache's label manager spend a long time dealing with these matters for the BBC-naturally he didn't mind helping the BBC get its archive in order.It was a real labour of love.

To answer your question- I doubt we'll do Volume 2.
Its not an easy task to obtain clearances and rights from BBC, and then the hassle of getting the songs correctly sorted for official release is damn hard.
So- enjoy the Grind Madness at the BBC 3x CD set because I doubt there will be another CD compilation. The good news is- it looks likely the BBC themselves will offer the public the archive of Peel sessions some time in the future anyway.

Heres where we took the name from- Craig Charles introducing Napalm Death on BBC TV- watch what happens, right after the orchestra;

Is the Thrash Bubble about to burst?

Question: Now that the thrash bubble is over inflated and on near explosion im wondering what bands do you feel will survive the bubble burst? Personally my money is on two british bands one that earache signed and one that earache nearly signed.

My belief is that the more 80s deritive bands like municipal waste and gamma bomb will struggle after the genre bubble has popped, however i see evile and sylosis as being the bands that survive the drop off in interest. the reason for this is because both bands seem to have taken influence from other genres and already intergrated it into their styles, sylosis for example have a heavy influence of chuck from death and devin townsendand also evile have taken more of a modern metal approach on their last record.
Im curious as to where you think the new wave of thrash will be after the bubble burst? From:


Answer: Dude I think you are a bit premature to write off an entire new scene so soon - the original Thrash bands have been going for 25 years so far,while the new set of thrash bands have only been recording for a mere 2-3 years so far,so I don't think Municipal Waste or Gama Bomb will be hanging up their white hi-tops just yet.

SLAYER just called Municipal Waste to have them as support on their entire European tour during November and December, so its not exactly doom and gloom.I guess the new thrash bubble is just about to get a whole lot bigger.

Sylosis is a great band and we tried to sign them after the first EP on In at The Deep end records.They were a Death Metal band back then, with an exceptionally talented guitarist in their ranks.Its been convenient for their label Nuclear Blast to label them as a thrash band, but they dont play Thrash in my opinion.

I ought to point out that none of the bands we deal with worry too much wether there is a bubble or not, they simply play the music they enjoy, and if fans like it then great, if not, thats fine too.

Its worth noting, this new Thrash scene happened very much without the permission of anyone in the media,( exception being Metal Hammer magazine).

Some bands are making efforts to move on- ie be more original than simply ape-ing and channeling tried and tested 80s vibes- Muni went more hardcore punky on the new one, and Evile developed a heavier, more complex thrash - a "modern metal approach" as you correcly describe it

Thrash is getting bigger mostly because its a refreshing change for fans to hear bands play proper-sounding meaty metal, with solos and vocals.No growls, no symphonic parts, no "core", no "nu", no gothic elements- just solid metal.

A typical day at Earache?

Question: How many hours a week do you spend on Earache related business? Is there such a thing as a 'typical day'? From:

Answer:Working hours? I have no concept what that means because this job is 24/7 dude. In the era of iPhone and BlackBerry you can be in contact with people all of the time, and I'm the type of person who is impatient to know whats going on. So I'm jacked into the net and email pretty much constantly, weekends included. Its not really that big of a deal, as I have a passion for doing this anyway.

I'm lucky that Earache has a dedicated staff who bear most of the heavy workload leaving me to do the bits I enjoy, which is dealing with new bands and planning their albums or my speciality- crazy projects.Most of the staff here are music-lovers, we are a music company after all.

Strictly speaking, I'm self-employed, running my own business means it comes with a certain amount of burden of responsibility aswell. If you were to ask anyone who is self-employed how they spend their time, they would invariably answer- running the business or thinking about it most of the time.Its pretty normal in fact.

Mostly I'd describe my day as listening to new bands for consideration,checking out the mp3s of our own bands direct from the studio, trouble-shooting the daily problems which crop up, and strategising the future of this label, especially the mp3/downloading/streaming future of music, which I take a massive interest in.

Typical day? Here's Monday 12 October 2009:

7am- Roadworks on the road outside my house are being carried out at night, they are noisy and wake me up. Damn.I'm an early riser anyway, but 7am is friggin early.Its barely daylight.

7.01am- Grab laptop and check emails- approx 100 come overnight from USA timezone, including radio reports and USA staff progress reports from the end of last week.I'll surf the net, checking websites, twitter, tumblr, RSS feeds-I have about 25 metal and news sites feeds on the go, and tech sites.Decide I want a Kindle.Maybe start answering an Ask Earache question.

8.20am- Put Sky Sports News on TV and down my first Diet Coca-Cola of the day. I'll drink easily 6 of them before mid-day. I should be sponsored by Coke as I cant operate without caffeine.I dunno why I'm not a coffee drinker - the taste has just never appealed.

Before even leaving to work, I'll check out a few demo bands or new bands myspaces, especially if I have read good reviews about them. Nothing excites me more than hearing new bands. I honestly look forward to being blown away each time I hear a new band for the first time. I always remain optimistic that I could be discovering a brilliant new metal band - but sadly 99% of the time I'm disappointed, so move onto the next one.I play maybe 7 bands this way before breakfast,I never get bored with hearing new bands.

I research our own bands' happenings online too. Its quicker to just read their myspace blogs and tumblr streams than call em up. I hate phones anyway, preferring face-to-face meetings if possible. Today I wanted to see what folks were saying about Insect Warfare, and Cauldron, both on tour in UK. I discovered IW have a few haters back in Houston, which was news to me.Three days ago the band played Nottingham with a stand in singer, and we found em to be mega cool guys.I headed home after the gig, but find out that 2 Earache label guys were hanging and boozing with Dobber and Beau until 7.30am at the promoters house!.Earache staffers know how to party hard!

Our London based PR girl Talita returned from her holiday in Tibet and Nepal, so exchange a few early morning emails with her to explain the events she missed while away.Vice magazine has a TV channel and Talita appears in their latest online TV programme talking about Earache - Heavy Metal Roadshow.

10am Set off for office- by public transport.After a 10 minute walk then its a bus. 30 minutes later I'm in the city centre of Nottingham, settling into my office awaiting the first of daily dramas to unfold.Our start time is 10am ,so the rest of the staff are already in before me.

I'm 'hands-on' at work- office life revolves around a series of ad-hoc meetings with the label management dudes.We'll crowd round the desk and discuss subjects ranging from internet connection troubles to promo strategies to royalty calculations.This time of year its royalty time and many bands are due to receive their statements, which our system sends out by email as .pdfs.Its noticed that for some bands their digital sales out-earn the royalty from CDs. The music industry is changing dramatically, and the evidence is right before our eyes.

The unexpected, tragic news of Mike Alexander's (bassist of Evile) death still dominates our thoughts.It happened a week ago while he was on tour in Sweden, but his body is still in Sweden awaiting bringing back to UK. Its so sad. We arrange to visit Huddersfield and meet up with the Evile guys the next day, to see how they are coping with all this. The absolute deluge of condolence emails from so many big names in the scene gives them a lot of comfort.

Gama Bomb are in the studio halfway through recording of 'Tales From The Grave in Space' but a minor drama develops when they declare they cannot record the album and the extra bonus songs, because they simply won't have enough time.We tell them to work faster and get it done,because its already mega-late.We are expecting it on November 4th and have already announced it will be online as a free dowmload on Nov 5th.We can't miss this deadline.

On lunch break I grab a sandwich, more Coca-cola, and drop into HMV to buy some CDs.Being in the biz its a simple matter to blag a freebie of most music that comes out, but sometimes its easier to just buy it.In the store, I'm mostly just seeing whats new out- I buy Paramore and Hatebreed and a Lady Gaga single.Sometimes I get CDs just to hear the production on them, we are constantly on the look out for hot new producers who can make great-sounding metal albums on an Indie budget.

Spotify is a huge time-sink these days, I'm hooked on finding old albums to listen to to, Spotify has so much choice for free streaming its mindblowing.I'm streaming Rainbow and Van Halen a lot nowadays.One thing Spotify does lack though is NWOBHM.

A Japanese company is negotiating to release the labels music as ringtones in Japan- this is a first time deal for us, so its brand new ground.We sold a few ringtones in the UK before, but they are hot news again because the newly launched iTunes 9 makes ringtones for iPhones easier. I make the last few contract changes and send them off by email - here's hoping the other side will agree and a deal can be done.

A long standing prominent veteran Thrash band is up for a record deal, and Earache is close to securing the rights, but its never a done deal until its signed.We are told other labels are chasing them aswell.So myself and Dan the label manager have a quick discussion to think about it some more- is our offer attractive enough? Time will tell.

After work its quite common a bunch of us will go to local metal and punk gigs, our office is within a few blocks of Nottingham's main metal clubs & pubs. In a typical week at least 2-3 maybe 4 gigs are attended by me and/or staffers, either in Nottingham or London.

No decent gig was on tonight so I'll trek home. To chill out from work I'll catch some TV, mainly news channels or football games or Discovery channel.Movies bore me, I'm more into factual stuff. Later on I'll chill out by reading- not novels, mostly its factual stuff, again. I love reading about science or stuff about space exploration.Currently I'm reading Andrew Marr's excellent A History of Modern Britain.

Naturally some music will be on in the background aswell, probably Scorn.

Does anyone make a living playing grindcore?

Question: This question is based on an interview i read with pig destroyer, in which they said that the main reason why they dont tour much is because of the style of music they play pig destroyer doesnt pay the bills, so therefore they have to have day jobs. Im just curious as to how when one of the bigger bands of the grindcore scene struggles balancing the band and also a personal life. how labels can demand that they spend all their time on the road surely its a catch 22 situation? surely by keeping bands out on the road they are actually encouraging and accelerating that band splitting up being as bandmembers being frustrated with having a lack of money is one of the main reasons for band break ups? From:


Answer: Regular readers of this blog will know I constantly bang on about how only those bands which heavily dedicate their time, energy and money into touring, are the ones who eventually will succeed in making a living from the metal industry. It's not an opinion, its a cast iron fact, but its a statement which is usually met with the "look at Darkthrone or Burzum" retort- I tried to answer that one here, and i'm still waiting for you blogonauts to give me names of any other examples of bands who made it without touring.There are none.

Pig Destroyer are a classic case of a band that has other options in life, and chose them over touring their music- I believe mainman Scott Hull holds down a lucrative job as a computer programmer at the Pentagon, or some government department in Washington, D.C. Playing in a band is secondary to that, which is fair enough,I'm not going to criticise his choice.The end result is I suppose Pig Destroyer could be described as the worlds most well-known grindcore hobby band.I've never seen them play live for instance, which is odd.

It's true that grindcore is not a massive selling genre, I'm fairly sure that the only grindcore band making a living from their music is Napalm Death, they have been lucky enough to be living off the band for at least two decades now and the reason they have done it is by a constant, gruelling touring schedule. Shane Embury once told me that he spent over 250 days in one calendar year on the road, that is considered a normal touring cycle for a top level metal band with a newly released album on sale. In other 'off years' it might be around 100 shows, never less than 60.

I have dealt with quite a few bands whose members simply had no other life-options, you'd be suprised how many of the biggest metal stars grew up in very poor family situations, bordering on poverty. Their skill was their chosen instrument and their motivation to succeed was to simply break out of the poverty trap life dealt them. Getting in the van and criss-crossing Australia was no hardship for AC/DC members because the alternative of staying at home was far worse. Read Ozzy's autobiography if you want further evidence.

Metal bands differ greatly in their earning powers. At the top end of the scale, only 5 metal bands are considered of a huge enough stature and reliable ticket-selling power to build festivals around them: Black Sabbath, AC/DC, Kiss, Metallica, and lately I beleive Iron Maiden joined this illustrious club. Being just a handful of acts means they can command enormous sums to perform, over $500,000 per gig is common, but its not all profit as the bands bring an enormous crew and stage set with them. Lately these stellar names in metal make sure the whole festival is in their control, and it is often arranged around the headliner- examples are Ozzfest or Sonisphere -It's so that the lucrative festival sponsorships, branding, and tie-ins can be profited from by the main act aswell.

Bands from the next level of metal's heirarchy- Slipknot, System of a Down, etc take advantage of the lucrative EU festival circuit to play to as many people as possible in a series of weekends over the summer. Metal festivals in the 90s numbered about 5, most were on and off events, nowadays there are over 40 important metal festivals in EU alone, not to mention more in Australia and Japan. Those promoters are arguably the most important people in the metal industry at present.

Bands which put in the best performances in front of the huge festival crowds can now play maybe 25 EU festivals in one summer over 12 weekends,sometimes bands will play Friday at one festival and Saturday at another. The irony is of course that those 'festival fave' bands only got to be that way due to the constant touring during the early days.

Earache fought in the techno wars 93-96.

Question: How does Earache feel about the Techno releases you did back in the nineties.Now that bands like Pendulum are big, and dub step is played on Radio 1 and is popular in clubs?
From: Kevingkeegan666@gmail.com

Answer:Substitute Pitch Shifter for Pendulum and Scorn for Dub Step and you have pretty much what we were doing in the mid-90s. There is this misunderstanding that Earache in the mid-90s completely turned its back on Metal and Grind, with a wholesale shedding of all the "good" bands, to start releasing exclusively crappy "Dance/techno" records instead.This is a gross exaggeration of what did happen, albeit on a small scale.

People are quick to forget that Earache actually did release tons of quality extreme metal during that era as usual, Morbid Angel, Napalm Death, Anal Cunt, Carcass, Cathedral Iron Monkey and more, but sadly these were overshadowed in the fans eyes by the - probably a dozen,tops - of the extreme techno records that were also released.

It seriously divided opinion among fans of the label, and in hindsight it WAS a serious mistake. A sub-label for techno, not the main label, was the proper place for such wild experimentation. Looking back its remarkable how immune I was to the anger it caused to some die-hard fans.We did have a side label for this stuff, but it was closed down, the last release being early Drum N bass act Fenetik (sleeve pictured above). See that story here.

Someone who definately was angry was Brutal Truth's Kevin Sharp- during the period in 1995 or so, when they had been let go from the label (at their request I might add) he took to mercilessly bashing Earache in interviews, and especially our artist Ultraviolence, which was one of the new hardcore techno projects I'd started working with since 1993.

I guess you had to be here.If you werent living in the UK during the early 90s, you cant understand the impact the techno/rave music scene had. It WAS the underground music scene here, and at least in the early days it was just as radical as the death metal or grindcore scene.Nobody could have predicted that this nascent rave scene would blow up to dominate popular culture for the next decade, of course.

Norway had Helvete, we had Warp.

This was before it became totally mainstream and superclubs like Gatecrasher or Ministry of Sound had even opened their doors.It was a truly Independent, DIY scene which utilised the primitive samplers and early affordable music software to literally invent a new music scene out of nothing. That scene evolved into the mainstream drum n bass and techno which dominated the clubs amd the charts for most of the 90s and much of this decade too.

Back then, I would sit in my flat during the early 90s and hear strangely alien yet alluringly massive bass-heavy sounds pumping out of every house and car where I lived at the time. I discovered it was on the airwaves aswell due to an illegal pirate radio station (Rave FM) operating in my area. It was hellishly underground, radical and free music.

The free parties like Castlemorton made the TV news and newspaper front pages.Being seemingly spearheaded by renegade anarcho-punkers from the 80s, like Spiral Tribe made it even more appealing. The whole scene was even declared illegal - new laws were passed in Parliament to prevent gatherings of ravers - and I became a big fan instantly.

Won't be long before an NME/ hipster-led Jungle/Rave revival is on the cards surely?
Fine by me, as clubs would have to play ACEN- Trip to the Moon Part 2 (Production House, 1992)

Bands- are they mates or legal partnerships?

Question: This has come to mind after the whole recent fear factory incident. Are most bands registered as independent companys? Im curious as to why when burton c bell reorginised the band to bring dino back the former members claimed to still be part of fear factory inc? are most bands registered as companies from a legal point of view? From:


Answer: Having worked with hundreds of bands for over 2 decades, I can say they are quite nebulous things, and no two acts are alike.Most bands when starting out are simply a group of mates making music for fun with vague dreams of success and stardom, so having a sit down meeting to declare and sign themselves up as a formal 4 or 5 -way partnership is one of the last things on their minds.

While outwardly appearing a united, democratic unit to the fans, behind the scenes, most bands have one member who is the driving force, the creative leader and very often its not the most visible member, the frontman.In my experience, its more often likely to be the unsung hero, like guitarist, drummer or bassist that actually plans the activities and direction of the band.

Some bands have a leader of almost tyrannical proportions and the rest of the members follow orders or get their marching orders, you can tell them by the revolving door precession of line ups on each album/tour. Most bands try to do the decent thing and when they get the first flush of success, its common for them to state in writing that the band is a partnership with equal shares all round, so that everyone is comfortable with their own positions.Sadly, the actual day to day reality of bands is that they definately do not run along 100% democratic lines,because nothing would ever get done.

As bands get bigger the monetary stakes get higher and what seemed like a decent idea at the outset doesnt seem so fair or reasonable, especially to the one doing all the work.Aswell as a leader who does the writing, liasing with record company, helping run the myspace, planning tours etc, most bands also have the opposite, a lazy member, who doesn't contribute much except playing the songs onstage, sometimes other members can -wrongly- view them as tagging along for the ride.We find the easiest way to split a band up once they have found success is to casually ask them to name in writing their share of incomes.Anything other than fair shares all round can result in deep resentment and open warfare between the less important members which can fester throughout their -too often abruptly curtailed - career.

We have noticed in recent years a lot of high profile legal cases involve ex band members squabbling in the high court with each other over their fair share of past hits and the highly lucrative naming rights for touring and merchandising purposes.
Back in the 90s it was the artists taking the labels to court for unfair recording contracts, now they sue each other instead. Sign of the times?

As for Fear Factory, I always got on great with Dino in the past and from what I am hearing I sense that he and Burton put past differences aside, and got back together to sign a lucrative deal with Candlelight Records.As it happens the new manager of the Dino/Burton FF is a business partner of a Director of Candlelight so it was a clever bit of business for both parties, only trouble is the other ex-members Raymond and Christian were'nt invited to this particular re-union party.

Even the most well run band cannot imagine the plan for the status of ex-members who want to re-form the outfit at a later date, hence the acrimonious nature of this reformation without 2 of the original members of the band.Its none of my business, but hope both parties can settle this quite quickly because no one wins when band members are seen squabbling publicly or in court.

As far as I know, the Dino/Burton FF album is recorded and even on promo right now, I guess a deal must have been done to allow it.

Film Samples on Entombed's Wolverine Blues

Question: Around about 10 years ago, after being impressed with my first listens of Entombed (thanks to Earache's reasonably priced 'Earplugged' compilations) I picked up a copy of the 'Wolverine Blues' album for a tenner from a small independent record shop in Nuneaton ('What' records, for those who are interested. Sadly no longer with us). In the years following it has enjoyed many a spin in my CD player as one of my favourite albums, however I was REALLY shocked to discover recently that MY version of the album with it's selection of movie samples is pretty rare due to your concern at a potential lawsuit coming out of Hollywood. Personally I can't imagine 'Rotten Soil' WITHOUT the the 'Flatliners' sample "Wake up you little shit, you got company!" at the beginning of each chorus.

Anyway, my question is just how many CDs were pressed WITH the vocal samples?

Cheers From: Evil__Jeff@Hotmail.com


Answer: To answer your question, I think about 3000 CDs from memory came out like that, in the UK edition, and none came out in the USA Columbia/Earache edition.It was because the album was due for a major-label release that all samples had to be removed.Sony insisted on it, and myself and the band learned a valuable lesson in the copyrights of movie dialogue.

Dealing with our bands wanting to use samples from movies on their albums seemingly takes up a sizable portion of my work time. Latest is Municipal Waste who originally recorded the new album Massive Aggressive with a dialogue sample "You think that when you die you got to heaven.You come to US!!" from Phantasm 2 as the intro to Upside Down Church. We insisted it was removed and doesn't make it into any edition.

The reason they have to be removed is because of copyright laws, the material is not created or recorded by the band and so is basically stealing someone else's work while claiming it as their own on 'their' album. While I do enjoy listening to the songs which have great dialogue samples from movies in them, they can add a certain cool factor to any song,but I don't like the legal consequences, which can be severe and may negatively affect the bands career. In short its just not worth the aggro.

Not all samples are the equal though, dialogue from multi-million-Dollar major motion pictures are impossible to obtain clearance because it involves so many layers of agreement, the producer, the actor, the film studio, the director all have to agree, so its pretty much a non starter.

On the other hand, it can be perfectly fine if its a small independent film, and we have had success clearing stuff if the movie is a small one, often the director of a low budget movie can take a personal interest in a band using a sample, they see it as extra promotion for them.We cleared The sample from the legendary UK 70's movie Scum "we're just treated like scum, but us, were gonna fight back" for SSS's Overload track was cleared this way.Incidentally the original novel on which the SCUM movie was based was written by Roy Minton, who is the father of Pulkas singer Luke Minton,Pulkas were an Earache band of the 90's. Also 80s gore film legends Troma were actually excited for us to be using their Toxic Avenger etc footage in a recent Municpal Waste video clip for Headbanger Face Rip for instance.

Away from the regular music industry there is a thriving sub-industry in 'sample recreation' nowadays.Some companies and studios exist solely to recreate famous dialogue and music, because the originals are impossible to clear. Companies like Scorrcio will replay entire songs for a fee, and out of work voice actors can recreate any dialogue for a fee aswell.

In USA the album had a limited edition Wolverine comic cover which was an official tie-in with Marvel Comics, for extra promotion.Thats why the comic character appears in the video clip, even though the song is about an actual wild animal not the comic character.

Heres Wolverine Blues by Entombed clip:

Carcass' old rumour website circa 1995

Question: Whilst browsing the internet, I found a website which acted as a sort of unofficial fan club for Carcass back in the days of Heartwork/Swansong and was regularly updated with tidbits of information about what was happening in Carcassland as it happened. However, seeing as this was 15 years ago and the internet was not so widespread, the stuff is based mainly on word-of-mouth and small magazine snippets, so it's not the most reliable source ever. However, one thing which struck me was an entry from May '96 which said that Michael Amott had reformed Carnage. Obviously, there is no recorded output form this era, but I just wondered if you knew anything about this short-lived Reunion? Do you know if this is true, and if there was any live shows or even any rehearsals?
Also, can you vouch as to how much of the stuff on this website is true?
The Carcass website can be found here:
http://www.goddamnbastard.org/carcass/news.html From:


Answer: I know your question is about Carcass dude, but let me digress a little, because this question is pretty fascinating for me, it gave me deja-vu.You have to remember this website dates from the Jurassic period of the internet.1994-5 makes it, in internet-time, a prehistoric time capsule preserved in amber.I don't know if 'Web Archeaology' exists as a scientific discipline yet but it should do as you can unearth a lot of gems of information from the past by using Waybackmachine or internet archive.

The whole WWW was a brand new thing in 1994-5 and it was a truly wonderous time to be online, but its full life-changing power was certainly not apparent yet, mainly due to the severely slow dial-up speed of the early modems and phone lines, not to mention the outrageous price plans the telcos charged the public for internet access.Plus, when you went online back then it was a barely tolerable experience, there was no web-browser apart from the primitive Mosaic, and the scarcity of websites dealing with metal music meant it was a serious headache to unearth the slightest bit of band info from the web.

Back then, a lot of people were actually 'on the 'net' but nearly all of us non students paid to go through commercial ISPs like AOL or Prodigy, so we were restricted to text based communications - such as email, internet-relay chats (IRC's) and alt.newsgroups (primitive forerunner of message boards).

1995 was the year the web as we know it broke out of being mainly the domain of computer programmers and students on campus at universities which had free and super-fast access to the server hubs .It became a public phenomenon with the release of the first commercial graphical web browser, Netscape Navigator.

I distinctly remember loading up Netscape Navigator 1.0 and viewing my first webpages with- get this- actual images loading within the page.Amazing. After looking up footy scores, obviously, my second look up would be metal.In this early era of the 'net there was no such thing as a search-engine, Alta Vista had yet to come online, and Google could not even be imagined, so you had to navigate via the kindness other sites which would commonly provide a page of relevant links to send you on your way.Our earache.com site still has such a links page which dates back from that era.

For a laugh, the designers of Netscape coded their personal web pages into the software as an easter-egg,one of the designers Jamie Zawinski had a webpage which linked to many music/metal related pages, so this became my homepage for many years.And this page was linked a couple of clicks away, so I used to view it all the time myself at the time.

Sorry for the digression and trip down memory lane- I used to have bookmarked this very same page back in the day,it was a serious beacon of info in an otherwise dark internet, I used to refer to it all the time, seeing it again for the first time in a decade was cool.

From my perspective it dates from a time when Carcass were estranged from this label.They had recently signed to Columbia records/Sony after 4 albums on Earache so we were no longer part of their career plans.Earache dealt with the band on a daily basis for like 6 years straight, then all of as sudden we were history and shut out.

Hence, I actually viewed this very same site myself for info about their activities. It certainly was gossip/rumour-based, as all information seemed to be then,but it declares its rumour-mongering sources quite clearly at the top, so you know what you are getting.Most of it is exactly that- rumour- but I do know the comment about The JFK head is wrong- because it was Jeff Walkers idea to use it for the cover of the album made up of leftover songs from the Swansong sessions, not ours.

Googling the name of the kid who ran the page back then- Matt Holliman based out of Illinois, it appears he now works as a software engineer at Google, which is ironic.Moving on with his career, it appears he left the site in the capable hands of his protege and fellow metal-head Ryan Beasley, also based out of Illinois.

I for one am glad it exists and serves as an archealogical fan page of a certain bygone era of one of Death Metal's most significant bands, it remains a useful reference tool as a window into how fan pages looked on the web, in the mid-90s.

How did Carcass pitch-shift the vocals live?

Question: Hey,

Back in the day, how did Carcass pitch shift their vocals in concert? I've wondered for awhile how pitch-shifted bands replicated the sound live and was watching one of the Pathologist's Report DVDs and noticed that both Bill and Jeff have second mics attached to the mic stands. Is the second mic hooked up to a peddle of some sort? I'm not sure if this is the right forum for this kind of question, but I'm curious and figure I might as well ask.

Thanks,

Dayan From: wizzbang11@gmail.com


Answer: Carcass in the very early days used to set up with 2 vocal mics for Jeff, I'm not sure on the exact tech spec but one was regular mic and the other one, about 6 inches away would run into the mixing desk as normal but have pitch-shift effect added at the desk.So many of the songs had this vocal treatment, I personally think it was overused in the studio on the debut, in hindsight. The gutteral effect was alien and sick so it added to the eerie vibe the band was trying to create on record. Consequently the band felt it necessary to replicate it live, during early gigs.

I think the band ditched the 2 vocal mics idea pretty quickly, it looked strange, and it wasn't always possible to set it up right,it just became an extra hassle at gigs.It was easier for Jeff to learn to do it more gutteral live, and as the band did more albums, fewer songs from the debut made it into the Carcass live set anyway.


Heres Carcass Reek of Putrefaction live in 1989, using the 2 vocal mic technique.

Which bands did Earache try to sign, and miss out on?

Question: Hi Dig. Over the years have there been any notable bands that you have tried to sign that got snapped up by another label or any bands that you turned down that with hindsight you now wish you had signed?
Many thanks for answering my Domination Slime Pack question, can't believe it's worth $1200. Amazing.
Cheers,
David. From: dave666hume@hotmail.com

Answer: Interesting question Dave- Earache has signed our fair share of the more interesting extreme metal bands over the years, as you can see from the A-Z drop down menu/list of Earache bands past and present on our website.

As for bands we tried to sign, and failed to get, for whatever reason, below is a list off the top of my head. Actually I can do better than that, because recently I found the folders/files I'd kept of the "bands we never got"- see the screen grab right off my computer (right).It made my eyes water seeing how close we were to signing some of the most influential metal bands of recent times. Oh well.



On many occasions these bands were virtual unknowns at the time of our interest, and we would have had various stages of face-to-face talks or in some cases actual contracts were issued. Most common reason we didn't get to work with the band in question would be because they preferred to choose another label with a more attractive offer instead. Which is fair enough. We genuinely didn't lose any sleep over them, because none were recognised big selling names or had released more than a well-received debut at the time of our interest. It's quite fun to reminisce and look back at our past failures.

One band on this list who I forgot about is Alligator Gun.This short lived early 90s Mid-West US band made the most incredible poppy-punk songs, and were at least as good as the mid 90s Californian pop-punkers like Green Day or Blink 182, but they predated the coming huge selling pop punk scene by a decade, so the breaks never went their way, sadly.

To be honest, many other labels could boast similar lists, probably waaaay more extensive than mine, because its quite usual for all the labels big and small to pick up on and approach any buzzworthy bands.

We know of some of hottest new bands nowadays can take their pick of up to 12 different label offers, so most labels do lose out on bands, most of the time.

See blue link for deeper story of Earaches involvement with each band.

Nirvana story here.
System Of A Down
Cradle of Filth
In Flames
Burzum
Opeth
Emperor
Job For A Cowboy
Suicide Silence
Between The Buried and Me
The Red Chord
Career Suicide
Panic Cell
Converge
Satyricon
Nachtmystium
Alligator Gun
Vomitory
Decadence
Sylosis