Earache DVDs- the Intro music?

Question: Hi,

I recently purchased the Deicide \'When London Burns\' DVD. When the DVD starts, the Earache logo appears on the screen with a minute or two instrumental music clip with lots of double bass and heavy riffing. Any chance you know what that clip of music is

Steve From: stevejwallace84@aol.com


Answer: Yeah its taken from Decapitated's track 'Spheres Of Madness'taken from the 2002 album "Nihility" which can be found here to download

Earache and Rise Above Records?

Question: I read in an article that earache helped lee dorrian start Rise Above when he first began the label when he was in napalm death, is this really the case? From:

Answer: The truth is a bit more convoluted than that.Me and Lee have had a friendly relationship most of the time, and Lee wanted to get his fledgling label off the ground while he was still in Napalm Death, but the band were exclusively signed to Earache, and I guess permission had to be granted by me for him to release the Napalm Death live 7inch (Rise001),which certainly got Rise Above Records noticed and off to a flying start, tho Earache cannot claim any credit more than giving the release our blessing-we certainly did not have any active role in Rise Above, it was all Lee's vision and funding, and hard graft.
Slightly later,around the time of the Dark Passages LP, where Rise Above really came into its own in my view, with its unique vision of Doomy music,extensive contract talks were held between myself and Lee's manager/representative about Rise Above becoming an official in-house sub-label of Earache's but nothing came of it(err, looking back,i have no idea why we didnt speak directly on the subject).Lee remained signed as an Artist to Earache as vocalist of Cathedral throughout the 90's and to help Rise Above's early years we also -quite kindly in my view- agreed for the pre-Earache Cathedral demos to come out on Rise Above rather than Earache, as the In Memoriam 12", thereby further putting Rise Above on the musical map.
Apart from giving our blessing to Lee to release Napalm Death and Cathedral material, both bands being signed exclusively during the 90's to Earache,we had no other involvement.
Earache collectors and scene watchers will notice that NO OTHER label has released Earache bands' material before or since.

Deicide- 9 or 10 track CD?

Question: I bought the collectors box of the new deicide Cd mine has 9 tracks but my mates has 10. A cover version of Black Night. I was wondering should the one I bought have 10 tracks. It makes no odds as the album is amazing without the extra track anyway. I just taught I would ask the question. From: eamonnx.bunn@intel.

Answer: There are 2 different DEICIDE box sets on sale - one super limited includes the extra track, imported from USA- which contains a 10 track cd in a box with ROUND sticker, limited to 4000 copies, already almost sold out, but available from specialist Metal Indie stores and metal mailorders. The other box contains a mere 9 track cd in a box with square sticker, which is widely available in shops across Europe. See the formats pictured HERE

No Electronic Artists on Earache anymore?

Question: Is there are reason why earache isnt as heavily involved in extreme electronica based music anymore, is it a move by the label or is it simply because you cant find the artists to replace the ones that you used to have. I mean you used to have ultraviolence and scorn ( who aphex twin once said was an influence on him). From:

Answer:Earache is basically an 'Extreme Music' label, and you are right- it has been deliberately moving away from Electronic music for a while now, as the genre simply does'nt interest me (with one exception) anymore, so its doubtful any more acts will be signed in that style again.Aussie mutant grind/industrial death metal merchants The Berzerker do still continue to record for Earache,tho the blaring death metal guitars do mask their electronica roots somewhat.
Out of about 350 titles in the Earache catalog, there were maybe 20 releases max from around the mid to late 90's which can be classed as Extreme Electronica- wether it be the Industrial Strength Brooklyn Gabber of DOA or DELTA 9,the slamming UK hardcore techno of ULTRAVIOLENCE, the Gloomy Punk-Phunk of SIGNS OV CHAOS,Raw Jungle/Drum n Bass of GENERATED X'Ed/ADRENALIN JUNKIES or the Bass-driven Ambient Dub in the case of SCORN(who i had no idea was credited as influencing Aphex Twin,thats so cool!)- these signings came about thru my newly found fascination with DJ culture and an appreciation of the 'art' of Electronic producers like Liam Howlett ( The Prodigy) who in particular was a fave band of mine for a decade.I'd like to think all Earache's electronic acts were extreme in their own way, and, naturally, ahead of the curve.

The label received a fair share of flack from its predominately Metal fanbase for daring to be dabbling in such electronic music, which even now, 10 years after some of the releases came out, has been a tag its been hard to shake off.Oh well.

The only Electronic producer/DJ who has impressed me in recent years is Scott Brown(pictured),(Hear Sample 1, Sample 2,Sample 3) - who is singlehandedly pioneering a Nu-style of gabber and deserves massive success for that. Earlier this year Scott was kind enough to make a slamming remix of our Brighton-based politico-electronic rock band Ewigkeit, which made it onto the famous Hardcore techno comp series Bonkers 16.

Sweet Tooth- Mosh 26 explained

Question: What is Sweet Tooth, Mosh 26 in the mosh catalogue. IS its a Godflesh project? any info please.From: hany33@hotmail.com

Answer: This blog is rapidly turning into Justin Broadrick back cat discography site! but thats ok.
Well Sweet Tooth was as you say,Earache's 26th release and it came out hurriedly in 1990, but we were'nt exactly planning to release it.As was the way at the time in the early 90's Birminghams thriving Alternative rock scene, Justin, who had recently signed to Earache as his main band, Godflesh -also had a number of other side project acts he dabbled in-many of them still record sporadically to this present day:like, Final, Fall of Because etc. But Sweet Tooth only made one recording.
Justin left Napalm Death to join upwardly mobile local Indie rockers Head Of David on drums.Head OF David were enjoying incredible success at the time, and had signed to Blast First, Sonic Youth's label,consequently HOD's releases regularly hit the number one spot on the Uk alternative charts, and did quite well.
Another local act SLAB were a mesmerisingly heavy indie band with an amazing bass-driven sound, who were well respected.Sweet Tooth came about and comprised of ex-HOD Dave Cochrane,on bass & vocals plus drummer Scott Keihl (Slab), and on guitar Justin Broadrick and it sounded like a jazz-infused heavy rock band, very strange to these ears.
The release was rushed as it was originally supposed to be for a new label run by a then-Earache employee (soon to be be ex-employee), but after some cloak and dagger wranglings it appeared on a fangled Staindrop/Earache label on 12inch and casette only, no CD. Staindrop being named after the birthplace of the employee.

Godflesh -'Tiny Tears' 12inch?

Question: Another Godflesh related question...

I\'ve heard that before Godflesh signed to Earache, they were thinking of releasing an EP entitled \"Tiny Tears\" but Earache wanted Godflesh to record a full length first and somehow Justin pushed for the EP to be released first on Earache but it never happened. Then later, the EP was never released at all but only featured as bonus tracks for the Streetcleaner album. Is there a specific reason why Tiny Tears was never released before Streetcleaner or is it just because you guys wanted them to release a full length first? Personally, I love the Tiny Tears EP and felt it would\'ve been worthy of an official release and not be just mere bonus tracks. From: DavidaLoca@gmail.com

Answer: Godflesh first recorded output was for the famous local central Birmingham indie record store- Swordfish- the shop is still there selling great Indie music and local talent, in Temple Street in the centre of the city.In about 1988, after Justin quit Napalm Death,seemingly out of nowhere, the debut 6-song mini album GODFLESH was released on vinyl on Swordfish records, clear 12" vinyl i think.Its crushing heaviness and originality immediately impressed the hell out of me and it became a favourite of mine for the year.Hence Earache approached Godflesh about signing the band..meanwhile, Godflesh had also quickly recorded a new 4-track 12" called TINY TEARS - which was again destined to be released on Swordfish, but the tapes had'nt yet been delivered.
Swordfish as a label was fine for releasing 12" slabs of vinyl out of the shop in brum, but it did not have a global distribution network as Earache had set up, and did not consider Cd's.In short, it had limited capabilities as it was only a record store, not a fuly fledged label.
After signing the band, I convinced Godflesh to shelve the Tiny Tears recording as 12inchers dont sell- full albums is what major retailers want, and on the then new format of CD.So Godflesh duly recorded their Earache debut full-length "Streetcleaner", and the Tiny Tears recordings instead became the 4 song bonus material for the CD only, to help it sell better, as the new format of CD was still quite new and expensive at that time.So you are exactly right- its never had a release on its own. Plus The track ID's were messed up in CD mastering so its not immediately obvious which track is Tiny Tears.Actually Tiny Tears is one of my fave Godflesh tracks ever.
Earache later negotiated with Swordfish to buy out the rights to the S/T aswell..

Artist looking for metal design work!

Question: Hi guys, I have been trying to get into the metal industry as an illustrator for the past twenty years. I have tried everything, and spent a small fortune on postage sending examples to record companies. I work in all media including digital. Can you please give me any help (or a job!), sorry, force of habit!! If you can point me in the right direction, I would sincerely appreciate it. Many thanks. From: markjephcott1@btinternet.com

Answer: here ya go Mark..someone might see this and contact ya- hopefully not spammers tho oops!you have a website and a myspace page with galleries of your work i presume?i think you might be much better off approaching BANDS direct rather than labels- bands always need artwork- for websites, T-shirts, early demos and 7 inch records etc,its where all reknown artists have started. visit your local metal club and i guarantee there will be 10+ bands who are dying to get art..admittedly you have to supply it for free at the start, but eventually if your style catches on, you can begin to charge a fee.Good luck.

Cannibal and Desecration- how come not on Earache?

Question: two questions for you if thats ok
1)Alex webster said a few years ago that he considered moving cannibal corpse to another label such as earache, Was he serious when he said this or was it just a way of getting metal blade to invest more time, money and effort in CC. If the latter is the case how comon do bands use that ploy to get more label attention?
2)Have earache ever considered signing welsh death metal band desecration? its just im surprised that for all their years on the uk scene they havent got an offer from you guys yet, is it because they are a newport band and because of the so called scene politcs after what happened with dub war. From:

Answer: Earache has never had an official- or even unofficial- conversation with Cannibal Corpse about joining us. I guess our paths never crossed, and i imagine they are rightly happy with the work Metal Blade has done for them for what, a decade now, making them a leading death metal band, arguably THE biggest selling pure Death metal band of all time.If Alex said he considerd moving, i think, like you said, it was probably a ploy to get more attention from their label.maybe their contract was up and they were re-negotiating it at the time.We greatly admire their loyalty to the label that made them!More bands should do what CC have done.Tho of course of they did contact us we'd sign them in an instant!
As for Desecration-again, we have never had an official conversation with them.We are not madly into the band, actually, thats why no offer has been made.Its nothing to do with being from newport, and i'm not even aware of any scene politics between Earache and folks from newport.

December Wolves- what happened?

Question: What ever happened with December Wolves? \"Completely Dehumanized\" is one of my favorite extreme records ever, and \"Blasterpiece Theatre\" is just as good. Did they break up, or were they dropped? Also, how did the \"Porn Again Christian\" video come about? Did this video have anything to do with the signing of Society One? From: johnwalbridgeiv@yahoo.com

Answer: yeah what a brilliantly underrated band! their 2 records for Wicked World were pure, twisted, psycho US-black-metal chaos!!The band hardly ever played any shows and so kinda dropped of the radar..sales were sluggish, and they had line up problems too,so Dan at Wicked World chose not to continue with December Wolves.
The band didnt want a porno-type extreme video,even tho the song is called "Porn Again Christian"- they wanted something more traditional,more religion inspired, but we kinda talked them into it, as an extreme video on the web can get people talking about the band.I think we had just signed Matt Zanes mob- Society 1-and wanted to set him the task of directing an extreme porno video for an extreme metal band.He certainly delivered one of the wildest video clips ever made.Its certainly an OTT clip- 100% not suitable for the squeamish, or the underage!

EEMR PlayStation 2 game- how to get it!

Question: hello...i see you have a racing game comeing out in europe..... can you please tell me how i can get a copy of this game??????
thanks.
mark From: mr9mm@comcast.net

Answer: pre-order it from Foxy.co.uk coolshop.dk. or Amazon.co.uk

Heresy + Concrete Sox split LP ?

Question: I was wondering if you had any plans to re-release the Concrete Sox/Heresy split LP either in LP or CD format. I\'ve been on the hunt for this one for years, but have never been lucky in finding it. I\'m afraid that I already know the answer, but it doesn\'t hurt to ask. Please let me know when you have a chance. Also, I have been a big fan of your label for many years. I bought the Napalm Death-Scum LP when it came out so that was the first exposure to Earache. Since then I have purchased many titles on your label. Whenever it has the Earache label on it, I know its Loud, Raw, and Agressive, just the way I like it. Anyway thanks for your time and for many years of listening enjoyment. THANKS!!!!!!!!! From: mjb71@msn.com

Answer: Nah- there is no demand, as far as we can tell.Heresy split up in the mid 90's and Concrete Sox around then too...and you can get all the non-Earache Heresy tunes on an excellent LP and CD released by Boss tunage recently.The record you are talking about was Mosh 2 in the Earache catalog, and came in 2 different colour sleeve combinations, with the green and orange on the HERESY side the first pressing, of maybe 2000 copies.Later editions were orange and peach color combo.It was never released on CD.

Dig & Lars Metallica?

Question: Hey Dig i know asking you this is a long shot but anyway, Are you the \" kid journalist named dig\" that Lars from Metallica refered to in an issue of \"So What\" ( metallica\'s offical fanzine), When he was writing about the time he spent as a roadie for discharge, venom and diamond head during the early 80s, It just seems very coincidencial if it isnt you. From:

Answer: yeah thats me--I had no idea Lars even knew who i was...man thats a long time ago.. i used to go religiously to see Venom, Discharge and Metallica's early gigs in the UK (Marquee club, London anyone?. I had no idea lars was roadie for them.I havent got access to the so What fanzine you refer to, but if anyone has a scan i'd love to see it!

Earache Extreme Metal Racing PS2 Game-order it now!

Question: Will the Earache Extreme metal racing Video game on PlayStation 2 be available in Denmark?


Answer : its available for pre-order NOW from Amazon

Justin Broadrick to join NIN?

Question: I was reading a biography about nine inch nails and it said that trent
asked justin broadrick to join the band in the mid 90s, I know justin is one of
trents main musical influences however, was him joining NIN somthing that was taken
seriously or was it somthing that was just mentioned as i presume that if he was
taking it seriously justin would have disscused it with the label that he was signed
to. From:


Answer: I don't remember this one! For a while in the early-mid 90's Justin WAS in demand as a guitarist, and he was approached i think to join Faith No More and also Danzig's band, maybe even Prong at some stage.From what i remember, Justin always took these offers with a pinch of salt, because Godflesh was doing OK and was on the up at the time, and i think he had absolutely no intention of relocating to USA to join these much bigger bands, I think he much preferred to write and record his own songs and be in control of his own destiny.For the record, Earache never had much input into Justin's decisions, tho naturally we were pleased he kept Godflesh going rather than join up with other much bigger bands.

Since Godflesh's demise, I dunno what would happen if they asked him now.

Bolt Thrower- Realm OF Chaos

Question: Is it true that the reissue of Bolt Thrower\'s \"Realm of Chaos\" was done without the band\'s consent and permission, and the band will not receive any royalties from it? From:


Answer: Hey- if the band can keep recycling and flogging the same riffs for album after album , why can't we recycle our albums too? ha ha. See the earlier answer to this question here.
We have had minimal contact with bolt thrower for over a decade, since we dropped them from the roster in the mid-90's.However,we certainly did inform the band that the rights to the original artwork were due to expire and asked them for ideas for new artwork.However, the band did'nt want to co-operate in this discussion, preferring I suppose, for reasons only they know, for the record to be deleted or released in a plain white sleeve...errr neither idea exactly appealed to us.

The fact is, we dont actually have to seek their permission anyways....

Back in 1989 for Realm Of Chaos' original release Earache negotiated a special deal with the world famous Fantasy Wargaming company Games Workshop (who's HQ was handily based in our home town in Nottingham UK) to use their copyrighted artwork from a leading Game 'Warhammer 40K' on the bands album cover and all associated packaging- by about 2004 or so the rights expired and so the art had to be removed for new subsequent pressings.
Earache decided to approach the original artist John Sibbick to draw a similar themed peice of art, 15 years after he had done the original, but this time specifically for this album, which he was happy to do.

Its true the band were not happy with the new issue, and released a press release condeming it, which is in fact a breach of their agreement with Earache.Its quite untrue to say they will not receive royalties from the CD.They have received plenty of royalties from it since release and will continue to do so, i guess they have to stop condeming it first tho?

Getting Signed TO EARACHE (part 2,139)

Question: do u guys get back to the bands and let them know about there demo submissions regardless of wether u like them or not? From: Lagoratory@hotmail.com


Answer: nah- sadly not, we dont have the time to reply to the countless hopefuls who approach us about getting signed, but most CDs that arrive here or the myspace links you send to us DO get clicked and played.About 5-10 bands per day use our demo submission form ( found under contacts section of our site)
As an experiment we might offer that service to unsigned acts in the future, if bands wanna hear what we actually think about a demo supplied, we could offer a personal critique and offer ideas for improvement- I could be the Simon Cowell of metal A&R ha ha (minus the crap trousers)
.The most common failing as far as we are concerned is bands who just cant get a rhythm section to play together tightly yet, cos they are too new.Bands are just not world class within 1 month of picking up instruments- its frankly impossible.Our A&R ears are attuned to milisecond timing - if you are out of time even a fraction, we pass.
The second most common failing is lack of orginality.

However, labels notoriously get it wrong and miss out on perfectly great bands while early in their career, for various reasons- i personally passed on Dillinger Escape Plan, Fear factory and Sepultura as well as the entire genres of black metal and Gothic metal - so what the fuck do i know anyways?

Mosh 100

Question: How many copies of Mosh 100 were made? Also could you get the video or cds on their own in the past?

Thanks. From: s.mccormick74@ntlworld.com

Answer: Not many, about 2000 from memory, it was lavish release..Mosh 100 (hear it HERE) was meant to be a 'thank you' to the fans who had supported the label and made it reach the milestone of 100 releases in 1994.It was an embroidered DJ bag filled with a CD of mostly unreleased tracks and a VHS tape of many unseen video clips of the time, plus a free 7inch vinyl.It sold out right away.

Alex Newport - Nailbomb

Question: I dont know if you got this question the last time because my computer crashed when i was sending it but anyway

Is it true that the only reason why nailbomb could not sign to earache was because of max\'s contract with roadrunner? If this is the case how was it possible for alex to release a record on roadrunner i would think surely his earache contract would prevent him from doing this.
But the part that confuses me is that Matt from trivium is a member of an earache band how is that possible i thought being under contract from roadrunner would prevent this. From:


Answer: Earache has always had a great relationship with Roadrunner over contractual stuff like this, sharing some artists that wann make projects etc..over the years quite a few of our artists have recorded with RR artists on projects, Meathook Seed featured Mitch Harris from Napalm Death with Donald Tardy from Obituary and was released by Earache, in recent months our signed artist Cult Of Luna recorded an album for a project called Khoma for RR. But the best known was of course Nailbomb which featured Alex Newport from Fudge Tunnel with Max Cavalera from Sepultura.From memory, Alex got to become friends with Max after touring together,I think he eventually married the daughter of Max's wife, so they were even family.

As Sepultura were bigger (way bigger ) than Fudge Tunnel at the time, it made sense to come out on RR, as it was intended to boost FT's profile.

Nocturnus- Ahead of their time?

Question: Do you feel the reason why Nocturnus didnt do well when they were around is because they were too far ahead of their time? i mean bands like children on bodom and norther have succeded with a similer sound From:


Answer: Yeah i know what you mean- looking back, Nocturnus were quite a remarkable band, people loved em or hated them, for playing an intricate take on Florida death metal but with subtle use of keyboards and in Mike Davis they had, according to Trey Azagthoth, the very best technical lead guitarist in Florida at the time- that's quite some recommendation huh?To be honest the only thing they lacked was a decent rhythm section as drummer and vocalist Mike Browning was'nt that skilled at drumming( he was out of time a lot), and it was kinda off putting from a fans eye view to see the vocals coming from behind a massive drum kit on stage.Plus, at the time, Death metal fans were not opne minded to anything different or challenging, at the time heaviness and speed was all that mattered, and Nocturnus just did not trade on those factors.

All in all, Futuristic Sci fi metal is the term i'd use to describe their output in the early 90's and its true, newer bands like Children of Bodom are kinda vaguely similar in sound, but the ability of the players in COB is 10x more advanced than Nocturnus' abilities were.