Dub war = Dud War?

Question: So what actually went wrong with dub war surely they should have been one of the biggest bands in the uk? I was going through my ticket collection and i found a dub war ticket from when they played newport tjs support was from a second rate grunge band by the name of feeder, im sure they only got on the bill because like dub war they were from newport, over a decade later its feeder that are headlining festivals and are part of the uk rock hirachy surely it should been dub war who achived this? From:


Answer: Well this sort of thing happens all the time in the music biz- loads of bands dont get the breaks and the success their talent deserves while many others get big on little more than marketing and financial prowess of the well-financed, often Major label.Dub War always come up as a classic 'band who should have been big', but to be fair they did have a small slice of fame, charting 5 times in official Uk chart, but were not massive, far from it.In many ways the recent success of Skindred (Benjis new band, uncannily like Dub War, but now on major-backed US label Beiler Brothers) is the success Dub War didnt acheive, so things finally came good for Benji ten years after DW's demise.Drummer Ginge and Guitarist Jeff are ace producers now aswell, recording the bonus tracks for Bullet For My Valentine's new album.
It should be noted that Dub war's style and sound was incredibly radical for the time, playing a mash-up of ragga and metal whereas Feeder were grunge-lite and Skunk Anansie were female pop-rock, both highly mainstream in their outlook.the word mash up wasnt even coined until a few years ago, so you could say they were ahead of the time.
The main difference is finances- Feeder were on Echo - a powerful label backed with serious major- label-type money, Dub War were on Earache, backed by me, and we are as Indie as they come.
here's a look at Dub war playing Dutch festival DYNAMO from 1995:

Earache's best and worst all-time sellers?

Question: Hello, I am starting a project at College about Metal labels, what are Earache\'s biggest selling and lowest selling albums of all time. thank You,
from Neil. From:

Answer: Earache has been lucky that for over 20 years our fans have been pretty loyal to the labels output...nearly everything we release has sold a respectable steady amount but the biggest sellers are legendary albums like:
Blessed Are The Sick by Morbid Angel
Scum by Napalm Death
Heartwork by Carcass
Slaughter Of The Soul by At The Gates.

Earache's early 90's catalog is pretty much a whos-who of Extreme music hall-of-famers, and anyone getting into the heavier end of metal naturally needs to pick up a fair few of our Classic releases.
On the flipside we also have had a some extremely poor sellers, luckily very few though! This mostly occurs when we diversify too much from the core Death Metal/Grind/Thrash/HC sounds we have a reputation for delivering, sometimes the bands never toured which is always fatal, or in some cases the bands music just never 'caught on' and the breaks never went their way.
Some of the worst sellers of the early period were:
OLD- Lo Flux Tube
Mighty Force - Dive - see rare clip below from 1989:

more recently;
Rakoth- Tiny Deaths (you can listen to a Track from Rakoth's Planeshift debut below)

Shortie - Without A Promise (see song from album "Truth" below)

Ewigkeit - Conspiritus (see song It's Not Reality below)

HM Titans Cauldron & Crystal Castles connection? WTF?!

Question: Is there really a link between new earache signees cauldron and electro band crystal castles? From:

Answer: What- apart from both being from Toronto?
As it happens Jason Decay from our new Traditional HM signings CAULDRON (pic above) used to be in a metal band with the dude Ethan who is half of massively popular electro-punkers, and this weeks NME cover stars, CRYSTAL CASTLES (pic below). Mad eh?.


The prior band was called KILL CHEERLEADER which played punky-stooges/G'n'R metal and made an album on Spinerazor records in 2004.

Jason was most recently in GOAT HORN playing stoner-y doom metal.

CAULDRON is a newly formed 3 piece, a Traditional HM band influenced by NWOBHM,and the debut album will be unleashed on Earache in 2009.
See Goat Horn video below.

Earache & new Morbid Angel w/ David Vincent back

Question: Dig, on a drunken night in Boston (lincs) you told me that you had tried eveyrthing to get David Vincent to rejoin Morbid Angel to no avail. Now that the miracle has happened and they are playing new tracks will you be interested in signing them again? Have you caught them live? What do you think - reformed nostalgic rehash or essential cutting edge Death Metal?

Anther thing: with all the Swedish bands worshipping Autopsy, did you ever think about signing them? Was there ever a potential clash of the titans between you and Hammy over their signatures? Did this happen with any other bands, Paradise Lost for example?

Cheers,

Gav From: crushthenazarene@hotmail.com

Answer: Ahhh great memories.. that Muni Waste & The Process gig at Indian Queen pub in Boston (lincs) (not Boston (Mass)!) has gotta be one of my all time faves, as it was the first time since signing them that I witnessed the thrashing speed-metal-punk power of Tha Waste, and also after the show was the first time we'd witnessed the awesome drinking power of The Waste aswell...jeezus, can them boys drink- the entire Earache staff left there annihilated, and we still talk about that show in revered tones in the office to this day.Y'know, there is footage of this infamous early Muni gig on our PS2 Game as bonus level footage, so if you were in the moshpit during the set, you're in a computer game now, Gav!
Anyways, back to the question: Earache has released every note Morbid Angel have ever recorded since their debut in 1989 til 2004, a period spanning the A-B-A-C-D-E-F-G-H 9 albums, 3 seperate record deals and 2 singers.To be honest its mainly the classic game-changing A & B albums which everyone worships, and by the time of the Steve Tucker era albums F-G-H, tho he was an admirable singer, the band were creatively treading water, and also sales were significantly down on the early 90's heyday.
Meanwhile original singer David Vincent (pictured above in Gentitorturers) who sang on the classic early albums A-B-C-D had unexpectedly quit the band in mid-90's to join up with his wife Gen's Industrial-Fetish-Metal troupe Genitorturers who had a sound and look which was quite in vogue with the Rob Zombie/Marilyn Manson mainstream metal crowd which dominated the metal scene during second half of that decade.From that point on, it seemed quite a stretch to imagine David would ever return to the MA fold, especially as industrial metal was on the up-tick and Floridian DM was in the doldrums, so whenever we enquired about a David Vincent comeback through the management that Morbid and Genitorturers shared (all communication had to be directed through manager) the answer was always the same- hell will freeze over first!
Then around about summer 2004 things began to seriously unravel in the Morbid Angel camp- singer Steve Tucker quit after a triumphant Roskilde festival performance- we heard he wanted to relocate from Florida to be with his new girlfriend in Ireland.From the labels point of view, when a replacement singer was not quickly recruited we feared the worst, and guessed the band was at the point of folding.I had to make a snap decision wether to pay significant advances for the next "I" album, so even tho David Vincent was unveiled as the new singer one day before,I didn't fancy paying big money for album number 10 so we parted ways.
Hell did then freeze over!!
Management pulled the band back from the brink i believe by actually persuading David and Trey to work together again.Now free agents, the newly reunited Morbid Angel could seek a lucrative new Major record deal, but 4 years on, the band still remain without a label for its "I" album.
Morbid hit the festival circuit ina big way this year, I did not catch the new shows, but Earache staffers watched em at Hellfest, and declared MA the best band of the entire weekend, so they are in devastating form onstage, which is to be expected, as they are seasoned pro's.As for the new recordings, my opinion is clouded by remembering the heyday of the band so well- I seriously doubt wether they can write a new album to top the first 2 albums, which are bona-fide death metal classics.The fan in me wouldnn't mind doing the new album, but from a business perspective,Earache is not in the market for album number 10 when we have 9 already in the catalog, 2 of which cannot be topped anyway.They have to go somewhere else to get a fresh momentum and different marketing approach.


Regarding Peaceville back in the day, we both started our labels as extreme HC punk/grind/ crossover labels.Sure, we knew each other from gigs,and respected what the other was doing from afar, but Earache was undoutedly leading the way, and as usual we went out on a limb first by signing an extreme USA death metal band in Morbid Angel- this was a major sell-out to the scene police in the Uk HC scene at the time.Peaceville quickly followed us, and snapped up Autopsy.Earache never approached Autopsy.In hindsight,I think we got the better band.
You are right about Paradise Lost-we missed out big time on them. Earache made them an offer for the debut album but for some reason they preferred Hammy's deal.Tho a much smaller operation, I put it down to Peaceville being locally based to them.It really hit home when Gothic came out and sold incredibly well in Germany, it put Peaceville on the map and sealed the success of the label.Hammy recently sold off the Peaceville label to Snapper Music, a re-issues & catalog specialist,and he retired to sunny Spain.

Napalm Death & Scott Burns

Question: I was reading choosing death and it told how close scott burns was to pulling the plug on napalm in florida, I was wondering how close was he to actually doing it? being as the book only really tells micks side of the story. also what would have happened if he had would the whole album have been aborted or would you have tried another producer in florida?
also why did earache never sign benediction so all the birmingham bands of that time they seemed to be the one of the ones that earache would have picked up however its very bizzare that you didnt. From:

Answer: I was with Napalm Death when they recorded 1990's Harmony Corruption album with Scott in Morrisound studios- at that time,he was the up and coming producer of the moment and ND wanted a more Death Metal sound so they decamped from Birmingham to Tampa for a few weeks.It might be the only time Napalm have recorded outside UK, thinking about it.Mick and Scott explain how that particular session was pretty fraught in the excellent book choosing death.As you say, SCott nearly threw in the towel because of the tension, but ever the professional, his suggestion for mick to leave for a few days and chill out was the best.
You have to understand the pressure was on the band to make the best album of their career, they had to try to top the 2 previous albums, both of which became legendary grindcore albums, all with a new line up, including 2 brand new American guitarists and a new vocalist who had barely recorded before- yes, it was make or break time, and Mick is a highly strung person at the best of times, so he snapped under the tension.USA producers generally prefer a cleaner sound than British ones- in hindsight, the grit and intensity and vibe was missing from that album, which was obvious as they were recording it, and Mick felt bad about it, as he had persuaded me that flying to Morrisoundand recording with Scott was the best idea. heres a clip of the band listening to a mix in Scott's truck:


and Mick discussing Drum sounds during the 1990 recording itself:


As for Benediction, at the time i considered them distinctly second-rate,apart from singer Barney - who quickly moved up the ranks and joined Napalm Death.A bit like fellow Brummies Cerebral Fix, they had members who joined Napalm for a while, LIke Frank Healey, but both acts lacked the intensity of the bands we already had, so Earache took no interest in them.Nuclear Blast still do Benediction albums to this day.

where's the free albums like other blogs?

Question: Why don't you link to the albums you review or describe like other blogs? from: A.Einstein@cern.lhc.ch

Answer: Solve this to get one, then buddy. Try buying a CD sometime, instead of being a fucking leech.

DEICIDE IS BACK & DENOUNCING CHRIST NEAR YOU!

Question: What is the status of deicide at the moment, it appears to be up in the air? glenn gave that interview in terroizer where he said he was through with touring, following which steve\'s new band pops up. so have deicide split, gone on hiatus or are they doing other things as aparently vital remains are writing at the moment so its understandable that steve would do his own project whilst glenn is working with them. From:

Answer: Deicide is back and touring again, after Glen's enforced 18-month layoff from touring due to matrimonial/legal matters prevented his gigging.Now such matters are finished, Deicide are back on the road,and ready to slay audiences worldwide. First stop is Italian shows plus Australia and Japan also in the works.
Steve Asheim took the enforced downtime to create a new band ORDER OF ENNEAD, which has its debut on EARACHE on Oct 13.The new touring line up of Deicide includes Kevin Quirion from Ennead as guitarist, replacing Ralph Santolla, who has been ousted, and is in Obituary anyway.See DEICIDE on the following dates:

09/13/08 FT. LAUDERDALE, FL CULTURE ROOM (w/ ORDER OF ENNEAD, ADRIFT)
09/18/08 ROME, ITALY CIRCOLO DEGLI ARTISTI
09/19/08 BOLOGNA, ITALY KINDER GARTEN
09/20/08 BARI, ITALY DEMODE CLUB
09/21/08 TURIN, ITALY FABRICK
11/28/08 YOKOHAMA, JAPAN FAD
11/30/08 HATSUDAI, JAPAN DOORS
12/04/08 KOENJI, JAPAN HIGH
12/05/08 OSAKA, JAPAN SUN HALL
12/06/08 OSAKA, JAPAN SUN HALL

RE-issues & upcoming Carcass Symphonies packaging

Question: Hi Dig, firstly I\'d like to say I love the fact Earache re-releases it\'s catalogue, not only does it keep some bloody classic albums in circulation(which would be very hard to find otherwise) but also keeps alot of the older bands on the label relevant, by remarketing/promoting out of print albums, so well done for that.

Secondly I\'d like to ask what special packaging you\'ll be using for the CARCASS SYMPHONIES OF SICKNESS REISSUE? Its such a monumental album you have to do something special. As a collector and fan I can\'t wait to get my hands on Reek, even though its a bit of an overlooked classic I know the real grinders out there consider Symphonies one of the finest(if not THE) grindcore albums ever recorded and seeing how its such a monumental release then there should be something special on the reissue, in terms of packaging, something special with maybe a blood pack or something like the Seasons in the Abyss single. From: intestinaldischarge@live.co.uk

Answer: Thanks for the kind words and thanks for buying our Cds! Its appreciated i can tell ya!!Y'know, your opinion is somewhat contrary to the online message-board warriors, who mostly slag all re-issues off as blatant label cash-ins, whichever the label, or however lavish the packaging/extras, forgetting that fans who were'nt around at the time would like to purchase the CD, especially if its been out of print for years.Most of them are downloaders who get their music from megauploadnazi and radipsharenazi, with an average of approx 15 Cds & 50,000 FREE mp3s in their collection, anyways, so fuck them, I say!!
Yes we are planning somthing extra lavish for the final Cd in the Pathologist's Report series, to be honest its not decided yet, tho the disc will include demos for symphonies album, but front-runner idea is a code in the package for a bookshelf box which will house the whole set of 5 discs.You email in and get the box sent to your house by us.If you have any other ideas please feel free to comment below, we seriously haven't decided yet on the packaging but it will be mega deluxe.

What about the Southern Sludge Metal scene?

Question: Has earache taken any interest in the atlanta, athens, savannah georgia scene at all being as it appears next to the new wave of thrash this appears to be the other metal scene of the last few years mastodon, baroness, kylsea , harvey milk etc strangely the entire scene reminds me of grunge not so much sonically but the same \"throw all the influenes into the pot make it sound dirty, fuck what we look like\" attitude. it also appears that this is another scene that although not being involved directly at the moment earache appears to have influenced as those bands have been quoting the likes of sleep and heresy ( big hardcore/uk crust punk influence on that scene) as influences. From:

Answer: You are right- there sure has been something sludgy and metal brewing in them southern swamplands for quite a while, we have watched it grow from afar but had no official contact with any of the bands you mention.I dunno if "the scene" was even bestowed with a name as such, but your use of the word Grunge is kinda appropriate I reckon.You should work at a label dude or be a writer, because I think you sum them up perfectly.Mastodon are undoubtedly the daddies of that sound and style, we love them here at the Earache office, and their Remission CD was a staff fave album of the year for 2002.Some staffers love Baroness aswell, and Harvey Milk- all great bands.Black Tusk are cool too.
As for Earache's interest as far as signing goes- thats where we go cold..also we were pretty late to this particular Sludge metal party, Relapse and Prosthetic got their years ahead of us, but our lack of interest also stems from the fact the music is partly reminiscent of our past 90's glories, so it is not exactly mega exciting.they are nothing like SLEEP I feel, apart from maybe influenced as you say, but I must admit never having spoken much to any of those bands.Its cool as hell they are into HERESY or any of the old punk/Hc bands though, thats pretty great in my book.Fair play to em.

No quirky new thrash bands?

Question: Is it possible that the new wave of thrash is a bit too retro looking for its own good? I mean there doesnt appear to be a modern equivilent of the weirder more progressive thrash bands that made the original scene more interesting eg voivod, celtic frost, sabbat(uk) or sadus it seems as if most players are into playing a kirk hammett or a gary holt riff over a lombardo esque drumbeat. From:

Answer: Well yeah, that seems to be the case- as anyone who was around in the 80's will tell ya-Voivod made their name playing quirky, cerebral, off-kilter metal (pic above with jason newstead in 2003) same for Celtic Frost etc but by the same token the big 4 were more straight down the line thrash, with few quirks, and they are the ones who succeeded in the long run.Through the lens of hindsight, it was undoubtedly EXODUS, (early) METALLICA, ANTHRAX, MEGADETH & SLAYER who defined original 80's Thrash, not Coroner or Voivod.

I should point out that as far as i can tell the new modern thrash bands mostly didn't set out to create a carbon copy of the 80's scene, in all its diverse glory.Contrary to the musings of know-it-alls in forums etc, NON of the Earache thrashers are doing it ironically or are manufactured to be trendy, they genuinely worship the old style, because its new to them.
Mostly, being still teenagers or early 20's dudes, they just wanted to PLAY THRASH because its music they have downloaded, and because to them its fresher and more relevant than the modern styles which dominate todays scene-like say, death metal or metalcore etc. Also a heavy punk/crossover influence is evident aswell..who knew that bands like DISCHARGE or EXPLOITED or SACRILEGE or ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT would be cited as major influences by upcoming metal bands in 2008? It's amazing that a genuine crossover is going on.

To answer your question,a UK band like HERETIC are pretty quirky and non-generic,and are the band you are seeking, but its debatable whether they are so far removed from the scenes style, to be part of it.
Totally unrelated- but I actually think the new thrash bands are responsible for Death Magnetic sounding like the return to form it does.

Carcass- Reek special edition Sept 22

Question: Hey, I got the two Carcass Dual Discs so far, and was just wondering when the (I assume) three others will be up for sale? From: rf@kohn.dk

Answer: Glad you are collecting them all- there is a extra suprise if you complete the set, and buy all 5.Right now we have re-issued 3 so far, Swansong came out recently with bonus track (featuring Colin Richardson on vocals) and colour sticker pack inside.
The next installment is their debut album, Reek of Putrefaction, the beyond brutal downtuned gore-fest that started it all.The re-issue comes with the bands first demo, and extra fold out page after page of real-life gore scenes, its actual images made for the album in 1987 that were unused at the time of the debut- honestly, its so sick it comes in a sealed Specimen bag.There have been many bands since Carcass who have banned artwork or sick and brutal cover art- you can be confident that this raises the bar for what is acceptable, and deletes all imposters.This release is hands down THE MOST ridiculously over the top that Earache has ever put its name to, we are expecting trouble.

Earache & KLF & Extreme Noise Terror

Question: Was earache skeptical when ent started to get involved with the klf? surely it doesnt do a scene who at that point trying to prove that they were proper musicans to asociate with two self described non musicans. I remember reading and essay written by jim from the klf titled \"how to fuck the music industry\" where he describes how ent had an issue with their plan to throw sheeps blood into the audience because of their vegan beliefs. isn\'t there another link between earache and the klf because of james fogarty and his inolvment in klf spin off blacksmoke? looking at the way that james has formed and anti label since leaving earache it seems as if he has followed the klf\'s members essays closely. From:

Answer: Yes that was a mad and tumultuous time, dont forget that the KLF had been number 1 in the UK charts and had a string of early rave/techno hits -they were a pop act- but being essentially serial pranksters- decided to 'leave the industry' with a bang by teaming up with Extreme Noise Terror to terrorize the public with a grindcore rendition of their rave hit 3am Eternal.Its mindboggling to watch now-yes this actually happened-don't forget that this is the UK's most prestigious Music awards ceremony "Brit awards" (comparable to the Grammys) live on TV in 1992:


I remember at the time ENT thought long and hard about being being invited to collaborate with the KLF, being good honest punks, their immediate instinct was to tell the preening pop pranksters to fuck off! But having had a few meetings with Bill Drummond, they gradually became seduced by the prospect of having a lucrative collaboration.The album they recorded, KLF vs ENT The Black Room never saw a release because the KLF had left the industry by then and shelved it, and I remember Dean (singer) telling me they were totally gutted about it, because they honestly thought they would become millionaires from it, this was-finally- their chance to hit pay-dirt and Bill Drummond just shelved it as a situationist prank.They felt deflated and somewhat used as a parting-shot gimmick by KLF.I don't think the band ever recovered from it.

As for James Fogarty & Ewigkeit- yeah when we started working with him, I had no idea he was already working off-and-on with Jim Cauty (ex- KLF) on the loose collective Blacksmoke project, they live near each other in Brighton I think, and from what James said, he did most of the day-to-day musical production work on the single and some remixes- tho Jim oversaw the overall direction of the project.
Ewigkeit made 2 incredible albums for Earache- Radio Ixtlan & Conspiritus- but even tho both were my albums of the year, they inexplicably failed to sell hardly anything.We put it down to Ewigkeits music was quite removed from the prevailing music scene trend and James failed to tour the band.At one point we did discuss Ewigkeit playing shows in Iraq to 'entertain' the troops, imagine that- Ewigkeit live in Baghdad would have been a blast!!!- it could have been the ultimate KLF-style prank to end em all, but it never got off the ground.
After we severed ties with him, James ended up 'doing a Radiohead' and symbolically severed his ties with the music industry by burning all his old record contracts (Earaches was merely the latest,he'd been in a loads of deals before aswell with lots of former bands, its quite a bonfire!)If you want KLF comparisons, thats it right there- KLF burned a million quid when they left the industry, Ewigkeit couldn't get their hands on those kinda readies- so burnt contracts instead. James is now releasing amazing politico Drum n Bass stuff on the internet under Bombs Of Enduring Freedom,the dude simply cannot write a bad song, its surely only a matter of time before the wider public catches up with his talents - then we might finally get to sell some Ewigkeit CDs!
Heres a mega-rare gig by Ewigkeit, including unreleased song Guantanamo Bay International, and on bass is up-n-coming Uk actor.

Morbid Angel box set 7inch

Question: Hello. A couple of years ago a former friend of mine (Per Thunell, Filthy christians, MOSH 17) sold me some raritys of the greatest band in the history of deathmetal, Morbid angel, that he got from them on tour back in the days. That includes: a signed vinyl copy of the classic line-up of \"Altars of madness\", The picturedisc of \"Altars...\" as well, the 666ex limited vinyl single (7\") edition \"thy kingdom come\", the 1000ex limited vinyl edition of \"Abomination of desolation\" + the picturedisc as well. I also have a 6 vinyl singles (7\") box in leather that i have heard contains the \"Blessed are the sick\" album. So my question to you is this... since my is sealed and will not be opened for a long time.: Did you released or distributed that leather box of \"Blessed are the sick\"??

I hope that you could answer my question :)
best regards, Daemon//Sweden From: masen023@hotmail.com

Answer: yes its an official Earache release of the Blessed Are The Sick album, on 5 x 7inches in a leather box. see the description here, its incredibly rare. The thy kingdom come 7inch you mention tho is a bootleg (a rare early one as it happens)

Steve Albini & Fudge Tunnel/Godflesh

Question: Has earache ever considered signing a full blown noise rock/no wave band? the influence of steve albini on fudge tunnel and godflesh cannot be denied, speaking of albini wasnt he meant to have produced a godflesh album at one point? From:

Answer: Earache hasn't really been very interested in that scene, even at its height in early 90's- it wasn't to my taste, so didnt approach any of those bands.Its inflence was undeniabe tho- both Fudge Tunnel and Godflesh I know did have a slight soft spot for Jesus Lizard and AmRep acts like early Helmet,and Albini's 80s band Big Black was undoubtedly an influence on the early Earache bands,(but not Sonic Youth).Both bands also yearned for an altogether more HEAVY production- the aim was a totally crushing metallic production, Albini (pictured) had no metal credentials.It probably came up in conversation with those bands, that Albini might have been cool producer, but he was linked with another scene, and anyways Alex from FT decided to take more control of the recording of his band from Creep Diets onwards (he studied Colin Richardson's methodology on the recording of their debut).Nowadays Alex is a respected producer in his own right.Likewise Godflesh bought their own studio equipment and installed it in their house, so again, had intentions of doing their own productions, for better or worse.This meant that outside producers were never discussed anymore.

Immolation not on Earache in the 90s?

Question: In choosing death it says that immolation nearly signed with earache is this true? personally im very suprised they didnt being as from what i remember hearing in interviews they had dave vincet booking their southern shows and vice versa was happening when MA played the north east of the US. From:


Answer: In the early 90's the death-metal scene was growing fast, all over the world, mainly because of the success of the early bands I'd signed.Being quite picky, I thought we had the cream of the crop on the label ( err with the exception of DEATH who never became available for Earache to sign at that time).Aside from Florida, Uk and Sweden, the Death metal scene was also exploding all over the North eastern US, with bands like Malevolent Creation, Immolation, Suffocation and Ripping Corpse (Erik Rutan's first band).I checked em all out, but couldn't really see anything in those bands that made them better than the bands we already had.To be honest i always considered the NY DM bands a bit second rate, compared to the innovators of the genre.Although the scenesters and bands helped each other with shows and generally promoting the scene, there was very much a heirarcy of bands at the time, which wikipedia and online lists of Death metal bands 20 years on, fail to highlight.
Of course looking back with 20 years of hindsight, Immolation and the others sound just as brutal and fast and deathy as the others, so i can't recall why i dismissed them back then..it must be a certain spark or innate catchiness that some bands had and some didn't.Same thing in Europe, I ignored Grave, Unleashed, Morgoth etc as they were distinctly second rate compared to the bands we already had.Luckily for them plenty of other labels were springing up to get in on the death metal wave, so they mostly found a label home in Century media or Roadrunner and went on to a decent career anyway.
Immolation had a helpful local friend/manager in Kim August (ultimatum zine, she released a Cathedral 7inch aswell) and were considered strongly but I passed on them.Ripping Corpse was the only band from the North east I considered for the label back in the day.