Blog Post: LOST SOUL, when good bands go great...

Question: Have you ever let a band go from the label and then thought "oh shit maybe that was a bad idea"? Main example I can give as it was the last record i bought was lost soul. For me an amazing polish band superior to decapitated in some ways, I was listening to their newest album and for some reason I had the nagging feeling in my head "why the fuck doesnt this have a mosh number attached to it!". From:

Answer: Luckily for us, it doesn't happen too often. There aren't too many bands we have let go from Earache, only to see them thrive and succeed on another label, so mostly we are confident in our decisions. Dub War spring to mind- we let them go after 2 albums,then three quarters of the members regrouped 3-4 years later as Skindred, and instantly scored a high profile management deal, then a major record deal, got on US radio, then promptly sold 200,000 records on their debut, playing a similar style. We didn't feel like egg was on our face, we actually were chuffed for them.

Yes, Lost Soul are amazing, they seem to have evolved from being a straight-up Morbid Angel type of band to some kind of cosmic hyperspeed Death Metal band. We signed them to Wicked World/Earache for 2005's Chaostream album, and had high hopes they could follow in Decapitated's footsteps, as the band were undoubtedly very talented, and on the live shows we saw, they were just outstanding, on a par with many bigger bands, but even though they had everything going for them, and even toured Europe a little bit, for some reason nothing much happened for them sales wise. The music industry at the highest level still rates bands in a pecking order based on how many albums they have sold, so Lost Soul's poor sales meant it was inevitable they'd be dropped from the sub-label.

Bands can go from average to devastating in as little as 3 months, and this magical creative boost can strike at anytime, and for any reason. For Lost Soul it just took 5 years.