How many Muni Waste vinly LP colors?

Question: Hello Earache,

I\'d like to know the pressing info for the \"the Art of partying\" LP. On what colours and how many of each color will be pressed?

Thanks.

From: jorisvde@hotmail.com


answer: its pressed and onsale today from the Earache webstores.This Thrash-tastic soon-to-be-classic LP is available in a mindboggling -10 -count 'em -different colored slabs o' wax.200 of each exist.Snap em up to be assured of a collectible rarity thats surely gonna be worth stacks in years to come. First come first served!!

Coalesce on Earache circa 1996-7?

Question: two questions for you.

1) Is it true that Dig is the reason for the Book choosing death\'s existance, I read somewhere that albert originally only intended to interview Dig but then the book expanded from that.
2) How did Earache end up signing Coalesce, I mean they werent exactly the type of sound that you would associate with earache at the time and did you look into any other bands from that scene at the time such as botch and converge. From:


Answer:yeah- according to Albert, the catalyst for the book came from the 2 or 3 indepth interviews he did with me for a local Philly mag- around 2000 when we issued a label compilation called "Immortalised",which was 3 cds in a tin can,(to represent a kinda mini-time capsule).I guess he enjoyed me reciting the completely candid story of the explosive rise of this label, from humble beginnings to selling millions of records in early 90's to a kinda downturn in our fortunes in late 90's, and the subsequent rise of death metal acts on other labels- in essence he saw the potential to recount the complete story of the scene.I also reckon the success of books like Lords of Chaos and American Hardcore prompted him to take it further.
As for Coalesce- we signed the band early on to a 7inch record deal,because we saw they had potential and as a HC band they were highly unusual in taking an more open minded stance towards metal cos at the time the 2 scenes rarely mixed.Sadly line up problems meant the band did not progress too well.

EARACHE BAND DECEMBER 2000-2003

Question: What ever happened with December? I picked up The Lament Configuration a few years ago, and about 20 listens later, I finally found what I was looking for. The last news article is from \'04 saying they have a new singer and are recording, but I haven\'t been able to find out a damn thing more about them. \"December\" is a tricky word to google. From: cailinltj@hotmail.com

Answer: yes December were a great band-from Reno, Nevada, and played what might be described as stop /start hardcore with metallic riffs and breakdowns- or in other words-early metalcore.In about 2003 their long-term singer and leader Mark Moots quit the bqnd after 10 years service and the band sadly imploded after that.BUT-They made a great promo clip for the track "host" off the lament configuration album..filmed by Pete Bridgwater at a ranch just outside Reno, if you look carefuly you can see 2 disused jet fighter planes in the aircraft hanger the band are playing in..you can view it here;

Main players in UK extreme metal scene?

Question: I want to ask, who are the main talent agents and companies that earache deals with, I mean with indie and rock you have creation managment (alan mcgee) and hall or nothing( martin hall). Are there less managers working in extreme metal or somthing? From:

Answer:Extreme metal has its main movers and shakers, much like any scene- but because the whole metal scene is quietly shunned by,and exists pretty much under the radar of the music industry as a whole, these people are hardly household names.The scale of operations in extreme metal are basically smaller, as are the financial rewards,which makes the folks toiling away to grow and cultivate the bands more or less have to be fans first and foremost, making a financial 'killing' is the last thing on their minds usually.For example, A huge selling breakthrough extreme metal act-Shadows Fall, say, might sell 250,000 copies of an album in USA, 250,000 in UK&Europe-BUT this is not even in the same league as many of the leading UK indie bands- Kaiser Chiefs sell upwards of 1,000,000 in the UK alone, Kasabian also, Snow Patrol also sell a million here, Coldplay 3 Million.

To answer your question; After the USA heavyweights like Q-Prime (Metallica) and the UK equivalents like Sharon Osbourne(Ozzy) and Rod Smallwood (Iron Maiden) arguably, Craig Jennings (pic above) might be the most important Artist manager in the UK metal scene, handling acts like Bullet for My valentine, Funeral For A friend & Gallows.Andy Farrow in Yorkshire manages a stellar roster of Paradise Lost, Opeth and Skindred.Cradle of filth are managed by Faye Woolven.Many of these managers have grown with the acts after they made their sales breakthroughs.For promotions- many of the labels releasing extreme metal rely on their own in-house promo teams, as its such a specific type of music and you have to be steeped in the scene 24/7 to be respected within it.As freelance tho, Kaz Mercer at Mercenary handles Metallica and Lostprophets,so thats a pretty powerful roster! Owen at hero PR is also freelance, and does FFAF some bigger bands (he used to work at Earache ha ha).Anton Brookes at Bad Moon handles Foo Fighters and is open minded to work with newer acts too.

By and large, being an Independent minded and smallish scene- most people just work the bands they have an affinity with.

Viewing Earache bands tour dates

Question: hi in the uk we have a website called ENTS2 which after search i can find whats happening in any town in the uk. 2 things,is there a website which does simaliar in europe,of are yourselves thinking of doing one. save logging onto individial bands websites. thanks. From: 8haywah@uk.ibm.com

Answer: Earache offers fans to check our bands gigs ina calendar view. go to our front page www.earache.com and you'll see a map of the world.Clicking any continent, or UK graphic, brings up a calendar view of gigs by date/town.Now you can plan your gig viewing in advance..see you down the front!

Earache & Sub Pop ( how we nearly signed Nirvana!)

Question: It has been said before about how earache had negotiated with sub pop to release nivarna material, however im wondering why are godflesh listed as a sub pop artist on their wikipedia page and also in a book about the label\'s history, did earache license the material to them ( perhaps to sweeten the deal for getting nivarna or something) From:


Answer:Earache in the late 80's was making waves in the Uk Indie scene, supported by John Peel etc, and selling a lot of grindcore and Death Metal records.Our UK distributor was Revolver Distro based in Bristol, and working at the distro was an amiable American chap named Gary Held, who ran a DIY one-man label called Tupelo, with i think 4 or 5 releases out(including Sleep's debut).Meanwhile the Uk press were beginning to fawn over the coming Sub Pop-led Seattle grunge scene, most of which i thought was garbage, with one exception- Nirvana- who quickly became my favourite band on the planet, mainly thru the heaviness of the guitars and the sense that they were an intense band.
Meanwhile,Gary Held had pulled off a major coup for his label by licensing the debut Nirvana album for the UK- the story goes that he flew up to the Sub Pop office armed with $1000 in cash and said he's not leaving until they license Bleach to him for UK!
By the end of the day, he had the album! A genius move by any standards..
Tupelo quickly sold out of its first pressing of "Bleach" and The guy hired to do publicity for Tupelo/Nirvana in the UK (Anton of Bad Moon) was also doing Earache's publicity for a short while.Earache and Tupelo quickly became the biggest selling labels thru Revolver distro- so i had a front row seat to witness the Nirvana bandwagon starting to roll in the UK.
You gotta remember tho Nirvana on the debut were deemed very cool by the media,but the band were still quite underground and merely a promising US band among thousands of promising bands, and far from the superstars they(albeit reluctantly)later became.
Earache wanted to license the next album by Nirvana badly- and offered a whopping $13,000 to Sub Pop in order to license the next Nirvana album.It was a fortune for us at the time, but was never even considered, as events began to snowball and Nirvana quickly left Sub Pop to sign to DGC/Geffen.Oh well, - nevermind.


As for Godflesh- Earache licensed a couple of Godflesh tracks to Sub Pop for their 7 inch series, which became their Slateman single.Earache released it on CD for Europe.

Another piece of trivia- The second guitarist on the cover of Bleach is actually Jason Everman, who joined Nirvana briefly as a live guitarist, but did not feature on the recording.Later he joined the band OLD signed to Earache and appears on the lo flux tube album by them.

Earache & the Pathological Compilation (1990)

Question: I\'ve got a CD called the \"Pathological Compilation\", from the label \"Pathological\" (PATH 1). It was distributed by Revolver/Cartel and marketed by Earache. There\'s no date on the disc, but IIRC I picked it up new around 1993. It\'s got Earache bands from that era like Carcass, ND, and Godflesh; along with other bands like Coil, Silverfish, and God. The whole compilation is more industrial than grind - the ND track in particular is uncharacteristically industrial. What was the story behind this disc? Were there anymore releases on Pathological through Earache or otherwise? From: tsukaesugi@yahoo.com


Answer:Earache's leading grindcore bands were starting to make breakthroughs in the wider UK Independent music scene during the late 80's and came to the attention of noted London Indie scenester Kevin Martin.Kevin had earlier promoted one of the earliest Napalm death shows in London- at his 'Mule' club, which was a hotbed of the more open-minded underground London scenesters at the time.
Kevin was a major supporter of the early Earache bands and fancied doing a compilation of the more adventurous UK independent bands around at the time- which included a few of the Earache bands, as well as some of his fave traditionally Independent bands who were doing the rounds at the time, Silverfish, Terminal Cheesecake etc.

Kevin gathered the tracks from the bands (which was probably the first time the Earache bands had the freedom to record songs outside of the album framework, which is why they went for more experimental material)He also named his compilaton and did the art but crucially couldnt find the funds to press the record or distribute it.
Earache liked what he was trying to accomplish so I took on the marketing of the CD for him.Earache released the debut Pathological compilation- i think we did 5000 copies, and after the first pressing sold out we didnt repress it anymore.
After the debut,kevin/Pathological went on alone, to release several more records,- Earache was not involved anymore by that stage- by bands like Terminal Cheesecake and Oxbow..and notably, kevin started the first of his many artist collaborations with Godflesh's Justin Broadrick on the Techno Animalproject (Pictured with kevin, right) which Pathological also released.
Pathological folded a few years later.Kevin and Justin Broadrick went on to record countless collaboration projects for the next decade.

Earache give away 5000 FREE 'Thrash is King' T-Shirts in Hammer mag

Question: Where can I get one of these Thrash is king white shirts? And by the way congrats on signing Evile. From: sdobson666@gmail.com

Answer: we gave out a load of Thrash is King promotional T-shirts to journalists in London recently, maybe its that you have seen.Sorry but that one is now out of print.
However Thrashers in the UK be aware--we are also giving away 5000 Thrash is King shirts (see pics) FREE with the next issue of Metal hammer magazine in the uK, if you buy it from an HMV record store. So- buy your copy of Hammer in HMV from June 6th and claim your FREE thrash T-shirt, packed in the bag.

Earache bands in Guitar Hero Game?

Question: did i hear that you were creating an \"extreme guitar hero game\"? cuz that would be amazing, please say its true. cheers From: purehatred666@hotmail.com


Answer: Our PS2 game -Earache Extreme Metal Racing -is still the only extreme metal type rock game on the market, and its selling quite well. The initial concept was by the developer- Metro 3D, tho we had a large part in choosing the music (obviously) and some input on vehicles.The publishers of our game are currently porting it to the Nintendo Wii platform for release in approx october, and are also working on an 18+ hardcore blood and gore version, and also trying to work in some support for playing it via the Guitar hero controller in a later version.
Meanwhile Earache is also talking to harmonix (Guitar hero developer) about the inclusion of some of our bands in the next Guitar hero game- called "rock band", where players can choose an instrument, form a band and eventually play together in-game and even online.

Tyrant- speed metal band

Question: WE ARE AN UNSIGNED SPEED METAL BAND TRYING TO GET SIGNED. PLEASE LISTEN TO OUR DEMO ON OUR MYSPACE PAGE.www.myspace.com/tyrantthrash

THANKS
-BEAR
DRUMMER OF TYRANT From: WWW.METALBEAR87@YAHOO.COM

Answer: yeah , i like your style, but the songs and riffs you play arent as catchy as fellow Californian Thrashers like Merciless Death or Fueled By Fire, i'm afraid.Good luck to you tho...

Indonesian Death metal bands

Question: is EARACHE looking forward to sign Indonesian Death Metal bands? From: annodaemoni@yahoo.ca

Answer: we never heard any Death metal bands from indonesia, but yeah why not, if they are brutal and original?

Earache DVD music

Question: Who play the music song in the Earache\'s DVDs (Napalm Death DVD, Carcass DVD, Entombeb DVD........), where appears a screen with Earache Logo flying in a purple sky with stars? Remember: I don\'t talk about Decapitated song \"Spheres of Madness\"! From: xcabalax@bol.com.br

Answer: It's Cathedral- the riff is from the middle section of a song called 'Voyage Of The Homeless Sapian'.The song is 20+ minutes long and the riff we used to open the title sequence of the early Earache DVDs is at about 16 minutes from memory. Its classic huh?

Municipal Waste Special edition CD w/ Patch - out June 11

Question: Is there going to be a pre-order for the new MUNICIPAL WASTE cd? and if so will it come with any free cool shit?? From: darthauclair@hotmail.com


Answer: see the special editions HERE
The main special edition is CD with FREE Woven Patch, and bonus songs, limited to 5000 copies.This will be available to order from the earache webstore soon.Vinyl LP will be also available in an assortment of colors.Set your calendars for Monday 11th June- its "Thrash Monday"

Akercocke- Can you crack The Antichrist Code?

Question: how can i listen the new akercocke album on line? From: panosenn@otenet.gr

Answer: The new Akercocke album Antichrist is available at a secret location online for listening ONLY to people who crack the online treasure hunt called The Antichrist Code.A series of about 8 Akercocke related puzzles and questions have been posted online on myspace and youtube websites.If you correctly follow the clues they will lead you to the reward.Though difficult,(so difficult that Jason himself could not crack the final puzzle) The hunt was suprisingly completed by 15 fans within 24 hours of it being announced, but the location of the prize was leaked by news sites like blabbermouth etc, which spoiled the fun of the hunt for the hordes of avid akercocke fans still searching- so we relocated it.

Begin your quest with the first question here: http://www.myspace.com/akercockeantichrist http://www.myspace.com/akercockeantichrist

Godflesh/ PSI etc - are they Grind?

Question: Can you maybe explain why people always consider bands like Godflesh, Pitchshifter and Dead World grindcore? It\'s really annoying to see bands such as the ones above labeled that when they ironically were the total opposite of fast, blast beating madness. Hell, even the Earache webstore labeled one of Pitchshifter\'s album \"industro-grind\", which actually sparked the question I have in mind. From:


Answer: Early Godflesh was most certainly Grindcore, more accurately "Industrial Grindcore" at least on the debut and streetcleaner abums...grindcore was not just about speed of drums, blast beats etc- it actually was coined to describe the guitars- heavy,downtuned, bleak, harsh riffing guitars "grind", so thats what the genre was described as, by the musicians who were its innovators & proponents.
Obviously with Justin being ex-napalm Death, the attachement was there because he was from the same scene that birthed grindcore anyways.PSI were similar, in the early incarnation. I agree that both bands by the time of album number 3 were less grinding in the guitars dept, and as they became more adept at programming their drum machines, the music became mroe beat driven, and at that point both bands became morre accurately described as Industrial metal, not grindcore.

Earache & The New Breed of Thrash.

Question: Has earache spotted somthing the rest of the world hasnt signing so many uk thrash/crossover bands in such a short space of time sss and evile by name? out of interest is earache interested in the bands that are left at all eg suicide watch ( formerly stampin ground), gamma bomb and nebukadnezza. From:

Answer: We've been spotting something for years, namely good original metal bands of all varieties.
Muncipal waste were signed in 2004- there was no media talking about a New Breed of Thrash back then..it was unheard of to embrace such a long lost genre as 80's crossover thrash.


As for Evile- they have been quietly playing storming sets to a handful of fans for 2 years,i was lucky enough to see them at Nottingham's junktion 7 club, where DEADFALL were ace too (but we didnt attempt to sign them, due to line up problems), and then the killer was seeing Evile at Bloodstock open air 2006 where they destroyed the tent with their devastating early Metallica meets Slayer perfomance.



SSS also came to our attention and we loved them from the get go- like The Waste, they are spearheading the more crossover-thrash vibes.Excellent stuff to circle pit to.


As for the other bands- we like GAMA BOMB and are following their progress.

So, YES we are pleased to announce-

THRASH IS KING!!

THRASH IS BACK!!

Napalm Death 1 second 7 inch

Question: I work at a radio station and we often get old LP records as donations to put up for sale, while i was going through a box I discovered a Napalm death/Electro Hippies single ( Side 1. You Suffer, Side 2, Mega Armageddon), with 1 second of music and scratched text on each side. I looked in vein for more information about it online but came up emptyhanded.
What was it all about? I\'d be interested to know

Thanks From: wlewies@gmail.com


Answer: thats our world record 7 inch single from 1989. Its the shortest single ever released, and was given away free when we did a compilation called "grindcrusher".Worth a few quid on ebay probably, tho about 8,000 copies do exist from memory.Wired mag recently namechecked the single as a forerunner to snack size culture which is the current vogue, ie short attention spans.

Muncipal Waste- are they actually thrash?

Question: is municipal waste a thrash band or a crossover band? From: turdburglar22@yahoo.com

Answer: well the virginia 4 peice certainly DO PLAY Thrash in my book!But you are right- Municipal waste do play the more punky crossover-thrash (think DRI, suicidal tendencies, Accused from the 80's wave)rather than the more straight up metal-thrash played by and made much more famous than the crossover thrash by the likes of the big 4 thrash bands of the 80's-Metallica and Megadeth etc.

Basically bands like Municipal Waste are injecting a new youthful energy into a long lost genre- they emphasise the fun aspect of metal,and crowd surfing/circle pits are all part of the fun. watch for the new MW album "The Art of Partying" due instores on 11th June.

Does Earache sign One Man bands?

Question: Dear Earache Records,
Do you sign one man bands? In the vein of Burzum and Nine Inch Nails? Recording, I play, write and record all of the music, but I have a band that I tour with, on occasion. On all recordings, it\'s only me playing and writing the music, but on stage, there are five of us playing my music. Do you sign bands of this nature? If not, would you? From: the.true.deathcrush@hotmail.com

Answer: yes we do, there are quite a few examples of bands we have signed who are just one person...like Mortiis, The berzerker, ultraviolence- in fact many of the hardcore techno/industrial acts we signed are one person acts,the main thing all these bands have in common is they are mostly computer/programming/sampling type acts, or rather used to be.We sign bands based on their originality and quality of music, not how many members are in the line up.The problems arise when you have to go on tour..(burzum doesnt have this probem- ;-))

To be honest most bands have a leader, or a person who dictates the direction and music of the band, and its more and more common for those people to declare themselves as "the band", and treat the other musicians as hired hands for on the road work.Sounds like you are one of those?

I personally dont agree with it..it might work fine for a time, but as your band gets bigger and tours more, because their is no commitment for the hired hands, you get a revolving line up on stage that changes from tour to tour.


I dont think fans appreciate getting a suprise line up - often unfamiliar faces-on stage each time.

Earache bands in the Guinness book?

Question: I\'m sure I remember hearing that Brutal Truth were/are in the Guiness Book of Records for the shortest promo video or something similar.
Is this true, and are any more Earache artists featured in the pages? From: Evil__Jeff@Hotmail.com



Answer: Earache has had two bands featured in the famous book of world records.Napalm Death's 7 inch single from 1989 was the worlds shortest single- clocking in a 1.5 seconds.In recent years we had Brutal truth included in the book for the record of worlds shortest pop promo video clip.For Collateral Damage clip, clocking in at 2 seconds.Beat that!

demo bands- Fatal Taunt & FUBAR

Question: Hello, my name is Sean Howells. I am management for SB promotions and am contacting you as i feel that i have two of my bands ready for singning. Please forgive me for being short but i shall get straight to the point.

If you could PLEASE check out my top 2 bands webpages which has demo\'s on both and contact me if you have any interest. If you have no interest, some hints and tips for them, feedback would be VERY appreciated. The bands are named Fatal Taunt and FUBAR. Their site addresses are :

http://www.fataltaunt.com

http://www.wearefubar.com

Thank you for your time and effort in reading this. If for any reason you would like to contact me my details are :

Sean Howells
SB promotions management
tel : 07983548448

Hope to hear from you soon. From: sbpromotions@ntlworld.com

Answer: hi Sean, well you are certainly in the right place as it seems Wales is a hot-bed of talent at the moment- has been for years actually..dunno whats in the water, but there seems to be a production line of bands coming thru- and many labels' A&R activity is centred on South Wales, thats a fact.The link you sent for FUBAR didnt work- D'oh! you fell at the first hurdle dood! BUT- i searched around and found them on myspace instead- and i'm glad i did, i enjoyed their music more than Fatal Taunt to be honest.We have no interest to sign either band, because they both are not what we are signing, and seem to have no ready made scene to slot into..but the singer of FUBAR has a good voice and thier songs are stronger than most new bands...the drummer of Fatal lets them down imho..its kinda out of time in places which rules them out right away.I thought it was cool that the FUBAR singer wears a cardiff city football team shirt- an individual touch -as many rock bands do not ever wear such team clothes, to not alienate fans from other cities...so, I wish you the best with them.

No Sabbat on Earache in 80's?

Question: Digby-why are you thanked on certain sabbat albums, but earache never signed the band did you help set them up with gigs or somthing when they first started or are you just friends with them. Also did you ever consider signing them when they were first around considering they were one of the bigger bands from nottingham at the time. Also i was talking to a staff member at a games workshop store and they said that GW at one point tried to set up a label to release \"gaming music\" with earache\'s help is this true? From:


Answer;I guess it does seem a little odd that Earache did'nt sign one of Nottingham's leading Metal bands in the late 80's era.The reasons are twofold really- 1) I saw them play really early on as Hydra at a pub in Nottingham but the spandex pants they wore were cringeworthy-in truth, my head was more into extreme hardcore punk bands who sang about political lyrics, such as Napalm Death & Heresy at that time plus 2) I had'nt actually got my label set up properly before Sabbat broke through- i had barely released 2 or maybe 3 records, it was still a bedroom operation.Seemingly,In the course of a few weeks,Sabbat went from budding local hopefuls to Kerrang cover stars-due to the founding editor of kerrang- Geoff Barton- taking an immediate liking to their unique style.A lucky break which propelled them to a deal with the well-established Noise records in Germany.I dont remember them thanking me on any albums, but Nottingham has always had a small tight scene, so our paths used to cross a bit, espcecially as members of Earache band Lawnmower Deth were friendly with Sabbat, coming from the same North Nottingham villages.
What was weird was that much later, when Return To The Sabbat formed, in 2001 or so, Earache declined to sign them.


As for Games Workshop- we did work with them in 1989 licensing the cover art for our Bolt Thrower album.This was prompted by the band themselves, because their name is taken from a GW game, personally I didnt know what Games Workshop was-it was a blast to work with such a hive of creative talent-GW were a local small independent fantasy wargaming firm at the time, not the corporate behemoth they are nowadays, so such a deal was easy to do.My recollection is that Bolt Throwers album actually sold quite well thru the GW stores, which prompted the marketing guy there to try their hand at doing a GW themed record label, with the first and i believe only signing of hard rockers D-Rok, who had a short lived career.

What do we look for when signng a band?

Question: In signing a new band, if the task were ever to strike you, what typically would you look for?Recording skill? Musicianship? An active band who tours regularily? Please respond and feel free to add any other qualities or guidelines that you would wish for. Thank you.
Yours Truly,

ORB DECAY.

Answer: Man, we get asked this question maybe 5 times per day, its all you guys think about!!..if I wrote a book called "How to get your band signed to a Record label" it would be a bestseller, I think.Having signed maybe 100+ bands in the extreme metal genre its hard to analyse what factors got them signed, to pass on the info to you, but i'll try...y'know, In this era of myspace and social networking sites and mp3 downloads its kinda arguable that bands dont actually need to be signed to a label anymore.The ultimate aim is to gain fans- which if you do it well enough, will make the labels come running to you.

Its a given that your band must be tight, proficient musicians, team players, hard working-and you must tour- bedroom bands are destined for obscurity. What bands often dont realise is what the standard of the competition is like- its a high level out there, the competition to be signed is intense..Earache is literally bombarded with hopeful up n coming bands myspace links, demos, cds every day of the week- we worked out we maybe get 4000 approaches a year (10 a day)- and sign approx 2-3-4 bands from that, so we ae saying "no" most all the time.Most hopefuls are decent bands, but a lot are making the mistake of sending us the first recordings they've done.No band is killer within 3 months of picking up instruments..

Many labels of some long standing are very picky indeed- Earache amongst them- this is a fact many bands dont appreciate-the A&R people at labels are paid to have their fingers on the pulse of whats new and happening in the rock/metal scene, but they are incredibly sheep like, at the same time- so it helps a lot if your band is part of a current trend, or more likely the next upcoming trend.Do your homework about the labels too...if you read that a label is signing bands which are in your particular style, then approach them, rather than labels who are working other stuff.
Finally- even when you do get signed..labels still need you to work even harder than before..as the expectation level ' bar' is raised for 'signed acts'.

last bit of advice i can give is- send a 6-pack of beers in the package with your demo- i'm not kidding! it will guarantee your band a comprehensive listen at the label,plus it will show your impeccable skill in marketing/promotion of your band, which is highly prized.

So I wish you the best of luck with your band.
We drink Stella Artois.

Earache PlayStation 2 Game is OUT NOW!

Question: Hi remember reading an article about a year ago, about an Earache records video game. It was gonna be for ps2 and pc i think. I remember seeing development pictures. What happened to that? From: venturesagogo@yahoo.com


Answer: yes its finally, finally OUT..in UK and across some European territories.USA is still in the works for later in the year. After a slow start ( i guess after a year and a half of talking about it, the extra delays caused some fans to doubt it was actually real) its starting to sell well in the second week, its even in the amazon.co.uk chart for PS2 Games.The developers are currently talking to us about a Nintendo Wii version later in the year and a much more gory 18+ blood n guts version is due out in July too.Some discussions are taking place about adding Guitar Hero support into these later versions.

Sending CD demos to Earache..

Question: Hi,I need an address(not web)to send you my band s promo-album with a biography an a letter from me to give you all the infos,please dont ignore this,the album is really good,i think you should listen it,give us a way out from the stupids we got around,thank you all anyway,bye From: fran.martino@hotmail.it

Answer: sure-we do accept demos on CD- but a myspace link sent using our form on the contacts page is better. send CD to

Earache Records A&R
Pox Box 144
Nottingham
NG3 4GE
UK

thanks and good luck.

Skindred- formerly Dub War?

Question: Do you happen to know how to get in touch with Skindred - the band formerly known as Dub War?

-aztrid From: aztrid@gmail.com

Answer: Yeah Skindred is the new band formed by the members of Dub War (who recorded 2 albums and numerous singles on earache in mid 90's).They play a similar style of punk-ed up ragga metal, but are getting much more successful than Dub war were. As it happens only Benji the singer remains from the Dub war line up.Jeff and Ging now work as production team in South wales, and actually recorded the early Bullet For My Valentine demo(as Jeff Killed john).You can check out Skindred on myspace

Favourite Earache release?

Question: Kind of a stupid question, but I was curious. What are your favorite Earache releases? Are there any that you really dislike, or wonder what you were thinking when you released it? From: johnwalbridgeiv@yahoo.com


Answer:I've been asked this question a few times over the years- out of the 300+ titles Earache has released in 20 years, my all time favourites are Napalm's Scum and Carcass' Reek and Terrorizer's album, and i can honestly there are none or very few which i actively dislike..most bands have been carefully selected after much consideration, after all, and i personally signed their contract, so its a given, I must surely have liked them.Out of the newer bands- faves are Berzerker, Akercocke, Deicide,Ephel Duath, Municipal waste,Cult Of Luna, Biomechanical, Decapitated,Evile.

Generally, i tend to like our more out-there, more unique-sounding releases, most titles in the catalog are groundbreaking in a some way, sonically, lyrically, or in terms of the scene they represent, sometimes it might take a decade or more for the music to be accepted as such tho!!.Earache traditionally is ahead of the curve- we actively dislike to jump on anyones bandwagon, to mercilessly sign a string of bands sounding like the latest new new thing- we just dont do that.We prefer the mavericks, the outsiders, the bands unafraid to try somthing different.

Bands which i loved the most are some of Earache's least succesful..like OLD, Ewigkeit, Shortie.All unique, forward thinking and extremely talented musicians, but cruelly overlooked by fans at the time of their releases.

No Glen Benton on Deicide Euro tour?

Question: Why Glen Benton did not show in the venues in Spain and Portugal, on European\'s Deicide tour?!? From: bradifasik@hotmail.com


Answer: He is in Florida attending to a court case to do with matrimonial/custody matters- it was meant to end a week or so ago, and it was hoped- even reported- that he would fly to Paris to join the tour, but other circumstances have caused further delays to his departure date. He will join the tour at some stage,Glen is desperate to travel and play for the fans in Europe, we hold flights daily to diferent cities in case he can finally leave.Meanwhile the rest of the band decided to show their commitment to the fans and promoters on this tour by carrying on so, they recruited a new singer from Polish band Dissinter, who is doing an admirable job filling in at short notice, fans are seemingly happy to acknowledge the bands perseverance in pretty unusual circumstances.
Deicide are actually Earache's most toured band-with Glen they have played approx 200 shows in the last 2 years, travelling across the globe to places like Korea, Australia, new zealand, plus numerous USA and European tours.Sometimes personal matters infringe on the best laid plans, I'm afraid.

Lock Up & project bands

Question: Did Earache ever look into signing lock up when the band was around being that the majority of the musicans were contracted to earache anyway? From:


Answer:We did all the napalm death members projects in the early 90's- Meathook seed, Blood From The Soul, hell, even Terrorizer was classed a project- but none of them did as well as the main band.So, nah- we had no interest in Lock-up, as from memory we had just dropped Napalm death in 1999, and Tomas quit ATG in 1998 or so- we thought of shane and jesse as ex-artists at that point, and wanted to steer well clear of anything they did-So we had no actual contractual arrangements with the members as they formed lock up.Nick barker has never been signed to Earache actually- and it was Nuclear blast who snapped up Lock up instead.
If i gave ya a list of all the side projects that Earache signed artists have tried to get off the ground, while being signed or soon after being dropped, we'd be here all day.Its almost fashionable for band members to be 2-3 bands at once nowadays, but we prefer for our artists to focus on their "main" band, and advise them to do so as touring a project band can be troublesome.But we also give a lot ofour acts freedom to do other things- hence a lot of Earache artist's projects come out on other labels.right now i can think of sam from berzerker's project called Senseless, coming out on Anti-culture,after it was rejected by us.There are hundreds of other projects our artists have been involved in.

Is There A God?

Question: is there a god
From:

answer: Wow you certainly ask some searching questions here!.Personally i beleive there is NO God. No Allah, Baal,Zeus or Wotan- all are irrational concepts distilled in weak minds.All religions are causes of conflict- imagine a world with no religious beliefs- there would be no suicide bombers, no 9/11, no crusades, no witch hunts, no Northern Ireland troubles..it would be much happier place if people could escape the trap of Religion.In my opinion, there is no God but yourself.Read the lyrics of Deicide, penned by Glen Benton, for further information.

Agnus Meat plow- The home of metal?Errr....

Question: What is it exactly is it a band has to bring to the table to get a record deal. I know a band has to bring a prospect of success and knowledge of music. However, being in a metal band is also about raw agressive attacks on humanity. So does attitude, and metal integrity have any say anymore. If so check out www.myspace/agnusmeatplow.com
the home of metal From: mearl@telus.net


Answer:Its also about giving us your correct website URL dude..this doesnt link...so we cant check out your band...i guess you blew yer chance.Oh well..

Does quality of demos matter?

Question: does quality of demo\'s on myspace affect your judgement of the songs? From: corey250@hotmail.com


Answer: no it doesnt- we are listening for originality of the music, and especially we listen out for tightness of the musicians playing together- we listen for microsecond sloppiness in the playing, and bands with great, tight, grooving drummers stand a better than average chance of being picked up.

The number of myspace plays is becoming increasinglty relevant- especially the daily plays, as many bands now have figured how to acheive 500,000+ plays...y'know It's hard to pinpoint why some bands get signed and some dont,its all about the elusive x-factor (or should it be axe-factor?), which having sold over 9 million records across 350+ releases, almost all of them exclusively of the extreme music genre,which we kickstarted, we think we have a slight clue about this stuff by now.

We make allowances for the fact that most bands cant afford a slick production, when we listen to them.We actually have bands coming to us with professionally recorded demos or full albums in some cases but it doesnt affect our interest.We recently had an unsigned band offer us an andy sneap produced album, which is sonically incredible,as he is a world class producer,sadly we're not feeling the band's vibes, so passed on it.This proves that quality of demo recording has no effect on signings.

What are ex-earache employees doing now?

Question: i remember reading that one of the heads of anti-flag\'s AF records is a former employee of earache (US) is this true?
also of the former earache employees do most of them remain working in the music industry after they have left the company and how many have started their own labels. From:

Answer:Yes- its Jorge, an esteemed ex Earache USA staffer from the mid- 90's.This is a question we think about a lot here in the office cos actually an astonishingly high percentage of staff who have left Earache over the years,do still work in the music business, at all levels.We deal with our ex-staff nearly every day in some capacity or other.Some are very famous in their chosen fields.

Given that most of the folks starting here have no music industry experience whatsoever- which is partly to do with our longstanding policy of taking on newbies, and partly because recruitment of experienced music industry professionals in Nottingham, UK is hard, as its 100 miles from London,it could be argued that Earache is a the perfect starting point for anyone trying to break into the music industry.Statistics bear it out.

Currently our alumni are working as:

A&R Vice president for Atlantic Records/Manager of Shiny Toy Guns
Press officer of Virgin Records
Press officer of Century Media Records
Press Officer- SPV records
Editor- metal maniacs magazine
Owner of PR firm - Hero Pr
Marketing manager of Jagermeister
Art director Eagle entertainment
Accountant Hot Records (eva cassidy)
label manager of Koch Records
label manager of Equal Vision records
Label manager of AF records (antiflag)
Owner of darkwave records
owner of boss tunage records
Owner of gentle electric records
Running NYC's only metal club- Precious Metal Mondays @ lit club.
guitarist and drummer in upcoming NYC band- Wetnurse

our ex-staff have also worked for Columbia & Roadrunner as Radio Promotions,Rockstar Games (grand theft auto etc),sales manager @ Doc data pressing plant,Tour booker for Fugazi, manager of Carcass & Echoboy, manager of Sixbyseven, Founder of Whitby Gothic weekend, resident DJ at Nottingham the Social..etc..basically, our staff get bloody everywhere!

Earache mispressings & misprints- any value?

Question: I bought a cd of napalm death\'s from enslavement to obliteration a couple of weeks ago but didnt get a chance to listen to it until now. I think that there was a mistake when the cd was made because although all of the artwork (the insert, the booklet and the priting on the cd itself) is how its suppose to be, the songs are not. The cd turned out to be a copy of entombed\'s wolverine blues instead. Not that i\'m dissapointed or anything, just a little confused. Do mistakes like this happen often, and would this cd be worth more because of it. From: berenpbj@aol.com

Answer: It's the first i've heard about this mispressing, it sounds like a weird one.As for its actual value, i think its possibly worth more as a mispressing to an avid collector than the regular CD, beleive it or not!These things are basically mistakes by the plant and are damn rare,and happen when the cd machine operator doesnt replace the art/on body at the same time as the master audio for a pressing next inline- so the next print run goes onto a different disc- until its noticed within 1-50 discs,and should be scrapped but some get through.Strangely such events are getting more common as our catalog gets larger.Recently i heard about a terrorizer cd containing opera music and years ago i think a Carcass contained Queen.try to buy them on ebay?You will need a lot of dosh!

I guess its an American pressing of the Napalm death FETO- because in USA all earche's titles are pressd at a single plant -Cinram- its an EMI owned plant,and presses all EMI catalog as well as earache's because our distro (Caroline) is an EMI owned distro.the possibilities of mispressings like the one you mention are higher than in Uk/Europe where we use about 4-5 different plants to make our cds.

We are waiting for a Napalm death CD to be pressed in small numbers containing The Beatles music..or a Beatles CD pressed with Morbid Angel's music by mistake--haha that would be priceless to Beatles collectors.

Is webstore secure?

Question: I noticed that Internet explorer does not show your site as secure. I would like to order some cds and have friends that i know would love to order, but we are hesitant to do so if we have to enter our credit card numbers on an insecure page. Can i mail order a different way? Or call in an order? Please let me know. From: theabatisofdaliana@yahoo.com


Answer: our webstore is a secure site and is encrypted, so you can order in confidence.

Nocturnus The Key out of print

Question: Do you ever intend to re-release The Key and Thresholds by Nocturnus? I know The Key is on iTunes, but I\'d rather give you my money for the actual CD than pay between $30 - $60 on Amazon.com From: oconnotron@gmail.com


Answer: The key was made available again a few years ago, for the first time in a decade, if you missed out on this Florida Death metal classic, then too bad. You are in luck with Thresholds though- its available right now from the Earache UK WEBSTORE

Early Earache bands NOT on CD

Question: Will you ever be issuing older earache tiles on CD such as Filthy Christians,Old Lady Drivers and Sore Throat. I\'ve wanted these on CD for a long time but never scene or heard of them issued on CD. From: anthonydesino@yahoo.com


Answer: beleive it or not, when Earache was a brand new fledgling label, in its early years late 80's operating outta my apartment, the CD format was a new deluxe luxury format, costing a lot of money to master and release, and sold hardly any copies compared to vinyl and casette, as most punk and metal fans did not then own a cd player.Thats why all the early Earache cds contain so many bonus tracks, even barely different mixes as was the case of the Morbid Angel debut on CD, as an incentive to shell out for this luxurious (at the time) format.

Filthy Christians was released on CD- but the other bands you mentioned did not warrant a CD release at the time, as expected sales were small.I think out of the classic run of first 21 mosh numbers, only mosh 3, 6, 8, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16,17, 18, 19, 20, 21 were debuted on CD.The rest did not, much to the annoyance of collectors later.

Napalm Death rare 7" "The Curse"

Question: i have a limited 7 \" record of napalm death with a naked kid running down a street with other kids as well trying to find info on it and finding out its worth has the songs the curse, musclehead, your achievment, dead, and morbid deceiver any help would be great From: cowlitzfan@netzero.net

Answer: this is probably the rarest Napalm death 7 inch vinyl ever made on Earache.It came out as a bonus free single with the original gatefold LP release of the second album by the band-1988's "From Enslavement To Obliteration".The curse is a slow dirgy number and is exclusive to this single, while the other 4 tracks are the extra tracks on the cd version.About 8000 from memory were made i think?The picture on the front is a classic image from Vietnam war- the kid has just been hit with a napalm bomb, and her flesh is in tatters and burning.Its a real,live napalm death.

John Zorn's Naked City Line up?

Question: I wonder if you can help me out regarding the actual line up of one of your bands
I was listening to a recording of a Naked City show a few years back and on it there was mike patton singing yet on the earache bio for them hes not listed, did mike join later or somthing and is this the only earache band hes been involved with? From:


Answer:Noted New York jazz- saxophonist John Zorn formed Naked City, as an rotating ensemble of accomplished and open minded musicians to explore the avant garde,to scale the outer reaches of music.Naked City recorded "Torture Garden" in 1991, a record at least a decade ahead of its time- it features 42 cuts of intense grindcore/jazz/country/you name it blasts with vocalist Yamatsuka Eye from japanese noise band The BOredoms.

John Zorn asked Earache to release it at the time on Vinyl LP and cassette MC only, saving the CD release for his friends label Shimmy Disk. It was also released by Toys factory in japan.

Mike Patton is not the vocalist on the Torture Garden recording,and he doesnt appear on any Earache release,sadly, but i guess he joined John Zorns ensemble after leaving faith No More and he has featured in many John Zorn projects since.

Industrial Strength Comp 2 x CD 1996

Question: Hello there,

I have only one question; how many pressings are there from the first Industrial
F**king Strength CD, CAT# MOSH150CDL?
Thank you,

Jerri. From: jerr80@hotmail.com

Answer: First UK pressing on release in 1996 came in cardboard sleeve, about 6000 copies. After that it was in 2 x cd plastic jewel box, approx 15,000 worldwide?In about year 2000 the title was deleted from the Earache catalog because it was licensed from Industrial strength and the license period ran out.

Earache PS2 game- now Feb 2007 release!

Question: I have been asking my local game shop to reserve me a copy of the Earache extreme racing game but now they say its not out on December 8th as your site says.I want to get it for a Christmas present so how can i buy it?
from: finalfantasygame344@gmail.com


Answer: Sorry but due to circumstances out of Earache's control the PS2 game is delayed till after xmas- we hear FEb 2007 release date now, which sucks if you planned to get it for xmas. Sorry, but it DOES EXIST! seee photos the final actual game in my hands here.

Earache DVD easter eggs?

Question: please can u tell me what the hidden tracks on the immortalised dvd are
thanx
paul From: paul.lynch@talktalk.net



Answer:that was answered here in January 06 blog.

Akercocke:Intractable clip- where is it?

Question: WHERE IS THE INTRACTABLE VIDEO FOR AKERCOCKE??? From: awny_mcprawny@yahoo.co.uk


Answer: It was filmed and completed but the label and band decided to shelve it due to substandard production values.Its unlikely to see the light of day because it just looks horrible, sorry.
Anyone who knows Akercocke knows they have a red-blooded, eager admiration for the female form, so on the release of the last album "Words That Go Unspoken.." the band fancied a concept video this time- it was to be a softcore porn movie-esque type of affair, with no band members in it, just girls in various state of undress.Not a bad idea in principle, but Earache could'nt see the point in it, having done a similar tho much much more hardcore-porn type clip for December Wolves some years before. No Tv stations can ever play it and we had to be careful about the legalities of even streaming such material from our website because nudity is strictly for over 18's, and there are laws to abide by, so the idea faded away.

Earlier this year by sheer chance a well-known Uk soft-porn director contacted us about using a band in a scene from his new movie.We jumped at the chance to resurrect the 'intractable' video clip idea, but with no nudity- so the band duly arrived at the soho strip club in london where they were filmed performing the song with a host of strippers gryrating around them.The photo above is from the shoot, and it looks visually ok, but for some reason the resulting video footage is quite amateurishly shot, sub-par, and not really usable.So thats why we shelved the clip.The filmed scene will no doubt appear in the porn movie sometime soon tho, so check your local adult shop, dodgy Uk porn section.

As an aside- Earache has shelved a few clips over the years because they are simply too substandard for showing, mostly cos of lame subject matter; The Haunted's 'Chasm' clip off their debut featured BMX riders wipeing out hard on concrete..Iron Monkey's clip is just ECW wrestlers..Massacres clip was too dark..Ultraviolence clip featured schoolkids headbanging to 'Paranoid', which looked shite.

Earache 90's techno Sub label- SUB BASS?

Question: I don\'t know if anyone has ever asked this, but what is the history behind Sub Bass records? Was it an actual Earache imprint, or just a distro deal? It seems like it came and went pretty quickly though. From: johnwalbridgeiv@yahoo.com


Answer: In the early 90's Sub Bass was the label where Earache released its non- metal titles, like Lawnmower deth's pop offshoot 'Six Yard Box' and manchester's heavy Industro- grind-sampling duo-'Mighty Force'..but within a short while in the UK a brand new style of street music was taking shape- Jungle Rave- (later named drum n bass)which was solely powered by the pirate radio stations and underground clubs and DJ's and MC's.It was a world away from the metal/grind scene Earache had spearheaded, but to my ears it was an genuinely exciting new form of music- cos it was literally quite alien from anything that had gone before, being mostly created by Black and Asian kids using drum loops on computers.Prodigy had broken the mainstream, but behind them was a whole underground of acts like Acen who were a stalwart on the pirate radio stations...

By sheer chance I came to know Steve Gurney who was Sound engineer for Cathedral, and his acid- techno act Larceny became the first proper Sub Bass release on 12", closely followed by Jungle Rave Dj's like DJ Senator,Fenetik, and the Belgium-esque Aciiid sounds of F.U.J.Famed BBC Radio DJ played a few of the records on his show which was cool, but the label itself was no more than a dalliance of mine, our efforts were still 100% on the metal acts, sub bass was side show.Out of the blue another UK rave techno label called Suburban base (Sub Base) issued us with a cease and desist order over use of the name, so Sub Bass was duly folded.

Looking back it was probably a precursor to the extreme hardcore techno/gabba sounds Earache released later in the decade like Industrial strength, Ultraviolence, DOA etc.

Earache xmas party 2006

Question: when is the Earache Christmas Party this year. What bands are playing and how can I get 2 tickets.From Mike.
From: geordiemetallica@gmail.com

Answer: Yeah its fast coming- better book 12 dec off work cos the Xmas Thrash bash is set for Monday 11th december at Junktion 7 in Nottingham.We have our new signing EVILE playing a set but the main club is actually regular monday extreme metal night@ junktion 7 called Overdrive, hence the £2 entry on the door. You dont need any tickets- just turn up!leave yer liver at the door..

Rarest Earache release? how many copies?

Question: Do you have a list of production runs for every Earache release? I am trying to compile a list of the rarest metal cd\'s, and was wondering if you keep track of this sort of thing.

Thanks!
M!ke From: entropy9203@earache.com


Answer: Hi mike- you can find a sort of complete-ish list of the pressings numbers and differnet versions of our releases on our CATALOG page on our website.You can see that many releases have had for instance a 1000 pressing on vinyl or picture disc.Some titles by our major bands have had weird events which made them rare- a good example is the first pressing of Carcass "choice cuts" which did not have "This Is your life" on it- limited to approx 70 copies or so that went out to journalists..that version was a promo disc which was pulled from circulation because of the onset of ken's serious illness in 1999.Later in 2004 it was issued with that extra track.

Earache "death metal special" VHS from the 90's

Question: Hi,
I have asked this question before but didnt recieve an answer, I am looking for the name of a VHS tape or maybe its been made a DVD now that had a bunch of Death Metal bands featured as a Death Metal band special, the first feature was on NAPALM DEATH and they had just released HARMONY CORRUPTION, There was a big special on the FLORIDA DEATH SCENE with interviews featuring Chuck from DEATH, CANCER, OBITUARY and also a Morrissound report as well. I can not find it anywhere and I think its because I am getting the name wrong. Can you help me out.?
Lee From: angry_mob2005@yahoo.com.au


Answer: yeah those bands were interviewed, along with me for a special episode of the early 90's metal documentary VHS series called'Hard n Heavy' - its now been repackaged by some enterprising fellows, renamed "Grindcore"with some truly awful artwork, and released on DVD on Universal.Earache has nothing to do with this by the way.BUT there is no florida scene report on this DVD- i think you might have to search for the actual hard n heavy original VHS, some of the original VHS are now released on DVD but mainly the ones featuring OZZy or Nirvana etc from that era.

Earache online reviews?

Question: WHere can I find some new reviews specifically on Exmortem, and Cult of Luna? The links page for some reason or another is down and I have checked out almost every webzine under the sun....Any new ones to look for Earache bands on? From: m3tal_ch1ck666@yahoo.com


Answer: we collect a lot of the reviews and features on our bands and place them online in our Press Archive. You can read all the reviews HERE if you hit last modified button twice it arranges the collection of reviews in newest order.

Earache Extreme Metal racing PS2 game- December 8th!!

Question: Hey guys, is Extreme Metal Racing being released in Australia? If so, when and where can I get it (if you know). Keep metal extreme guys! From:


Answer: Well after a few false starts -mainly cos Sony wanted to improve the load times of the game before it was released--its definately finally coming out just in time for xmas.Friday December 8th sees the release of PS2 game Earache Extreme Metal Racing in UK. You can order it for £14.99 delivered, from HMV online- they ship worldwide.Also check out the competitionto win it free along with a BC Rich guitar!

Municipal Waste album cover question?

Question: This might be a real dumb question but I\'m just curious to know this:

I have a copy of Municipal Waste\'s \"Hazardous Mutation\" but it\'s slightly different from the present day pics I see of the album cover. Mine has a yellow logo in the top middle of the cover while other versions have a red logo to the right top side. Any particular reason there are two existing album cover versions or am I just looking into the cover thing too much? From: davidaloca@gmail.com

Answer: the yellow logo cover is the only one we have released. the red logo image used on our website was an early mock up which the webmaster uses on the site whenever the album is referred to, but it was'nt released like that actually. Sorry for the confusion.

System Of A Down on Earache?

Question: Is it true that earache discovered System of a down, Hatebreed and Converge, as aparently their first big shows were supporting earache bands ( ok napalm death) did earache look into signing any of them after the event? From:

Answer: Yes this is partly true in the case of SOAD..Earache was the very first label to offer a record deal to System Of A Down..sounds unbeleivable now but its 100% true.Our good friend Dino of LA band Fear Factory dropped by the UK office with the demo of SOAD, produced by non other than ex-earache artist Alex Newport, and we loved what we heard, especially their political stance which was unheard of in the burgeoning LA nu-metal scene, they stood out in what was a mass of korn clone bands, or Sugar Ray type jokey acts, they had more intensity.

I immediately flew to LA to meet with the band and manager and the band were flattered that a UK label had taken a major interest in them, so we got close to signing offical contracts, but in the end the major labels began to make them offers nd they signed wit h Rick Rubin's American Recordings.Serge still to this day remembers that Earache was the first label to appreciate what they were about.

Any French bands on Earache?

Question: c\'mon now...you can\'t keep avoiding the FRENCH question...WHY WONT YOU SIGN FRENCH BANDS!!!!!!!!!!!!There\'s Psychobolia, Kaizen, Trepalium, Pitbulls in the Nursery, 7th Nemesis, Kronos, Inhumate, so much quality, what\'s up dude?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! From: jcarricaburu@hotmail.com


Answer:Thats a pretty stupid question- everyone knows we sign bands from all over the damn place,well, eveywhere except Germany and Japan.Yup- your theory is wrong cos we had french crazy-core band Carnival In Coal on the Elitist sub-label just last year.Why Earache has never signed a German band, i just dont know, it is pretty strange after all this time in business.
As for Psychobolia, thanks for the CD but it didnt grab us, sorry.

The NEW UK Indie Metal labels

Question: two questions for you guys

1) Is it true what some magazines have said in that the founding of the band to-mera is what killed elitist, because lee wanted to conectrate on being in a band again?

2) Out of the newer earache style uk indies visible noise, anticulture, in at the deep end and so on which one has impressed you the most, of those labels which one do you think will reach the status that earache is at now in a few years?
From:


Answer: Elitist was closed by Earache,mainly through our loss of confidence in the label due to underperforming sales, it was purely a business decision.We also stopped working with The Codebreaker and Willowtip as sub-labels for the same reasons.Some months earlier, Lee had founded To-mera with Julie Kiss and considered releasing it on Elitist but we declined.I guess To-mera is touring a lot now and seems to be going down well.
As for the new UK indie metal labels- Visible Noise is hands down the most impressive 'new' label in the UK, it sells more Cds than the rest of the labels you mention combined, and in the summer of 2006 had a UK number 1 album by Lostprophets, which is an unbeleivable acheivement for a truly Indie label,in any genre in fact, never mind Metal.VN is run by fabulous folks too, who genuinely look after their fans, hence 100% deserve the success they acheived.
The owners of Anticulture and In At The Deep End i have met a few times, and they too are committed to the Indie cause but do not have any massively succesful bands,not yet anyways, so can hardly be compared to VN.Steev from Anticulture has too wide a range of tastes i think, with acts ranging from Interlock to Gutworm or Miksha all sounding a bit too different to give the label an identity which it needs early on. In At The Deep End has Send More Paramedics who are a great band (epic double album coming next we hear!)and could be a huge success if the breaks go their way.

No Black Metal on Earache?

Question: Is there a specific reason that there were none, or a very minumum number of black metal bands signed to Earache records? I notice the only black metal band Earache obtained in sometime is Annal Nathrakh but that\'s about it I can see from the catalog of bands. Is it based on preference (maybe Earache isn\'t too fond of the black metal genre) or is it based on just the idea that Earache is soley for death metal and grindcore? I believe I read that somewhere once... From: davidaloca@gmail.com

Answer: Yes you are right, there is precious little Black Metal on the Earache label catalog,sure, its deliberate, and its for a variety of reasons.When Black Metal began to break out of Norway, in the early 90's, Earache at the time was enjoying its golden period..we had acts like Entombed appear at number 3 in the Swedish National sales charts for instance, and our Grindcore and Death Metal acts like Napalm Death & Morbid Angel were selling well.I wouldnt say we looked down on the new BM scene but our acts certainly did- due to pure arrogance,bands like Entombed would just laugh at the shambolic playing, the non-existant production of the early recordings, and the 'panda' make up and DIY spike armbands that did admittedly make the early BM acts look and sound kinda cheesy.Little did they know it would usurp them in popularity within a few years.

The world exteme music scene was damn tiny in late 80's so naturally I had known Euronymous, I sold Mayhem's first LP Deathcrush for him in the uk, when I had a mailorder, plus I met him in Oslo on tour with Napalm Death, he was a cool guy who worshipped, and looked a bit like, Cronos from Venom- he seemed to be involved in a cool growing scene in Oslo that was keeping the flame alive to true satanic metal,a style which had died out everywhere else.Later he named the catalog numbers of his newly formed label Deathlike Silence "Anti Mosh" which was a blatant jibe at Earache's then runaway success,so our friendship immediately cooled a lot after that, as was our interest in BM, because it seemed to be anti-us!

Earache was also put off getting involved by the fact that many of my UK friends had formed new fledgling labels to sign the first wave of BM bands and we didnt want to rock the boat of such new start-up labels- Neil(Nihil) started Cacophonous to release Dimmu Borgir and Cradle of Filth,Lee Barrett (tho I didn't know him then) had formed Candlelight to sign Emperor, Hammy at Peaceville had signed Darkthrone (via Deaf records).Earache did not want to encroach on those labels.

However,it was obvious in 1992 or so, we had to sign one of the new Norwegian BM acts tho - and frankly, The ONLY band which Earache wanted to sign was Burzum, because they stood out musically and seemed to offer something very different to the rest.Varg was very interested, so he flew into the UK for a meeting at our Nottingham offices, and a deal was struck, but we had problems with his right wing racist views, so quietly backed out of the deal.You can read that story here in Julys blog.

So for various reasons Earache ended up with NO black metal bands during the 90's.