Earache- the good ol' early days (Part 2,876)

Question: I have a question that was inspired by an answer you gave to one of the questions, Why do you think people cling to the old days of earache as opposed to concentrating on the new stuff. My personal theory is that people get a nostalgic feeling when they listen to old earache in that they know the guys tried to achieve alot with the little and basic equipment they had i mean justin broadrick used to build gear in his shed from what i read in an article.another reason is because during the 80s and 1990s earache was really the only label other than peaceville having the sort of bands that existed on the label at the time
im interested to hear your opinions on this From: Unknown.

Answer: Yeah, looking back, its what 20 years ago now- Earache's early era was explosive and was the fireball that the late 80's-90's metal scene badly needed-you gotta remember the metal scene back then was dominated by mega-selling-but-dire Glam bands, (Def Leppard anyone?) meanwhile we prefered a selection of excellent DIY politico-hardcore bands (Discharge,Disorder,Minor Threat, DRI, LARM etc) who were highly regarded, but who lacked the ambition to break out of the safety of the tightly-knit HC scene, and of course the big 4 Thrash bands too-Slayer and Metallica and even Death had all begun to make serious waves with their debuts, influencing the direction of metal music back towards the heavier end of the spectrum.

Earache's style was a Frankenstein-esque hybrid of all that- a mixture of the most crushing downtuned metal riffs allied to blistering punk/HC drumspeeds, with vocals sung thru the garbage disposal- the whole package was released with OTT artwork, for added extremity.We were literally the first label to do this which such singleminded purpose-so, naturally our stable of acts caught the attention of much wider media not connected to the metal scene, people like the revered DJ John Peel played us constantly on the radio,and the UK's NME music paper even covered Earache's acts,and highly regarded Jazz saxophonist John Zorn helped promote Napalm Death by personally arranging thier debut stateside show too. All those folks embraced the early MOSH catalog, and the effect snowballed until even the average joe in the street became aware of the extreme sounds of the bands coming outta our little office in Nottingham.

The words 'extreme' and 'music' were hardly used together until Earache made it the labels aim to release 'Extreme Music'.We also coined the term Grindcore- that word first appeared in printed form on the sleeve of our 1989 "Grindcrusher" LP.Excess was always an admired attribute in metal but no other label seemed to revel so single-mindedly in making excessive volume, speed and unlistenable noise its whole core and ethos, with no exceptions.

I think fans soon realised Earache's bands really were truly pushing the envelope as far as they could, and i'm certain the fans could relate to that struggle, and supported it for that reason.As Albert Mudrian correctly points out in his magnificent book "Choosing Death" which accurately recounts the birth of the Extreme Metal scene,Earache and its choice of early acts were the catalyst and blueprint for a good percentage of the myriad Extreme Music 'scenes' that exist today, with the notable exceptions of Black Metal and Gothic Metal which we-stupidly, in hindsight-ignored. (Peaceville's Paradise Lost kick-started the latter, after they turned down our offer of a contract)

As for the present set of Earache bands.... we think Akercocke, Decapitated, Mortiis, Municipal Waste, Anata, Ephel Duath,Cult Of Luna, the Berzerker, Biomechanical, et al, all stand up to whatever has gone before.They are all putting their own original stamp on extremity in music in 2006- thats exactly why we signed em..Earache does'nt peddle 20+ variations of Carcass clones or 3rd rate At The Gates wannabees in its catalog- we stick with the originals who were - and those that currently are-the first and the best.

Jap Grind Legends SOB on Earache?

Question: Why did Earche not release SOB with Napalm Death split? Rise Above Records released the Japanese grind legends instead. From: Russcore@hotmail.com

Answer: Errr thats a good question Russ..but why do so many of you folks out there on the inter-web want to know historical facts about Earache and its old bands?- don't any of you care about our current acts?Hmmm.
Anyways-I loved Japanese HC back in the day..getting hold of the hella obscure and totally OTT extreme Japanese HC records was part of the record collecting fun.I did my bit to expose Japanese HC bands to a world audience-The early pre-earache flexis i released DIY style included bands like Lipcream and Execute on them..but when we heard SOB's "Leave Me Alone" 7inch they literally blew the roof off everything. SOB arranged the very first tour in Japan for Napalm Death in 1990, and both acts became good friends, Lee especially had a good friendship with SOB's singer Tottsuan.When Lee started his Rise Above Records he did a Napalm Death/SOB split 7inch.For some reason- maybe out of respect for and not rocking Lee's new label boat,Earache didnt really think about doing SOB.Tragically, years later, Tottsuan commited suicide by jumping under a train.

Clutch EP's on Earache?

Question: what happened with earache\'s relationship with clutch were the cds under lisence or were they actually signed to you, is just that two eps five years apart and knowing clutch\'s work schedule it looks off on paper From:

Answer: Yeah, I suppose it looks odd that we have 2 Clutch EP's in Earache's catalog from as you say, 1992 and 1997. The original 92 Passive Restraints 3 track EP was actually deleted to be re-issued with the addition of 2 more tracks( taken from long outta print 'Naive' comp) to form the expanded 5 trk Impetus EP in 97.

Clutch were discovered by Earache's USA A&R man Jim Welch after their debut DIY hardcore 7 inch, and were due to sign to Earache in 1992, hence contributed 2 early songs to our Compilation LP 'Naive' (Sleep also appeared on that now exceedingly hard-to-find comp), but the lawyer we encouraged the band to seek advice from became their manager instead, and promptly took them to East/West, leaving us high and dry.However,as was the custom at the time, Majors often sought to grow an underground fanbase before launching an act to the Rock/radio mainstream, so it was decided since Earache was already sort-of working with Clutch, a useful indie level fanbase-building tool would be to do the introductory Clutch EP 'Passive Restraints' on Earache.Earache introduced the band to the world via that EP, designed solely to build the bands fanbase for East/West. Clutch soon changed style to more of a Stoner Rock vibe, and as planned, went on to forge a lengthy, highly successful career -later moving to Atlantic, then Columbia and several other Major and Indie labels along the way to the present day.Clutch's singer Neil Fallon has often questioned in public why Earache never pays them any royalties for that debut EP.After a particularly vicious outburst a few years back I invited him to drop by the office to seek an explanation directly, whereupon I recited to him the above history lesson. Namely,- that Earache never had any obligations to Clutch at all- our 'copyrights' pre-dated their Major label recordings and are a result of a side-deal struck between East/West and Earache designed to benefit Clutch's long term career, but did not actually involve them.

Deicide- The Stench Of Redemption tracklist.

 Question: Hey, do you know when the art/song titles/mp3 will be revealed for Stench of Redemption? from: Aaron
Answer:
The Stench Of Redemption
Death To Jesus
Desecration
Homage For Satan
Never To Be Seen Again
The Lord's Sedition
Walk With The Devil In Dreams You Behold
Crucified For The Innocence
Not Of This Earth

+ Bonus Track -Black Night    (Deep Purple cover)

Conflict on Earache?

Question: i heard somwhere that a long time ago earache tried to sign legendary punk/hardcore band conflict is this true? also did you really try to sign the refused when they were between labels? From:

Answer: Nah thats not true..i've never been that much into Conflict tho many of the other UK anarcho bands were my total faves.Earache was'nt going when they were in their heyday and later on I think they have formed thier own label- Mortarhate which has been very successful for them.As for refused- Nah again.We were aware that they were an important band, but chances to sign them never came up.

Faint Pulse on myspace

Question: um i was asking if u kan check out our muisk on myspace its myspace/faintpulse and tell us what you think it\'s not well recorded but i think we could do good thanx(luis)frm.faint pulse From: bloom_1_er@ayoo.com

Answr: well I checked out your myspace page and I wasn't too impressed dude, sorry. I could do a whole Pop Idol type discussion and breakdown of the pros and cons of your band and how i think you should improve to get signed with ya if you want? But for now- i can say its too early in your career to be thinking about getting signed to any label.Good luck with the band and so long as you enjoy making music and interacting with fans, thats great, i wish you the best of luck.

Most influential HC band to early earache era?

Question: Who was the most important hardcore band to the Early Earache era ? Seige? Septic Death or Larm? where can i get their cds? From: pusfan666@hotmail.com

Answer: That might be Discharge or D.R.I mate- and Venom in the early 80's.I can say they all influenced me to release everything that came afterwards on the Earache label....Dirty Rotten Imbeciles' first 'Dirty Rotten' 7 Inch in 1982 was mindblowingly super speedy hardcore, with 22-count em- tracks on it- it set the standard for extremely short, fast hard hitting songs.Not forgetting the Swedish HC bands Mob 47 & their offshoot band Protes Bengt who set the benchmark too, for sheer number of songs on a 7 inch- it was maybe 32+, i cant recall.Incredible stuff.Septic Death was lead by Pushead who was a notable USA scenester who loved his fast music and helped me/Earache enormously in the early years with amazing support.In later years he would design T-Shirts for Metallica. Other mid 80's UK notables who lead the way for music to descend into the utter chaotic noise we all love, have got to be Disorder and Chaos UK.Not forgettting Deep Wound and The Neos.

Napalm Death's whirlwind drummer Mick Harris would wear a homemade cap with Boston's SEIGE on it and a home made T-shirt with Holland's LARM. Major influences both.Those bands' early demo tapes reached the Earache crew and undoubtedly influenced Napalm Death and Heresy etc to go even more berserk and mental writing ever faster/shorter songs..Grindcore as demonstrated on the A-side of Scum is basically a mix of Seige-type blast beat and Celtic Frost slow riff, in one song.Other notable speedy bands were Kansan Uutiset and Bostons Impact Unit(featuring later Mighty Mighty Bosstones singer Dicky Barrett and Negative FX (featuring Choke from later band Slapshot). Good luck finding them, most of the original vinyls are long sold out but Cd comps are available i think.

Mortiis remix album?

Question: Whats your status on the release of the Mortiis remix disc? From: Unknown

Answer: We have been given no remixed tracks or any material from Mortiis to release, tho a proposed remix album has been discussed with him.. Mortiis himself came up with the idea and it is Mortiis who is commissioning the remixes....we think Gothminster has done one and maybe some other creative talents in electronic/ambient music who Mortiis rates- as you can see we are a little in the dark about it...possibly Rhys Fulber might make a mix too, he is currently slated to produce the next Mortiis album.We guess that the majority of the tracks receiving the remix treatment will be from 'The Grudge' album.

Lost Fudge Tunnel material on Earache?

Question: alex newport said in an interview that he has some unreleased fudge tunnel material left over if and when this is released will this likely to be on earache From: Unknown.

Answer: thats doubtful cos no one has mentioned the word Fudge Tunnel round here for about a decade.There appears to be no interest in that band since they split...where a lot of Earache's older bands garner new followings as each generation of extreme metallers discovers the 'classics', I'm afraid the passage of time has not looked upon their creative output kindly.I guess they must have some fans like yourself, otherwise why would you bother asking- but sadly its not enough to warrant any release.

Earache Extreme Metal Racing PS2 Game in USA?

Question: Please tell me that your video game is coming out in the U.S. A game with a sound track I would actually listen to? What are the odds? From: rhinofrench@yahoo.com

Answer: Its really quite likely you'll see the PS2 Game onsale in USA Game stores this summer.The UK based developers are attending the E3 expo in LA next week to meet with potential licensees for the game in USA.They seem hopeful that a USA release will come about- so watch this space for news of Earache Extreme Metal Racing for PlayStation 2 in USA. Earache fans will be blown away with the soundtrack when they play it..The game features about 50+ tracks from all the well known Earache bands as well as dozens of video clips and even unreleased songs and bonus never before seen videos as you progress thru the higher levels of the game too.It's still set for a July 7th street date in UK/Europe.

Anaal Nathrakh -on Earache?

Question: have earache recently signed Anaal Nathrakh properly or somthing as you never had a bio for them before just their cds under license From: Unknown.

Answer: Anaal Nathrakh have 2 albums just re-issued by Earache (for the world outside EU) with many extra bonus tracks taken from their Peel sessions, issued under licence from original label, Mordgrimm.The band currently remain actually signed to Seasons Of Mist.We are proud to be associated with this most extreme of extreme bands and so naturally plonked their bio and info page on the site.
I say naturally, because the members of AN are also in Mistress, who are actually signed up to Earache proper, so it seemed obvious that we get involved in their AN project to some extent. Mick and Dave do- quite rightly -keep the 2 bands seperate, as they are 2 completely different animals, and sound totally different, with a different line up and band ethos.

Eternal Damnation calling!!

Question: Hey whats up guys? My name is Rico and im a drummer for a Melodic Death Metal band from Laredo Texas called \"Eternal Damnation\". We get alot of our influence from a couple of bands in your lable such as: At The Gates, Decapitated, Deicide, and Carcass. As for bands not in your lable it would be: The Black Dahlia Murder, Vehemence, Graveworm, The Absence, Vital Remains, and Opeth. Im also guitarist for another Melodic Death Metal band called \"Constantine\", we also have simmilar influnces from these bands but a much more different sound. The question I wanted to know was what are you looking for in a band to make it into your lable? We hope to someday be signed with you guys and soon begin playing under your lable. Write back soon. From: stitches_rico@hotmail.com

Answer: Great stuff Rico . Sounds like your band could be killer judging from your impeccable taste in metal...but having good influences is only half the story.We are looking to sign original, talented, creative, driven, hard working, networked, fan friendly bands at all times- esp ones who will lead a new wave of metal into the future..its easier said than done believe me.For every signed band there's 50+ who don't make it- the hard work involved soon weeds out the bullshitters/wannabees / pussies and quitters. ..My advice to any band to 100% guarantee being signed is: achieve 100,000+ profile views on your myspace page- then watch the label offers roll in.It might take a few years and a few demos,,but i swear, this is a foolproof way to get signed..because you will have shown your ability to build a fanbase,making the labels job easier.Good luck.

Earache staffers at Nottm gigs

Question: i wonder if you can answer this one as its more to do with my own personal curiosity did earache attempt to sign any of the following bands sikth, eden maine, johnny truant, taint (uk) and black eye riot the reason why i am asking is because ive seen people who i know are earache staffers hanging out at their shows in nottingham From: Unknown.

Answer: yeah- well spotted mate .Earache staffers live and breathe music- so we turn up everywhere where quality music is played in Nottingham.Its our home town, and the HQ of the label, so after a hard days work in the office, we more or less live in the pubs and clubs checking new bands. (If you are in New York you'll see our USA staffers at every show there too).If you spot any of us in the old angel or rock city or junktion 7 (ok even the bloody rescue rooms/social sometimes too)-buy us a drink- we don't bite! But yeah we have seen all those bands you mention at their Nottm shows-sometimes at their debut Nottm gig-but it doesnt mean we are actively trying to sign them, more like merely checking em out cos like everyone else we have opinions on most bands- some we like, some we think are shite....I can state that none of the above bands have had an official approach to sign to Earache, but we considered them all - Sikth are an office fave-but not enough to make offers.An interesting fact is that Dorian from Black Eye Riot used to do work experience at the Earache office.

Earache acapella/instrumental releases?

Question: Hey there Earache, I just wondered if the label\'s ever thought about releasing tracks in fragmented formats (EG: Acapellas, Instrumentals, Solo Instrument Backing Tracks) so fans and other artists could have a go at remixing them? I\'m sure there are plenty of budding musicians who would benifit from layering their own guitars/bass/drums/vocals over an existing track for practice, as well as producers and DJs who could remix tracks into their own unique sound. From: gabber_foxx@yahoo.co.uk

Answer: Earache's never really thought about actually releasing stuff broken up into individual instruments like that, even tho I am a big fan of so-called mash-ups etc. but check this out!!--some enterprising guy has already taken earache music to new mash up extremes! read about it here
Hear some crazy earache mash ups here

Bands we release tend to be mostly live, gigging, metal bands, many of whom dont embrace any kinda remix culture themselves.A few years back we did have an amazing offer from a japanese company to release karaoke versions of some Earache tracks - i thought it would be jolly good fun to hear drunken japanese salarymen trying to shout "auuuuugh" in time to Brutal Truth or Napalm Death in downtown Tokyo karaoke bars, but after we stopped laughing at the prospect, we declined the offer.

Morbid Angel Best of= BOOTLEG!

Question: hailz!
after reading one of the following \"ask earache\" segments about entombeds wolverine blues album and why both you and morbid angel parted ways it dawned on me when that a little while ago i saw ane last MA title in your catalog,ignonamos i beleive it was called from recollection,and it was a 2 disc best of in the vein of napalm deaths \'noise for musics sake\',since then ive noticed its been removed,i was just wondering if theres still plans to release this album and/or mosh299 which is just classified as a morbid angel dvd??
(p.s,also i was wondering why the release of carcass\'s choice cut was delayed by 8 years?(due in september \'96 under the name of \"dead,and buried\" i beleive)
anyway,cheers for all especially the almost 20 years of great releases,keep it comin\'!
From: thatweirdlookingguy@hotmail.com

Answer: Fuck- well spotted matey- it annoys the hell out of us and the band- that Morbid Angel fake "i" album is a complete fabrication and has been presumably compiled and released by some enterprising and soon-to-have-their-ass-sued bastard bootlegers. Avoid like the plague..The band and Earache have nothing to do with it.. they even have the audacity to include an Earache logo and give it a mosh number. The bands manager even suspected us of releasing it,cos it looked so convincing, plus, it was very embarrasing, as we were discussing that very same topic with the bands manager at the time but we had firmed up no actual concrete plans.The body of work Morbid have amassed on Earache is vast and we all agree it is begging for a 'best of 2 x CD' compilation at some stage, when band and label are good and ready, but that album IS NOT IT!

The title of the next "i" album by Morbid Angel is a closely guarded secret known only to Trey and presumably, the band.A stand alone Morbid Angel DVD was planned but the band felt it more appropriate to release 1989 era footage with the album it was recorded with, as for ease of royalty accounting purposes, they like to keep the Vincent era separate from the Tucker era - and totally separate from the Browning era-..hence the Dual Disc(CD+DVD on one disc)of Altars of Madness.


As for Carcass- yes, Earache was working on a simple 1x CD 'best of Carcass' comp in 1998 or so- without the bands involvement, as they had been split up for ages, and the ex-members seemingly had no interest in promoting Carcass any longer..our working title was "Dead and Buried" which made it onto some websites including our own..I think Jeff Walker kindly offered the alternative title 'Choice Cuts', which is much better anyway...so it was due to come out like that and some early "Choice Cuts" promo cds ( we estimate 50 max) were mailed to press...then totally unexpectedly in Feb 1999 drummer Ken Owen suffered a brain hemorrhage while at home, which put him into a coma for 6 months and left him severly disabled. All plans for that album were shelved indefinatley out of respect for Ken's critical health situation, which was the correct thing to do we felt.

5 years later Ken's health had improved somewhat- tho still disabled, he walked into our office, albeit with the aid of a walking stick- to discuss the final release of the long-delayed "Choice Cuts " album.The album was released on May 17 2004 with an extra track which Ken particularly liked. A exclusive interview with Carcass discussing these events can be read here.

Decapitated- 10/10 review!

Question: Hi there!

Just wanted to let you know, the review for your album on "The Metal Observer" is now online!

Decapitated - Organic Hallucinosis:
http://www.metal-observer.com/articles.php?lid=1&sid=1&id=9787

from : Val

Answer: THATS GREAT THANKS!!

Entombed-W. Blues & Morbid -Earache split

Question: Hi, I bought a copy of Wolverine Blues by Entombed way back when it first came out. During a period of acute poverty in my early twenties I was forced to sell it (along with a bunch of other stuff). After more than a decade I have just got round to buying myself a replacement copy and I am pretty sure there were a couple of samples in the original version of the album that appear to have been edited out in this version. One was right at start and another \'wake up you little shit...\' from the movie Flatliners I think cropped in in Rotten Soil.
I am going senile or is this some kind of sample clearance issue?
Thanks and keep up the good work.
p.s. Any chance of telling me why you parted ways with Morbid Angel??!! From: Stuart.Bell@scotland.gsi.gov.uk


Answer: You have a good memory Stuart- so no sign of senility yet! The original Wolverine Blues recording as delivered to us by the band at the time in 1993 did have a healthy sprinkling of movie samples (usually speech), and I think the promo Cd did contain the unedited album (itself a collectors item as it also contans a still unreleased bonus track),as maybe even did the first pressing of Wolverine Blues to retail stores in UK.It sort of dawned on us- probably prompted by the fact that a major record co- Columbia -was to release Wolverine Blues in USA, that the use of such samples is pretty much illegal, without the express permission of the holders in the copyright in the recordings sampled.The band were oblivious to such legalities and were quite upset when we made them remove the offending samples from the album, though we probably extended their career by such intervention.
We did try to legally 'clear' the samples but using speech from major motion pictures is so hard to get permission for- it entails the agreement of the actor/ producer/director/film studio/ distributor its kinda ridiculous to even try.One notable exception was some of the speech/effects from the film Hellraiser- where we did secure clearance, as it was an independent film at the time, and quite simple to get an oK from.

As for Morbid Angel- well I signed them in 1989 and everything they have ever recorded in their career is released on Earache, our discography encompasses the landmark early classics the A-B-C-D albums, but by the later era ones E-F-G-H sales had kinda become disappointing, also some big dramas were happening within the camp, the later era vocalist Steve Tucker had recently quit, the band was deemed in disarray somewhat, and so in 2005 we decided to decline to pick up the next - "I" - album and thus parted ways with the band, on fairly friendly terms I must add.In a super ironic twist, original vocalist David Vincent was announced as rejoining the fold on the same day we ended our deal with Morbid Angel -it didnt make us change our mind, even tho it was best thing the band could have done.

I doubt many acts can boast 16 years on one label (they signed and re-signed 3 contracts during that time), but dealing with any band on a daily basis for like 16 years is a trying experience I can tell ya- all the daily dramas and subtle tensions can add up over time, and similarly the band had pretty much grown tired of Earache a little bit also I expect, cos some other, newer labels were having the massive success Earache and Morbid had enjoyed in the early 90's and the big sales numbers were taking place in other less extreme metal genres..anyways, things move on and some times both sides know its time for a fresh approach.Thats more or less the actual reason we parted, sorry theres nothing more juicy to report....

We at Earache note they have yet to sign a new record deal, but we will watch their future career closely and wish them the very best of success.Earache is still proud to boast we are to date the only label to ever release anything by Morbid Angel (Giant records in USA aside).

At The Gates- Dual Disk?

Question: What is up with the At The Gates Dual disk release? when is it released, what is on it?
from :Terry

Answer: Its taking shape now, for release in about June, we have 6 hours of interview footage to edit to about a 30-40 minute documentary about the album, which will form the DVD side of the re-issue of this legendary CD- there are some amazing anecdotes and stories being told on this DVD-- ATG fans will love it!

Mortiis- not on Earache any more?

Question: Hi - I interviewed Mortiis last Friday in Bergen, Norway for a student newspaper. He told me that they have cut out Earache. Is this correct? If so, could you comment this? From: ktgulden@hotmail.com

Answer: yes, its true- Mortiis signed with Earache in 1999 to a 3-album deal,we released The Stargate 1999,The Smell Of Rain 2001, and 2004's the Grudge which marked the finishing of his commitment to Earache, and also the end of Earache's commitment to Mortiis.When we signed him he was making solo Dark Dungeon music and when he left us he was almost a Top 40 Act in UK.Right now, Mortiis remains a free agent and unsigned to any label.Tho we have co-operated together on the re-issue of the 3 Era-1 albums on CD with original artwork/expanded liner notes/slipcases etc- due out 24 april.

Naturally, Earache is in talks with Mortiis about signing a record new deal, as we love to sign creative and driven artists, we actually like what he does musically, and can see a splendidly successful long-term career developing for Mortiis- regardless of whatever label he signs to next..so, watch this space- he might be back!

Indie Store list to get COL 7inch from?

Question: Hi there. Having a bit of trouble with the Earache web site. I\'m trying to find out which stores near Birmignham will be stocking the free 7\" with the new Cult of Luna album on the 24th of this month, but the map doesn\'t give any info about the stores, just vague locations indicated by icons on the map which simply reload the page when clicked. From: robin@dps-int.com

Answer: yeah - i prodded the webmaster from his slumber and asked him what was up with the flashing red dots on the map..the name/town of each store was meant to show up if you hold your mouse over the red dot for a coupla seconds..it wasnt working tho.. now we have replaced the interactive map with a simple list... look at it NOW