Carcass on Red Dwarf/Earache on the BBC

Question: I got a few questions relating to earache\'s relationship with the BBC and mainstream Media in general.
How on earth did carcass end up playing as craig charle\'s backing band in the red dwarf episode \"timeslides\" i belive its called?
Also who was the first earache band to do a peel session i belive its Extreme Noise Terror am i correct? Also relating to ENT how did their brit awards collaberation a few years back come about? From:

Answer:Yeah - you are damn right! Looking back its fairly unreal that what was a self-run, dirt-poor, start up DIY label operating outta my apartment in Nottingham,releasing what was basically unlistenable noise,managed to garner an unprecedented amount of mainstream media coverage on the BBC Radio and TV and NME magazine for so many bands. Two words- JOHN PEEL.Now he's sadly passed away, and music in the uk has sorely missed his presence- no one comes close to the impact he made by supporting new bands.


Hats off to the bloke- he 'got' what Earache was all about, immediately, and almost telepathically, he warmed to the burgeoning Earache Grindcore sound as it was taking shape, and his active support by giving Peel radio sessions to our acts (about half of Earache's first 10 bands recorded Peel sessions, the first being Heresy), actually helped shape how the scene turned out.John Peel described what turned him onto the extreme music scene in general in his foreword to the excellent book "Choosing Death" by Albert Mudrian,which chronicles the Earache-led birth of the worldwide extreme metal and grindcore scenes.

John Peel's support naturally gave the scene a veneer of credibility, and it kinda snowballed into other media- mainstream music mag NME placed Napalm Death on the cover, and UK TV shows like Snub TV and Whats That Noise?(Craig Charles was the presenter) began to request Napalm Death on the show,as well as the infamous BBC Arena-series documentary called 'Heavy Metal.It seems ridiculous now, but yes, Grindcore was the talk of the A-list Uk media dahlings for a while around 1988.We never asked them why - but in the Uk, a genuinely new, intelligent,unpretentious, raucous, street-level musical movement, which actually was popular with fans, was staring them in the face.

There was one early gig in London, at the Marquee I think-where as well as John Peel,the backstage fans included Vic Reeves and Craig Charles, both young up-n-coming stand up comedians at the time, but now both mega-successful TV personalities. Noted NYC jazz saxophonist John Zorn also came and supported Napalm Death and the scene in general, helping spread the word in USA.
Craig personally requested Carcass to appear the Red Dwarf show- i imagine because of his Liverpool roots, as some of the members of Carcass were from the well-heeled village of Heswall,in the Wirral,outer Liverpool.Heswall was also John Peel's birthplace, i expect he related to Carcass for that reason also.


Extreme Noise Terror were not actualy signed to Earache when recording Peel sessions-but again, a quirk of geography helped their case.Like other peel faves The Stupids(who arguably were the main band that got Peel into the Uk hardcore scene) ENT hailed from Ipswich is a small town in Norfolk close to where John Peel lived, and he seemingly went out of his way to support his local bands.
The KLF - a big selling UK band of the time, famous for anarchic media stunts,became friendly with ENT and actually recorded an album of grindcore together with them called "the Black Room"- but shelved it before release.When the KLf were asked to perform at the annual Brit awards show, around 1992 or so, broadcast on primetime TV, they played with ENT onstage with them.

Earache DVDs- the Intro music?

Question: Hi,

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

Steve From: stevejwallace84@aol.com


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

Earache and Rise Above Records?

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

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

Deicide- 9 or 10 track CD?

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

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

No Electronic Artists on Earache anymore?

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

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

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

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

Sweet Tooth- Mosh 26 explained

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

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

Godflesh -'Tiny Tears' 12inch?

Question: Another Godflesh related question...

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

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

Artist looking for metal design work!

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

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

Cannibal and Desecration- how come not on Earache?

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

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

December Wolves- what happened?

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

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

EEMR PlayStation 2 game- how to get it!

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

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

Heresy + Concrete Sox split LP ?

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

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

Dig & Lars Metallica?

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

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

Earache Extreme Metal Racing PS2 Game-order it now!

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


Answer : its available for pre-order NOW from Amazon

Justin Broadrick to join NIN?

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


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

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

Bolt Thrower- Realm OF Chaos

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


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

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

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

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

Getting Signed TO EARACHE (part 2,139)

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


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

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

Mosh 100

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

Thanks. From: s.mccormick74@ntlworld.com

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

Alex Newport - Nailbomb

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

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


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

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

Nocturnus- Ahead of their time?

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


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

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

Deicide- See Video for 'Homage For Satan'

Question: A while back on the site was news about the new Deicide video. Is it done yet and when can i see it online or on tv?
from Deifan666@hotmail.com

Answer: try pointing yer browser here. Its as Real Player, Quicktime and Windows Media formats.

Songs on Myspace.com?

Question: I heard rumour that if you post your songs on myspace.com, they now have the rights to it. Is this true? From: c.t.jones@hotmail.com

Answer: They have the rights to stream the music you upload i think, and then they lose that right when you delete the song.So it appears at first glance, pretty much fair and quite artists friendly.As Rupert Murdoch now owns Myspace.com, whose News International Group also owns many media/news/tv outlets across the globe, including the Sunday Times, The Sun, Fox News, SKY TV and many more, then i guess it comes down to wether you trust him with your music.

Earache & Sub Pop?

Question: I read in a book about the history of the sub pop label that during the early 90s earache negotiated a licensing agreement with them that failed to come off is this true and what bands were you after, i mean earth on earache would have been amazing From:

Answer: Nah it was'nt Earth- for some reason i never rated that band. Too boring and drone-y and one dimensional, listening to Earth is like listening to wallpaper or something.The band we wanted to licence was none other than --Nirvana, it was the only Sub Pop band I actually liked, the brilliant debut LP Bleach was constantly on my walkman because they had a certain intensity sadly lacking from the other more mellow Sub Pop acts.You gotta imagine, at the time, they were merely a promising up n coming Seattle alternative rock band on an up n coming US indie label.Earache was leading the way in the extreme metal scene in UK and Europe,and as far as i could tell, Nirvana fitted the bill as the next wave of extreme music,so we offered to license the next Nirvana album from Sub Pop, which would have been "Nevermind".But events got outta hand, and the major label "DGC/Geffen' bought the band out of its Sub Pop contract, Earache never had a chance to get involved at that stage, and the rest is history.
I got to hear the band very early on, and first hand, from Gary Held, the owner of Tupelo which was the tiny label in Uk which licensed "Bleach" from Sub Pop in the first place, and it was he( and the staff of Vital distribution) who was responsible for pretty much making Nirvana a big selling rock band in the UK.

Where IS Earache located?

Question: Where are you guys located? Are you in the USA or over seas. From: Lish2124@yahoo.com

Answer: We are located in mid-town Manhattan, NYC, USA- 38th Street midway between 5th and 6th Ave,above the "couture" shop to be exact see photo- and at Westminster Buildings photo in the city centre of Nottingham, England-which is actually where the label was founded, and acts as the main head office . A full list of contact adresses and email addys of the staff- can be found here.Our website acts for both offices but is hosted on servers in Miami,Florida and our webmaster is based near Derby, which is close by Nottingham, in England.

Heresy/Concrete Sox?

Question: trying to locate a copy of heresy/concrete sox split lp from way back .... any advice? available on cd? planning a re-release?
tar
steve From: stefgp@hotmail.com

Answer: The split LP from Heresy and Concrete Sox was only released on Vinyl by Earache. Mosh 2, it was Earache's first proper release it did all by itself in 1987 (Mosh 1 Accused was a co-release with Bristol's COR records).There has never been a CD of it, as it was not a favoured format at that time- Vinyl was still king then dude!You'll have to try ebay to get it nowadays...being our first 'proper' release it has an extra value to collectors.
Heresy had a later release on Cd called 'never slit thanks" licensed by Earache to toys factory in japan, around say 1992 or so. Sadly, Concrete Sox's side of the split LP has never been re-issued by Earache on anything because the band had split up by the 90's -and there is not much demand for them, 16 years later, as far as we can tell.

Adema "Planets" tracklisting Euro vs USA

Question: Hi, I´ve just bought Adema´s Planets and discovered that there are two songs missing on my european copy. Why is that?
Kind regards,
Thomas From: t.roth.chello.se

Answer: The UK/European version of Planets does indeed have less tracks than the USA version...the Metallica cover song is only included on the USA version as thats the only place we got a license to include it.The 'missing' songs are available in Europe on the b-side of the Tornado single however.

Missing mosh numbers in our Catalog?

Question: When looking at the \"catalog\" section of the Earache.com site, I noticed that there are several catalog numbers that are missing. I know that the second Sore Throat album waqs never released, but a lot of the \"missing\" catalog numbers corespond to some of the late 90\'s gabba releases. Why are these releases not even acknowledged anymore? From: johnwalbridgeiv@yahoo.com

Answer: Yeah- well spotted John.Out of the first 250 Mosh numbers in our catalog I see about 15 of them are missing. First of all, i'm constantly amazed that fans like yourself are actually asking about our back cat releases, some of which never saw the light of day, or if they did, are now over 10 years old, but still talked about.
The truth is theres a story to be told about most of the missing mosh numbers-about why they are missing. We pride ourselves on having a killer catalog of releases containing many of the most legendary titles in the extreme music scene, and the ease of numbering them as mosh numbers makes it easier for fans and collectors to follow the list.Those 15 missings titles do bug me, because they make the list incomplete.
As you say, Mosh 68 was meant to be re-issue of the first Sore Throat album "Unhindered By Talent", but i declined to release it, and the Mosh number slot stayed unfilled. Mosh 107 was supposed to be a meathook seed remix 12 inch, but i had second thoughts about releasing it. Some of the numbers were planned to be themed label compilations but we never got round to compiling them. The numbers 150, 164, 165 as you correctly point out were gabba titles we licensed from Industrial Strength records- the licences expired eventually, so were withdrawn from sale, and the catalog.(actually we could leave them as names on the catalog but we'd probably have folks try to order them, which will be confusing, so better to remove competely)

'Chop Your Own Head Off' comp - released in USA?

Question: I\'m asking for a third time in case I messed up the first two, is Chop Your Own Head Off going to be released in the U.S.? If so, when and at what price? Thanks. From: georgepcalagias@netzero.net

Answer: thanks George, we did get your question each time..and its hard to answer you as we basically havent yet decided on the plans for this Earache Compilation containing CD+DVD+PC game demo, in USA. It is released today in UK and across Europe for a low price of £4.99 instore and has seemingly gone down a storm with fans.There is a ton of great new extreme music including a brand new Deicide track,available for the first time ONLY on this CD, plus a bunch of videos, many never seen before except as streams on our website, and in a world first for any metal label, it also contains a fully playable interactive PC- CDROM game demo of our upcoming PlayStation 2 Game "Earache Extreme Metal Racing".All in all, its an extreme bargain!

Earache had no plans to release it in USA, but we hear that the Hot Topic chain are interested to carry the comp, so we might be rush releasing it in September in USA now.

Deicide-Limited editions of Stench?

Question: Will there be a limited edition version of Stench of Redemption, or anything of that nature? From: aaronmb3@gmail.com

Answer: sure there will be a few things for Collectors who buy Deicide early.See here for the Special editions.

At The Gates- DualDisc Out in UK 17 July

Question: Does the DVD side of the dualdisc for \"Slaughter of the soul\" feature only the documentary? or does it also include the album in 5.1?
Thanks for the info...
armando From: dreadsbear@hotmail.com

Answer: No -the DVD side is purely a 35 minute documentary, with also the bonus of the video clip for "Blinded by fear" and some outtakes etc. You can see the trailer for a taste of whats on the DualDisc.We did'nt bother with a 5.1 Audio mix because it seems they are not that popular yet, but if its something that catches on, then there is no reason why we dont't make a 5.1 DVD Audio or Superaudio surroundsound mix in the future.

Napalm death- Nazi punks 7 inch?

Question: Hello,
Could you please tell me how much copies of Napalm Death \"Nazi Punks Fuck Off\" 7\" Mosh92 were printed? Could I get a breakdown of the numbers for the different types especially the orange cover with green vinyl? Thanking you in advance,
John Lynch. From: jlynch.ennis@eircom.net


Answer: we pressed about 1000 copies of each colour sleeve. You can see them pictured HERE

Decapitated 'Day 69' clip online?

Question: What has happened to Decapitated\'s video of day 69? I saw the photos of it being made, but have seen nothing since. is it being released? From: redear16@hotmail.com


Answer: set your browser to HERE

Deicide- album is out August Mon 21 tues 22

Question: Hi Earache, I want to know when is de new deicide album LP coming out, I love the two new songs but I don\'t know when it will be on stores!

Thank you! From: volsck@hotmail.com

Answer; its finally out instores on August 21 in Uk/Europe/Japan/Argentina/Brasil and August 22 in USA/Canada.

Earache vinyl for sale

Question: As an avid collector of Earache brand vinyl (I have original issues of Mosh 1-25 now plus a lot more) , I have a small bone to pick with you. The European webstore has about three times the vinyl selection that the US store has, leaving me with little choice but to pay the higher shipping fees. Why must you torture me like this, and is there any hope of expanding the selection of wax on the US Webstore? Also, any hope of a vinyl re-release of Brutal Truth\'s first album? Maybe just one copy? From: johnwalbridgeiv@yahoo.com


Answer: We have a bone to pick with you fans too! I'm dying to know where you guys went in the mid-90's when Earache's vinyl output was still ongoing but sales on the format completely dried up?
Nearly 100% of the Earache releases as they were made came out on a vinyl format, it was our preferred format right from the start of the label in 1986, and only kinda fell out of favor in mid-late 90's as fans deserted vinyl for some reason but we still made vinyl even when its popularity plummeted- so by around 1999 we stopped vinyl alltogether except for limited 1000 copies re-issues of our biggest selling classic bands in 2001.
Y'know Earache has a werehouse in a secret location of our home town of Nottingham, UK that is chock full of unsold vinyl dating from that mid-90's era and before-even exotic stuff like Cathedral double 12" gatefold sleeve "Carnival bizarre' . Even brand new deluxe box sets of Beecher which house 5 lovely slabs of 7" by a killer band, and only came out last year,remain unsold,lots of them.
Most of the vinyl for sale on the UK webstore comes from that werehouse and is original pressings made in mid-late 90's, which we could sell on ebay for mucho $$, but we prefer to offer them for sale as a service to Earache collectors and fans. Our USA office and webstore in NYC dates from 1995 and has traditionally not made as much vinyl as the office was not operating when vinyl was king.

So thats why the Uk webstore has much more vinyl than the USA one.

The next vinyl editions we are planning are an At The Gates picture disc, and the upcoming Deicide will be on 12" LP and picture disc too.

Earache in The Philippines?

Question: hey earache I wanted to know why your recording company either the metal scene isnt really that accessable here in asia especially here in the philippines since there is so many metal kids,punks and kick ass emo kids.I know that your British and your priority are European nad some American but I just wanted to know why metal scene doesnt really accessable here in the shores of the Philippines,since metal scene will really sell here in our shore,and do you have plans of getting artist here in asia neither here in Philippines,there so many metal bands that really play good here in th Philippines but they dont have a chance to get a recording deal and I wanted to know how I can get a recording deal easy. thanks,more power to you. From: napalm_carcass@yahoo.com.ph

Answer:from time to time, we have some contact with metal fans in Philippines- like yourself- but not much in the way of business contacts to help the distribution of Earache's cds and products there.I know the metal scene is huge and exploding right now over there, but we have no way to distribute our cds. Fans can always download our Mp3's from our download site METALTRACKS.COM tho.Thanks for your support!

Sore Throat- Unhindered CD?

Question: I can\'t seem to find the Sore Throat \"Disgrace to.../Unhindered...\" CD in your webstore. Is it already sold out? From: todessehnsucht@luukku.com
Answer: try here

No T.O.O.H on Earache site?

Question: Why has every trace of !T.O.O.H.! been whiped off Earache??? All the rest of the elitist bands are still traceable, whats goin on? From: megathrax6@hotmail.com

Answer: T.O.O.H' s album was released,permanently deleted, and their contract voided by Earache on the very same day.The album was the final one to be released on the Elitist sub-label, which Earache funded from 2001- late 2005, and marked the final closure of the under-performing sub-label,much to our very great relief.Consequently we did not attach any importance to the 3-piece Grind band's 'opus'.

Entombed lyrics?

Question: Hi there!

I simply want to know how I can get a hold of the lyrics for Entombed\'s Left Hand Path album - preferably by download! I\'ve been wanting the lyrics since the album came out and I don\'t know where else to look.

I hope you can help!

Big \'Left Hand Path\' fan,


Answer:The lyrics are in English, but were not printed on the LP or CD as the band were not happy with their command of the language at that point in their career. Being Swedish teenagers at the time of its release, thats understandable, and i also think they wanted to keep things a little mysterious too. Some editions of the CD do have the lyrics, i think, but its very rare.Nearly every record Earache has released comes with the lyrics, as its part of the fun of having the album, but thanks for reminding us- for Left Hand Path none are included!
You could try here

How to work in Music Biz?

Question: Hi, I\'m 33 y.o and i\'m interesting to work in \"music business\" like drum tech, roadioe or bus drivers, where can i ask for this kind of job?

Thank you and long life to metal!

Cédric from Switzerland From: cca666@bluewin.ch

Answer: if you want to work in the Music Biz- the best way, perhaps the only way, is to start off by doing work experience for free.Nearly everyone i know within the Independent Rock music Industry started as a fan of the music,including me, by helping out bands for FREE by either managing them, putting on shows for them, or simply promoting the act by writing about them in a fanzine etc.Nearly every band would welcome some help..BUT The long long hours of work for scant reward and barely an iota of gratitude from the artists themselves soon weeds out the non-committed.
If you stick it out for long enough, then its possible the position could turn into a paid one, and if the band becomes popular then you can actually make a decent living from the music, without even being a musician, as part of the back up team.
You have no idea how many bands i know right now that need a van +driver to take them to shows, a lot of bands are young and cannot hire a van themselves ( in the UK you have to be 25+ years old for insurance purposes)..you could ask around at your local clubs if the club needs any help, or place an advert in the music press.Good luck.

Burzum signs with Earache?

Question: I read a while back in the black metal documentary book \"Lord of Chaos\" that Varg Vikernes (of infamous Burzum fame) was actually going to sign to Earache Records during the early 90\'s but it didn\'t happen. This accordingly is because Earache isn\'t a black metal label and also he had (and still has) radical racist views. Can you tell us alittle bit more about this story or is it a rumor? From: davidaloca@gmail.com


Answer: yeah, once again, it's true.Burzum was about to sign with Earache in 1993, soon after the debut 'Aske' was released on Euronymous' label 'Deathlike Silence'.But after spending 2 full days with Varg, I backed out of the deal at the last minute. Here's why:

Norwegian Black Metal was in its infancy and consisted of a handful of extreme bands and extreme personalities and musicians.Tho it was such a small scene, it was already making shockwaves in the much larger worldwide Death Metal scene which Earache played a part in.I was set on signing Burzum as I could tell from afar that Varg was a charismatic character and we assumed he would do well, both as a musician and as a scene personality.At the same time, UK's Kerrang! magazine unexpectedly ran a front cover story on the church burnings and all the general mayhem and insane stuff going on in Norway.So we had to act fast to sign him- I paid for Varg to fly to UK the very next week, for a meeting with Earache to conclude the signing arrangements,and it proved to be his only visit to these shores ever, I beleive.

So,in April 1993 Varg flew into Manchester airport - where he set off all the metal detector alarms as he refused to take off his chain mail vest!!.We had arranged a car to bring him to Nottingham- whereupon we (Varg, wearing his chain mail armour(!), myself and Al Dawson, Uk label manager) sat down for our business meeting at the local Nottingham pizza house "Bella Pasta" ( its still there) and discussed the signing of Burzum to Earache. Varg was all for it..and vowed to go back and tell Euronymous that he no longer wished to work for him, and he was going to record music with the much more established Earache instead.

Varg impressed us during the meeting with his razor sharp intellect,he talked at great length about a number of wide ranging topics, so much so that we had finished our pizzas before he even touched his-then without prompting, and for no particular reason, he began to air many of his racist viewpoints to us, which was really ridiculous as Earache has traditionally promoted bands like Napalm Death who stand staunchly against racism (as any sensible person would, naturally).

Unknown to us,the guy was very much informed by right wing politics,so much so, we kinda put it down to his trying to appear 'evil' and of being full of adolescent bravado in front of his potential new label.He also regailed us with stories of how he had burned a church down, which we knew all about (it was front page news in Norway after all, as most older buildings being constructed of wood in Norway, its relatively easy) for which he had been arrested, and later released.But then to top the lot- he told in full gory detail, how he had committed the murder of a homeless person with a knife.This extra stuff was unreal,it was like the ramblings of a complete fantasist.Frankly, we didn't beleive a word of it.(We now assume he was recounting - and taking 'credit' -for Bard/Faust's act of murder of a year earlier)

Varg stayed over at my house, where we played the demos for Burzum albums 2-3 and 4 ( thats what you call planning ahead!) before he caught the flight back to Norway, but I was already getting cold feet over the signing, because such right wing views are just not compatible with the labels standpoint. On his return Earache backed out of the deal and broke off all contact, Varg didnt seem too phased.

On August 10th 1993 Euronymous was murdered by Varg.

Godflesh and Hammett/Metallica

Question: Here\'s another question that\'s been bugging me... sorry for all the questions but there\'s so much about these bands I wanna just find out:

Godflesh is probably one of my favourtie bands ever and probably the most unique band to ever sign to Earache. I actually read from the official Godflesh fansite (Godflesh.com) that Godflesh and Kirk Hammett of Metallica fame actually had some bad blood... well sort of.

Kirk supposedly said that Godflesh was one of his favorite bands and that their music is unbelieveable crushing. Justin Broadrick and Godflesh were flattered and they supposedly actually had contacts with one another here and there. Later however, Kirk Hammett and Metallica made the album \"Reload\" and some of the artwork for the album was taken from Godflesh\'s music video \"Crush My Soul.\" Kirk or no one in Metallica credited Godflesh or the director of that music video for the cover art or the artwork credit. Hence Godflesh and Kirk had some bad blood but in the end, one time Kirk mentioned in an interview that the most heaviest band in the world is Godflesh, which was his way of easing the tension between the two bands.

Long story I know but I made it short for ya... now this is according to Godflesh.com but it just sounds too good to be true so would you know if this is somehow valid?

Also, just one more question that\'s Godflesh related: I heard that Justin Broadrick was once asked to join bands like Danzig and Faith No More full time but he declined the offers... was this a rumor or is this true to your knowledge that he was asked to join these two bands?

Thanks once again! From: davidaloca@gmail.com


Answer: well- as this page says-if you wanna know something- you came to the right place! Its pretty much 100% true actually.Godflesh was one of Earache's most innovative bands in the early 90's grind/death era, by having more industrial and arty leanings, their truly crushing, drum machine driven sound was totally heavy but also stood out from the pack.
Godflesh quickly became very famous with the SF and LA alterna-metal crowd- i think a Kerrang! magazine writer Steffan Chirazi was responsible for this- he seemed to be turning on all his friends like Metallica, Faith No More and just about everyone else in California into Godflesh fanatics, such that when they toured West Coast for the first time around 1994, Kirk Hammett actually asked Justin to drop by his palatial home and studio and to jam together and hang out and shoot the shit about each others bands - Kirk generously gave him a guitar and some 'tallica momentoes, and naturally attended the Godflesh gig later ( i think Lars came too?)

I guess that was where Justin mentioned to Kirk that Godflesh's new video "Crush My Soul' had been directed by the up n coming avant garde artist Andres SerranoThe artist had become famous for graphic artworks like Piss Christ(a controversial photograph of a crucifix immersed in a beaker of piss), and Godflesh was the first and only music video he directed.

It seems that the next Metallica album cover-1996's " Load" utilised the same artists work, no doubt influenced by Godflesh's video years earlier.I guess Justin felt he had given kirk the idea, which is no doubt true, i dont actually think any of Godflesh 's art itself was used by Metallica tho, that would be cheesy.It was the idea of using Serrano in the first place he was upset about.

And yes its is true that both Faith No More and years later Danzig asked Justin to join their band on guitar- both times he refused, prefering to make his own music.
Justin nows plays in his incredible new band -Jesu.

The Fookin' Macc Lads?

Question: this one is for digby, are you the dig pearson whos in the thank you list of various macc lads records just out of interest. From: unknown.

Answer: yup its me..tho i doubt I was actually 'thanked' on any Macc lads records when they were going during early-mid 80's..its the first time i heard they mentioned me, since i have none of their records to bother to check.
I used to slag them off in my column in Maximum Rock n Roll fanzine for being sexist cunts, and rubbish musically aswell.Hmmm-I guess i had a sense of humour bypass when i was younger, being yer typical UK angry politico crass/discharge anarcho type back then, so macc lads lyrics were deemed a complete fucking sexist nightmare. This was before PC (political correctness) came into fashion!

Earache later signed Anal Cunt- an obnxious grind band,who were not too different to the macc lads really.. Nowadays i think they are pretty funny actually- fair play to them,they are a 'Sid the Sexist' cartoon character out of Viz comics, come to life as a band.Its Extreme, and Hilarious.

Thrash Lives in Nottingham

Question: i read in on of the latest \'ask earache\' thingys they were going on about SANZEN getting signed and maybe a metal revival around notts/etc. we\'ll i\'d just like to say that your a bit late, a new wave of thrash is gonna take over the uk, e.g. DEADFALL/EVILE/HEADLESS CROSS/etc... From: Unknown.

Answer: yeah we know! see you at the junktion 7 on thursday for some THRASH!!

Deicide album pushed back- why?

Question: I think you guys owe us Deicide fans an explanation why the Deicide cd wasnt released on tuesday?? All the press before said it would come out on tuesday. Then, right before it came out you said, \' Oh wait, now its just going to be two songs\'. And not only that, but then you expect us to pays for it!. I think you guys should stop jerking the Deicide fans around and tell us officially when the thing is coming out and stick to it!! From: Sherfoto@comcast.com


Answer: Sorry BUT YEAH - we ARE expecting you to pay for it- DAMN RIGHT.twice over actually.

Glen Benton on Roadrunner united album

Question: maybe you can kill a rumour hear, is it true that earache recomended against glen benton apearing on roadrunner united as has been reported on several roadrunner fansites and zines. From:


Answer: Nah, thats complete hogwash.We never had any opinion about it actually, apart from a measure of suprise as Glen had previously led us to beleive that he hated RR. First we knew was Glen announced he was off to the studio to record his vocals, and it turned out great, the song he guests on is the best on that compilation, by far i think.

Earthtone 9 never signed with Earache?

Question: This is a question that i have wondered about for a long time why didnt earache sign or attempt earthtone 9, i mean they had all the ingredients that most earache bands at that time had eg nottingham based, former members of earache bands either in live line up or for collaberations eg working with members of iron monkey and so on. It just strikes me as weird as of all the nottingham metal bands at that time earthtone9 seemed to be the one that slipped through the net From: Unknown.

Answer: yeah you are right, it is weird i suppose,Earthtone 9 were a brilliant and important Nottm band but we never worked with them. Earache does historically support and get involved with new Nottingham bands, if they are any good- from HERESY,LAWNMOWER DETH, FUDGE TUNNEL, PITCHSHIFTER, IRON MONKEY, even the short lived but amazing SILENCER there's probably not another label out there that has given a chance to so many Nottm based bands in their early stages, since we live in the city we catch a lot of bands playing early on.

But if you asked any of those bands what they thought of their time on Earache none would be very complementary i expect, and thats always been our problem in our small provincial Uk city- small talk, bitching and backbiting take precedence over actually getting off their arses and building a career for many bands in this wonderful gun-crime-infested place on the banks of the river Trent.Its a long standing mystery in the Nottm music scene why exactly has no Rock/metal band from this area ever become absolutely huge on the world stage, and i personally think that that tendency is the major reason.

Naturally we approached Earthtone 9,(guitarist Owen used to work at Earache for a short time, and played us his Blastcage demos while here, which sucked) but they had just inked with new label Copro, so to do the right thing we made a license offer to their label- Copro- which as just starting out and was putting a hell of a lot of faith in E9. Copro rejected the offer.We put a lot of it down to the bad rep the label has garnered locally, plus the strong DIY ethic which the band subscribe to, which is another local trait.

A similar thing happened when we tried to sign DAI LO- another set of local hopefuls from 4-5 years back, who rejected our deal offer and after a stunning debut on Copro, disappeared without trace.

Earache still watches out for local bands, but is not trying to sign any at the moment.A new label in town -In At The Deep End Records- has recently signed SANZEN, so maybe there is going to be another revival in Nottingham's metal scene soon?

Sleep with Earache- what happened?

Question: in a recent interview in a DC fanzine mike pike spoke about the signing of high on fire to relapse after the split of sleep and he made the comment \" i doubt earache would have me back\". not trying to chase a feud or anything but what does he mean by this did sleep leave earache on bad terms? From:

Answer:Yeah if ya wanna know: Sleep walked out of their deal with Earache barely a year into it,  to chase their major label contract with London Records which their high powered management secured for them after their1992 Earache debut on the label "Sleep's Holy Mountain' had garnered high praise among the cogniscenti and industry scenesters. Earache agreed to not stand in their way, do the right thing, so we -reluctantly- let the band go so they could chase the major label dream. This was done under a " settlement deal" see above-the settlement also waived all the bands royalty rights in their one album recorded under our 4 album deal. This was 1995 or so, and explains why they don't receive royalties- they walked away from them, willingly and gladly.  Presumably the band assumed they would go on to greater  financial rewards on London Records except it did not quite pan out like that as they were dropped from the major and spent 1996-2009 split up.

Anyway its a  classic album which has stood the test of time..but even right after its release it was highly rated, being a fantastic Sabbath/Stoner album. its hardly been bettered since..I recall in 1992 Earache made the first Black Sabbath tribute album which we sent personally to Tony Iommi.We heard back that he loved it, especially Sleep who according to him, "embodied the spirit of early Sabbath". This got quoted a lot by us as a hype thang- and within a short while things got outta hand, Sleep began to entertain managers/lawyers/ etc to extricate themselves from our record deal.

In 2014  the band  had reformed and recently set up a webstore and asked us why they can't press up Holy Mountain themselves-- then had the sheer  gall to claim no royalties via a Facebook post (since removed). Meanwhile we intend to apply to court for the unpaid settlement monies still due to Earache. Be careful what you SIGN, indeed.

Ewigkeit = ex-meads of asphodel?

Question: Is it true that Ewgiket was or is a member of the meads of asphodel, the reason why i ask this is because there are meads like riffs on ewgiket cds and vice versa, also hes rummoured to have several side projects in the works do you know anything of the status of them and if they are likely to sign to earache From:

Answer: James Fogarty of Ewigkeit was indeed a founding member of The Meads duo, from the very first demo up until and including the release of the Jihad mini CD - He was known as "Jaldaboath".
It is likely that some comparisons of material during those releases share similarites to Ewigkeit as James had written, arranged & recorded all the instruments & music (save for some lead guitar parts). Other "band members" (i.e drummer "Urukabaramel") had been invented by the vocalist to "fill out" the line-up. The Meads now seems to consist of a full line-up and various guest musicians.

Any similarities since are open to interpretation (for instance the Meads track "80 grains of sand" was released long after James had quit the Meads and yet had a whole section surprisingly similar to the track "Dragons Burning" from the Ewigkeit debut album "Battle Furies", released in 1997).

On this matter, James Fogarty had the following to say ;

"...my mate Nick Moberly who used to contribute to Terrorizer Magazine got an advance copy of the album that was recorded after I had quit. He telephoned me to ask if I had contributed to it, because he said there were some parts that sounded very like my stuff... maybe it was done to show some kind of continuation ? ... to be honest i couldnt give a shit anyway ... it was originally supposed to be like the "monty python" of Black Metal, but I started to get bored with the Black Metal stuff in general ..."

James Fogarty's main "metal" concern right now is Ewigkeit, although "The Blacksmoke Organisation" of which he is an integral part does often venture into metal territory with remixes and original material.

 You can now listen to 3 full tracks from EWIGKEIT's new album "Conspiritus" at their myspace page and also download the free MP3 E.P "Return to the land of Fog" at this location

 

How Sore Throat got signed

Question: I realize that Earache made Sore Throat\'s cult LP \"Disgrace to the Corpse of Sid\" reissued on CD with their first LP \"Unhindered By Talent\" but only available in Japan... why can\'t it be avaiable in the US as well; I\'ve been dying to get that release from them on CD.

On the topic of Sore Throat, I like their stuff very much but don\'t know much about the band. Can you give a brief history or story about Sore Throat and how they signed to Earache and if they still exist today?

Thanks! From: davidaloca@gmail.com


Answer: I though you were'nt gonna ask about our old bands dude!!? ha ha no biggie- i'll answer anything here.Yeah Sore Throat were a Yorkshire based UK politico-crust-grind band in the late 80's, it was a kind of project band formed by musicians from other more well known, but less harsh sounding acts- notably Instigators & Doom, both of whom were on Peaceville Records at the time.

Sore Throat was formed in the wake of Napalm Death's trailblazing acheivements-as one part homage, one part parody,and 2 parts comedy.With tongue half-in cheek,they railed against everything that was 'wrong' with the late 80's Hardcore Punk scene during the first stirrings of its soon to prove-fateful crossover towards metalheads-first DRI, then ND's 'success' in the crossover scene was ample ammunition for Sore Throat's vitriol.

To the uninitiated fan it sounds just like prime UK grindcore, but Sore Throat's music was less important than their rhetoric- they set themselves up as almost 'scene-police', berating the exploding, Earache-inspired grindcore scene, and constantly baiting Napalm Death- I presume cos they were too untalented to actually form part of it.

ST were amazingly prolific, churning out countless albums for many different labels-late on, Earache actually got in on the 'fun' of ST too, and encouraging the band to make a 101 track noisefest monster of an album "Disgrace to the Corpse of Sid'.

How Cult Of Luna got signed

Question: I have another question regarding a recent band in your rooster. I see that you\'re making jokes about how people don\'t talk about recent bands but rather talk about the old bands so here\'s something that\'s not a big question but I\'ve been wondering...

I love Cult of Luna... and I know that Earache has signed many bands that aren\'t per-se the heaviest band or even metal... but how did Earache come across Cult of Luna? They certainly aren\'t the most metal band and I know Earache is famous for it\'s promotion of extreme metal so how did Earache stumble upon Cult of Luna? If I may say so myself, they certainly are a great catch of a band for your label. From: davidaloca@gmail.com


Answer: Cult Of Luna was discovered and signed to Earache by Dan Tobin the UK label manager + A&R Director responsible for most of the additions to the roster in later years.He was friends with Duncan who ran the small, short lived but very influential Yorkshire, UK- based label 'Rage of Achilles', which had actually issued the COL debut CD, pre-Earache.(I think Duncan says he discovered them by chance via scouring the net for new acts mp3's, which was not as easy as you think in the pre-Myspace era ).

Duncan pressed 2000 cds of the debut-Naturally Earache got to hear that cd early on, and Dan instantly became a big fan of the band...it became an Earache office fave-their expansive, expressive twist on metal was quite breathtaking to us.

Earache approached to sign COL, and also negotiated with Duncan to re-issue the debut as his label unfortunately was'nt able to press any more copies after the first 2000 - now collectors items- sold out.

At The Gates- Dual Disk trailer online now!

Question: what is happening with the AT THE gates reissue you mentioned on your site? any info? From: sven666@hotmail.se


Answer: yeah its out on July 17th in Uk/Europe a bit later in USA. features a 35 minute documentary where the old members of ATG discuss the process what went into recording the classic melodic death metal album that put the Gothenburg sound on the map. see trailer above.

Deicide 1 tracks online on 6.6.6

Question: So am I correct in that I read the new Deicide cd wpnt be coming out noe tipp August?? That sucks. Looks like Earache is treating Deicide like Roadrunner did. More respect please, not only for the band , but for us fans. From: sherfoto@comcast.com

Answer: The album & art is not even completed yet- and its what- 6 days to go to that special 'once in a 100 years' evil calendar event!!So, I'm sorry but the delays to the CD album were unavoidable i'm afraid and are mainly due to the band taking the time in the studio to perfect what is easily the BEST Deicide album ever. First, it was remixed again as the band were'nt happy with their first mixdown, and secondly the band had to take time off over Easter to complete an important West coast USA tour right in the period of the recording process, so delaying things further.Lastly, The band are also on their second photoshoot for the booklet as the first session pics were scrapped.Hence-we are now looking at August 21 in UK/Europe and August 22 in USA..tho it should more realistically be TBC.

Slayer have done exactly the same thing it seems....originally announced date of 6.6.6 pushed back to July. and a 1 track advance online at iTunes on 6.6.6 aswell..sound familiar? is their label disrespecting their fans too?

Because we felt all the hype we had generated (BBC, New York Post, Washington Post, Inside Edition TV, USA Today, the myspace website) about the originally announced date of 6.6.6 was worth at least some kind of 'release' on that unholiest of dates, the 1 downloadable track seems a kinda compromise to fans, as downloads take seconds to set up and require no artwork/packaging- fans can now get a taster in advance of the album proper, and be blown away by the quality of the songs.No release at all would have been lame.Ok maybe the band are victims of the runaway success of our hype- but fear not- IT WILL BE WORTH THE WAIT!! This one is categorically the best Deicide album ever...the proof is online on 6.6.6.

Y'know, even the most satanic and brutal of bands are powerless in the face of the unrelenting nature of the calendar.

Check out the video trailer here;

Berzerker=Generated X-ed? Err- no!

Question: Two The Berzerker questions for you, first of all I\'ve seen for sale by a couple of US eBayers a copy of a The Berzerker album called \'Protest and Survive\' apparently released on \'EARACHE RECORDS/CAROLINE\' on \'4/11/2000\' featuring tracks called \'Industrial Is Dead\' and \'LSD Recharge\' amongst others - is this release genuine?
Also, I\'ve heard the brilliant remixes of Morbid Angel\'s \'Day of Suffering\' and \'Abominations\', where can I get a copy \'The Ancient Ones\'?
Thanks From: Evil__Jeff@Hotmail.com

Answer: nah mate- you are getting bands mixed up..the album you are referring to is by Berlin based Generated X-ed, not berzerker.It is a genuine Earache release tho..it sounds like extreme drum n bass, the main man from Generated X-ed was part of the Digital Hardcore scene from late 90's in berlin and I liked his stuff enough to release it.Its an undiscovered gem and will blow your mind i think, if you like harsh electronmic music, a bit like Berzerker but less guitars.You can hear it and download it at metaltracks.com As for the track "the Ancient Ones' by Morbid Angel remixed by the Berzerker, its unreleased i'm afraid. It was done at the same time as the other tracks for our Hellspawn comp- Extreme metal meets extreme techno, but did not get released. (pictured is Generated X-ed main man- Tha Bomb)

Earache PC game demo on cheap label comp in July.

Question: Will the upcoming Earache Game have Online play? If it has multiplayer online play included, I am definately interested in this game! From Rob.. \\m/etal From: robgamer345@hotmail.com


Answer: Sadly i don't think the game has online play facility- but according to the developers it will be out on PC CD-ROM, as well as PSP and PlayStation 2.The FREE playable demo for playing on PC's launches from this website www.6-6-06.co.uk and is also available on the upcoming Earache CD + DVD cheap Label Compilation "Chop Your Own Head Off" - due onsale late june.We beleive it may be the first label sampler to include FREE video game, who knows?More details of the low price sampler are here.

Napalm Death Scum original colour LP ?

Question: was the original napalm death scum vinyl release the green one or the orange one? From: mjwallage@hotmail.com


Answer: Original release was in June 1987 on LP in 2000 copies with black n white cover + Bright Yellowy Green. See here. A sticker (black text on white) was also affixed.Later editions followed in years 88- 90 or so..with Orange being next to be pressed and later Green, also Blue later.A Gold colour edition was pressed for the supposed splatter-color vinyl edition.Interestingly, no picture disc edition has even been issued.Maybe we'll rectify this when we release the expanded remastered 20th anniversary Scum release soon.

Deicide cancel entire European 2006 Summer festival dates

Question: And Deicide did it again... whole Eurotour cancelled, without good reason. yieehaa!!!!

What`s going on? Where is some official news with reasons behind this never ending farce? How on earth Earache keeps tolerating this kind of behaviour? From:



Answer: Earache has no say in or control over the live performances of Deicide- we do their retail CD's + DVDs, not live shows.Earache do the bands recordings basically, and thats the extent of our involvement.I know Deicide recently split from their long time European agent (Metalysee), also splitting from their long time USA agent (First Row talent) at the same time, in order to be represented exclusively for the world by Tammy Taylor booking out of Austin Tx.This is the actual reason why the remaining European festival dates- totalling 3 gigs- Graspop/Full Force/Waldrock etc - are cancelled.Don't forget that the bands appearance at France Hellfest was cancelled by the promotor,not them,after the organisers got nervous about the band playing so soon after a spate of Deicide-inspired satanistic grave desecrations in the area.The new Cd is running late too- its just been recorded and mastered at the weekend- so is expected to land instores in Uk/Europe now on August 21, Aug 22 in USA.The band want to wait till its out to perform the new live show set including many new songs from 'Stench'.
Deicide have no website they control themselves, and the Earache site and myspace page is the nearest to an official news source for Deicide's happenings you can get. The rest is just rumour.

Sure, these cancellations are high profile festival shows, and its tough on the European fans, but since the new members were drafted in I think they have done more far flung touring stints- including South America, Korea etc -than any other Earache act..Deicide are self-managed, so operate according to their own rules. Overall we are totally stoked that they have made an incredible album, and we 100% respect their choices in who represents them on the live circuit, and when and where they choose to play.

No Deicide news on Earache site?

Question: Hello,
Why is it that I can read more about the new Deicide album on Blabbermouth.net(owned by Roadrunner) than I can on the Earache site. As a big fan on Deicide, I am really looking forward to the new Deicide album and keep checking the Earache site for info, but I can find out so much more about it on Blabbermouth. Cover art and studio news and track listings being an example. Why are we not seeing this on the Earache site?
Also, there has been a news item on the Earache site for sometime saying that there has been some old TV footage of Deicide found, I try to click on the link and it does not work. I find this happens alot with your site. From: Unknown.

Answer: The album is not yet finished and thats why nothing official has been announced from Earache.(This page is just my personal rambling blog, where i try my best to answer your questions).All news on Blabbermouth etc is gleaned from unofficial sources usually,tho i admit,most of the time Blabber is pretty much correct, but it always lacks the finer details.As I write this, 'The Stench Of Redemption' is STILL being recorded and tweaked and its on its second mixdown at Morrisound studio, due to be finally completed this Saturday night. Obviously the original album release date of 6.6.6 is blown- its more like August now..we call it -TBC. But to celebrate that most unholiest of days coming in 2 weeks time -6.6.6 - we are currently hopeful of offering fans an exclusive Deicide downloadable EP via iTunes Music Store on that date- it will include a brand new track from the "Stench" sessions, probably an early mix.Again, nothing is set in stone, as we have no actual album!

As for the bad links on the news at earache.com-errr dunno what you mean matey?the links work fine for me and the webmaster - if you have some crappy browser and slow machine then maybe the page takes a while to load but invest in some patience for once- wait about 10 seconds and then the story appears.If you are tired of your browser taking an age to open the link, then heres the link direct to the You Tube clip of Amon 1988 well worth watching- Its fucking prime Glen Benton- killer!

Napalm Death's 3 inch CD?

Question: hey there, my question is related to the digipack version of NAPALM DEATH\'S \'Utopia Banished\' cd. When i initially purchased this disc it came with a limited edition \'mini\' CD with a few tracks on it. Problem is, my copy of utopia banished was stolen, and i was wondering if the tracks from the mini disc are available anywhere else. Thanks alot From: carl_smith@telstra.com

Answer: yeah the 3 inch CD given away with the 1992 Utopia Banished album was quite a unique looking extra, and contained 4 bonus tracks. Obviously the 3 inch disc is long sold out. However those same tracks are included on our recently released 2 x cd best of set from Napalm Death called "Noise for Music's Sake" so they are available on that release.

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.