Skindred- formerly Dub War?

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

-aztrid From: aztrid@gmail.com

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

Favourite Earache release?

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


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

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

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

No Glen Benton on Deicide Euro tour?

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


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

Lock Up & project bands

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


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

Is There A God?

Question: is there a god
From:

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

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

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


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

Does quality of demos matter?

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


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

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

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

What are ex-earache employees doing now?

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

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

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

Currently our alumni are working as:

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

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

Earache mispressings & misprints- any value?

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

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

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

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

Is webstore secure?

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


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

Nocturnus The Key out of print

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


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

Early Earache bands NOT on CD

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


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

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

Napalm Death rare 7" "The Curse"

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

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

John Zorn's Naked City Line up?

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


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

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

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

Industrial Strength Comp 2 x CD 1996

Question: Hello there,

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

Jerri. From: jerr80@hotmail.com

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

Earache PS2 game- now Feb 2007 release!

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


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

Earache DVD easter eggs?

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



Answer:that was answered here in January 06 blog.

Akercocke:Intractable clip- where is it?

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


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

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

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

Earache 90's techno Sub label- SUB BASS?

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


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

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

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

Earache xmas party 2006

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

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