The most Hardcore band ever?

Question: Who\'s the most hardcore band you guys have ever signed? From: duuh_@hotmail.com

Answer: Thats a toughie! Earache has signed a ton of the scenes MOST extreme bands over the years (we pretty much kickstarted the extreme metal genre, and many of the first bands i signed have since become legends like Napalm Death) but it depends what you mean by 'Hardcore'I think -because if you mean traditional HC bands, we didnt sign hardly any of those. In the UK that woud mean DISCHARGE, possibly the originators of the HC scene as it is known here, and we did have proper sit down meetings with the band including Cal & Rainy to sig them to Earache in mid 90's but we didnt hit it off, sadly.
If you are USA based, then original US Old school hardcore bands are names like say Black Flag or Minor Threat from the first cutting-edge wave, then say Sick Of It All, Agnostic Front, Cro Mags from the New York second wave, Judge, Gorilla Biscuits, Youth of Today from the straight edge wave, later on more metal-influenced HC bands like Earth Crisis, Hatebreed would be the late 90's wave.Currently the word Hardcore means a lot of different styles from different eras- the very latest extremely brutal style nowadays would be Death-Core which is a hybrid mix of Death-metal and HC- say JFAC, Suicide Silence, Whitechapel, Annotations of an Autopsy and possibly the heaviest and most violent of them all is our new signings OCEANO.
Hardcore can also mean being down with the scene, dedicated to it through good times and lean times too..some of the original HC bands are still going strong, Discharge being a supreme example.I nominate them as the most HC band in the scene, ever.
As for the earache-signed bands our most hardcore band ever would be NAPALM DEATH, also the more sludgy IRON MONKEY were pretty hardcore.

ZORN & PAINKILLER REFORMED?- yup!

Question: how did John Zorn become involved with earache? as ive heard two different verions of events the first was that he met napalm on tour in japan, the second was that his band was playing a show in london wih the band of british jazz legend ( and radiohead collaberator) Humphrey Lyttelton and it was john peel who took john zorn to the napalm show the night before he played his show, which version of events is the correct one? also is it true that naked city and painkiller are/have reformed for a one off event? From:

Answer:The early Napalm Death gigs 1987-88 or so were -quite bizarrely, looking back- attended by a motley collection of the very hippest of the London A-listers, as well as as the regular kids, the thrash & hardcore freaks moshing down the front,these hipsters would instead crowd the back and the bar.It was strange mix. John Peel's championing of the band on the radio and TV meant that for a year or so, Napalm attracted that hipster crowd, before they moved sheep-like onto the next hipster thing. I recall one gig had Craig Charles and Vic Reeves hanging backstage- both up and coming comics at that time,nowadays both major TV celebrities, and massive Napalm fans to boot.
So the band were quite used to strangers from different scenes hanging out, and being music nuts themselves,and open-minded to new scenes, would be highly interested in other musicians works. My recollection is that Napalm Death first met John Zorn when he attended a ND gig in japan- this would be summer 1989 and included the line up of Lee Dorrian and Bill Steer.I was'nt on that tour but the tour manager was instantly aware of who he was, including his VIP status in the avant garde/jazz scene,he probably invited him to the gig, I expect! So even if the band members didnt know about Zorn himself, they appreciated the fact he was interested in them.I must admit that when word of John Zorn showing interest in Napalm death reached me, I had no clue who he was, and thought it odd that this studious American jazz bloke was dropping hints he wanted to work with Napalm and /or Earache.I confess, I was dead against such collaborations at first, fearing he might blunt the momentum of the young band.
Zorn immediately did the band a massive favor- booking them onto a New York music industry showcase called New Music Seminar, for a really decent fee, which meant they could travel to USA for a debut gig, and perform with no financial loss, which is unheard of. This incredible generosity by someone they'd just met was typical of the man, and blew away any scepticism I had.
What became obvious was that Zorn's interest was sincere and genuine,and he forged a firm friendship with Mick Harris.Over the months he suggested Earache release his upcoming Naked City 'Torture Garden' on LP and Cassette (no CD) in UK and Europe (original discussions were for it to be released on my label managers fledgling sub-label Staindrop - as Sweet Tooth was before it, because both were deemed by me to be too avant garde for Earache proper).The USA CD release was handled by Shimmy Disc, as Earache had no distribution there at that time.Looking back, its one of the most jaw-droppingly intense things we ever did, and we were incredibly privileged to release it on Vinyl.
Painkiller was again an extension of the friendship Zorn forged with Mick and that ensemble recorded 2 albums for Earache.At some stage Zorn moved onto other experimental music and our association fizzled out.
Painkiller did play a show June 23 2008 In Paris, featuring Zorn, Laswell and Harris on grindcore drums in front of the public for the first time in a decade.
View what you missed here:

Ewigkeit on Bonkers techno comp?

Question: Hi, a mate of mine told me that Earache alum Ewigkeit had one of their \'hits\' remixed and featured on one of those hard-house compilation albums with a silly name.

REALLY? From: Evil__Jeff@Hotmail.com


Answer: yes, really! 'Its Not Reality' by Ewigkeit appeared as a Scott Brown Evolution mix on disc 3 of the massively popular UK hardcore techno series - BONKERS 16.

Earache & that dratted 'Techno Music'

Question: you mentioned in the scorn question that you liked \"street\" music im wondering what is earache\'s tips for the top at the moment? you got me into scott brown and i thank you for that! there are a few earache influenced dance acts doing the rounds eg cardiff drum and bass dj high contrast ( who has dropped ultraviolence\'s hardcore motherfucker in his sets in ibiza) and also dub duo vex\'d who are championed by mick harris himself just wondering who earache rates at the moment? From:

Answer: Wow- thanks for the info- Are you kidding? Ultraviolence played in clubs in Ibiza? ha ha thats nuts...that track came out in 1993- so only took 15 years! Main man Johnny Violent has been pretty ill lately and out of action- but heres the latest Ultraviolence tune- hard and abstract..leading the way as always.
Earache doesnt have anything to do with dance music or remix/DJ culture these days, we did a lot of extreme hardcore techno in the early-mid 90's, and I should make it 100% clear for any readers of a closed-minded disposition, we deal exclusively in 'proper' metal bands these days, so rest easy!!

..but since you ask for some cool Techno recommendations here they are -I'm no expert, but if i was playing a Techno DJ set, not that anyones ever asked me- heres what would be in it:

SCOTT BROWN- The godliest DJ and Hardcore Techno producer in the world.From concrete hard nu-style gabba that causes concussion at 10 paces, to UK top 40 hits, Scotty does it all with ease.
DJ SCOTCH EGG - Japanese crazy 8-bit Nintendo grindcore! The liveshow is simply incredible - 4 gameboys with melodies set to stun, plus gabba beats and grindcore screams, it does'nt even begin to describe the madness.
BILLY BUNTER - An Ultraviolence connection here again, as Billy "Daniel" Bunter did an early happy hardcore remix for the UV track 'Heaven is Oblivion in 90's.Lower bpms means he produces some hellishly popular but so pummeling HARD DANCE techno.
CLSM - Billy Bunter's co-conspirator John Doe does some powerful and attention grabbing hardcore, including the famous ode to the only DJ who cared to suppport and play Happy Hardcore on Radio 1-'John Peel Is Not Enough'.Legend.

BASSLINE/GRIME - Top speed-bass producers like EJ- i'm really into lately aswell.

AS you can see I only prefer bangin' techno & bass that hauls ass and fills dancefloors, not any kind of chin stroking ambient polite cerebral electronica..most stuff on Warp kinda bores me..


Finally, to round out the night- I'd close the set with this stormer.

GENERATED X-ED Industrial Is Dead by digearache

Heres kids busting out their groove to mid-tempo Hard Techno- called 'Shuffling'- its getting enormously popular on the streets!


In France they call it Techtonik- its smoother techno, being French its altogether more sophisticated.


In UK we call it stomping!Nothing sophisticated about it- pure speedy rave! As seen on your local Council estate and heard blaring out of cheap cars everywhere.Brill.

Gama Bomb compared to Onslaught?

Question: i dont know if you accept feedback in this section but hey, I discoverd gamma bomb through an add in terroizer and also interview and reviews where they were being compared to nuclear assult, as much as they are compared to ny thrash for some reason they remind me more of possibly the greatest thrash band britain ever produced Onslaught( how earache didnt get them when they reformed is beyond me) am i missing the point or somthing like earache trying build its own big four maybe or have i just over noticed how one of the hooks on \"sentenced to thrash\" sounds an awful lot like one of the main hooks from onslaught\'s \"killing piece\" From:


Answer: Glad you checked out our fast-rising Irish ThrashersGAMA BOMB, and enjoyed the Thrash vibes! As for the reviews comparing them with the old school acts like Nuclear Assault - i think thats fairly spot on actually- even if the lads in GB are early-mid 20's and werent on the scene when Nuclear were in their pomp.Motorhead were a massive influence on the bomb too.Agent Steel comes to mind on some songs where singer Philly hits the high notes aswell.But Onslaught? Wow i dont see any comparison there, sorry, none at all.I was a bigtime fan of Onslaught in the mega-early days pre-Power from Hell (when they were still a HC punk band- hmmm it could be argued I was the one responsible for 'turning them onto'Thrash actually, but thats another story) sadly, I didnt follow much of their later career.
When Earache started to get involved with the new-school thrash bands, we make a conscious decision to NOT WORK with the old stagers, because we actually prefer working with younger bands with a fresh take on the scene.

New Black Metal bands on Earache?

Question: what does earache think of the more urban based black metal bands doing the rounds, as you signed one of them Anaal Nathrakth. Im wondering if you have been paying attention to any of the others eg the axis of predition or the howling wind for example, and do you think is selling point is that people can relate to it more than the corpsepainted masses? From:

Answer: We released Anaal Nathrakh because we are long-time friends with Neil of the label we licensed the titles from, Mordgrimm (and if ya didnt know, he started Cacophonous before that) and also because the 2 members were signed to Earche as their other grindcore band- Mistress -at around that time anyway, so it made sense.We have since stopped working with Mistress.Our releases of AN are available in USA only.
Earache over the years has had a love/hate relationship with the entire genre of Black Metal.We were in early, and had a good look at the original set of bands, Varg from Burzum made his only trip outside Norway to stay at my house even, and then we rather stupidly decided to ignore the genre completely for the next decade, standing by watching it grow into arguably the most extreme and highly popular genre in underground metal.You could say its the label's biggest mistake.
We still watch the BM scene, recent bands that have impressed us are Watain and The Shining, its hard for us to take the plunge and actually sign and work with bands in a scene we have basically shunned all this time.Though we will do so if the right band comes along, corpsepainted or not wouldnt matter to us, if the music was 'right'and contemporary and innovative.
As for Axis of Perdition- we find them a tad pretentious, if undeniably extreme.Any band that records using plastic spoons and mics up Fishfood containers to record eerie sounds - well, you have to applaud eh?
As for The Howling wind same thing.

BT's Collateral Damage video

Question: Is the Collateral Damage video really not an offical earache vid? Danny said on his interview wth metal injection at maryland deathfest that it was made by a friend of the band who worked in a video editing suite and not by the label? From:


Answer: Not sure what you mean, it IS official in that Earache paid for it, mass produced it and spread it via the TV outlets that played music videos at the time (This was made a decade before YOutube started).The actual idea for making the one-second long clip was not ours though- we were planning on making clips for the longer proper songs, for MTV play etc- and the video just turned up.The idea was the bands not the label's yeah thats correct, but we instantly loved the clip and its turned out to become like Brutal Truth's calling card.We submitted it to the Guinness book and were very happy to see it featured as offically recognised as the world's shortest video in the book, about 5 years ago.The band even had their picture in the Guinness book!

Here it is- its simply made up of about 40 still frames of war/horror scenes- blink and you'll miss it!

Death's demos/out-takes and live CDs

Question: here\'s an interesting one what is earache\'s attitude to bands who self release demos and out takes alongside their offical back catolouge? are they allowed to do it or not? the best example i can think of is chuck of death( who from reading this blog is someone earache wanted to work with), he obviously self released a back catolouge of death out takes, alternative versions, songs that dont fit into the albums and demos for his entire career, what im wondering is if earache had signed him would you have stopped him from doing this? From:

Answer: I'm not sure how much you know of the DEATH HISTORY and the sequence of the band's releases, but I'm fairly certain when Chuck was alive he would never have wanted to release a ton of crappy live albums and demos/outtakes.Most musicians ONLY want their best work on sale, many are quite protective of their outtakes and prefer them hidden out of the public view, Earache generally agrees with this stance, using demos sparingly as japanese extra tracks is common though.
What you are missing is the actual reason for the release of so many outtakes/live CDs. Death made 7 killer, groundbreaking, genre-defining studio albums,on firstly Combat records and later on Nuclear Blast in the 80s-90s.These are some of the best Death metal albums ever recorded, Chuck literally invented the genre, then quite unexpectedly,at the peak of his creative powers, Chuck was cruelly diagnosed with a brain tumor, and passed away in December 2001.
To help pay for substantial medical bills and treatment- a series of live DVDs were quickly released by Nuclear Blast- the motivation was to keep chuck alive, not to showcase his live skills to fans.So the live in LA and Eindhoven DVD's/CDs were understandably shoddy and poor quality, but necessary.After his passing his mother and sister became in control of his estate, and I suspect a few years later arranged the demos/ outtakes of Chuck's other band 'Control Denied' on Hammerheart to again raise money for the Schuldiner family.

Heres Pull The Plug, one Death's Classics!

Fudge Tunnel early 7inch

Wondered if you could shed some light on something that\'s been bugging me for years.

I bought the first pressing of Fudge Tunnels\' \'Hate Songs...\' LP when it was released back in 91. The vinyl came sealed in plastic, with a free 7\" of \'Cat Scratch Fever\' and \'Joined at the dick\'. My copy of the 7\" has the cover spattered with blue\' green and red paint and has \'Blizzard of fudge\' written on the other side in silver marker. I have seen other copies of the 7\" and all of them came in a plain black innersleve.

Any ideas on it\'s origin? Thanks man! From: sutton808303@gmail.com


Answer: Thanks for reminding me about that, what you have is a copy personalised by the band - they scribbled their words of wisdom on it, just for you! The 7inch only came i think with the first 1000 LP's of the debut, and from memory about 100 of them were personalised.The idea was that you'd have something highly collectible in years to come, err but the band split a few years later, shame that part of the bargain didnt work out eh?
It came about because the band lived in our home town of Nottingham, they would be in the office a lot anyways, and it occured to us geniuses at the label that a cheap/easy/simple marketing idea would be to get the band to personalise some of the records, which they did -albeit reluctantly, because it seemed hella tacky to them.So they trooped into the office weeks before the release,and we gave em an assortment of coloured marker pens- and they went to work marking and scribbling on them. The sleeves were sent to the plant and were inserted into the packaging and shrinkwrapped for shops.
The idea seemed to actually go down well with fans, so this was expanded upon for the next Fudge Tunnel release, the follow up CD Creep Diets was again personalised by the band - from memory about 5000 CD were done this way, the band spent 2 long nights at home marking the white area under the trays with their scribbles.
If you saw a used copy today you'd assume it was graffitied by the owner, not the actual band.Hope this explains what you bought, and why.Guitarist Alex Newport from the band relocated to USA, stayed in music,and is now a respected producer in San Francisco I beleive, and his claim to fame is he produced the demo which got System Of A Down signed.

How many albums til dropped?

Question: monte connor said on the chimaria dvd \"if somthing isnt happening by the second album, that band normally gets the axe\", Is this comon practice around the record industry or just roadrunner, do bands really normally have two albums to prove themselves, or is it different with earache being as you seem to keep hold of bands because of artistic value as opposed to just profit? From:


Answer: What Monte says is true and Roadrunner have to think like that but -being the straight talking good guy that he is- if you think about it, its actually just common sense, at least from a business perspective.Its quite common practise nowadays with labels tightening their belts,some even bail on a band after ONE album, or majors can even lose interest after ONE single!
Its cut-throat at the top.
The cost of launching new bands is astronomical-even if recordings can be done on a budget these days, touring and marketing costs are still sky-high.Eventually the economics are just not viable unless a band is paying its way.
A hell of a lot of goodwill is extended to new bands in the early stages by everyone, fans, promoters, journalists, the label - most people in the industry want bands to succeed.But time after time, if bands do not live up to their promise, then the knives quickly get sharpened and bloodshed ensues. Its not pretty, its a brutal business at times.Bands are often the last to realise theres a problem-obviously their 3rd album will "definately be their masterpeice", but if they dare actually venture out onto the road, they soon learn wether they have any fans or not- if clubs are empty after 2 albums,then something is wrong, and why bother, honestly?
Can you name any bands who created their defining masterpeice album on album 3? I can't!
Bands split up at this stage usually..
Journalists are often the executioners -they queue up to give the underperforming bands abysmal reviews, and reading the reviews is like the last rites.Bands get the picture that everything is not rosy by that stage.

In the 90's Earache kept faith with some of our major bands for albums 5-6-7-8 even when they were treading water, creatively speaking, with latter stage albums, even as their fanbases were dropping precipitiously, and terrible reviews were being printed,but this was the exception in the Industry. We acted through a sort of loyalty to the bands.Nowadays the economics of making records, especially in the torrent/megauploadnazi/rapidsharenazi era, means we cant extend such goodwill much beyond 2 albums ourselves, anymore.

Earache classic CD+DVD series

Question: Hello, my questions concern the Classic Series. There\'s a \"widget\" on Earache\'s myspace that shows Deicide, Mortiis, Cathedral, and Berzerker albums that have yet to be reissued as a part of the Classic Series.
How are those coming along?
Do you plan on continuing with this series of CD/DVD reissues? From: hedbngnmetlhed16@yahoo.com

Answer: Yes- well spotted- the series of a classic Earache back catalog CDs freshly repackaged with a FREE DVD has gone down really well with fans and the shops/retailers alike,i guess you can spot a bargain when you see one!So we are continuing it with the Cathedral, Carnival Bizzare with added "your God has landed" DVD, its in shops in late July.August brings Deicide Scars of the Crucifix with DVD of rare gig featuring the Hoffman brothers on guitar duties.
The Berzerker one we missed the chance to release it around the UK tour, we might rush release it to coincide with summer slaughter UK appearances.
Morbid Angel's Blessed Are The Sick is slated to receive the FREE DVD treatment aswell- DVD will be the band in studio talking about the making of the album and maybe a live show from the period.We would'nt mind doing TERRORIZER's CD or SLEEP or maybe a BOLT THROWER - we have to scour the archives for film footage first though.If you have any suggestions feel free to comment below.

Getting back to demo bands

Question: How long do you guys usually take to get back to bands that have sent demos in? Is it a long process or do you guys usually snatch up the ones you want right-off the bat? From:


Answer: Like most labels, we dont have time to get back to you all,cos we are swamped- unless we are showing "interest"- it can take us up to 3 months to cotton on to your band, so if you hear nothing by then, you plainly didnt grab us.I've explained here before that most demo bands are pretty decent, but it takes something extra- like hearing good things about you from other sources,like from folks whos opinion we respect, or reading a great review online etc to grab our undivided attention...Roughly speaking we probably approach 10 to 12 bands a year,proclaiming "interest" and from them, we aim to sign maybe 4 or 5 acts- its common that other labels make rival offers to bands we are taking to, or often bands prefer to go it alone, DIy style..also some bands think they are Led Zeppelin and want financial conditions that dont match our assessment, also some dont feel comfortable with a record deal at all (which always baffles me, why did they approach a label then?)
Considering we get maybe 4000 aproaches a year the odds are long...this blog is full of helpful tips and techniques to lessen the odds of getting signed.If you delve deep into this blog and follow the advice,which is pretty simple- write great songs and tour them constantly, you will get signed.Actually if any NEW band reading this can prove they have performed 250+ gigs in a year, which is about the most any massively touring band on this label has ever done, and didnt self destruct in the process, we'd be extremely interested in you!

Noise bands on earache?

Question: hello,
i know Earache is full metal madness but i also digged into some un-usual releases like gabber electronics for example \"ultra-violence\",i have an offical album i would like to submit but it\'s \"noise\",i would like to know if you have door open for this genre.
thanks!!
best regards;)
E. Bohorquez From: aatmaa@hotmail.com


Answer: Grind/HC/Noise like A.C and the extreme techno/gabber of DOA/Ultraviolence is about as "Noise" as we have gotten on the label over the years.Some would argue that our entire output is unlistenable noise though ha ha.Now and again we wonder about how an actual experimental noise band would go down, so yeah we might be open to dabbling in the genre, and Birmingham's upcoming supersonic festival would be the place to perform, we might even catch you there.
Send us your myspace link dude.

Neurosis on Earache?

Question: Did earache really try to sign neurosis back in the day? as from what ive been reading justin broadrick and shane embury were both champions of the band and steve von till has said how they have been approached by nearly every label around the globe. From:

Answer:Well, thats what this little blog is for- dont beleive everything you read bro... Nah, that one is wrong, Earache never really crossed paths with Neurosis, I've known about em since day 1 when they were a HC punk band- but strangely I've never been a massive fan, and anyways the band have always had label before i even began Earache.Before Relapse they were on Dead Kennedys label Alternative Tentacles and since Relapse have been on their own label Neurot- Neurosis are strong proponents of the DIY way of doing business, which is fine.I dont think I've even seen the band- thats how little we cared, i consider them a bit too long in the tooth to be doing much fresh, tho people tell me the live shows are some of the most stunning ever.

why no Morbid Angel DVD onsale?

Question: hi guys,i was wondering why there is no morbid angel dvd besides the altars of madness reissue.for example a dvd featuring a live show/videos/interviews etc.for a successful band with 8 full length albums i find it strange when bands with just 1 album have dvd\'s available!with m.a. being on a couple of different labels in their career could pose a problem but other bands have been in the same situation but still released one! From: Tessmick@supernerd.com.au

Answer: yeah I agree its kinda weird that a band who are as legendary and influential as Morbid Angel have no DVD instores AT ALL.The reason is this: the band are incredibly picky and perfectionist in everything they release to the public, from art to audio to video, it has to be 100% perfect,as they see it, before it can be sold to the fans.When the band recorded their live CD "Entangled In Chaos" they did not do the traditional thing- record a gig and release it, instead they recorded EVERY gig on a 20 date USA tour, in the process lugging a 24trk machine to every show (this was before protools/digital recording techniques) and the eventual CD is an amalgam/segue from 3-4-5 different gigs on that tour. Its an admirable stance, but Its downside is- still no DVD instores.

Earache has been the only label (despite wikipedia saying their first label was New Renaissance? huh - wrong- who writes that junk anyway?) that has released every recording by the band in its entire history so far,a period spanning 20 years, and beleive me we have tried to coax em into doing a DVD many times, but since we appreciate the stance of the members, we agreed to defer any DVD.Earache does have tons of footage of the band in the can- pro-shot, multi camera classic gigs- none have been deemed perfect enough, so we are waiting for the "okay".The reason the 1989 footage from Nottingham Rock City was released on the DualDisc of Altars Of Madness was because even tho its not perfect, its rarity and sheer archive value of the band playing songs right after the release of the debut, outweighed those concerns, rightly so.

The latest wrinkle in the negotiations is the fact that footage including the latter period singer Steve Tucker (F, G, H albums) is now redundant as original singer David Vincent returned to the Morbid fold after nearly a decade away.Fans checking out the latest tour will notice no songs from the F, G H albums are aired anymore.So its 2 Morbid Angel-eras in our back catalog now, which seemingly will never mix.

We are planning however on a Blessed Are The Sick special dualdisc edition, with footage and interviews with the members talking about the early days of the band.

Vinyl run-out groove messages

Question: Hey. I not too long ago bought a copy of Harmony Corruption. Atthe middle of the vinyl theres stuff carved in. This took me a few months to spot actually, cos i was blowing dust from the record and held it side on to the light and i could see the scribed stuff. It was MPO on both sides. Mosh 19 A^ and the A side and Mosh 19 B^ on the B side. But then its got some wierd stuff. On Side A it also has \"How Chuffed?\" scribed in and \"Utopic\". On side B it says \"What a doss\".

Do you have any idea of what this could be?
Dan From: danwain21@aol.com

Answer: yeah its the identifying marks scratched into the vinyl during the manufacturing process- MPO is the plant that mass produced the vinyl (in france) Utopia is the cutting studio in London where the master tape is transfered to acetate (vinyl master).
The other words are a hidden message I added to the vinyl run-out groove during the Mastering/Cutting process, in the cutting process the vinyl acetate is quite soft plastic and can easily be etched with a simple sharp tool...it was quite common in the 80's/ 90's for bands to leave cryptic messages for fans in the run out groove.Usually they arre in-jokes or spur of the moment sayings..mostly nothing really profound.How CHuffed and What a DOss were sayings which Napalm death members used to use on a daily basis at the time, so seemed appropriate to add them, simply to raise a chuckle when the fans read it.Nearly every Earache records vinyl edition has some saying or other etched in the run out groove, cept in recent years when the idea seems to have gone out of fashion.

Touring or Stay at Home?

Question: Ive always wondered how esential to a bands survival is touring? I know that loads of bands talk about how through touring its how they make money, but on the other side of the coin look at a band like ulver or ewigkiet who actually have some mystique about them and are able to do other things musically because they dont play live, what side of the fence do earache sit regarding this? From:

Answer:For new bands, Its all about building an audience..by any means necessary, and touring is the most sure-fire way to do it that i know of.Music is booming, online and onstage- so any new band starting out which doesn't tour is basically a hobby band, and in staying at home, thats most likely how they will remain.I firmly believe touring is an essential ingredient to kick start the career of any professionally-minded band- professional in the sense that all the members would want to make a living from the band, no dayjobs.Plenty of bands we know have less lofty ambitions, people of course have different ideas on what constitutes a 'career' - sadly, we dont work with such bands for long.
The live circuit for bands is booming nowadays as kids download music for free and instead prefer to check out bands live, rather than purchase a CD.In many ways the sheer hard work involved in the touring aspect is what weeds out the serious bands from the wannabees.The band meets the public for real, in the flesh, and its this constant real interaction with the public which i beleive magically leads to success.

I admit there is probably a handful of examples of biggish metal bands who have never played a gig, but are quite legendary in the scene- tho I cant actually think of any right now, even Emperor did actually tour quite a bit in the early days.

In the internet era, message board promo, myspace fan interacting & youtube clips could in theory replace the touring aspect, but the merchandise income is what many band members live off nowadays, so no touring severly limits this aspect.

South West UK scene blowing up bigstyle

Question: firstly i want to thank earache for signing Ignominious Incarceration and finally taking notice of the Bath/Bristol/South West Scene, Are there any other bands from the region that you are looking at out of interest such as maybe bristol deathcore band burning skies or swindon based dark angel style thrashers darkness descends? From:

Answer: thanks for the kind words...yeah we love what Ignom are doing so snapped em up- with luck, they could make Wellington Death Metal more famous than the Wellington Boots!To be honest its not like we notice where a band is from- great bands come from all over the place (cept London & New York where there are - alarmingly-no good metal bands whatsoever, beleive me, I've checked).

Some of the best most original music is made by bands on the fringes, in the suburbs..

As for Burning Skies we know of them- a good band, are doing well- but somehow they didnt grab us with the vocals, and Darkness Descends we've never heard of at all, cant even find a myspace. Bands from South West we have our eye on are Seregon, Terrahorn and naturally the biggest band lately is Trigger The Bloodshed who we, rather stupidly, passed on.

METAL - THE BOX SETS 6x CDs 1 & 2

Question: Hello,

Thank you in advance for taking time to read my ranting bullshit. I do have
questions as well though

First of all, who was in charge of putting together the \"Metal: a
headbanger\'s companion\" sets? I ask because the first one was amazing. A
good collection of bands, and genres and even opened me up to some new stuff
that I loved. But the second headbanger\'s companion was shit. The bands and
songs were fucking awesome, don\'t get me wrong. But the so-called
\"genres\" they were divided into looked like a lame ass excuse to put
together a cheap ass sequel of the same stuff. Leaving so much untouched
potential in the world of alternative music (metal specifically) I mean you
could have gone with real, established, genres instead. Such as: Black
metal, Power metal, Power Violence, Sludge metal, doom metal, old
school/classic metal(admittedly harder understanding you would have to get
rights to that shit), Cybergrind, Industrial metal, gothic metal, Nu metal,
metalcore (despite those last two being rather shitty in my opinion) etc. A
collection with shit like that in it would be much better in my opinion, and
fit better with the first compilation. And I would be much more willing to
drop money on something like that. I don\'t mean to bitch; just my opinion.

Thanks again,
Jesse From: j.r.w.houston@gmail.com

Answer: well thanks for purchasing our box sets- glad you found them useful.I hope you agree both Boxes 1 and 2 are excellent value for money and an easy and cheap way to feed your ipod with 100+ tracks of quality metal for under a tenner.Both are also available on itunes store as download...i recommend it, its awesome to watch a 100 tracks d/l in one go into itunes, you have 6+ hours of metal in minutes, all tagged and high quality.
The first box was done by genre, the second was more by theme.
Regarding the compilers- I was the one who did the First Box set. Dan Tobin who is the label manager of Earache did the Second Box.You have to realise that 100% of the tracks on both boxes come from the considerable Earache back catalog/archives, spanning 20 years of extreme metal (we invented the genre after all), and its hard to fit them into the genres you mention, simply because earache itself during that time did not sign too many black metal bands or gothic metal acts , and had zero power metal acts. So you are right, to expand the series into a second box was a struggle for us to fit the bands into the genres.
Our next box will dig deep into the catalog and unearth some gems, compiled by country of origin...so it'll be a global metal comp, featuring acts grouped under say, sweden, USA, Uk, Poland etc. Watch for it around october.

Mick Harris-Napalm Death & Scorn, a legend 2x

Question: Are you aware that earache was credited in helping pioneer another genre which is dubstep in that mary ann hobbs branded mick harris and his scorn project the godfather of the genre being as many of the new bands seem to relate back to scorn, does it seem weird to you that now the trendy clubs and labels have only really started catching up with what earache was releasing over a decade before? From:

Answer: SCORN music is kinda trendy now and played by Mary Ann Hobbs on radio 1? Are you sure? we had no idea!- you mean cos its similar to the heavy bassline 'Grime' stuff, which is hella popular now, i assume?Fair play to mick for sticking at it, and getting the long-overdue props.
Going back to early-mid 90's, Earache were doing Fenetik and Dj Senator records in 94! DJ Senator includes Simon 'Bassline' Smith -and hes GOD of bassline ha ha
It's Mick Harris who is the pioneer, not Earache (I am more of a serial-dabbler into street scenes that seem fresh, original & interesting).As it happens, I was the first to introduce Mick to early 90's' UK jungle-rave'like ACEN back when he was still in Napalm Death- the quizzical look on his face when he heard the rolling earthquake-basslines was a picture. He bought a sampler soon afterwards and went headlong into electronic music as Scorn.
The SCORN album Zander is sheer bass-quaking genius, what Mick has done is add darkness & ferocity to the bassline- too many other producers use it in a polite way..its about time the industry handed out some gongs in his direction.I'm gonna make them do it.

heres the living legend quaking-up Budapest, on the wheels of steel in 2007:

Next Big Trend in Metal?

Question: Being as earache seem to be able to see into the future as to trends before they break and since you predicted the new wave of thrash whats the next big metal craze on the horizon then? From:


Answer: thank you for noticing- and for overlooking the fact that earache missed the entire genres of Black Metal & Gothic metal and Nu-Metal and Emo/Screamo (maybe that was for the better eh?) Sooo let me gaze into my crystal ball..aaaannnd its coming up with 8-bit Nintendo blip-grindcore dude.Like THIS.
You can take that to the bank dude.
Plenty of scene watchers predict the return of D-BEAT to prominence actually..its overdue, and Relapse has an entire compilation dedicated to the genre coming soon i hear.

Or try the return of NWOBHM !! yeah,that and Brootal Modern Death metal with sub-bass which is kicking up a storm already- sounding exactly like THIS THIS THIS- but not at the same time obviously, that would be plain silly.Also try THESE as a long shot.Its a fair bet the future of metal is somewhere in the picture above.
I am available for paid consultancy- rates negotiable, but only if it includes beer, and pizza on demand.

(Metal + Punk) x Shred= BONDED BY BLOOD!

Question: Hey guys how are you doing? I recently discovered BBB from a youtube video I saw of their guitarist. I will get their album once its out here in the US. I\'m a big vinyl collector and I was wondering if there will be any vinyls of this album? Another quick question, Why are the UK and US dates so far part from each other? Anyways, I cant wait to see them Live and get the Album from what I heard on Myspace they are great. Music is played very tightly and they sort of have a punk attitude. Definetly a band to look out for. Im tired of the rest of the California scene BBB is a breath of fresh air. Thank You Earache.


-Fred Swanson




Answer: Welcome Fred! Glad you checked out BBB and like what you saw- you are damn right, they are a remarkable new band...I am playing the album constantly and It is simply devastating-hands down, the best of 2008.
FEED THE BEAST is true modern crossover--its a mix of classic punky snot-nosed attitude (some riffs- Mind Pollution or Civil Servant- remind me of old UK punk legends EXPLOITED) with tight, thrashy REAL DRUMS, which actually sound dynamic and lively, instead of the triggered/processed crap which passes for drums in metal these days.. and to top things off is the stunning OTT guitar shredder that is Mr. Alex Lee (who is incredibly humble about his amazing talents) which makes BONDED BY BLOOD a unique band in the new Thrash scene, and one, lets not forget, barely out of their teens.
To answer your question: CD is out JUne 24 in USA- hurry to get the 2 xtra tracks edition, June 9 in UK..the album is now on sale on Itunes Europe.Vinyl edition is coming ina few months- you'll have to get the CD first dude.The delay in the vinyl is so we can see how BBB sales are going- it will make us decide how lavish the Vinyl should be- either 2 x LP gatefold or single pic disc.Vinyl does not always sell out we find..its a tricky format to sell as retailers do not generally carry it, its a direct sale thru the mail usually.

How big is a BIG metal act??

Question: my band recently played to 150 in my home town, we regularly get good crowds even out of state.MY question is, how big do we have to get signed to a label like Earache? From:


Answer: Thats a tricky one to answer, because "bigness", like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.150 kids coming to your shows is impressive in some ways, but it depends what kinda kids are seeing you-if its just family & friends you might be in the dreaded "local act circuit', in which case you are kinda stuck.Every town has them, even major cities like New York and London have their share of local scene bands, who draw impressive crowds, but never break out on the road, even regionally, and consequently don't generate any wider, national buzz or create new fans.

In Earache's own home town of Nottingham UK, there is a thriving 'local band scene'where some bands play maybe 4 times a year, and are treated like legends in the town.For these special events, they invite all friends and family, and its like a massive private party- the band knows personally everyone in the crowd and ham it up to the max, and everyone is entertained- after the triumphant show, they simply can't understand why Earache doesnt 'snap em up' immediately..Its cos they are too local.
Many local bands dont take the show on the road, preferring to lap up the adulation on the doorstep..so it doesnt grow any bigger.If the same band played even 20 miles down the road at say Derby, the crowd would be 5 people.
The bands Earache signs have to have wider appeal than being local 'superstars'.

Entwined -UK metal band from 98?

Question: So...Entwined is under your label. I followed them while they were underground almost four years ago, but then they kind of disappeared. No new albums or anything. What happened to them? From: lessismore@live.com

Answer: Well i think you have a memory-lapse dude, cos you mean more like 10 years ago surely?.In actual fact Earache did one album by this short-lived Uk gothic-tinged metal band in 1998!! No one really cared about them at the time,fans never embraced their type of unashamed METAL (they were ahead of the resurgence in true metal) hence the short lived career.Y'know, you might well be the first person to mention the name in a decade to us.We have no clue what the ex-members are doing now, its a fair bet they are not in music, and have 'proper jobs' now, because they were smart, educated dudes. heres a interesting WEBSITE circa 98 that was operating in 1998, and is still online- a real time capsule glimpse into what a metal bands website looked like, circa late-90's.

How To Get Signed- part 32,976

Question: heyy guys, i was wondering what we need to do to get signed by you guys. we\'re a new band in south east london, and we could really do with being signed. what do we need to do to get your seal of approval? thanks From: devil1000@hotmail.co.

Answer: Simple answer is write great songs, and tour them, and tour them some more, and keep touring- and if the lucky breaks go your way- right sound, right time- then its possible you might get signed to Earache or any label.One thing new bands have no clue about is the sheer number of other bands clamouring for the same thing....we get approaches on a daily basis- dozens- so up to 4000 bands yearly come to our attention...and since we only sign 4-5-6 bands per year, the simple maths says to be signed you have to be better than the 3995 others.its TOUGH ODDS, but some bands do fit the bill for this label, and they do get signed, so its not impossible.Read more on this topic HERE

Doing Business with a Label?

Question: My question requires a little backstory:

In \'05 I recorded a demo EP on my computer as a hobbyist project during college. Instead of sending it to labels, I posted MP3s online. Within a year my popularity online had grown from a few listens a day to tens of thousands daily as the demos peaked in in \'06. Since then I\'ve been asked to play the lower 48 and the UK (I\'m in Alaska), got a major retail distribution for future material, a small record deal, and met some helpful contacts. All I did without having a flying clue how.

Now \'08, I\'ve spent two years learning all I can about the music industry. I figured if I made an
impression accidentally, then an intentional plan from a business perspective would make for a
successful artist entry in an otherwise boring US rock scene. Now I have a producer and a studio,
we\'re thinking about the best way to do this independently.

Pay-A&R companies are useless, they\'re not metal/hard-rock knowledgeable. There\'s only a few
artist-friendly labels I trust (Earache having the best reputation). Is it possible for an indie
artist to contact a label through a business proposition? We need no help monetarily, but labels have staff that could advise us on PR, production, A&R, and bring to our attention what I\'d miss on my own. For indie artists seeking professional genre specific help, is it possible to propose a business collaboration with a carefully chosen label? If I wanted to contact Earache\'s US branch, who could I talk to for a few minutes to bounce my plans off of? Is contacting a label from a business perspective an unheard of approach?


From: quirkphinder@yahoo.com

Answer: I cant quite figure out what you are asking dude..the USA office number is 2128409090 ask for Al Dawson, the label manager, he can help with your enquiry.We are a real label with a real catalog and real staff and real distribution into CD stores - its a given that we have real knowledge of career development in the metal field,touring, merchandising, promotion etc its our daily work - all day, every day.
A fact i have repeated many times in this blog and many new bands have no clue about is that competition to get signed is beyond extreme.we must have 4000 approaches per year, and sign maybe 3-4-5 bands maximum.Its like that for all labels...the odds are stacked against any new band, its often sheer luck and 'right sound, right place, right time' that is the difference between signed and unsigned.Taking 2 years to think about it might not be wise.
I for one have never heard of "Pay-A&R"- i guess thats folks who take your money and promise to offer advice or shop your demo to labels?As a label boss, Ive never been impressed by folks touting bands- we prefer to deal with artists direct, because we have a better understanding of the artist that way, we prefer to work with creative people, not suits.
I *THINK* you are saying that you have already have some success, with thousands of mp3's downloaded, without much effort, so you are planning to try to go at it for real, and simply need advice, and not financial support.My 2 cents worth of advice for any band is 1) write great songs and 2) tour 3) tour 4) tour 5) repeat.

Sub-Pop and Fudge Tunnel connection?

Question: why do you think it is out of all the earache bands it was godflesh who clicked better with the seattle scene than any of the others? If you look at pictures of bands from that scene during the 90s theres either a godflesh shirt on a band member or a poster on the room that they are being photographed in, and didnt nivarna take gf on tour? I would have thought fudge tunnel would have clicked with that scene better personally but didnt they try to distance themseleves from it? From:


Answer:It was about the timing i think. The Sub-Pop driven grunge scene, before it exploded and its bands went onto world superstardom, had many of their debut albums in the UK indie charts in the early 90's, as Earache did too.Tho we were on 2 different continents, we were both making waves in the Indie rock scene, so we had a certain affinity, from afar, with Sub Pop for a year or two.We also knew the guy at our UK distro Revolver - Gary Held -who released the Sub Pop stuff here on Tupelo records, so we had a inside contact.
Nirvana never took Godflesh on tour, but i think Fudge Tunnel might have at least supported a Sub Pop band on an early london show once.Godflesh were asked to record for the sub pop singles club and 'Slateman' came out on 7inch on Sub Pop, Fudge tunnel were more intune with Amphetamine reptile bands like jesus lizard or Helmet...so we kinda had a few tenuous connections with those early 90's USA labels for while.Obviously everything changed soon after 'Nevermind' was out, Nirvana had become the biggest band on the planet, and our paths never crossed with sub pop ever again.

Biomechanical - Cannibalised faulty sound of CD?

Question: Hi there, first of all I\'d like to congratulate you guys for pleasing our ears with such great artists. The reason I\'m writing to you is in regards of something that\'s got me really worried, otherwise I wouldn\'t be writing to you at all since I don\'t tend to do this kind of stuff. The thing is that I bought Biomechanical\'s Cannibalised (love the band) when it came out (I\'m from P.R. so had to go to the hassle of ordering it) and I was just wondering if you guys have had any kind of complaintabout this album because the production is really really bad and the music can\'t be understood at all, I\'ve read about this on some reviews posted on the net and most people are complaining about the same matter. I\'d just like to know if there\'s any plans of remastering the album because I\'m dying to listen to the new music. I\'ll be honest, can\'t even understand the guitars let alone the voice, can\'t even tell what notes they are in, specially John K\'s.
Please, if there\'s anything that can be done with this matter I\'d really appreciate it as well as many (heard of some people downloading instead of buying because of this matter just to take the taste of the music)other Biomechanical fans.
Thanks a lot, G. From: jeechr@gmail.com

Answer: Ahhh bless your delicate ears..this is intense extreme modern heavy metal so better get used to it bro! We know what you mean but there is no plans to remaster the CD, it sounds as the band wishes it to be...Cannibalised is a highly futuristic, almost experimental, extreme listening album!We even had a warning on the promo CD so that journalists would realise its MEANT to sound that way, the album is called Cannibalised after all- slow ballads would not suit the concept.Biomechanical are a different animal on this album than on previous Cd's- i'd term them extreme heavy metal.The CD is not faulty, its produced by the band, mixed by Chris Tsangarides (Judas priest) and mastered by a top london mastering house, who did Sex Pistols, The Who etc.The mainman John K wanted it to sound agressive and angry and also to have cinematic, orchestral parts which the band are famous for aswell, tho those parts are in short supply, i agree,...I'm sorry if you were not expecting this type of sound from the band.The label was also shocked when they delivered the CD, but on repeated plays the picture becomes clearer and the frantic million mile an hour riffing begins to make sense.

INDUSTRIAL METAL BANDS on EARACHE?

Question: I discovered Earache back in \'00 not through the extreme metal bands you\'re famous for, but through the more electronic based artists like Mortiis and Pitchshifter. It was actually The Berzerker that got me interested in death and grindcore. Industrial-based bands are generally few in proportion to the amount of metal bands on Earache... do you still look for bands of that ilk these days? From: quirkphinder@yahoo.com

Answer: yeah Earache had a few years when i was a massive fan of the industrial-metal genre..Ministry and also The Prodigy were the bands that opened my eyes to the power and flexibility that electronic drums allied to guitars can produce.The production on their albums was pure power..mainly because it was digitally derived. Nowadays we have less bands like that- berzerker was the last one - and also the less extreme Society 1 (matt zane pictured with hooks in flesh)- because the style of the scene is changing fast and in some ways the electronic drum sounds themselves seem dated, to my ears at least.New recording techinques mean that analog acoustic drum sounds can be as powerful as digital these days- and infintely more varied aswell..meaning digital drum sounds are pretty much passe.

NAPALM SCUM LP BLUE SLEEVE?

Question: Napalm Death :Scum LP with BLUE SLEEVE
Hello , was this Scum LP with Blue sleeve really ever sold ? ,in the last 19 years i have sean hundrets of copies with GREEN + YELLOW sleeve , a lot copies with the Orange/red and the Splatter Vinyl with GOLDEN sleeve but not 1 single copie in BLUE ,and cause the fact the 1987 > 1990 was still a good time for VINYL i can\'t expect they exist only 100 or 200 copies... Did You maybe have a good PIC of the blue one ? ,THANK you( i,m working
on a German collectors data base www.musik-sammler.de and my user ID is ZZOOOUHH ) From: zzooouhh@gmx.eu


Answer: yeah i guess it is rare - not many have seen it BUT i am holding one in my hands in the pic, to compare to the regular lime green standard version..it was released on blue sleeve, maybe about 500 copies in say 1988 or so. see pic for proof!
and heres a collection submitted by a reader of the blog- IMPRESSIVE!

NAKED CITY

Question: HI

I HAVE THE NAKED CITY ALBUM TORTURE GARDEN WHICH I AM TRYING TO FIND SOME INFORMATION ABOUT BUT WHEN I HAVE LOOKED ON YOUR WEBSITE THE ONE YOU HAVE LISTED HAS A DIFFERENT COVER TO THE ONE I HAVE. ON THE RECORD IT STATES MOSH 28 B\'2.

IS THIS A REISSUE AND WHAT YEAR IS IT?

THANKS


Answer:we released the Naked City album "torture garden" Mosh 28 on gatefold vinyl Lp and music-cassette (but not CD) in 1991.the cover pictured on our site is wrong, its the version on Cd released by USA label shimmy disc at around the same time.The band chose to have two different labels do the record on different formats.The image accompanying this post is the cover of the earache edition.Sorry for the mis-information!

IS EARACHE INDIE?

Question: are you guys totally indie or do you have some sort of major backing. i\'m doing a report for class so any info on that would be aweosme. thanks!

Answer: We are about as indie as they come.The label is still 100% owned and controlled by the same muppet that started it in the bedroom, me.Its highly unusual for labels that have grown this size and been around so long to be without any Major label stake.The major labels- the 4 that are still responsible for over 75% of the worlds music sales- Universal, Sony-BMG, warners, EMI- do have a history of getting involved in big selling Indie labels, but Earache has pretty much operated under the radar of them, we've not had a huge act to attract their attention- just a series of pretty legendary and innovative metal acts through the years.We do currently use 2 majors for their distribution networks though- EMI in USA and Warners in UK.

LAWNMOWER DETH MEMBERS?

Question: Is it true that Qualcast used to work for Earache and his real name is Pete?

Answer: Lawnmower Deth seem to getting a bit of attention again lately- UK's Metal Hammer mag even asked for a track on last months cover-mount Thrash CD- we gave em Urban surfer 125.Lawnmower Deth were a much-loved Nottingham area UK thrash band circa 1990-96, mostly specialising in humerous, frantic songs with loads of crowd participation at their gigs ( witnessing 800 people doing the dying fly at rock city was a sight to behold).The members actual identities were shrouded in secrecy- going under stupid pseudonyms- but i can reveal that the singer Qualcast Mutilator did indeed work at Earache records during that time.Pete Lee was our press officer, and a ruddy fine one- Pete co-ordinated the press and promotion of Earache's legendary bands during the early 90's explosion.

Since the band split, sightings of the ex-members have been thin on the ground.. guitarist Paddy can still be often seen at death metal gigs in Rock city.Kev (Baron Von stench Chisel marbles) moved into tech-ing and became tour manager for Bullet for my valentine,he's one of the best in the business, so is constantly on the road to this day.Pete Lee moved into normal jobs, he sells interactive whiteboards to schools. I have a gut feeling a one off re-union gig will not be too far away.
But for now, heres a glimpse into their most famous moment!

CARCASS- 5 DVD documentaries coming up soon

Question: I have preordered the latest Necroticism reissue. What I was wondering about is - what is the release schedule for the other reissues? I am really anxious to get their full discography and watch the entire documentary :)

Answer: Carcass were interviewed - all members, in liverpool and london and in various locations- for a few days in september 07, and the resulting documentary film is 2 and half hours long.It charts the history of the band from 1988's gore-soaked grind beginnings to the major label-bound Death metal chart act which split up in 1996.The whole story is told in the bands own words.The documentary is split into 5 parts- and called THE PATHOLOGIST'S REPORT. Each part comes as bonus material DVD in USA or DUALDISC in UK/EUrope on the reissue of each of the bands 5 albums which is taking place from April (with necroticism) then every couple of months, heartwork, reek, symphonies, and swansong, till the end of the year. So the parts are released in a strange sequence- parts III, IV, I, II, and finally VI.The crazy thing about the documentary is it goes into great detail of the career of the band BUT DOESNT MENTION THE REFORMATION, as this was not announced until the end of 2007.In some ways the actual getting together for the DVD was the spark for the band to reform we feel.

CARCASS- original CD made in France-??

Question: Good afternoon! My name is Dmitriy. I am a collectioner of CD\'s of extreme music from Russia. Please, exuse me for me bad english. About 1991-1992 I bought CD Carcass - Symphonies of sickness MOSH 18CD with bonus tracks and original cover with meat collage and without logo of carcass and without title of album on the first page of booklet. I have the following problem and question:

On the back inlay of my CD where is following information:
MOSH 18CD, 5 018615 101826, Made in England.

But on CD (red picture) where is following information: MOSH 18CD, Made in France by MPO,
Published by EARACHE SONGS U.K., C 1989 Earache records, p 1989 Earache records.

CD Matrix is: Mosh Cd 18 MPO 07.

Please, help me! I do not understand what does it mean? CD made in France and artwork made in England or not? Is my Cd is a right first pessing CD
or not? I hope, that your specialists help to me. Best regards. I am fan of Carcass, Napalm death, Municipal waste, Filthy christians, Terrorizer and many other Earache bands.

Answer: yes indeed this is an early first pressing of the Symphonies of sickness CD by Carcass.Back in 1989 this was a time before the EU! and each seperate country of manufacture was required to be published on the packaging.As you rightly point out, the cd was made in France at MPO plant and the booklet/artwork was made in England- at senol printing.Nowadays the artwork probably says made in EU.

Wanna send us a demo? READ THIS PLS

Question: Given the nature of this label (extreme underground), I assume that the office is beseiged with demos, to the point of resembling one of the ten plagues. Wishing to become one of these plaguers, My question is: Where to ship a demo/ finished album to Earache for consideration? what does the label want included? (i.e- bio, contact info, scary pictures, porno apperances,etc.)


Answer:Sorry dude we have enough plaguers already.. we simply want your myspace url sent using the form on our contacts page (click link to submit your demo)

Cathedral CD + DVD release?

Question: Is there any chance you guys might reissue Cathedral\'s \"Forest of Equilibrium\"? The remastered tracks from \"The Serpent\'s Gold\" were stunning. Maybe a Dual CD/DVD? A doomster can only hope....

Answer: yeah its quite possible we will release this.We are doing a whole slew of Re-issues of our "classic" back catalog titles with FREE DVD- so far its been Napalm Death, Haunted, Entombed- and soon At the gates with never-before seen live gig from 1995, and also Deicide with never before seen gig on DVD.Carcass are having their entire 5-album career issued as CD=DVD editions aswell. So- Cathedral fit the bill-Doomsters should watch out for it!

Deicide & Vital Remains

Question: another question about deicide members, being as ive read before on this blog how earache signs musicans not bands. Id like to know how glen and steve get away with playing in and composing for vital remains because surely thats your investment composing for another label being as steve is the main song writer for deicide. although could this be argued the other way when tony and steve helped out with deicide? thanks


Answer: Nearly every musician we have ever signed always seem to have another band or project on the go, besides their 'main' band.Deicide is no different.Steve has a rock band in the works, Jack is in Adrift, Ralph is in Obituary, but also has a project featuring many famous guitarists underway, Glen helps out on Vital Remains CD when they are recording, even tho VR are signed to Century Media.Dave Suzuki from Vital helped out on a Deicide DVD aswell.Its all done in a friendly way.
Glen also appeared on the Roadrunner United 'All stars" album a couple of years back.None of these things concern us because its really typical of most musicians these days- collaborations and friendships seem to spring up all over the place and members join/help out other acts, on other labels -all the time, especially in the old-school Florida Death Metal scene.We are pretty accomodating about it.Usually the projects provide a little extra quick income to the musician and it doesnt bother Earache so long as the main band is still the major focus.
In all my years, I've yet to see a project band 'take off' and sell more than the main band..tho Vital remains sells well, but its not a project of Deicide, its a functioning touring band in its own right, with glen on guest vokills.
The labels that have exclusive deals with musicians (as Earache does) could prevent such ad-hoc projects, but since we actually encourage people to be creative, we go with the flow.
Actually thinking about it, i think perhaps the ONLY musician we have ever signed who DID NOT have a project band was Trey Azagthoth (Morbid Angel).That shows how singleminded Trey is towards his main band.

Earache's bands going onto Major labels?

Question: Hi, i am doing a dissertion at College on music business management. I would like to know, how many of your bands are on Major Record Companies?

Answer: Right now we only have one band who Earache discovered and released,who are currently on a major record company. That is Linea 77 who are on UNIVERSAL records.
EARACHE has had a pretty remarkable record of our signings going onto Major companies.At the last count, its 13 bands.Out of a total of approx 100 bands signed, thats a better than 1 in 8 chance of progress to a major after a time on Earache.

In the 90's:
MORBID ANGEL- Giant/warners
CATHEDRAL- Columbia Records
NAPALM DEATH- Columbia
CLUTCH- Atlantic Records
SLEEP- London Records
ENTOMBED- East west Records
CARCASS- Columbia Records
FUDGE TUNNEL_ Columbia Records
GODFLESH- Columbia
JANUS STARK- Trauma/MCA
SKINDRED (DUB WAR)- Beiler Brothers/Warners
PITCH SHIFTER - Geffen

Currently on a Major Co:
LINEA 77- Universal

Ralph in Deicide? Nah...not this week.

Question: is ralph santolla a member of deicide or not?

answer: No he's not in Deicide, he's in Obituary, well as far as i know, this week he is...Glen Benton publically fired Ralph from Deicide in early 2007- we dont know the reason but something happened in South America tour - but by late 2007 Ralph had seemingly agreed to appear again, strictly as a guest musician- so consequently he added his riffs and solos to the upcoming Deicide album TILL DEATH DO US PART strictly as a guest guitarist.Ralph also played on the last Deicide album, and had previously lent his undoubted guitar virtuoso skills to DEATH and ICED EARTH, in the 90's.
To be honest Deicide is truly just the duo of Glen Benton and Steve Asheim, as the originators of the group they decide what goes.Every musician 'joins the band' on a project by project basis, with the discussions, financial matters, and the hiring and firing led by Glen Benton as he sees fit.
Ralph got his knickers ina twist when our PR department mistakenly wrote a press release that Ralph has "rejoined Deicide" for this new album. I guess he got annoyed cos it made him look bad to his current outfit Obituary.The truth is.. we have no clue who is in Deicide at any time, their 3 albums and 2 DVD's for us have so far featured no less than 5 different guitarists.

Good idea to form a 100% digital label?

Question: Im looking into forming an anti label called core breach recordings and i wonder if you think its fesible, basically not releasing cds( maybe some in limited runs) but selling 100% through downloads, the band sign to the label for promotion and to pay for the costs of recording, ive been told it could work because i wouldnt have to pay for pressing or shipping, however would people be into a label thats working 100% through downloads.


Answer:I think you will have a REALLY hard time doing it right now. Right now our digital sales are just under 10%, and some major labels have digital sales of 14%,mainly through itunes and amazon Mp3 store- Ok those figures are low, compared to the 90% which STILL comes from Cd's.. but any fool can see, digital is certainly growing, and growing very fast.Industry folks estimate its possibly 5 years until all labels are 100% digital labels, so i agree its only a matter of time, not if.

I think the main question for you in 2008, is wether the fans and especially the bands would be into having no physical release at all?You might well acheive a lot of online praise and support from the Anti-RIAA bloggers - the ones who get all their music free from mega-nazi-upload or media-nazi-fire file hosting sites - BUT I think you will unexpectedly find its the bands themselves who will have the biggest problem with a digital-only label.Most acts expect a label to produce something physical- a CD or Vinyl or maybe some USB-stick artefact- in return for their creative efforts.Even Radiohead, who caused such a media storm with the digital-only release of their 'In rainbows' album, well, within 4 months they also have a regular Cd instores and a special collectors box set aswell, so what does that tell you?

Don't forget also, that Bands themselves can upload their own music onto itunes and many other download sites, without a label being involved.Actually, most bands we deal with these days think uploading 3 songs to myspace is more or less 'a release' of their music.I know what they mean, because fans can hear it instantly, the fans can interact with the band about the songs on the comments section, and the band can tour and play those songs live, and even sell T-shirts aswell.Myspace's popularity with fans is immense, and the huge amount of music being streamed for free from a bands own page,means that where a label actually comes into the picture is becoming increasingly blurry.

Stick with our old band - or go for a new one?

Question: What would you suggest to a band that has actually released three albums, with problems with the three labels they have released them, poor distro, promo, and if they are about to change almost all the lineup for the NEXT big step (total dedication)... Should we really continue with that band (with all the work done and recognition that means) or shall we start with something new and fresh? Do you pay more attention to a NEW boom CD of a new band, or is it the same for you being a 4th album (same album i.e.)? Thanks for any advice.


Answer: I would strongly suggest you fold the old band- and get on with the new band right away ,as its your best chance to succeed.Its very rare for a band to be discovered and get big on album number 4, simply because the whole metal industry, from guys who run labels to the journalists who write the magazines are always quick to judge the merits or otherwise of bands from the debut onwards.If after 3 tries, nothing is happening then its time to try something different.If your band has existed already for 3 albums and didnt make any progress, then i would suggest its the band at fault, not the labels.It will be hard to move away from all the energy and creativity you have already placed into the old band...but the clever tactic is to face the fact its simply not happening with fans for some reason, and start anew, with no mention of your previous band.

No love for Narcosis then?

Question: Does earache have a policy of not signing bands of staffers or somthing? as this is the only reason that i can think of why you didnt pick up narcosis when they were around ( didnt chris used to work in your offices a while back), I thought their Discordance Axis on steroids sound would be right up earache\'s street.


Answer:Narcosis? they sound more like DX on bad glue, mate! Ha ha! ;-) Actually, the band were barely even going when Chris used to work at Earache, he worked ( well,i say 'worked") at the office for oh, all of 2 months, and we used to mercilessly take the mickey out of his piss-weak grind band, as well as his lightweight drinking behaviour.
This was before the album "Romance" came out...which when we finally heard it - bloody hell, it certainly raised a few eyebrows round these parts, it was fast as hell and evoked the true spirit of grind- we were eating our words, big style.
Some of the other staffers had seen them live and reported good things, so we began to cast a more watchful gaze over the band.Then out of the blue, they quite unexpectedly split up, so with the demise of the band, that seemed to be the end of the matter. However, I can exclusively reveal to you, dear blog-readers, that Earache will release a Narcosis full discography CD in the very near future, so you were right- it was up our street, only we were too stupid to realise it till it was over.
For a taste of prime quality grind fans can expect check this out: ho ho.

Death Metal-The return. Big for 2008?

Question: Being as ask earache is good at prediction trends ( the new wave of thrash etc), do you see 08 as being the return of death metal to popularity, i mean new albums from desecration, gorerotted and cattle decapitation on the way and the return of carcass has to help the profile of the genre a bit right?



Answer: Yeah you might be right actually-but from where we are sitting,quality Death Metal never really went away- have you heard the SEVERE TORTURE and BLOOD RED THRONE albums from 2007- both are as killer as any of the classic DM albums from the 90's.But i agree the scene is nowhere near the size it was when Earache was releasing the first wave during the early 90's.To be honest the new breed of younger DM bands that promote themselves 24/7 by interacting with their fans on myspace, and touring incessantly - think JFAC and Suicide Silence - they are the ones making the scene healthy now- not Desecration or Goreotted (readers of this blog must know by now, we just dont rate those Brit DM bands- they are distinctly second rate-even tho you lot ask about them all the time!).

With Carcass reforming there is a hell of a lot of vibe about them, considering they last performed in 1995, but we think they will not hang around - so grab your chance to see them in 2008.We have the complete catalog to be re-issued with bonus documentary DVDs on every album, containing indepth interviews with the members who explain the whole story of the band from the humble beginnings in 1987 to the split, including a totally rivetting and moving segment where ken recounts how he felt when he was trapped in a coma for 6 months in 1999.Its must-see stuff.

Red Terrorizer T-Shirt?

Question: Hey I have a shirt that was printed by you guys that I wanted to know when it came out. It is a red terrorizer longsleeve and here are direct links to pictures of it. Thank you for the time.


Answer: yeah this shirt is rare, dating from 1989, around the release of the Terrorizer album "World downfall".I think about 100 were made as Red, just to be different from the regular black shirts which were the norm at the time- its never been reprinted by us.The red Terrorizer shirt was famously worn onstage by Jesse Pintado in the NAPALM DEATH live at Salisbury DVD video from 1990.

Carcass- How to tell rare 1st press LP?

Question: Hello, I want to ask you about first press CARCASS vinyls. How many were released not only on black vinyls. I founded out that there are one Reek of Putrefaction clear vinyl and two, one in normal sleve other in gatefold, red Symphonies of Sickness vinyls. How many more were released in the same time with the original black colour vinyls?

Please note that im talking not about re-releases in 2002, but about originals!


Answer: first press of carcass reek came in black vinyl only- about 3000 copies from memory in 1988.You can tell the difference between the 2002 re-issued LP because the original has NO BARCODE on the back.Also for a joke the record label says MUSH 6 rather than the actual MOSH 6 catalog number.The absolute first copies of the Reek album came with white square-ish sticker proclaiming it to the heaviest and sickest band in the world or some nonsense i dreamt up back then to sell it, that version is rare to find.
For symphonies of sickness the rare original 1989 is single black LP but in gatefld sleeve, and also 1000 copies in red vinyl.You can see the versions pictured on our catalog page.

Dub War Vs Earache- huh???

Question: So whats the deal between earache and the newport south wales scene? its just being in a metal band myself ive been told \" you dont want to send a demo to earache, they fucked dub war\". Did Earache and Dub War part company on bad terms then and has this had a knock on effect on the entire scene, also out of interest does this happen often in the music scene

Answer:Wow thats pretty disappointing to hear...hey, instead of listening to know-it-alls in newport, why dont you ask Benji, Jeff or Ginge yourselves? they still live in Newport.Go Ask them! They had 5 top 50 hit singles during their time on Earache and a release on Columbia in America.So it wasnt too bad. Its funny to hear this because Jeff now and again personally sends me demos of bands who record in his studio- he sent me the Jeff Killed John demo(later to become it mighty Bullet For My Valentine) and Nochaa.Benji visits our office when he plays Rock City as Skindred.
It could be because of the scandalous review in Kerrang of our dub war re-issue, which stated quite wrongly that Dub War were mistreated while on the label.the mistreatment consisted of being dropped due to poor sales and unstable line up, but the band took it quite badly and as a knee jerk back-lash reaction slagged us off in the press including kerrang at the time- 1999 or so.Nowadays they know it was our business decision and have a different- more mature- opinion of their time on Earache.

Napalm Death- could have been like the SEX PISTOLS?

Question: Ok your probably sick of answering thease but heres another napalm question.

I was reading a justin broadrick interview and in it he said that napalm was meant to have been like the sex pistols in that they release one album have an impact and then split, He also said that he belives that scum is too long in that the album was only meant to have been side A and earache pushed for side B. Are thease statements true? or are they just theories of his many years after the events that happened.

Answer: Yeah i know what he means- I agree it would have been more apt and perhaps poetic if the band HAD split after scum...the band was so revolutionary, incendiary and confrontational i think the original members could never have imagined the band still being around in some form, 20 years later. That was quite unthinkable back then...i guess both Nik and Justin thought that having quit Napalm death, the band would naturally dissolve..but they didnt reckon on the resourcefullness of Mick harris who quickly recruited new members and carried on.Mick had a quite pragmatic reason to do this, cos the band was making money and he sensed a career in music was in the offing, he had no other options like joining other bands or a career in academia.Ironically, Mick had also quit within a few years also, leaving a whole new line up to fly the Napalm death flag to this day.
Justin is correct in that the demo that became the A_side was only about 20 minutes, and i deemed it not enough material to release it like that.So a B-side was insisted on- it took many months for the band to regroup and record the b-side material. then the finished album was released as 'Scum".