Justin Broadrick and err Andy Swan in FINAL?

Question: What is the relationship between napalm death and final as this is quite confusing? was it a pre napalm band or a side project as other than andy swan both justin broadrick and nic bullen have both played in earache bands. im wondering as the dates on some of the final cassettes that i have are marked 86-87 surely that is during the same time that justin and nic were in napalm as well as final so surely earache knew of the project\'s existence, is there any reason why you chose not to pick it up? From:

Answer:First of all- who the hell is Andy Swan? never met him, know nothing about him, so to be mentioned in the same question as bona-fide extreme music legends like Nic & Justin, its quite perplexing to say the least.
I think i know the problem: when folks ask about bands and events on this blog from 20+ years ago, most people who weren't there get their historical information from wikipedia or googling the keywords, which is normal and in many cases the pages the search engine throws up are reasonably accurate but they miss the all important context.Facts without accompanying context is just clues to what happened, not the absolute truth.Its hard to tell the driving forces from the peripheral players when presented with wiki bios.Being mentioned as a member of his teenage industrial noise band with Justin, as in this interview gives him a level of acclaim, that frankly he doesnt deserve.I guess if you could find him, and asked, he might even admit this aswell? I think part of the problem is Justin likes to credit everyone he ever collaborated with aswell, which is nice of him.Its true that Nik and Justin met because of a mutual love of early 80's harsh Industrial tape acts,like Con-Dom etc.

In the late 70's a DIY punky-influenced INDUSTRIAL scene began to emerge headed by bands Throbbing Gristle, Whitehouse and SPK.It was quite easy to make your own industrial tape back then- placing a C90 cassette into the oven for 15 minutes made the resulting tape what would be revered as a droning classic nowadays.Try a microwave for modern similar effect.The early teenage Napalmers used to make their own harsh tape loop industrial tapes aswell I believe, while Nic was simultaneously fronting the Anarcho-punk era Napalm Death aswell.
However, by the time I started to hang out with the guys they would often bring up the other industrial tape type bands to me, but i had no interest in them as Earache didnt want to wallow in the past- Industrial was a distinct and popular genre by 1986- so to me it was quite passe- instead the extremely fast metallised HC punk band they developed into was really what interested me the most,because for its time, it was superbly cutting edge and a really futuristically radical form of music, well to my ears anyway, and thats how it turned out.
I guess once Godflesh had run its course, Justin closed the circle and made a FINAL album so he could sell a few copies, which is fair enough.

Heres a rare ND demo song "Abbatoir" :

New Japanese crust-punk bands

Question: I was going through old ask earache blogs and i found one about the japanease scene and how you said that you thought that the new wave of bands from there were too random for your taste. Im wondering has your opinion changed now that bands like ghallhammer and coffins are popping up bands that seem to have alot in common with the crust punk and early death metal roots of earache? From:


Answer: Yes i agree, for what seemed like for ever the only Japanese bands who got coverage in the UK media were the likes of Boredoms and Melt Banana or the harshest of noise outfits like Merzbow, none of which impressed me too much, and certainly not enough for a record deal.If you didnt delve into the underground, it would appear as if nothing much developed in Japan for a decade.
Things have changed slightly lately with Gallhammer primarily and also Coffins getting loads of publicity.Again, i agree that both have a more crust-punky vibe and less art-sy which is appreciated by me.However both still lack something, and i cant put my finger on it.Both seem average as hell to me.
I reckon a lot of the time, japanese bands receive a heck of a lot of goodwill and extra kudos simply because of where they are from, the exotic and far flung reality of Japan makes the bands automatically trendier than say their UK counterparts.If you actually listen to Gallhammer they are really ropey and average really, their press officer has done a remarkable job actually securing them so much coverage.Coffins are better of course, but again nothing special.Its a Japanese trait to be a facsimile of an established genre, they take copying the details and even the fashion of a scene very seriously and to unbeleivable levels of accuracy.Sadly, I cant say there is a current japanese artist who blows me away, cept DJ SCOTCH EGG of course- hes genius.

Typos on Earache releases?

Question: I bought a tape a few years ago by Brutal Truth called Perpetual Conversion.I guess it was when Brutal truth was on earache, anyways, I was looking at the tape and the spelling was wrong ,it reads Brutal tuRth instead of the traditional spelling. I was wondering if this is a rare tape, limited edition or just simply a bootleg(with an earache label mark on the tape and sleeve)...Any information would be appreciated thanks. From: nipplegrinder@hotmail.com

Answer:Over the years Earache has put out over 350+ titles, and quite an alarming number of them have a typo mistake somewhere on the sleeve..so much so that its almost our trademark.In fact some of our friends say as a back-handed compliment:"it wouldn't be an Earache release without a spelling mistake somewhere!" So what you have is most certainly an original, lets face it,even a bootlegger would not dare to get the name of the band wrong.
The reasons for the string of spelling mistakes, typos and general bad layout is because we often are under the gun and rushed for time to make release dates, and many times the artists themselves deliver the artwork, which we fail to check or correct.Decapitated sent us the same song lyrics twice which got printed on Organic hallucinosis CD.Also it seems the layout guys Earache uses are almost universally dsylexic (see what i mean?)
Even this year the Carcass Necroticism re-issue CD/DVD came with not one but 2 different typos..the USA edition had INSALUBIOUS the UK had INSALBRIOUS instead of INSALUBRIOUS.See pic with 2 editions in my hand..These kinds of howlers indentify Earaches original printings and are often corrected in the next print run- so they unwittingly can be used to trace original printings.
So what you have is an original tape from 1992 or so.

What happens when bubble/trends burst?

Question: How crippling to a label can a genre bubble burst be? and what is the one that effected earache the most? I find it interesting that when the nu metal bubble burst earache didnt seem to be affected at all although possibly that was because you had bands that were either seen as proto the genre eg godflesh ( i still think justin looses sleep knowing that he influenced korn *shudder*), pitchshifter, dub war or you signed them post the bubble burst like addiction crew or adema.
also do you think if scorn was a new band now do you think they would have been more succesful due to a better record buying public? london duo vex\'d basically took scorn\'s sound and have become comercially successful with it. From:


Answer: Earache has seen many trends and subtrends of metal- thrash metal, death metal,industrial metal, black metal, nu metal, emo/screamo and lately Thrash's resurgence - come and go during 20 years spent releasing records.Depends where in the timeline of the creation of the bubble the label/band is..If a label is the one starting the bubble, and expanding as the trend continues to grow,and decides to ride the trend, then what happens mostly is those bands have been able to generate enough fans, gain momentum and basically had enough success to be able to ride out the wave and continue after the bubble crashes.Its the bands/labels who are 6th, 7th, 8th to the party that lose everything when the bubble bursts.By the same token, often the trailblazers of a scene, the originators and true innovators can get left behind as a bubble expands- they disown the scene too quickly, fail to ride the wave, and more often than not, its the 3rd, 4th 5th band along the timeline who reaps the rewards and by being more commercially savvy, claim the scene as their own.A great example is the Sex Pistols- the inventors of punk, no question about it, but they imploded and only made one proper album, so missed out on the subsequent punk rock shockwave that changed the music landscape, even tho they started it! Sales-wise, Never Mind The Bollocks is still not a platinum album in the UK, and only recently went gold, after 25 years, which is shocking.
This scenario applies to all trends, wether it be stocks/shares/music trends/fashion trends etc..its a universal of human nature, and to do with the psychology of crowd behaviour- there is a whole field of research in this area, and because the phenomenon is mathematically provable, many financial institutions on wall st or in the city use powerful and sophisticated programs to predict the trends in the rise or fall in share prices.Some computer expert has probably tried to apply science to the prediction of music trends i expect, in a lab somewhere...but without much success, so far, but its bound to happen soon. Someday a program that can monitor myspace friend adding trends or myspace playcount trends will be able to see in advance the coming music trend.We do it the old fashioned way by visiting actual clubs and festivals and seeing what style of metal is new and original and exciting.
Regarding Nu metal i really dont think Godflesh had anything to do with it, nu metal came from a whole different ballpark, and regarding vex'd, i think they are just a more watered-down version of Scorn- its arguable that they are any bigger though.judge for yourself here:

New Wave of Thrash -its back and thriving...

Question: has it suprised you how much this new wave of thrash has taken off? nme fodder bands have been photographed wearing new wave of thrash shirts for example gallows ( frank has been photographed in an sss shirt and also he played various warped tour dates wearing a earache thrash is king shirt) and klaxons ( guitar player photographed in an evile shirt), also was it suprising that the new bay area seems to be yorkshire of all places with evile, headless cross and the horror all coming from the area? From:


Answer: No its not a surprise that the bands are doing well - anyone who saw Evile entertain the Bloodstock festival hordes today (15 Aug 08) with continuous huge circle pitting and major moshpit action, even at the ungodly hour of 11.45am, and Muni Waste same thing at Download in June, can see that Thrash is the breath of fresh air people were waiting for.Its been a long time coming actually- in 2004 I signed Municipal Waste and Earache has pretty much been the only label to dare to single-mindedly promote and support any new bands considered 'Thrash' since then.People thought we were crazy, still do in fact, because the style was considered long-dead and was so far removed from the entrenched death-y growly-vocal metal output that has dominated the metal scene for as long as anyone can remember, well at least since early 90's.

The main culprit which got the ball rolling was actually uber-trendy VICE magazine- it gave Muni Waste "Hazardous Mutation" an unprecedented 11/10 mark, which showed their impeccable taste in music, and from then on, with the VICE seal of approval, the other bigger mags slowly but surely picked up on it.
In early 2007 we put out an industry-only sampler CD & shirt called 'thrash is King' featuring Muni waste, Evile & SSS tracks to journalists & NME began to give coverage, and in the case of UK Metal Hammer, that mag went apeshit overboard with spectacular support of what we were trying to do.It was around about that time that Frank from Gallows started to sport a fetching SSS T, and actually at Donington 07 Frank more or less wanted my "Thrash is King' shirt off my back, so I sent him one and he sportingly wore it across USA on that summers warped Tour. He's genuinely into it,a top geezer.
As for Klaxons,for them its more an 80's fashion retro thing i guess, and I thought it was a Slayer shirt he wore,but if its Evile, thats mad eh? Got any pics?
Whats also noteworthy is the well-known social networking site Last.fm invited SSS to play their launch party in London, and local VICE mag hangout have SSS play seemingly every few months, which is strange as Thrash is by rights not trendy at all.None of the bands set out to to be the hipsters choice, it somehow ended up that way!And when the A-lister to end all A-listers David Beckham wears an EXODUS shirt, then its gone frighteningly too far!

I'll tell you another NME-type band who worship old school thrash- Crystal Castles- so much so that i reckon soon a thrash act could tour with them, would'nt that be a bizarre tour, eh?
Lastly in 2008 we had the 'Earache Thrash Pack' launched on the ROCKBAND game which sealed the deal, and means i can now say: Thrash is certainly back and thriving, tho if you are an diehard fan of the genre its obvious it never really went away.
As for the Yorkshire connection, its weird how so many bands come from that area, i agree- must be sommat in the water up there eh?

where is the Teutonic Thrash?

Question: I think its great tha earache seems to have a representative of all the various styles of thrash bay area, LA, Skate, Brazilian well all except one Teutonic, are you actually looking for a band to fill this hole eg hellish crossfire? or is it the style of thrash thats not appealing to you due to it being less catchy than most of its genre cousions? From:

Answer: actually we tried hard to find a german representative when we did the Thrashing Like A maniac comp- because as you say, german thrash was very important in the original wave- Sodom, Destruction, Kreator are rightly hailed as Teutonic kings of Thrash, and are still going strong.Tankard aswell, they deserve credit for being Germanys most loyal thrash band, never splitting up.Pic right.

Beleive it or not - its very difficult to find decent proper NEW thrash bands in Europe.Having checked out Hellish Crossfire (pic at top) i dont see them as being a true thrash band actually- its more like mid-tempo black metal to me, much like Blood Tsunami or california's Witchaven.The only newish European band which is vaguely decent modern Thrash is Legion Of The Damned who hail from Holland and in the track Warbeast have a totally neck breaking slice of germanic-style thrash, it will blow your mind.

Is Thrash a trend/ flash in the pan?

Question: I see lots going on with thrash metal these days. Do you see this as just a trend or is it something that may continue for years to come? Do you think sites like Thrash Never Dies, Uk Thrash or Thrash Unlimited have actually helped to keep the scene alive? I heard Earache does some promotions with these sites. Have these places actually helped thrash? Thanks! From: mooretari@yahoo.com

Answer: Thrash has been going for 25 years dude, since Metallica and Exodus started playing sped up Heavy Metal with a punky influence and hitting clubs in the Bay area of SF.In 1983 Kill 'Em All hit the LP racks, and that seminal album pretty much kick started the THRASH scene as we know it...dunno how you can call a two and a half decade-long scene a trend?But i take your point- the original Big 4 bands who invented the style moved on due to commercial pressures, to make less "thrashy" albums, plus the mid 90's was a poor time for the genre,as Death Metal and Black Metal rose to ascendancy with younger Metallers so Thrash became a distant memory, it did look to almost have died out- but it didnt die out, because below the radar there was always an underground thrash scene, always has, always will be.


This latest wave of youngster modern thrash bands was mostly formenting within the underground punk/Hc scene and from what i can tell its mostly the internet and the ease of downloading of obscure thrash albums from the first wave which has caused the resurgence among new Thrash kids.For me, the best of the obscure are: RAZOR and HOBBS ANGEL OF DEATH.I meet 19 yr olds who have an encyclopedic knowledge of obscure Thrash which would be unthinkable without the internet.Forums like you mention have been instrumental in this- though i actually never heard of Thrashneverdies myself- they allowed fans to exchange information and foster a sense of community, but sometimes descend into a bear-pit for unwary newcomers!Thrashmageddon- a file sharing site- might be even more important since thats where kids turn for mp3s to actually hear what the music sounded like.
THRASH TILL DEATH!! - its not a soundbyte, its a mission statement.See "Get Thrashed" movie trailer below:

Carcass-are they taking the piss out of UK?

Question: hey do you see carcass only playing one uk date at a moderatly sized festival as a bit of a pisstake? I do in comparison to the fact that the US gets a full tour and they have played various festivals in europe. From:


Answer: Earache doesn't have anything to do with booking the revitalised Carcass' live shows by the way-we just do their CDs/DVDs- but judging from their upcoming gig list on the CARCASS MYSPACE it certainly looks very strange, and bordering on a piss-take to the UK fans.Like you, I can count 36 gigs upcoming- Full USA tour, New Zealand, Australia,Japan, even South Africa-oh and they also visit most countries in South America- and then the final show is a solitary paltry UK bash- at Leeds Damnation festival on November 22.

The band told me that when they reformed late last year, they approached several leading promoters and bookers because they were intending to play together for one summer only, and really just wanted to maximise income and make seriously decent money this time, because when the band were at their peak in mid-90's the metal scene live was so much smaller and less developed than it is now.They never really got paid their due because the income back then was OK but quite tiny by comparison to todays guarantees.Shockingly, the original band had never once played a festival for instance- Dynamo & Donington being the only regular 90s metal fests- just 2 per year-and some years they didnt run, so would be no festival in the summer at all! just imagine that! Whereas now there are metal fests big and small every weekend throughout the summer and Wacken just had 80,000 folks attend and witness Carcass last week.Nowadays live music is booming and fees paid for a performance are easily 10x the fee paid in the 90's.The internet, Mp3's, P2P and the iPod have made music so much easier to aquire and thousands of those kids will pay top dollar now to witness the live show aswell.Thats why everyone is reforming really.

Also they mentioned they would like to primarily have fun on this tour-to treat it like a summer long holiday jaunt, not as a slog- and part of the fun would be to visit interesting places in the world.The Uk didnt figure in their plans at all- because wheres the fun in playing their own backyard, and i also reckon the band fancied escaping the one place where they will be massively scrutinised and judged by Metal know-it-alls, ie their homeland, because they are hella rusty.
The fact that Leeds is the final show is significant i think- it really will be a final farewell and goodbye from Carcass,probably a massive party, maybe loads of suprises and i expect half the support acts- Napalm death, Pitch Shifter, The berzerker will come onstage as guests.Also I guess its probably the closest they could get to a Liverpool gig.So you could easily say the band are acting selfishly and ignoring the very UK fans who made their name and fame in the first place.But i say lets give the band the benefit of the doubt-its more poetic if they do a single farewell show here, so they can go out as they came in, controversially.
Until next summer when they might just do it all again.

New bands revitalising Old ones?

Question: Is it comon for the sales of a defunct earache band\'s records to rise if one of its former members is in a band or is associated with a band who is currently popular eg have fudge tunnel sales been affected by alex newport being associated with the mars volta as a producer/live guitarist, or dub war records because of the success of skindred, or old lady drivers because of its members being part of the popular with scenesters khanate and Sunn 0))) doom bands. The one i could possibly foresee in the future is godflesh, early napalm and scorn due to the fact that the broadrick, bullen and andy swan line up of Final have hinted at a reunion at the supersonic festival because of the up coming final boxset. which band\'s sales have been most affected by it\'s former members current activites? From:


Answer: Actually what you say sounds fine on paper, but it almost never happens like that, unfortunately.None of the band mentioned have sold any more records because of activities of the new acts,some of the titles are 15+ years old, and are hard to ressurrect, mind you it could be because we havent actually pressed the Cds in decade!New bands that form from the ashes of defunct old ones tend to somehow unwittingly bury their own past- and to be frank, no one likes to celebrate past failure, when your current band is busy celebrating current success.Its human nature.
I recall a big debate online by Music Industry folks when Gwen Stefani became a huge Madonna-esque 2 million selling superstar a few years ago, wether her previous under-the-radar ska-punk band No Doubt's back catalog should be re-issued to cash-in/co-incide. It never was.
However, I think there is some grain of truth in your argument, a smattering of new fans will of course be minded to seek out the downloads of the members' former outfits from a decade previously, but its nothing like a huge new groundswell of sales- far from it! Its hardly worth mentioning.To give you an example- Skindred were a great band who really toured their asses off round USA in 2005 or so, and clicked with US radio, appearing on TV and everything- so ended up selling on their major label debut i think 250,000 copies in the USA.Earache did naturally try to ride the success and did infact reissue Dub Wars debut "Pain" from a decade previously- we sold I think 700 copies.Fans are not fools- Ok Benji is the same singer but its a different band from a different era.

Fudge Tunnel & Radiohead connection?

Question: I think this question needs the back story i was in a club in oxford where the gents had been plasterd with old flyers of gigs that had been held there, one of them was for an all dayer featuring fudge tunnel and a oxford shoegaze band called On a Friday as well as swervedriver, what im wondering is did earache take any interest in the shoegaze scene at all? alot of the bands shared the same influences as FT and Godflesh and were heavy in a coherent sense. btw on a friday are still going they have just added a member and changed their name to radiohead! From:


Answer: Well Fudge Tunnel certainly have a lot of fans on this blog it seems- which even tho the band have been defunct for a decade, aint too shabby is it?Maybe a reformation could be on the cards, who knows, but i doubt it! Anyways- thank you for this enlightening question and great bit of trivia-I am gobsmakked- who knew that Fudge Tunnel played a gig with the pre-Radiohead band 'On A Friday'? I had no idea, I bet the members dont remember that auspicious occasion either.

To answer your question, Earache had no interest in the shoegaze scene- Swervedriver, Ride and all that NME lot were too pretentious & studenty for our tastes, tho the original My Bloody Valentine,being infinitely more raucous,could be considered an influence.It was more the Sub Pop grunge scene, most specifically Nirvana which Earache was picking up on.As for Fudge Tunnel- they were Nottingham-based powerful 3 peice making some proto-grunge heavy sounds, and had come to prominence via their first 2 extremely well received singles which were recorded for London's Pigboy label (sub-label of long standing Portobello Rd store Vinyl Solution, 80's/90's label home of The Stupids, Les Thugs, which since the turn of the millennium has traded as the highly successful Visible Noise label- acts like Lost Prophets, Bullet For My Valentine err and Days Of Worth!)

Fudge Tunnel weren'nt an obvious choice for Earache, we had made our name with extreme Death-metal and Grindcore, but I also yearned for the label to branch out a bit, to try to become a bit more mainstream, and at the time of Bleach, Nirvana was my favourite band.We figured Fudge Tunnel might be the English Nirvana.It helped that the label manager of Earache at the time Johnny Barry was best friends with the guys, which made it easier to sign them, tho the band did have some reservations, and did insist on us using a differnet logo for their releases- hence the 50's Cola logo Earache cropped up, which the label used during that early 90's on 'non-metal'titles.Fudge Tunnel did a lot of touring of the UK playing the small club circuit, until Earache's metal credentials eventually got them out of the UK onto Holland's Dynamo Festival and European-wide Sepultura tours etc, at which point they became more viewed as a alternative leaning Metal band.

Heres Fudge Tunnel covering the Cream classic "Sunshine Of Your Love"- the graveyard crops up in so many Earache bands promo shots and clips, because it was closest to the Earache Offices- corner of Mansfield Rd, Forest Rd, Nottingham, fact fans!

CARCASS- The Pathologist's Report

Question: hi
the carcass re-releases part 3,4 and 5 look great, will there also be a part 1 and 2, reek and symphonies? cause it makes a puzzle when you put them on the shelve, but theres no info anywhere about 1 and 2

Cheers
Erwin From: werewolf120@hotmail.com

Answer: Reek is sept 6 Symphonies on Oct 20

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.