Earache Going Digital & 360 degree deals?

Question: how has earache found the transition to digital music, a lot of labels seem to be going for the 360 approach. From:

Answer:Good question- there is always a lot of online buzz and chatter about this subject, and I read an interesting posting on INVISIBLE ORANGES blog recently, which summed up the current scenario very well, giving a balanced arguement and realistic suggestions for once, rather than the typical "labels = bad, free mp3s = good" stance, which sadly seems to be the consensus among the blogterati.
The internet & the digitisation of music, making it freely available to copy, has driven a huge upsurge in interest in all forms of music.Certain forms of obscure niche music which had been hitherto off the radar to most music buyers, because of lack of instore CD racking space devoted to it, those scenes are now enjoying somewhat of a boom.If you are a fan of Korean pop singers or Peruvian pan pipe/flute music, this is an amazing time for you, as you can download exactly what you want, to your hearts desire.I count Earache's extreme metal catalog as a similar type of niche which is benefitting from exposure via the internet.The hard part for serious labels which have fully staffed offices and a substantial catalogue is to actually try to make money to survive and continue to release decent music, faced with the onslaught of so called fans who seem to be settling more and more for crappy CDr burns off a mate or downlaodable files, instead of the 'real product'.

Our own artist Gama Bomb recently came out in favor and actually encouraging fans to download albums for free- they are a new band so all exposure can only be good for them, but they do admit they'd probably not say that if they were a huge selling act, and had more to personally lose than gain by encouraging it.To test their convictions, and for a laugh, I might suggest Earache gives away their next album for free via the internet, it would save us making Cds and Vinyl anyway, and because we do have a 270 deal with the band, it might actually be the smart thing to do, as we also handle the song publishing and merchandising for the band and receive a small slice of that income aswell, it makes it economically sensible at least.
360 is shorthand for when a label has a stake in and a slice of the income from all possible sources, usually meaning 1) recording,2) song publishing, 3) merchandising and sometimes 4)gig performance fee income aswell.Earache's deals might be accurately termed 270 deals.

The inside scoop is that labels are starting to do very well from digital music,the legal download services, iTunes being the biggest, suprisingly do now actually pay substantial sums to labels, including Earache.I guess all those hundreds of millions of folks who got ipods sooner of later discovered the itunes store itself and now the novelty of ripping cds into it has worn off, they absolutely dont mind now shelling out 99c for a track, knowing its decent quality, no DRM, highly convenient and legal.

Our problem at Earache nowadays is dealing with the multitude of legal download platforms which are follwing in iTunes footsteps, and seem to spring up from nowhere, and all want to include our catalog on their site.We must get one per day who assume that Earache is desperate to launch on their unproven website and will pay for the previlege of being represented there.Its fair to say we dont see eye to eye with these upstart tech guys, just because they developed some nifty sofware that streams and sells mp3s they reckon they're doing us a favor by even offering their services,but we do try to co-operate with them as best we can because we know its the future.
The culture of the upstart,high tech, very fast moving software industry is so alien to the culture of the more measured, long term copyright holding, music industry folks that its a wonder any deals get done at all.This failure of either side to accomodate the other back during the infancy of the net in mid-late 90s is the major reason that legal digital music was so long in coming, leaving the way wide open for the illegal sites like the famous trailblazing Napster, then the later sites likes of Kazzaa/Limewire/Soulseek and other newer p2p torrent sites to claim the territory, and victory.

Realising their mistakes,most of the major labels hired technology experts - EMI hired an ex-Google tech guy for instance- specifically so they can form a closer understanding with the technology companies.Myspace Music also launched in September 2008, which promised to pay the labels for the millions of free streamed songs on which the brand built its fame from 2004 onwards.Sadly the deal to pay for music included only the 4 Majors, and excluded the Indie labels,which was a shock, but that is hopefully being rectified soon we think.
Most of the big online companies making up many of the largest companies in the world have recently concluded deals to pay labels for the use of their music -Google/Amazon/Microsoft/Nokia etc.The explosion in music based video games- Guitar Hero/ Rockband where we have several acts appearing, has undoubtedly helped too.
Shockwaves went around the industry when major label Atlantic Records recently announced 54% of their turnover was derived from digital music, this was amazing, because even as recently as 2006, this figure was commonly around 10%.
All in all- the future for legal digital music is rosier than many pundits think, far from being the death knell for the recording industry, its proving to be a great opportunity for the the smarter labels, those than can manage to cross the cultural divide and embrace the tech revolution, they might yet even end up emerging stronger.
Heres the TV ad campaign which the UK DVD industry is running to dissuade people from downloading bootleg films on DVD:

Earache endorsements for extreme athletes?

Question: Has earache ever considered getting involved in other aspects of counter culture as far as sponsership and endorsements. The best example of another label doing this is deathwish inc sponsering ufc fighers which obvously gets the label name out to a much wider audience. Since earache takes its font from thrasher magazine how about endorsing skaters etc? From:


Answer: It's rare we endorse athletes/sports because its gotta be totally hog-wild and super-extreme for us to take any interest.Earache does get floods of offers all the time to sponsor this skater or endorse that sport, but its fairly tame stuff. Anyway, quite a few of the people in the skateboard industry are our friends- we often give those companies music to use in their DVDs, but never got round to endorsing a skater for some reason.
Years ago I was a huge fan of bareknuckle backyard brawler KIMBO SLICE (see pic above) and we deserately wanted to work with endorsing him, but no luck, he's now a major upcoming draw on ELITE XC.
Heres Kimbo in action:


In the mid-late 90s Earache was one of the first people to pick up on and we did endorse the newly formed Freestyle Motocross team METAL MULITIA
heres a clip of the king of freestyle motocross :



Somthing we'd consider endorseing in the future might be XMA athletes- the Bo staff routine is so fast and intense to watch it freaks me out.
heres why:

Gama Bomb & Bonded BB are on Vinyl LP for Xmas

Question: hi there i was wondering how you decide which albums get a vinyl release.the reason for me asking is that vinyl is my prefered choice and would like to know why evile and sss got a vinyl release but gamma bomb violator and bonded by blood didnt also why was decapitated the negation released on vinyl and not organic hallucinos finally how rare is the green vinyl release of domination by morbid angel would i have to go to ebay to get one thanks simon From: sidav@hotmail.co.uk


Answer: Simple answer is if we are pretty sure we can sell 1000 copies on LP, then we think about printing it.It doesnt sound like a lot, but strangely its actually not always possible for us to sell that amount, for proof, I simply have walk 10 metres and look at the hundreds of unsold EVILE double gatefold 2 x 12inch Black vinyl LPs sitting on our stock storeroom shelf.This is probably the fastest rising Thrash band in UK, and I have unsold vinyl.Anybody want some?

What fans often don't realise is the huge costs involved in making a vinyl LP - the process is so archaic and time consuming,involving dipping the master into vats of steaming hot silver liquid, its positively medieval and wasteful, hence is 10x the cost to making Cds. Its this outrageous cost difference and general lack of interest in the format which prevents us making more vinyl. The good news you want to hear is that yes, Gama Bomb and Bonded By Blood will be available on LP from our webstores soon for sale, hopefully by xmas, and in limited edition colours- out of 1000 made I think 100 are on clear wax, 150 red 250 orange and 500 black.They are made in USA,we dont have them on store yet- so watch out for them.
To be honest we have this discussion- more like heated disagreements, actually- a lot in the earache offices, I can't stand vinyl, cos personally I have not played a vinyl LP for maybe 10 years, I dont even own a vinyl player, or 'record player' as the dratted wind-up belt-driven contraptions were commonly know as.Dan the Uk label manager on the other hand is a Vinyl NUT, and fights the analogue corner hard, insisting on LP releases wherever possible- so you can thank him for your collection, cos if i had my way, ALL vinyl would be banished for ever!! Mwahahaaa!!
But even I can see that the interest in the LP format is booming nowadays- questions I get asked on a daily basis on this very blog the most are like " how many copies were made of blah blah vinyl and err whats it worth?" Ive hate answereing such questions because i'm not a pricing service for ebay sellers. The easiest way is to check our EARACHE COMPLETE CATALOG page- click on the album title to see an informative list with photos of the special editions made back in the 90s.
As for Decapitated- all their albums were on vinyl, i think, but the last one,it slipped by I suppose. Green Morbid angel vinyl is original early 90s vintage so fetches top dollars on ebay.
heres a video explaining how vinyl is made:

Earache Xmas party 2008- all welcome FREE

Question: Hi i was wondering who is playing the xmas party this year, and how do i get a ticket? from: dave.horton65@hotmail.com

Answer: Yes you too can get to hang out with the Earache crew and watch some of our finest up n coming bands- with free jagermeister if the extremely generous Cellar Trends folks will sort us out this year with a case of the stuff!.4 bands are playing at Rescue Rooms, NOTTINGHAM on Thurs 18th December, its FREE to get in as usual and everyone 14+ is welcome.You don't need a ticket, just text the number on the flyer for info and turn up..SEE YOU THERE!

Were NWOBHM band HELL an influence?

Question: Was the band Hell a big influence on earache at all? As from reading interviews with them yourself, andy sneap and the guys from heresy were frequent atendees of their shows. the influence on andy is blatent but im just wondering did it have an influence on you as far as your own bands or starting the label? Also what are the odds of you ever releasing material by your own projects dig as you did mention them in the terroizer interview a few years back. From:


Answer: I'd forgotten all about the local Derby/Notts 80's NWOBHM band HELL until Andy Sneap started to sing their praises in an interview he did for Wicked World/Earache where he mentions how they were a big influence on him- I think they lived in his village, Ripley.As for me, I can't say I was a big fan, as I mostly was listening to and preferred manic Hardcore punk bands, plus the fast, punky, down n dirty early 80's UK metal acts like Motorhead, Vardis and Tank, quickly leading onto the equally speedy big 4 Thrash bands coming out of USA.Slayer is my main influence, always will be, they changed my life, quite literally, as the unspoken aim of my label's early output was to 'Out-Slayer Slayer', which is tough to do, beleive me.
Back in early 80's it was really unusual for HC and metal dues to mix, but Nottingham was luckily quite a close knit and open minded town, I do remember seeing them live,I guess the dudes from Lawnmower Deth dragged me down to see Hydra, the early incarnation of Sabbat, and I would have dragged the Heresy dudes along too.
As for my own bands- theres no need to release anything as they were just hobby, non-serious 'bands' designed to have a blast and a bit of fun, with the aim to make noize and make people think, in the early 80's.Both revelled in short fast blasts of Noize, in many ways they predated and hinted at the style Earache would release later in the decade.You can read about Genocide Association and hear a Skum Dribbluurz gig here.

Brutal Truth re-issues?

Question: OK, I\'ve asked this one a couple of times before, but to no avail..How about a reissue of the Earache-era Brutal Truth material? The ultimate would be a multi-CD box set with the \"Extreme Conditions..\", \"Perpetual Conversion\",\"Need to Control\"(with the extra tracks from the vinyl box set) and perhaps a \"rare tracks\" CD with the \"Ill Neglect\" 7\" and some early live stuff. This would definitly be a money maker given the fact that they recently reformed, and there is a buzz about the band. C\'mon, if you guys can release 5 albums by A.C., then there\'s no reason a classic band like BT should go neglected! It\'s likely a pipe-dream, but let me know the reason why you guys won\'tdo it! Please? Cheers!! From: stephenfeltner@bellsouth.net


Answer: We currently have no plans YET to re-issue any Brutal Truth albums Earache did in the early-mid 90's.Reason is- even though the band don't sell many copies anymore, the main Cds have never been out of print anyway, they are still freely available from Earache webstores.Another reason is because 2 years or so ago we made a special Extreme Conditions Cd with tons of extra rare as hell unreleased tracks as a special edition CD exclusively for sale via Disk Union in japan.
A lot of Earache's bands from the 90's are suddenly reactivating themselves after in many cases a decade or more of silence and inactivity- Carcass, Brutal truth, Massacre with Kam lee, Sleep,Morbid angel with David Vincent back, Mick Harris is looking to get a grindcore band together again, and hell, even Lawnmower Deth reformed!
So we are aware that newer fans would like to get their hands on the original albums- brought suitably up to date with remastering, bonus tracks galore, a live DVD from the era and lavish packaging.At Earache we have to find the right balance between our time and finances being spent on building our new acts careers or repackaging the past.Don't get me wrong we are incredibly proud of our past bands- many are deservedly legends in the extreme metal scene, having been its prime movers in the dim and dark pre-internet, pre email, pre mp3 early 90's- but having so many of them, we have a constant dilemma here about which bands to do, as fans ourselves i'd love nothing better than to instantly re-package our entire back catalog, but its a real labour of love and hella time consuming, and it takes the bands involvement too don't forget- a lot of our bands have moved on to other labels or migrated to completely different scenes since the 90's heyday and frankly some of them we suspect won't want to co-operate with Earache, for whatever reason.So its no easy task.
Our back catalog plans currently revolve around early Cathedral and Morbid Angel.Both bands will receive a series of lavish remasters, with accompanying documentary style DVDs (well dualdiscs) in 2009, much like our highly successful Carcass dual disc series in 2008.

BRUTAL TRUTH'S 2 EARACHE 90's ALBUMS ARE AVAILABLE TO PURCHASE HERE

Acid Reign re-issue?

Question: I heard a rumour earache have purchased the rights to re-release Acid Reign\'s fear and moshkinstien albums. As much i want it to be true i doubt it. Good idea though nudge nudge wink wink . TA keep up the good volume!!!! From: jhnstcrr@aol.com


Answer:yeah Acid Reign were actually damn great, and are an under-appreciated band fron the original UK thrash era 85-89 or so.In fact, several of the ex-members went onto record for Earache as cathedral and lawnmower deth in the 90's.BUt as for us doing a re-issue, we dont own the rights, thats MFN, and its highly unlikely they can be bothered as the label folded a few years back, i think its part of Sony/BMG now.

Godflesh- the infamous promo baseball bat?

Question: I saw a godflesh promo baseball bat come up for sale on ebay. Im wondering firstly is this a genuine promo item? also how rare/valuble are they? From:


Answer: At first I thought you were winding me up dude- a GODFLESH Baseball bat- err thats a joke, right?..but yeah you are correct- I'm flabbergasted that such an innappropriate artifact exists and is for sale.Nothing to do with Earache dude, this was made by the bands "other" label, the knobheads at UK label Music For Nations released the final Godflesh album "Hymns", and obviously thought it would be a wizzard promo idea.Actually thinking about it, its probably made by the US label which did Hymns- Koch.Baseball bats are associated with either 1) sports or 2) violence - neither of which are subjects that reflect Godflesh's music, I would have thought.The band split up during the promotion around Hymns, and MFN label folded a year or two later.Koch still exists and is a powerful major-style label, its main sellers are Rap artists and the multi- million selling japanese Pokeman cartoon tie-in Cds.

Toxic Holocaust & Earache?- err nah.

Question: How come earache didnt sign toxic holocaust in the end? I know it seems a silly question but from the outside it looked like it was going to happen being as he was like municipal waste\'s running buddy for ages. was it because of line up problems etc etc. Was this simply a case of people assuming because of who was friends with whom. From:

Answer: Y'know I never made any approaches to Toxic Holocaust (apart from our comp- Joel kindly agreed one song on our Thrashing Like A Maniac comp) cos back in 2006 or so, the Toxic Holocaust line up was pretty unstable and also the songs seemed just too basic generic punky-thrash for our tastes.I also got the impression Joel preferred other labels to Earache, our outlooks differ a lot, and we're just not on his wavelength somehow.The band ended up on Relapse which is a great home for them. I do admire Joels long-term dedication to the cause and immense appetite for touring tho.Being incredibly picky as usual about bands for the label, I would say I like a bit more metallic meat on my thrash really, simple D-beat punky thrash doesnt float my boat much, probably because I am an old bastard who can recall the original bands -Discharge, Venom, Sacrilege- from the 80's, its almost too nostalgic for me.
Recently however Joel recruited the ex-members of the finest Canadian proto-thrash band ever- the mighty and much missed RAMMER. If you don't know RAMMER, Earache loved them from afar for years,but again, never made an official offer.Get a taste of this incredible band with "Uprising Of Death":

Carcass Bookshelf box - Free if you buy 5 Dualdiscs

Question: What does the Carcass box look like? i applied to the adress in the Symphonies Cd, but nothing arrived. from: steven.pryor34@hotmail.com

Answer:Yes the FREE bookshelf box to house all 5 of the Carcass UK edition dualdiscs was finally sent out yesterday, November 27.The actual idea was suggested by a reader of this very blog..so thank them for the concept!
So if you applied via the email addy concealed in the UK Symphonies of sickness CD/Dualdisc, then look out for it, and thank you for buying all 5--we think this box should make you stand out from the other Carcass collectors out there, and is our way to say thanks!
American fans do have to be more patient because this slipcase box is sized to only fit the UK editions which were dualdiscs.The USA fans will have to apply for a different box which is sized to fit the USA editions which were fatter/thicker as they contained a CD and seperate DVD.
SYMPHONIES OF SICKNESS IS RELEASED IN USA on Jan 20 2009. Look for info about the special USA BOX in the packaging.

80's Anarcho-Punk band Sedition?

Question: what was the project that earache was undergoing with Sedition that got shelved? id never heard of it before until i saw it mentioned on wikipedia. From:

Answer: It's vaguely possible but I don't honestly recall too much about this band.According to the bands wikipedia entry, they were an 80's anarcho-punk band, which is a scene I was a massive fan of - so I guess its very likely we were in touch.The wiki says they toured with Government Issue and Antisect, both bands I was heavily into at the time, so we certainly must have crossed paths.
For some reason, the actual timelines dont add up tho-Earache did'nt really get going until 1987 and didnt make a compilation till 1989's GRINDCRUSHER and by then Sedition had long split up.
I can only assume it was idle chat on my part during the mid 80's when I was going to tons of gigs, and planning -more like dreaming- of doing a label, but never had the means or money or confidence to actually do it.

Earache offices- what they look like..

Question: Hi earache, ive always wondered what your offices look like, do you have any photos? thanks - andy From: couchslouch_@hotmail.com

Answer: heres a guided tour of our NEW YORK OFFICE.Heres a pic of Nottingham UK office aswell, its basically the same deal- a bunch of folks at desks/macs but we're way messier here in UK,with posters hanging off the walls, and piles upon piles of Cds everywhere, and lacking that Manhattan skyline view.

Musicians we wanna work with?

Question: Youve said before that you would liked to have worked before with chuck from death. My question is which other artist or artists would you have liked to have worked with but missed out on? I know you narrowly missed mike patton twice both with naked city and dillinger escape plan. From:

Answer: Earache likes to work with creative, innovative musicians, ideally big selling ones aswell..but strangely, the 2 do not always mix.Over the years we have worked with many many of the best, most credible extreme metal musicians- and i've often said on this blog that Chuck Schuldiner of Death is pretty much the one person we badly regret missing out on working with, simply because the chances never came up, and after his passing, the legendary status of Chuck is unsurpassable in extreme metal.
Nowadays its not like we are kicking ourselves for not working with anyone at all- we're pretty relaxed about it- mainly because artists these days are no longer tied into lengthy recording contracts, the musicians seem to move around from label to label a lot more than they did even in the recent past, so it seems quite likely that Earache could end up working with anyone- even Mike Patton- at some stage.I personaly wouldn't mind working with Serj from System of a Down and Dino ex Fear Factory- both are good friends of the label and it could easily happen sometime in the future that one or both record stuff for Earache.Time will tell.

Heres a clip of DEATH doing PULL THE PLUG in 1988, the other musicians in the line up- Rick, Bill and Terry formed Massacre who did an album "From Beyond" on Earache.

Hexenhaus Vs Morbid Angel artwork?

Question: Are you aware Morbid Angel used the same artwotk as Hexenhaus with their \'BATS\' album? From:


Answer: yes its pure co-incidence that Swedish thrash band Hexenhaus used the Artwork on their album "Tribute to Insanity" in 1988, and then a good 3 years afterwards, in 1991 Morbid Angel chose the same painting for the cover of Blessed are The Sick. At the time we were aware that it had been used beforehand,and showed the band the album- but it didnt deter Morbid from requesting it.In actual fact when we contacted the museum which held the rights for use of the painting - 1895's Tresor de Satan By Jean Delville- they told us that no other band had requested the image.So we know Hexenhaus did not officially seek to use the image from the rights owner, just copied it from a book we expect. For this reason Morbid Angel had the moral superiority, and indeed legal right to use it, as granted by the museum.I guess its fitting that Hexenhaus LP is no longer in print but Morbid's version has been in constant printing for 17 years now.Funny how two different acts came across the same art eh?

Fake Earache A&R guys?

Question: Hi!Jus ot a call from someone who said he was from your company interested in my band the wake here in dublin now i dont know what as p with it if it was a scam or not and i cant remeber the email contact he gave me but one part was \"the george...\"i would be greatful if you could get back to me and put me back in touch with the person if it is lagitimate.Thankss! From: brianbear123@yahoo.o.uk

Answer: It's not legitimate dude, and i'm afraid the person approaching you is a scammer of some kind.Earache does approach bands out-of-the-blue but via a myspace message from our myspace.com/earacherecords or direct email from an email addy ending @earache.com, thats how you can tell its legit.We have no "George" working here, never have.
We are hearing about a few folks now, who are approaching bands pretending to be from Earache, and they usually promise to help the band get a deal, because most new bands are seemingly desperate to get signed, it sounds like they are being helpful- cept one problem, they dont have any contact with Earache..the yarn they spin is a complete lie, and we think it stinks.
In the past we have heard of Earache bands tour managers or merch sellers talking to bands about signing- because they travel around a lot, they meet a ton of hopeful bands face to face, and often collect the demo CDs on the road- again these guys are not Earache A&R guys, their connection is simply they are working for an Earache band on the road, nothing more.

Origin of Carcass' 'Symphonies' Sleeve?

Question: Hi guys, and first up, thanks for the Carcass re-issues! I\'m sure you\'ve heard it all before but the packaging is just fantastic and the bonus tracks and DVD extras make for a formidible collection. I\'ve been collecting them all as they have been released and just recently completed the collection with Symphonies of Sickness, which brings me to my question - I\'m curious about the cover that appears on the Symphonies reissue. I\'d never seen it before the reissue, and although it states on the website that the cover is the original - unused since the first release - I was hoping to find a bit more information about it in the package, perhaps a bit in the DVD, but the mystery remains. So, could you please give a bit of info about the origin of the cover, why it was withdrawn/replaced, and why it has dissapeared for nearly 20 years? Thanks! From: XXXXXXXXXXXXX@hotmail.com


Answer: Thanks for the kind word Gareth and cheers for collecting them..we had fun making them.It's the original b/w image which did indeed adorn the front cover (pic above) of the original edition of Symphonies Of Sickness LP, released in UK around october 1989 from memory.Unlike the debut LP "Reek of Putrefaction" which revelled in the gory sleeve, and for that reason never appeared for sale in a UK mainstream/chain record store, this one was more subtle,the gore was on the inside of the gatefold so that store buyers could not be offended by the sleeve and the store would therefore stock it and rack it.It was the first Carcass 'sell out' if ya like- minor alteration to the bands mindset to acheive a career.The label had done 16 releases up to that point and was begininng to suss how important the main retail outlets were to acheiving big sales numbers, so it was decided the outer sleeve had to be 'toned down' to acheive that aim.The sleeve was meant to resemble a funeral service condolences card -black, sombre, simple- the swirly writing of the title and song listing was meant to allude to classical symphonic orchestras.The image itself looks like a bunch of dots, but conceals a sinister secret which I'll now reveal.It is best viewed upside down,at arms length, and if you squint your eyes you can make out a murder victim.The 2 white dots in the carcass logo are the lapel buttons of a young woman's coat- the dead woman in questions face and top of skull has been axed/bludgeoned repeatedly in the middle.
Ironically, when the record was released a year or two later in USA on Earache/Combat the gore was deemed less a problem for sales and was even racked in CD long-boxes which had gore aplenty.

No Hardcore bands on Earache? Cept SSS?

Question: Is there any reason why earache has avoided the hardcore revival that seems to have sprung up as of late? bands like gallows, the bronx, fucked up, the horror, ghost of a thousand etc seem to be getting loads of media attention(on different levels obviously) and selling records. Im just wondering is earache avoiding the scene because you were a hardcore label to begin with or you just aint found the right band? the closest you have to the scene is SSS who have supported both gallows and fucked up but im wondering why earache havent got their own band of this style. From:

Answer: Sorry dude I have to disagree with you on that one, I beleive you have answered the question, in your question.SSS is a Liverpool-based hardcore crossover-skate-punk band who have played tours with Gallows and Fucked up and are on Earache.SSS is that band you think we dont have! In fact I don't see how you can call them anything other than hardcore, when compared to say the NME cover stars Fucked Up or the Warners label signed Gallows.By comparison, SSS are 1000% for real, true to the roots, lovin' the old school DIY/Indie style HC mate,albeit with a thrashy/skate edge.Beleive me, I know.. I've checked their record collections.

Worldwide Metal 5CD+Game mega-value box

Question: Hi Dig (and the rest of ya), I\'m loving the new compilation boxsets that you guys have been releasing (can\'t wait for Worldwide Metal next week), and I was just wondering who in the office gets to compile them? Also, I was wondering if there were any plans on releasing a compilation album with nothing but exclusive tracks from your current signed bands? That would be something us die-hard Earache fans could really get our teeth into! Cheers, Mark. From: mumblinorange@hotmail.com


Answer: Thanks Mark, glad you like the boxsets, they are undeniably top value eh?I buy similar boxsets myself all the time-like 7CD PUNK on Cherry Red- simply because its easy to feed my ipod with 100 tracks of punk, easier than downloading anyways
The concept for this one came from me, I think sublimally I was influenced by the Olympic Games coverage over the summer!Or the Global Metal film?
The actual sequence was chosen by Dan Tobin the label manager. This one does have unreleased demo tracks by Oceano, The Boy Will Drown and Ignominious Incarceration, you gotta buy it just to hear Oceano on Cd for the first time, they are redefining the term HEAVY dude.
Wherever you look it seems that compilations are given away FREE everywhere- they are attached to every music magazine in WH Smiths, and in Metal Hammer mag sometimes 2 or 3 discs fall out with the mag every month- for this reason we had to really try hard to cram in the content to compete.
Plus the full game Earache Extreme Metal Racing is included - this is currently on sale for £19.99 as PS2, its included for free as a PC game in the box.

Grindcore 2.0 -time for the return?

Question: Is there a potential grindcore return on the cards? being as youve stuck both the narcosis discography and also the insect warfare cd on the site. However rather than reissuing recently defunct bands surely it would be time better spent getting the active ones eg rotten sound or man must die ( who earache turned down aparently) From:

Answer: We know a thing or two about the genre having signed one or two of the main bands early on, but the grindcore scene in general has never really been away, when a scene has its own festivals like Obscene Extreme and Blastonbury, it can hardly be considered as on the wane.I know what you mean tho, if you look at the label, as far as Earache is concerned, apart from a short-lived licence of Watchmaker, we haven't worked with any new grindcore band for at least a decade, merely contenting ourselves with keeping our old 'classics'(ND/ENT/BT/AC/TZ etc) in print, and then - bang! from out of nowhere-2 newish grind acts appear on our schedule within months.By the way,Insect Warfare is not officially announced as I write this, but will be shortly.
The reason is simply that yeah- we appreciate prime grindcore bands again.Took us a while didn't it? The fact they both split up is co-incidence.As for the reasons we picked these 2 bands and not others like Phobia, Rotten Sound or Man Must Die- we think Narcosis and Insect warfare display the essence of pure grind, they convey the same'feeling' to me, that the original bands did way back.Insect warfare sounds ike the album Napalm Death SHOULD have recorded after FETO,if the line up had remained stable and they hadn't decamped to Florida for a Death metal mission.
To be honest grindcore needs to be shocking, the intensity of playing and feeling needs to take your breath away when the CD goes on,most of the grind bands we hear come across as sped up death metal, while we were expecting armageddon of the ears.So many bands are playing 'grind by numbers', most of them they have the affectations of grind- the short songs etc but many miss the reason, the heart behind it all, which is the sheer unmitigated misery of humankinds existence.

Bolt Thrower single sleeve LP?

Question: hi, i asked a few days before if you released the bolt thrower \"realm of chaos\" album also without foldoutcover. and in what amount?
thanks and regards, chris From: christian.haas@konen.de


Answer: Yes Christian the actual single sleeve version of the Realm OF Chaos LP is made by Earache and is the rarest of the 2 original 1989 editions.Because the album used artwork owned by Games Workshop, and the young growing wargaming company was based in Earache's hometown of Nottingham and staffed by plenty of metalheads, they were very keen to sell masses of copies in their GW stores, so the lavish gatefold edition with 8 page lyric booklet was pressed in about 8000 copies from memory? It was the main edition at the time.As an alterntive a single sleeve version was also released, probably in 1000 copies? By the way, are you buying or selling? All ebay valuations are subject to 5% tax, please me @ Earache by paypal!! ha ha

I'm signed- now what happens?

Question: say if we got signed with your record label what would be the first things we would sort out and set up with you guys? Eg... Tour/photoshoot/recording and album? just wanna know how you guys work it really
Cheers!! From: thrash_till_death@hotmail.co.uk


Answer: Thats quite an hypothetical question, but Ok i'll try to answer you...
Firstly in order to get signed in the first place, Earache, which is a bit different from the other labels,because we firstly have to enjoy and actually like your music, plus we also have to see possible signs of impending 'greatness' within the band.
Once signed- the first bit of advice I'd give to the novice band is- you should know that the expectation level and level of intensity of the competition instantly increases by 500%, I'm not kidding.You unsigned bands have it relatively easy, with your regional battle of the bands and occasional gigs in front of the unswervingly loyal local fans and family - its a walk in the park being unsigned, because the weight of expectation is pretty relaxed.You can have a good gig or a bad gig, its no big deal, really, its not the end of the world.
Once signed, however, the entire Music industry has a stake in your success, everyone starts making judgements, and everyone has an expectation to see you become a highly successful act.
When i say everyone, I mean everyone, from the label employees themselves, to the press/pr department working your press, even the folks toiling at the CD distribution centre, to the newstand metal magazine journalists who hopefully will see you as their 'fave new band' - all will be judging you, and expect you to become the new Led Zeppelin, and in record time.The faith all these folks will bestow on you in the early days, is expected to be repaid by the band having a succesful career.Honestly, I cant even begin to describe the pressure you'll be under to perform well, and be brillant, both onstage and off it, day in day out - its intense.
Frankly speaking, the reason for the pressure is because our actual jobs depend on your success, our lives depend on it, we're not hobbyists here.
You should know that all the big bands who are hero worshipped by fans, and sell massive amounts of records and become stars, all are very driven people, and work incredibly hard- rehearsing and thinking 24/7 on their music, onstage and off it.Some of the public's best known and most loved metal musicians are some of the smartest and downright hardest working people I have ever met in my life- knowing this, you can't grudge them their success.
The old adage that success= 10% inspiration, 90% perspiration applies to music industry as well as other industries.

If you're still interested in being signed, then get ready to work hard, which by and large means touring.Some of the hardest working new bands can play 200 shows in a calendar year, and when they're not playing gigs are in the rehearsal rooms for 4 hours a day, every day writing better material and getting tighter.This is actually really standard.If you read the biographies of AC/DC and KISS- 2 of the biggest rock acts of all time- the early chapters are not filled with memories about amazing photoshoots or long recording sessions,or how it felt to be working with producers etc- instead they recount a life spent in a station wagon criss-crossing Australia playing every small town dotted on the map, for 6 week stints at a time, sleeping in the van, eating junk food at truckstops.Same for KISS in USA.
As you can see, its really all about the attitude the band adopts and what Earache does once your signed is pretty much instill in you the knowledge of whats expected to build your career.

Dominos or Pizza Hut with bands?

Question: Bit of a silly one really but being as youve brokered bands signing to the label before by taking them to pizza palours. The key question is Dominos or Pizza Hut? From:

Answer: Well its traditional that Labels get to know potential new signees over a meal and a few drinks, the convivial conflab that ensues can often clinch the deal.For Earache we are based in the city centre of Nottingham,UK which during the 90's was hardly a culinary capital of the UK, hence our infamous meeting with Varg of Burzum took place in a Bella Pasta- the actual branch is still there, actually.There is no Dominos in Nottingham and we've never been in Pizza Hut either- we have a bit more class than that dude (!)- its Pizza Express all the way- basically being a greedy twat who loves eating, I can vouch for more or less every restuarant in Nottingham, as I've eaten in them all.
A favourite scoffing hole for many years was curry restuarant Mogul E- Azam, which is visible out our office window, so very handy- and also Anilas curry restuarant,which is practically next door to Rock City- I think every band on Earache has eaten there- Shane Embury always went for the Tandorri Fish- I recommend it. Godflesh would order the hottest curry off the menu, and beg the cook to make it even hotter than the hottest - Justin would be sweating buckets and damping his brow, while we discussed the bands future plans.I think he enjoyed it.Back in the 90's we tried to sign a local band Dai Lo, and they insisted on eating an organic vegan menu, we found one place called simply 'Food' in Hockley - we didn't get the band, but I'll always remember the most gorgeous food.We took Evile to Pizza Express recently and Zizzi and Nandos is always a fave with them.Misery loves Co's managers would insist on Oysters at Loch Fyne, seafood place, that was always a damn pricey meeting!
Lately we have been skipping the food and just heading to the pub for beers and vodkas, there are nowadays a ton of bars within 50 metres of the office,mostly around the 'Cornerhouse' building- or the orange tree which is a block away..we met the Boy Will Drown in local metal pub- Speakeasy, again its close to Rock City, a fave watering hole for metallers in the city.

Godflesh 2 CD & DVD mega-value pack

Question: what will be on the DVD of the Godflesh \"Songs of Love and Hate\" re-release? From: umaskzero@gmail.com

Answer:Its a 2CD +DVD mega value pack- retailing around £10.Containing The 1996 Cd of Songs of Love and hate, the CD of Love and Hate in Dub (remixes) and also the DVD "In All Languages" (containing all the promo clips the band ever made..err 4 of them).All the material has been previously released but hasn't been in print for years.Since the demise of the band we notice a steady trickle of interest in GODFLESH back catalog, we assume by newly fledged fans who are possibly getting into Justin's current band Jesu, and then working backwards investigating Justin Broadricks formidable body of work created during the 90's as GODFLESH.Also with the new Guns n Roses album Chinese Democracy finally out this month, featuring Brian 'Brain' Mantia on drums, we figured it would'nt hurt to point out that Brian (pic above) also drummed on Songs Of love and Hate.
If you are a denizen of the Avalanchers forum you can read ridiculous speculation- like 5.1 DVD-Audio surround sound mixes and the such like- but nah its a rather plain and simple mega-value pack.It did occur to us that the DVD portion of the pack is rather scant,so I emailed Justin to see if he'd be up for being filmed for an interview one afternoon,so it had some new bonus material in the form of in person commentary on the albums creation, or something like that, but no reply yet.

Earache & early UK Doom scene

Question: What are your views on the whole British Death/Doom scene, bands like My Dying Bride or Paradise Lost? Where you aware of them when they were up coming, as they went on to become very big bands on an international scale? From: redear16@hotmail.com


Answer: We were well aware of those bands early on, and actively tried to sign Paradise Lost for their debut, because i had a feeling they could be great,but even though Earache was having massive succes at the time with Napalm Death, they chose the much smaller but local-to-them Yorkshire label Peaceville instead.It hit home when PL's Gothic was released and sold incredibly well across Europe and especially in Germany, where the band regularly charted in the National charts.They were quite probably the UK's biggest-selling extreme metal band for a period spannning most of the early-mid 90's, which not many folks realise.We consoled ourselves because at least we had Cathedral and they scored a US major label deal instead.
My Dying Bride I don't remember making any official approaches to, they signed to Hammy's Peaceville also, where they loyally remain to this day, even tho the label has changed ownership in recent years.
Back in the late 80's Earache and Peaceville were the kingpins of the scene, and we had a friendly rivalry going on for the attentions of new bands- Earache didnt always get the bands we wanted.You gotta remember it's a tricky business signing bands, if the band are good then a ton of labels seem to descend en masse at their door or inbox, so other factors come into play.We don't talk to bands in isolation, a lot of the 'art' of signing bands is being on the same wavelength and having common goals and aspirations,but once the creatve concerns are dealt with, it so often crudely comes down to the acts asking "how large is your chequebook?".
By the mid 90's the soon-to-be-juggernaut German metal labels like Nuclear Blast and Century Media joined the fray,and signing the more extreme bands became a whole lot harder as they would often outbid all other labels, often by huge cash amounts..and bands end up signing where the biggest money if offered, 9 times out of 10.

Evile footage from Xmas party 07?

Question: Hey Earache, just wondering what happened to the footage shot at last years Xmas party at the Purple Turtle? I know the Evile set was filmed, possibly for release as a bonus DVD, but nothing seems to have surfaced. Any chance of that footage being released? From: mward45@yahoo.co.uk

Answer: If you were at our Xmas party in december 07 you'll know that Evile played a storming set to the assembled partygoers, and yes we did film the whole gig,including Gama Bomb & Blood Red Throne as we always do.The footage is shelved for now,same as the footage we shot of the band in Liverpool in August (supporting Muni waste).When we played it back the Xmas party footage is pretty dark on stage so its not really up to release standard.Evile do have a new 2hr DVD out right now - it comes FREE with the redux edition of the Enter the Grave CD, and includes various footage from the bands tour with MEGADETH across europe, plus in the studio with Flemming Rasmussen, and in rehearsal, plus various interviews with the band members.

Early Stoner-Rock scene circa 1992?

Question: would you class earaches involvment with the stoner rock scene of the early to mid 90s as a sucess or a failure? I mean sleep went to london, and there was the aborted signing of clutch? do you think it would have worked better if you concentrated on british bands i mean you had cathedral but maybe you could have expanded the stable maybe by adding acrimony or the then infentile orange goblin! From:


Answer: What Stoner-rock scene are you on about dude? In 1992 when we released CLUTCH and SLEEP the world was in the grip of Grunge Mania...Stoner Rock wasn't a proper named genre, but if there were flagship acts it would have been bands like Kyuss and Nebula and maybe even Monster Magnet=all were mainstream rock bands BUT with a healthy dose of Sabbath-esque heaviness and a stoner-ish mindview.Stoner rock as a scene was more a less a combo of those 2 influences.
Clutch were a Philly based HC band when we signed them, right after their Debut 7inch on Inner Journey records.
SLEEP- again, were formerly HC punkers Asbestos Death, but by the time Al Cisneros approached Earache with their demo (which would became the Holy Mountain CD) they were more or less fully fledged Sabbath worshippers,and heavy stoners aswell. See their letter to me above.From memory we were the first to coin the description Stoner Rock in the press release that accompanied the Sleep CD to journalists. True,that.

Clutch quickly began to see the impact Sleep were having and rather deviously in my view, mutated from a quirky HC band into a grooving Heavy Stoner-ish band aswell- both bands found fame quickly during their short time on Earache and so major label offers poured in.
Clutch left us before we could ink a full album deal, for Atlantic records, while Sleep hired heavyweight manager Lyor Cohen-he's the current boss of Warner Brothers but back then was Rick Rubin's right hand man at Def Jam aswell.The new management removed them from Earache's contract, but at least they had the decency to gave me a cheque as compensation, which was nice- and ended up on London Records, where the resulting album would be shelved for many years.
As for the UK contingent-We had Cathedral throughout the 90's of course, we did the first 7 albums or so.Actually Dorian the singer of Acrimony used to work at Earache for a time, so we knew all about his band- it was decent but we dont sign employees acts usually.Orange Goblin came a lot later in mid 90's I think, and by that time Earache's involvment with 'Stoner-Rock' was over.Labels like Lee Dorrian's Rise Above began to specialise in the more doom-metal scene, and have done it very well, having some measure of success and thriving to this day, by contrast to labels like Hellhound from Germany which also also took up the Doom/Stoner baton, but folded in late 90's.

Reasons for CARCASS reformation?

Question: Was the carcass reunion really inspired by the emperor one? in that mike saw how much emperor made during their reunion jaunt and thought to himself- i want some of that! From:


Answer: Yeah, thats pretty much true I think.I know Jeff Walker kept a close eye on the fees which Emperor made during their short USA reunion jaunt and more relevantly the short-lived Celtic Frost re-union tour of a year or so back.
The gig fees which other reformed 90's extreme metal acts were able to command in recent years is pretty staggering, when compared to the tiny gig fees they could command back in the 90's when the extreme metal scene was pretty much in its infancy.Nowadays the gig and festival circuit is more developed for metal in general and the live circuit and associated industry around it (merchandising/ticketing etc) is hella lucrative.You can't blame the bands for reforming when a fee for a gig in 2008 is 10x the fee the same band could get in 1995- luckily for them, their time away has been kind,and new fans were queuing up to get to see the band, its mainly driven by earache keeping the Cds in print plus the power of the internet and widely file shared mp3's I believe.
I beleive there will be many more acts doing this in the coming months- infact as I write this i'm hearing SLEEP have reformed aswell, for 2 shows at UK alternative festival All Tomorrow's Parties, in May 2009, maybe more gigs at the major Euro festivals will follow, I wouldn't be suprised.
On another note has anyone noticed that 3 of the worlds biggest ever Rock bands - METALLICA, AC/DC & GUNS N' ROSES all have new Cds out within 8 weeks of each other after years- or in some cases decades- without any new material.
Rock is basically back in vogue and in the driving seat of the global music industry right now, driven by the success of RockBand and GUitar hero games etc I don't doubt.

December video

Question: What was the video that December had on slight rotation on MuchMusic and MTV (maybe) about 5 years ago? They were in a desert or something and I cannot find it anywhere on the internet. Can you help me out, or is this video lost in space and time forever? From: joncontino@gmail.com


Answer: You mean this one?

Why No Metalcore on Earache?

Question: Thanks for answering the question on darkest hour, from what i have heard this jorge was pretty on top when it came to the first wave of north eastern metalcore bands overcast, aftershock ( now of course shadows fall and killswitch engage), unearth, the red chord as well as himsa who although from seattle played many shows on the north east due to its over populance of bands, Is there any reason why earache decided to stay away from this scene? as history shows just a few years later the scene exploded and became the metal mainstream. From:

Answer: Thats a great question.. there is a whole slew of US metalcore bands who exploded and, as you say,those bands- Killswitch Engage, Shadows Fall- soon became hugely popular and in effect became the metal mainstream in 2002-3-4 right after the nu metal wave had subsided.
Earache dealt with none of those types of bands, in hindsight,from a commercial point of view especially, it was a massive failing of ours.
Short answer for why is- we didn't understand the scene.It was a genuine crossover of metal and hardcore, hence 'metalcore' BUT they appeared to us at the time, to be 'Hardcore Bands Trying to Play Metal'- and doing it badly, so it wasn't to our taste.They appeared 75% HC and 25% Metal to us.You could say we were snobby about our own past legacy of bands being 'better',this pickiness clouds our judgement of newbies quite a lot.
Earache isn't totally alien to HC though- the label has dabbled in HC bands in the past- releasing Coalesce's second EP, also we have Dillinger Escape Plan under license from their pre-Relapse label,Now or Never.But Metalcore itself passed us by, thats true.
So, we watched from the sidelines as labels like Ferret and to some extent Trustkill embraced the metal+hardcore= metalcore bands and those labels rightly dominated the scene, deservedly becoming huge in the process.Festivals like Ozzfest and Warped played a big part also, it was timely as the scene co-incided with the huge upturn in interest in rock.

From my viewpoint, Hatebreed were the daddies and inventors of Metalcore and I was a big fan of them, still am in fact, we'd sign them anytime, but would need a big cheque.

Red Chord were one band who we thought offered something extra and liked a lot- and they had a deal offer from Earache after the Robotic Empire debut, but the connections to the scene were well established elsewhere and so Metal Blade secured the bands signatures.
In effect we sat things out for a few years - waiting for Death metal + hardcore= Deathcore to come along and then released UK's BRING ME THE HORIZON's debut in USA and signed Chicago's OCEANO instead.

Earache to issue more deluxe packaging Cds?

Question: Hey guys.
I\'m 16 years old and live in the birthplace of metal, Birmingham, and I have a 98 Cd strong Earache collection, spanning Sleep, to Morbid Angel, to Carcass, and newer bands like Evile and Municipal Waste (I have the original, bonus track and green case edition of their latest LP).
Here\'s my question-
Would it be possible , at some point, to do an Earache classics series in a cardboard , multi panel deluxe edition, in a similar way to the Carcass re-issues?
I was thinking that some timeless, 5* star albums need re-introduction to the newer generations, ie. Sleep\'s Holy Mountain, Blessed Are The Sick by Morbid Angel and even undervalued masterworks like From Enslavement To Obliteration by Napalm Death and Wolverine Blues by Entombed.
I think that the Swansong Dualdisc package was a prime example of how special editions needn\'t be chock-full of extras, when the special editions are of solid , timeless albums. I\'d have bought it for the deluxe packaging alone.
To summarise, I just think , in a generation when a classic \"metal\" album is made of the basic chug-squeal formula, there needs to be a modern day appreciation of classic bands, and what better way to do it than fancy, deluxe editions of Earache\'s share of pioneering albums?
Thanks for your time.
Ross. From: paintyourface@hotmail.co.uk

Answer: Well first of all Ross- cheers to you for buying so many Earache cds- we really appreciate your loyalty-I'm glad you like our stuff!.Secondly, you're not wrong about Birmingham being the birthplace of heavy Metal- its a proven fact.You should get yourself down to the 'Home of Metal'events taking place in coming weeks to see original artworks and artifacts from Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Napalm Death,Led Zep etc being exhibited in various Brum galleries.Its free to get in.

Thanks for your kind words on the packaging of the CARCASS deluxe dualdisc editions...yeah we think they are great, they fold out over and over again don't they?They contain tons of extra artwork and feel lavish as hell- we wanted buyers to feel like they got their money's worth!We have noticed how the fans, like yourself, have appreciated them, because they sold spectacularly well...so you can be sure we are considering doing more back catalog re-issues in the same lavish style, with DVD added. Blessed Are The Sick is on our list to do- we have to interview the band first though.
Heres the greatest heavy metal band of all time playing the best Heavy metal song of all time, which contains the best HM riff ever written:

Darkest Hour on Earache?- Nah..

Question: Did earache really try to sign darkest hour? as the version events i heard was that they were friends with a US label staffer who tried to get them on earache, said staffer left to go to A-F records and so DS went to victory, interestly DH gave A-F their first two eps to reissue in 99 because of their friendship with the guy who worked there who was ex earache. From:

Answer: This sounds pretty true to me.The staffer will be Jorge.He was an Earache employee in late 90's in our NYC office and like most of the staffers, being fans of new heavy music, they would suggest bands all the time to myself as the label boss,I am the one with the ultimate power of veto over signing bands to the label. Darkest Hour I remember - at that time- were just a bad ATG clone to my ears..we are superbly picky at this label about bands we sign, they really have to have something fresh to offer, in my opinion.
Well in hindsight, you could say I was a moron (again!) to pass on Darkest Hour- D'oh!!-that it was a mistake since DH have build up a massive following and sold extremely well for Victory.The bands main influences according to their website are Carcass. ATG and Entombed- all bands we'd done in the 90's, who did it first, and better imho.
So if Jorges label Anti=Flag did the early EP's on CD then thats great, more power to them for picking up a cool band.I wish I had listened to Jorge!

Judge For Yourself - here DH doing Demons.

Why Cult Of Luna?

Question: so what drew earache to cult of luna they arnt exactly typical earache affair to be honest sure the root of their sound is justin k broadrick influenced, but its the other influences that throw me off eg radiohead, iceland\'s sigur ros and denmark\'s mew. From:

Answer: When Cult Of Luna's debut came out on Rage of Achilles records it caused a major stir in our office and we felt 'here is a VERY special band'. The debut was heavy but in an entirely original way- the use of sonically head-caving passages with more atmospheric quieter interludes during the often long songs impressed us a lot.They mixed the heaviness of metal with the intelligence of hardcore, and showcased a different way of thinking-We had to work with the band.There's no Radiohead stuff that we can hear on the debut, but I know what you mean, its now their trademark.
During later albums the band expanded the highs and the lows even more, and the Radiohead-isms came to the fore more, but still never more than say 20% of an album. If you hear their side-band Khoma -1 album released on RoadRunner records- you can hear the styles reversed-ie, 80% Radiohead, 20% crushing heaviness.Its this potent combo which makes them a special band.
We like the style of the band, they dont seem too out of place to us-Ok its not Deicide, but if you hear our Godflesh output from the 90's you can hear a similar type of vibe.Also-Try Callisto from Finland is my recommendation- their stuff is often overlooked - the album we released in 2005 is terrific and if you like COL, theres a fair chance you'll love Callisto too.
heres Callisto doing 'Wormwood' live 2007

80's Government 'Enterprise Allowance Scheme' & labels?

Question: Is it possible that without the young enterprise scheme earache wouldnt have existed? ive read in a number of books that it was one of the key reasons why indie labels started to pop up in the 80s. Alan Mcgee of creation records said that without it his label wouldnt have formed as he would have been in the job centre not doing label stuff! From:

Answer: Yep- you can thank UK prime minister Maggie Thatcher for the existence of McGee's Creation Records and Earache Records then, thats a fact! Because it was her Government which introduced the Enterprise Allowance Scheme- basically a way to reduce the shocking UK jobless figures at the time, by encouraging people off the dole and into running their own a business.The jobless figures were a politically sensitive issue back then, as now, and Governments would try anything to reduce the number claiming benefits.
It enabled people to become self-employed and in control of their own destiny- remarkably, The Govermnent even paid your business 40 pounds a week for the first year to help you along..but you had to stump up 1000 pounds of your own money to show it was a legit enterprise and you were slightly commited to actually running a business. The take up was huge- nearly every label i knew in that era was formed that way, COR records, Rise Above etc. It was really successful because it offered a way for many would-be musicians, comics, designers, arists etc to get the jobless tag off their backs and so have time to concentrate on building a business..it was'nt just for budding record label owners, anyone could join.
I don't know if a similar scheme exists right now in UK to give a leg-up to budding entrepreneurs, maybe the lottery funding is the current way for new budding labels owners to get investment, I dunno?

Sleep & Godflesh vinyl on Kreation records?

Question: What\'s the story with the Kreation Records re-releases of some of the classic Earache releases? WIth Sleep\'s Holy Mountian, and now two of the early Godflesh albums, should we expect more? From: johnwalbridgeiv@yahoo.com

Answer: Well they are new, 100% legitimate limited-run(2000 from memory)Vinyl LP pressings issued by Seattle's Kreation records under license from Earache.It's quite unusual for us to allow anyone to print our records, we keep a tight rein on who is allowed a licence to print our catalog, especially bands as revered as Sleep and Godflesh.
What happened was we noticed a lot of fans asking for vinyl printings of our long out of print back catalog, and since lavish vinyl is quite expensive to make, we do it mainly for our new current bands.A couple of years ago, Earache looked around for reliable partners to have a go at making some of this back catalog on vinyl LP available again, and bringing some vinyl back to life..It was our great vinyl licence give-away prompted by our label manager here in Uk who is a total vinyl NUT and wants our back catalog to be available on LP- err mainly i suspect for his own collection!
So, as well as Kreation, Belgium based Painkiller records also licensed a couple of slabs of wax - doing a lavish Bolt thrower pic LP and lavish Morbid Angel pic LP vinyl under licence.Night of the Vinyl Dead are also slated to do a Cathedral LP from us.
Many new labels it seems are mixing doing new bands with picking off the rights for vinyl for long-lost albums from the bigger labels, so its a thriving scene, driven i suspect by ebay and the hordes of frankly nutty vinyl collectors out there.
Kreation seem to have done the most to promote their Lp's, going as far as contacting the original band members for quotes or extra material for the sleeves, and doing a splurge of different colored waxes for the collectors & ebay market.

Carcass on RoadRunner in the 90s?

Question: Did earache really nearly loose carcass at one point to roadrunner? as jeff mentions it on the necro dvd, how close were you to loosing them? From:

Answer: Yeah as Jeff mentions in the documentary film- and it was complete news to me- Carcass nearly signed with Roadrunner in the early 90s.At that point, Carcass had completed the 2 album deal with us, which covered the debut and 'Symphonies' albums, and as Earache was still a developing label, with a few minor breakthrough extreme acts under its belt, the band looked around for a better home, Roadrunner back then, as now, were THE powerhouse label of metal in the world, I recall they were breaking through with Sepultura and Type O Negative on the USA Billboard charts and scoring gold albums,which was a major acheivement for metal back then, and had even formed a sublabelRoadRacer to cater for the more heavier end of the spectrum. As Jeff mentions in the film, the deal from RR was'nt to their liking -it would'nt be much money and for up to 8 albums in length, which was typical of RR back then I guess.Earache's counter offer would have been for 2 albums on a 50/50 profit share so the band chose to sign to Earache for the 2nd time, and the resulting albums were Necroticism and Heartwork (which Earache licensed to Columbia).After that the band signed direct with Columbia records, a part of SONY, but Carcass had massive disagreements with the label over their sound and direction, so were dropped, and the album shelved.
Now owning the shelved album, The band came back to Earache for a 3rd time,enabling album Swansong to see a release on Earache in 1996, but sadly the band split up before it was even out, and Carcass was dead for the next decade, leaving Earache to keep the records in print and keep the legacy of their great output going.Guitarists Steer and Amott continued in music during this time, former with Firebird and the latter with very successful Arch Enemy.
Seeing the pulling power of reformed bands from the 90s, prompted Carcass to consider a reformation in 2007 - and in summer 2008 the reactivated Carcass toured heavily all over the globe.I personally doubt the band will make a new album, however, even if they were to make a newie, I doubt it will be on Earache, unless they come to us for a 4th time!

The next in line "Classic Re-issues" CD +DVD

Question: what is next in the line of classic re-issues? Are there going to be any scorn or godflesh with extras? From: crytes682@gmail.com

Answer: We get loads of emails asking about this series of Earache titles coming out with FREE bonus DVD attached.The Earache "Classic Re-issues" series titles have so far sold incredibly well, so we are glad they are being appreciated and bought by fans.
We definately want to keep the series going but we are rapidly running out of actual pro-shot live onstage footage from back in the day to make into DVDs to include as the bonuses, so the next titles will be ones were we have arranged to interview the members about the making of the albums,kinda like a documentary where the musicians look back at their seminal albums which have appeared on the label,and explain to fans what it was all about, in their own words. The Carcass documentary film "Pathologist's report Parts I-V" was wildly popular because the band had split in the meantime, so it was the first time the members got to explain what was going on back then.

Our current wish-list is Lee Dorrian on camera talking in depth about early Cathedral albums "Forest Of Equilibrium" & "The Ethereal Mirror", and also Morbid Angel including David Vincent discussing on camera "Blessed Are The Sick"- both of which are agreed in principle to take place.We are finding that fans are craving to see and hear the artists of these groundbreaking, genre-defining albums actually talk about the process and the feelings and motivations behind the recordings, in their own words, because its something that wikipedia or scanned-in old interviews can't communicate.

A latter period Napalm Death DVD should really take place, Shane Embury has a story to tell like non other, a story thats quite crucial to the history of Grindcore, also a Godflesh Streetcleaner re-issue should take place also,Justin has a massive story to tell-- maybe also something by Cult Of Luna and Akercocke.Scorn is quite a long-shot, I personally would'nt mind seeing the Evanescence line up of Mick and Nick discussing why and how they made such groundbreaking music, back in 1994.

Earache is rapidly turning out a production line of excellent metal documentaries, and having seen the Get Thrashed film,which is an excellent overview of the 80s Thrash scene, we are making some plans to do a totally in-depth film about the explosion of the 90s Death Metal/Grindcore scene ourselves.Also we are aware of our responsibility to archive and save for posterity the ideas and thoughts of the main players in the scene, as sadly quite a few have passed away now,like Jesse Pintado (Napalm Death) Johnny Morrow (Iron Monkey) & Vitek (Decapitated)so their thoughts are lost forever.

TLAM tour backstage pass in new Metal Hammer?

Question: strange i know! but i brought a metal hammer magazine today and in it was a purple plip which says its a access all areas and venues pass for the euro tour of thrashing like a maniac! i was wondering is this a valid ticket? i know silly question!! From: jizmbunnies@hotmail.co.uk


Answer: It wont allow you into the club for free, but if you come along to any of the Thrashing Like A Maniac dates and headed for the backstage area, wearing the purple backstage pass, I doubt if anyone will stop you- and the bands will be chuffed to meet you- so see you there!

Japanese Ultragore CLAYMATION?? WTF!!?

Wallace & Gromit was never like this...

How to get work doing bands' album covers?

Question: I\'m a graphic designer, and am interested in knowing how your label, or generally any label (preferably metal) looks for designers to do album artwork or promo stuff for bands. Is it that you have to possess a exceptional portfolio with years of experience or is it sort of if you can do it and have the style, then go for it sort of thing?

Also, within the indie lables like Earache, does the band choose who does the art or does the label decide that? I\'ve read many times in design resource books that in major lables, the lables typically deal with the designer whereas indie labels has the band/artist deal with the designer which usually results in better artwork for the band.

Thanks a bunch in advance. From:

Answer: Earache has released over 400 albums, and for every single one of them the band has had the freedom to design & choose the art for the album.I have heard some horror stories about other labels, even Indie metal ones, who have foisted album covers on bands they they plainly did'nt like.We just don't do that- neither do most Indie labels to be fair.
Generally,the label's role is to take the band's creative vision for an album cover and then its us who gets to work and finds a suitable artist who can execute that vision- Earache's design team will then work with the artist to make sure its up to standard, the artwork copyrights are secured, and also delivered on time and on budget (which is harder than you think) involving the band along the way, to get their approval.
We deal with many debut bands who are pretty naive when it comes to artwork- often they insist a 'best mate' does the album cover whereas we are used to hiring world class artists on a weekly basis. A common fault is also- their sole suggestion can be a quite literal interpretation of the album title - a dead body falling thru a grave for Enter the Grave by Evile springs to mind.
Equally often, bands go to the other end of the scale and want say HR GIGER (Carcass' Heartwork LP above was designed by GIGER) or some Star Wars character in the art, which is not really on, for an unknown band.
Creative artwork ideas and concepts are not a bands strong point usually (we sign them for the music) so we sometimes struggle to get them to tell us what they want, mostly they like the guy who did the cover of another band that caught their eye recently ( Colin Marks is benefiting from this effect right now).
This dilemma is where unknown artists can get their foot in the door, because our fave thing is when we get random artists who supply us by email 4-5-6 complete, ready made album covers, with space cunningly left for logo & title, with price tag attached for use.We love these, because we can pass these ready-made covers to our bands, and you'd be surprised how many bands say they love one of the images and it becomes their album cover.
Another way to catch our attention is on Deviant Art website- many bands scour the site looking for suitable art styles and then let us know who to contact.Good luck with your art!

Dub war = Dud War?

Question: So what actually went wrong with dub war surely they should have been one of the biggest bands in the uk? I was going through my ticket collection and i found a dub war ticket from when they played newport tjs support was from a second rate grunge band by the name of feeder, im sure they only got on the bill because like dub war they were from newport, over a decade later its feeder that are headlining festivals and are part of the uk rock hirachy surely it should been dub war who achived this? From:


Answer: Well this sort of thing happens all the time in the music biz- loads of bands dont get the breaks and the success their talent deserves while many others get big on little more than marketing and financial prowess of the well-financed, often Major label.Dub War always come up as a classic 'band who should have been big', but to be fair they did have a small slice of fame, charting 5 times in official Uk chart, but were not massive, far from it.In many ways the recent success of Skindred (Benjis new band, uncannily like Dub War, but now on major-backed US label Beiler Brothers) is the success Dub War didnt acheive, so things finally came good for Benji ten years after DW's demise.Drummer Ginge and Guitarist Jeff are ace producers now aswell, recording the bonus tracks for Bullet For My Valentine's new album.
It should be noted that Dub war's style and sound was incredibly radical for the time, playing a mash-up of ragga and metal whereas Feeder were grunge-lite and Skunk Anansie were female pop-rock, both highly mainstream in their outlook.the word mash up wasnt even coined until a few years ago, so you could say they were ahead of the time.
The main difference is finances- Feeder were on Echo - a powerful label backed with serious major- label-type money, Dub War were on Earache, backed by me, and we are as Indie as they come.
here's a look at Dub war playing Dutch festival DYNAMO from 1995:

Earache's best and worst all-time sellers?

Question: Hello, I am starting a project at College about Metal labels, what are Earache\'s biggest selling and lowest selling albums of all time. thank You,
from Neil. From:

Answer: Earache has been lucky that for over 20 years our fans have been pretty loyal to the labels output...nearly everything we release has sold a respectable steady amount but the biggest sellers are legendary albums like:
Blessed Are The Sick by Morbid Angel
Scum by Napalm Death
Heartwork by Carcass
Slaughter Of The Soul by At The Gates.

Earache's early 90's catalog is pretty much a whos-who of Extreme music hall-of-famers, and anyone getting into the heavier end of metal naturally needs to pick up a fair few of our Classic releases.
On the flipside we also have had a some extremely poor sellers, luckily very few though! This mostly occurs when we diversify too much from the core Death Metal/Grind/Thrash/HC sounds we have a reputation for delivering, sometimes the bands never toured which is always fatal, or in some cases the bands music just never 'caught on' and the breaks never went their way.
Some of the worst sellers of the early period were:
OLD- Lo Flux Tube
Mighty Force - Dive - see rare clip below from 1989:

more recently;
Rakoth- Tiny Deaths (you can listen to a Track from Rakoth's Planeshift debut below)

Shortie - Without A Promise (see song from album "Truth" below)

Ewigkeit - Conspiritus (see song It's Not Reality below)

HM Titans Cauldron & Crystal Castles connection? WTF?!

Question: Is there really a link between new earache signees cauldron and electro band crystal castles? From:

Answer: What- apart from both being from Toronto?
As it happens Jason Decay from our new Traditional HM signings CAULDRON (pic above) used to be in a metal band with the dude Ethan who is half of massively popular electro-punkers, and this weeks NME cover stars, CRYSTAL CASTLES (pic below). Mad eh?.


The prior band was called KILL CHEERLEADER which played punky-stooges/G'n'R metal and made an album on Spinerazor records in 2004.

Jason was most recently in GOAT HORN playing stoner-y doom metal.

CAULDRON is a newly formed 3 piece, a Traditional HM band influenced by NWOBHM,and the debut album will be unleashed on Earache in 2009.
See Goat Horn video below.