The NEW UK Indie Metal labels

Question: two questions for you guys

1) Is it true what some magazines have said in that the founding of the band to-mera is what killed elitist, because lee wanted to conectrate on being in a band again?

2) Out of the newer earache style uk indies visible noise, anticulture, in at the deep end and so on which one has impressed you the most, of those labels which one do you think will reach the status that earache is at now in a few years?
From:


Answer: Elitist was closed by Earache,mainly through our loss of confidence in the label due to underperforming sales, it was purely a business decision.We also stopped working with The Codebreaker and Willowtip as sub-labels for the same reasons.Some months earlier, Lee had founded To-mera with Julie Kiss and considered releasing it on Elitist but we declined.I guess To-mera is touring a lot now and seems to be going down well.
As for the new UK indie metal labels- Visible Noise is hands down the most impressive 'new' label in the UK, it sells more Cds than the rest of the labels you mention combined, and in the summer of 2006 had a UK number 1 album by Lostprophets, which is an unbeleivable acheivement for a truly Indie label,in any genre in fact, never mind Metal.VN is run by fabulous folks too, who genuinely look after their fans, hence 100% deserve the success they acheived.
The owners of Anticulture and In At The Deep End i have met a few times, and they too are committed to the Indie cause but do not have any massively succesful bands,not yet anyways, so can hardly be compared to VN.Steev from Anticulture has too wide a range of tastes i think, with acts ranging from Interlock to Gutworm or Miksha all sounding a bit too different to give the label an identity which it needs early on. In At The Deep End has Send More Paramedics who are a great band (epic double album coming next we hear!)and could be a huge success if the breaks go their way.