Spent 10 years de-mystifying the Independent Metal Industry.Get straight answers on any Earache-related topic without the bullshit.Guaranteed 100% rumour-free. All the news is on Insta & twitter now @earacherecords
Question: I have a rip of a cd called Suicide Songs by The Berzerker. Every site I find about this release says it is a bootleg released on Earache records. Is this true? If so, can I buy it? Also, if it's true, what is the catalog number? From: jdirion@sktc.net
Answer: Pure bootleg dude, its nothing ever made by us. I'm pretty shocked actually because our official catalog is online Here.Nowadays I find it incredible how many websites have wrong information, there are so many blogs and torrents and so many fans who use them for free music files that often-times the torrents and accompanying tracklistings become the actual "truth".Purely because so many people use these sites to get the music for their digital collection.
Thanks for alerting this to us- we never made it, it is a total bootleg, and i can't explain it.My guess is the Berzerker mainman Luke was behind it though.
Question: Hi Earache. What song plays at the start of the "Napalm Death Live Corruption" VHS / "The DVD". The song when the Earache logo comes up with a starry purplish blue sky background then it shows the ND Life? logo and afterwards "Harmony Corruption" plays. I've listened to all the bands that I hadn't heard in your catalog from 1991 and under (which was about 4) and didn't seem to find it. If the band is not on the Earache catalog then I'm going to punch myself haha. Thanks in advance. From: joemonkeyteeth@aol.com
Answer: Newer DVDs have Decapitated intro music, the exact song was mentioned in a previous blog.
In this case this is a DVD issue of an old VHS era concert so the music is Cathedral "Voyage of The Homeless Sapien' taken from the Statik Majik EP from 90's.
The song is 22 minutes long- an epic voyage of riffage and spaced out trippy parts- the riff in question comes late in the song- about the 18.45 mark. Its amazing isn't it?
If you have the wonderous free, legal Spotify application installed just hit this Playlist to take you straight to it.
Question: I read in an article that The Baron from amebix was the originator of what became the grindcore growl and that nic bullen was doing a more exaterated version of this when he recorded the napalm vocals (although to be honest ive only ever heard the baron do somthing similer in a live setting not on record) would you agree for this to be true? personally i see the grindcore growl as coming from a cross between the baron, quothorn and tom g warrior From:
Answer: Well that's certainly a decent theory, from my recollection you are in the right part of the world - South Western UK. Before grindcore there was hardcore punk, and Amebix were an integral part of the wildly-influential Bristol UK hardcore punk scene during the beginning of the 80's.All the bands down there - Chaos UK, Disorder and AMEBIX took things a stage further than the rest of the punk scene. They revelled in all things drunk, crazy, wild and extreme, and what was once punky vocals soon became just an extended "Aaargh".
In my opinion the extreme growl started with Chaos UK's No Security single...but it was'nt gutteral enough for grindcore so Nik Bullen went way further with the mid-80s line up of Napalm Death.Skum Dribbluurz were doing short blasting noize songs, but vocals were 'normal" punk. Pic of Tim Skum Dribbluurz & Gabba Chaos UK
CHAOS UK 'No Security'- hear the first Arrrrgh. This started it all.(Some dick flagged this clip at Youtube so need to log in)
Amebix and Disorder in Bristol squat from UK/DK movie:
Question: Hello at Earache, A reader at my site wonders if the Godflesh Love and Hate reissues have undergone any remastering (see last comment): http://invisibleoranges.com/2009/02/godflesh-love-and-hate-reissues.html If you could briefly enlighten him/her/me, I'd appreciate it. Thanks! From: invisibleoranges at g mail dot com
Answer: Yes they are remastered.I reckon it would be a bit strange if we'd gone to the trouble to re-issue these long out of print mid-era GODFLESH titles - making 2 Cds and a DVD available as a lo price box set in the case of Songs Of Love and Hate- and not remastered them.In Europe we just this week released Pure/Cold World/ Slavestate 3 Cd box, its also been remastered.
The remastering was undertaken by JP (John-Paul) Braddock of Mine Music Mastering in UK. JP Braddock has mastered probably a hundred Earache albums over the last decade, his name (JP/Rubber Biscuit) might be familiar to avid readers of the credits in the liner notes which accompany those Earache CDs.
Godflesh mainman Justin Broadrick was highly complimentary about the repackaging and re-mastering job, he recently told our label manager: " i finally got to play the first disc of the reissued 'pure' and i must say its the best ive ever heard that album, so, well done on the mastering, no matter how subtle it was it has certainly made a difference and improved things a lot from the original masters.
i also love the artwork and design for both packages, the printing is the best ive seen of any of these GF releases, really clear and sharp. im pleasantly surprised at how well these came out.. "
So Godflesh fans can rest assured, both re-issues are worth getting a hold of from our webstore for $14 postage free.
Question: Being as earache kept on trucking as normal during this period im wondering did you have any interest during the 90s uk hardcore scene when it was running? bands like knuckledust, disco assains, stampin' ground, public disturbance etc. its just that earache seemed to be uninvolved during a fertile time. From:
Answer: Yes you are right, Earache watched those bands you mention progress but made no attempt to sign any during this period of development of UKHC during the mid-late 90s. The UK Hardcore scene back then was pretty cliquey and incredibly snobby to a lot of metal, including Earache I would say. It would be quite a few years before chug chug Metalcore as popularised by Hatebreed on their 2002 'Perseverence' album made metal riffs acceptable to hardcore heads.
You might not recall it, but for a long time the HC mindset has not always been to appreciate Death metal or Metal in general, in fact it was looked down upon. Metal being rooted in fantasy and therefore not real, it wasn'nt deemed 'hardcore" enough for a lot of scenesters, because its roots were'nt from the streets as Hardcore's roots were. In the 80's and 90's Hardcore used to be shorthand for Hardcore Punk, not Hardcore Metal.
I was really into London's KNUCKLEDUST because they were easily the heaviest band in the UKHC at the time, also I personally liked a band from Northampton called FREEBASE because the singer Mark (pictured onstage above) was an open-minded HC scenster who loved his metal and death metal, and later, classic rock.Mark bacame a great friend of the label staff and being a party-animal like us, would be the life and soul of many an Earache Xmas party during the 90s.After his band split up, he helpfully acted as van driver for Deicide and Decapitated during UK tours.
Stampin' Ground were an exception to the 'no-metal in HC' rule- they veered into Slayer territory early on and became almost a full-on thrash outfit.On paper they should have been perfect for Earache to work with, but somehow our attention was elsewhere at that time, probably because I felt ragga-metal like Dub War was more contemporary.Scott Atkins guitarist of Stampin Ground is now a hot Producer, responsible for stellar production jobs on Sylosis and Gama Bomb. Ian Glasper of Stampin ground is a successful author of retrospective books documenting the 80's and 90's UKHC scene.His latest book Trapped In A Scene is out next month.
Scene politics also meant that it wasn't cool for a label like Earache to simply muscle into those bands back then, because smaller labels like London's Household Name were already working with Knuckledust, and Denmarks Die Hard offshoot label for HC 'Hard Boiled' were working with Freebase. We respected the HC labels and the label owners who put in the hard work to promote their bands.
If you want to see the roots of where Hardcore Dancing came from just watch these amazing Knuckledust fans in action back in the day:
Question: You've talked about the northern doom and earache before. Moving further south west Im wondering did earache ever consider electric wizard for the label? Being as this was around the time you had sleep and cathedral on the label. Also were they a factor in as you've mentioned before having earache make rise above either a sub label of or distro for rise above. Quite interested in this being as lee has mentioned before how EW did what cathedral did but took it further and are better musically. Plus because of Jus osborns interest in early death metal im sure you would have crossed paths with them before. From:
Answer: Dorset, UK's Electric Wizard (mainman Jus Oborn pictured) are hands down one of the most crushingly heavy bands I've ever witnessed, and I've seen them all.But it was'nt always that way, as in the early days when Earache had Sleep, Cathedral, and Iron Monkey making waves, Electric Wizard were just promising newcomers from some backwoods town in sleepy south-west England, or thats how they appeared to me.
Earache was in touch with Jus quite a lot when he had his pre-Wizard Doomy/Death metal band 'Eternal'.I remember thinking long and hard about Jus, he was talented and very much an avid Doom/Death scenester (a bit like Harry from London deathsters Decomposed) and I think this was part of the reason we never offered them a deal- we simply never physically met- also I recall we had enough Doom on our plate at the time already.
I actually don't think Electric Wizard ever played near Nottingham in the early days either, preferring to play shows in London, which was nearer to them.It was seriously late in the day before I actually saw them play, and once Rise Above had snapped them up to a deal, it was not our style to make waves with other people's bands so we left Wizard well alone.Rise Above's Lee Dorrian was actually signed to Earache for most of the 90's as Cathedral, and it was simply not on to mess with his label, though we did hold talks about becoming its official licensee but couldn't agree terms.
It was Rise Above's expert handling of the band which has ensured their long-term success and legendary status among the Doom cognescenti.
Question: What do you guys at Earache think of the stoner movie Such Hawks Such Hounds,and are you releasing a Sleep DVD of the reunion shows. From: Tomharding43@gmsil.com
Answer:A stoner rock movie? Are you sure, because this is the first i've heard about such a thing? OK now i've done some online research, I am totally blown away that such a movie exists,fair play to the director John Srebalus for seemingly spending 2-3 years putting it together, as a real DIY project which deserves support.The movie seems to cover the whole gamut of underground US rock, but has an emphasis on the stoner/doom scene, interviews include Wino, Billy Anderson, Greg Anderson, Al Cisneros, Scott Reeder (Kyuss) Tom Davies (Nebula) and many more.
Heres a Matt Pike interview from the official website. You can order the DVD from the page aswell. The film has a MySpace for more information.
As for the Sleep re-union shows we are not in any talks to issue any DVD, sadly, even though they performed the whole of the Earache record- Sleep's Holy Mountain.
Question: this is a question i have always wanted to know, when a band speaks to you and says here is my cd and you take it away and like the music, is that enough for you to sign them, or do you look at there myspace and see how many plays and friends they have on myspace and if bands has loads of plays and friend does that go in there favour? From: point1point2@hotmail,com
Answer: I've said it before on this site- but its worth mentioning again - most unsigned bands have no clue of the scale of the competition to get signed, the numbers of bands clamouring to be signed is vast.You have to stand out from the pack because we get approached for consideration from at least 50 bands a week, and thats when record labels like Earache are supposedly in decline as the internet is freely available for bands to promote themselves and distribute their music.The bloggers and pundits who predict the decline of the record label as more bands embrace web 2.0 tools, well someone needs to announce the news to the thousands of bands we hear from each year, cos they don't seem to have gotten that memo.
Creativity is the name of the game, and my best peice of advice is- if you want to send a CD to a label, make sure you get a large package and include something to catch the eye of the A&R person- a few cans of lager works for us! Honestly, such a simple thing will mark you out as both highly creative and good at self-promoting, exactly the things labels are looking for.
Unsigned bands typically fall into 3 camps-
1) 90% are rank novices who picked up their instruments maybe a mere 3 months prior to making a demo, these are the bands who probably send us the first 4 songs ever written.Mostly they are dire and simply playing 30 seconds of one song tells us this fact, we hit the pause button fast.
2) 10% of bands are much more accomplished and genuinely decent sounding- many bands have excellent sounding demos these days- but are too obviously ape-ing the influences found in their own record collections.After a few plays we lose interest because the all important spark and originality is lacking.
3) The last type are the rarest of bands,probably amounting to 0.1%, its those who tick all the boxes,show originality, operate as a team unit, and are driven to succeed.A retro type of sound can be highly contemporary if no-one else around sounds like it.A great example is Earache is in the midst of signing new bands who sound like NWOBHM right now. These bands have that added X-factor which I can't fully describe, but its more than merely playing well or being tight, these bands have a focus and a burning ambition to do well, which makes them simply crying out to be signed, and its obvious immediately. The word of a great new band reaches all the labels at internet speed these days, and a bidding war often ensues for new Metal talent.
MySpace playcounts have been the scorecard by which a whole new new breed of labels did their A&R between 2004--2009.Specialising in the Myspace music-scene styles like emo/screamo & lately deathcore, the playcount was a sure fire indication of actual popularity and it meant anyone - I mean anyone- could be a great A&R person simply by monitoring playcounts on the site, by skillful use of the search box.
This is exactly how Mark from new Nottingham label In At The Deep End told me he used to 'discover' Californian Death-core outfit Suicide Silence, and for a few years IATDE records put out the first Suicide Silence record here in UK to great acclaim.
Question: You have said before about the importance of myspace when promoting a band however. What do you think of a band like tragedy who dont have a myspace and refuse to have one because of their politcal ideas. Aparently the reason for not having one is because of myspace's connection with the murdoch media empire and by signing up to it you are endorsing what the company stands for. Surely its possible to exist as a band without a myspace or website considering its how the scene existed before ite creation. From:
Answer: I can understand Tragedy's viewpoint and they are correct to say that MySpace is owned by Murdoch's News Corporation, and so don't want any connection with such a big business for political reasons. I admire their hardline stance, however I also think its a little bit short sighted because any band which wilfully does'nt maintain a web presence in this day and age is foolish.Online is hands down the simplest and best way for a band to interact with its fans.
So tell me, how do members of Tragedy communicate? By telephone? By SMS? The Telco companies that run those networks are even bigger than News Corp.
Bands don't know what an amazing thing Myspace has been for them in the last 5 years.It has literally transformed the music industry.The services it offers, streaming 10 songs, access to, and the means to interact with, over 100 Million+ other music fans, all for FREE.This is really insane. If any band wanted to maintain a regular website themselves to do all this stuff, working 24 hrs a day, all year, with hardly any downtime, it would cost them thousands of dollars per month to run it.
I would say that if MySpace were to start charging bands for their services, because it is undoubtedly showing its age now with facebook and Twitter being the growing online social networking sites, and I'm sure it must be tempting to consider imposing a small monthly charge for the MS services. I for one would pay it, because its become so entrenched in our daily promotion and marketing work at Earache. We probably maintain about 30 pages on the site for various compilations and marketing purposes, and occasionally for bands who don't want the hassle. here's a few of them: Grind Madness Deicide's Back Cat Heavy Metal killers Metal Box set Thrashing Like A Maniac
Question: heres one our friend from Pen state forgot. what about psyopus? namedropped frequently by and used as a reference point continuously when desribing the boy will drown how do they rank on dig's deathcore rankings? From:
Answer: Psyopus are a great band,I do like them, and follow their output.Metal Blade don't often pick up bad bands. Psyopus in fact are quoted in The Boy Will Drown's bio as an influence on the band. Somehow I prefer Boy Will Drown tho- their album Fetish is undoubtedly going to be in my Top 5 albums at the end of this year.
The Boy Will Drown are really young newcomers so have no self-imposed boundaries and play super-tech Death Metal/grind without any of the constraints of fitting into the scene.Their music is hellishly complex but also has that vital swing, and dare I say it, "groove", "song structure" and even, gasp, "melodic parts".The steel guitar melody at the end of Josef Fritzl sounds like it's from an old antique 78 rpm record, which is inspired.
Overall I prefer TBWD over Psyopus for the main reason they just play without any restrictions whatsoever.
Hi iam a fan of Earache from the usa ive been collecting various albums from the mosh catalog since the mid to late 90's. It started with bands like Napalm and Carcass and eventually evolved. I have recently purchased the new Blood Red Throne and The Boy Will Drown. I actually called the Earache U.S offices and ordered them. Both Killer albums I really love TBWD great musicianship (hope they can play the states soon). Iam not the biggest fan of Oceano but recommended them to 2 friends who like that style of Music (not my cup of tea). Both ordered Depths with my order and they love it. Anyways as fan of Earache i would love to know your thoughts on these following bands i like (good or bad). Spawn of Possesion- Only have one album Noctambulant but they are good Braindrill- Quality Death Metal from California Obscura-killer band iam surprised you did not sign em Finntroll-Black Metal with a touch of Polka (haha) Misery Index- One of my favorite bands out there today its a shame they are not bigger then what they are. I really respect the fact that you have been doing this for as long as you have. Please keep up the good work! Also i know by reading the ask earache regularly you hate this but....iam not in this band but please check em out viraemia http:// www.myspace.com/viraemiaaz they are great! I don't care if you sign em. Once again love Earache......tbwd are awesome. Ed Allshouse Wilmerding Pa
Answer: Thank you for the kind words Ed.Glad you like The Boy Will Drown, they are fucking epic.The band, based in Norwich, UK, has not really got into much touring yet, but the insane level of complexity and superb crystal clear production on their debut album, courtesy of the wizards at Poland's Hertz studio (Decapitated) has made 'Fetish" a contender for album of the year to a lot of people.
You wanted my opinion on some bands- I should point out that playing a flurry of notes does not automatically always equal awesome in my book, technical playing is faked a lot, and its the overall power and dynamics of the band as a whole, which i'm mostly interested in.For this reason many of the tech-death scene bands leave me cold.
Spawn of Possession - Nah this Swedish band from the early 00's dont impress me much.The Deathcore bands coming out nowadsys eat them for breakfast.
Braindrill are on Metal Blade and have decent number of fans, both online and off it,so must be doing something right.It's one of the better tech-death bands out there today.
Obscura- You mean the German band on Relapse who did US tour with Cannibal Corpse, and again soon in EU.I don't get what all the fuss is about frankly, because I don't rate this band at all, Brainbrill destroys them into dust.
Fintroll- I'll give the band their due, they worked hard to become the leaders of the European folk-metal scene, which is nowadays teeming with bands.So fair play to them. Their folkish metal is not my cup of tea though.
Viraemia (Az) have come to our attention a few times, the 10-string bass should make them the heaviest band out there, but in my opinion its played the wrong way, as Scott's super-tech playing doesnt utilise the power of the instrument (which he hand built) properly.It should cause walls to collapse, it should be off the scale heaviness, but it comes across as sounding somewhat like the harp, which is not powerful at all.
So why do you think there is a connection between the swedish trad death scene and the swedish trad metal scene eg there are members of tribulation in enforcer and also invidious members play in in solitude. Does this link between old school death metal and and trad metal/rock go back to the early days of the scene or is it a new connection?
Answer: Yes, you are right, it certainly seems to be true that especially in Sweden many of the musicians forming the NWOTHM bands are or were very recently in Traditional Death Metal bands aswell (Adam Zaars pictured with Tribulation & Enforcer) Some also come from a Black Metal background too.Many profess to be getting "bored with extreme metal", and yearn instead to play True to the roots HM with songs and powerful vocalist. As for why- well, musicians begin their careers by playing whatever the contemporary style is- in the 80s it would probably have been Glam-type Rock, 90's Death or Black metal,00's metal-core,but time moves on and many of the NWOTHM acts tell me that, although they appreciate death & black metal, they are burned out and kind of over extreme metal now.
I don't think its anything too unusual going on actually, Earache has dealt with hundreds of musicians over the years,and it is pretty normal for musicians to want to experiment with some new styles over time, it often begins under the guise of a project with some like-minded musicians. Somewhat suprisingly, what starts as a 'project band' can very often take on the role of 'main band'.I recall when Michael Amott's Stoner-y Rock project Spiritual Beggars was a bigger seller and a much hotter prospect than Arch Enemy for a year or two, a fact which seems ridiculous now.
As an aside I can forsee a huge increase in one-off super-group type jam-band-projects flooding the live circuit, kind of like Chickenfoot or Them Crooked Vultures right now.As musicians themselves take control of their careers, and labels are taking more of a backseat, many of the restrictions are removed for the first time in their careers, and so fans can certainly expect to see more one off jam-bands starting to appear at a club/arena near you. Wether they will be any good or not, who knows?
A few of the NWOTHM musicians are coming from a Thrash background.Enforcer's singer Olof was until recently in Thrash metal band Oppression who had a retrospective split CD with US thrashers Diamond Plate released last year.
Finland's Cast Iron (recently split up) singer/guitarist Jori Meriläinen was in a Thrash band previously.
Toronto- based Jason Decay of Cauldron was in the more Cathedral style Doomy-ish Metal band Goat Horn until a few years ago.
Powervice went the other way- most of the members quit and went on to form the female fronted doomy-soul-rock act The Devil's Blood, who are highly original and getting kudos everywhere, leaving behind bassist & founder member Richard to regroup Powervice around himself, a process which is still ongoing.
Heres Adam Zaars (read an Interview) of Enforcer playing with his Death metal band Tribulation on tour recently:
what do you think of the argument that it was viking skull who kick started interest in the nwothm in the uk? by that i mean the switch from clean sounding metal like dragonforce to the more dirty early maiden, thin lizzy inspired sound. if this is the case that means interest in a genre came from a joke as the band was formed as a way of scaving beer out of promoters.
Answer: Well that's an interesting argument because I've not heard of Viking Skull being referred to in those terms before, except by whoever compiled the Metal Hammer magazine NWOTHM CD from earlier this year. Obviously it depends on how you view the scene, the NWOTHM, New Wave Of True Heavy Metal (or as I prefer to call it now - New Traditional HM) and I reckon there is a grain of truth in that. By grain, I mean like barely one percent though.
Viking Skull are a UK band which was an offshoot of HC/Sludge-metallers Raging Speedhorn, and they do have an undeniably more Rock n Roll sound than most of their contemporaries in the UK scene. Much like Orange Goblin, they owe a lot to the likes of Clutch, playing a no-frills, mid-tempo dirty rock, but sadly, to my ears,its just not Traditional enough HM. There is a world of difference between Trucker-cap wearing dirty rock n roll and the nimble riffage and song structures of Traditional HM.
The down-tuning is wrong for a start because NWOTHM is all about standard tuned guitars, but even more crucially, Viking Skull lack the most important ingredient of the lot- a powerful 2 octave range vocalist, which is what makes the new young HM bands- like Cauldron and White Wizzard and Enforcer- stand out from the crowd in my opinion.
Cauldron & Enforcer embark on their first NWOTHM US tour later this month:
I'm wondering do record companies hire psychic mediums? im just curious as to why adverts for albums on tv say things like "featuring the forthcoming hit single" im just curious of how they know its going to be a hit before its even released?
Answer: No, labels don't need to hire psychics to tell whats going to be happening in future sales charts, because for the most part we really can "see into the future".The reason is simply because the behaviour of music fans is highly predictable.To give an example, I can confidently predict that the debut album by a middle-aged scottish singer called Susan Boyle will be number 1 in the charts some time during 2009.
Most of the reason why the record industry can predict whats going to happen is because it has been intensively collating and tallying sales data of recordings for over half a century, then pretty uniquely as an industry,this info has been transparent and available to all. Other industries consider sales info as a trade secret but the Music Industry has been releasing a list of sales to the public, every week for free. Commonly this list is known as the TOP 40, or in USA the Billboard Hot 100.It goes way deeper than mere Top 40 sales, the information database is vast,including sales by zipcode,so if you wanted to know wether Metallica is selling more copies in Miami than in Chicago, the company resonsible for tallying the charts,Nielsen Soundscan , will sell you this info aswell.
In many ways this 50 plus years of data gathering was highly futuristic- in the modern knowledge economy, sales data is routinely mined by statisticians to give them the insight on the buying habits of consumers, many brands buy this data to give them an edge on the competitors brand.
The industry circulates tools to make the predictions easier- insiders have access to a 'midweek chart' which is the sales for the first 3 days of the week.What is remarkable is that the final chart positions do not change much after the next 4 days are added in aswell.In fact the sales generated on the first morning of a release date can be used to predict the chart position reached 6 days later.Record buyers are so predictible in their habits.
With the rise of the internet retailers,such as amazon etc, most have preorder buttons for forthcoming releases. The pre-sales info is passed on to labels, so the number of pre-orders on a title can be used to predict the final sales on its release, which might be still many weeks away, but its done with a high degree of accuracy.
Popular culture shapes record buying habits- whatever is playlisted on National radio and whatever acts are winners of the hugely popular Televised talent-contests are good bets to be top sellers. Music used in TV advertisements sells in great numbers due to the mass exposure on TV.
The Apple digital music store iTunes is so successful at shaping public tastes that when a song makes it onto its top 10 chart displayed on the front page, the song then remains on the chart for a lot longer than normal.
PS- I forgot to mention BigChampagne, a service which tracks online music sales and even P2P downloads and torrents, and collates the numbers, selling the info to labels and interested parties. If you didnt beleive that such things could be monitored or tallied, think again. See story in WIRED mag
Hey there Dig. Just wanted to say how much I love earache's output over the years and never failing in over all quality and in earache's search for forward thinking bands.
I was curious of what you thought about the bay area (northern California) scene.
Just curious to see which bands were of note to you back then (i guess besides the heavy hitters like Metallica, Testament, Death Angel, Neurosis, etc.)and if any are noteworthy now. It always seems like the bay area is always on the verge of breaking through but usually just caves in on itself every 4-5 years. Would love to hear your thoughts man. Cheers.
Answer: Well as you say, the San Francisco Bay-Area of California has thrown up way more than its fair share of groundbreaking bands.I've only visited the place once, which is kind of ridiculous given its importance in the history of music, I say music, because there is a lot more to the Bay-Area than Exodus/Metallica and the birthplace of Thrash Metal.
The city is certainly one of the strangest in America, as its geographically a peninsula, connected to the mainland by the Golden Gate bridge.I think it's this feature which led to the place becoming a hot-bed of the intelligensia and the reason for the extremely liberal views which permeate the town.To a Brit like me, its the nearest thing to a UK type town, it seemed packed with universities everywhere and every bar or club was heaving with students.I might be wrong but I don't think the place even has a mall.The traditional, blue-collar America is a mere 4 miles away across the water, but it might as well be another planet.Its much like Liverpool is here.
Likewise, San Francisco bands are quirky, many are politicised in some way, and all seek to fashion their own unique sound, they somehow seem immune from following any trends sweeping the rest of America.In the 60's the Hippy movement originated on the streets of SF-The Grateful Dead becoming the scene's most visible band.Aging hippies still congregate on the corner of Haight-Asbury to this day amongst the head-shops and tacky merchandise stalls set up for tourists.
Personally, the scene which got me aware of SF and its bands was the highly political Hardcore punk scene. One of the greatest SF bands ever was Dead Kennedys- allied to the Maximum Rock N Roll magazine crew, originating out of Berkeley, these were the guys who- quite literally- formed my musical education. I used to write scene reports for MRR,so would regularly trade records with Jello Biafra, Tim Yohannon and Jeff Bale - these guys knew their stuff about US punk, and were gracious enough to pass on their wisdom to me.But when I started to send them UK DIY metallised punk 45's in return, they suddenly stopped writing back.Oops, I guess it offended their punk credentials.
Another of the greatest SF bands ever is Faith No More- again, their quirky take on alternative/ metal and refusal to compromise was their calling card.This allied to Mike Patton's stellar voice led to them becoming world-famous. Faith No More - especially Mike, Jim and Billy- were all fans of the Earache extreme bands, and the guys would often drop by our office when playing Nottingham's Rock City club to pick up the latest Godflesh or Napalm Death disc for listening on the road.Other well known bands originating from the Bay include Green Day, Deftones and Machine Head.
Pioneering SF Bands which deserve honourable mentions are early 80's HC/Crossover act Attitude Adjustment and from the thrash-era - Possessed.This Thrash band arguably created the Death Metal genre (along with Chuck Schuldiner's Death) by adding extra deathy vocals and excessive speed and deadly subject matter to the genre.The Possessed song "Burning in Hell" was an early blueprint for the entire Death Metal genre which followed, in my opinion, as well as the song called simply "Death Metal".Bad luck dogged the band so they never got the accolades they deserve.
Not many people know that Black Metal in USA has its origins and roots in SF. The reason for my visit in the late 90s was to meet up with a fellow Brit named Paul Thind, who had emigrated there as a kid. His parents had left UK to run a traditional English 'fish and chip' shop in the Bay area.His label Necropolis was the very first to release Norwegian and US black metal bands in America.The guy was simply a fan who could'nt handle the business side of things when the popularity of the scene exploded,so the label folded. Looking back, his output now looks like a whos-who of prime Norwegian and US Black Metal, and Necropolis' part in the folklore and history of USBM is sealed.
As for current bands- I have no clue- maybe the blogonauts who are reading this can give me some tips of current bands who are spearheading the SF scene in 2009?
Question: I understand that Toxic Holocaust took quite a while to get signed. As a one man band, Joel Grind had to do a lot of the work himself. I am also a one man band, what do I have to do? I am 100% confident I have a bit more talent... http://www.beelzebul.org From: sean@beelzebul.org
Answer: Sean dude- you have caused a bit of a stir here with your question, its a topic that crops up regularly, because I'm not a big advocate of the one-man-band scenario anymore-even if Earache has signed many artists in the past who were soloists, they were mostly making electronic music.Previous postings on this subject HERE.
As for your band(s) I've checked out the website where I see you have not only a metal band but also showcase material from your Classical, Punk, Pop and Dance acts too - thats a tad ambitious for one fella to undertake, maybe? Even seasoned, professional musicians can spend a lifetime trying to master the art involved in one specific genre- and here you are attempting to command five styles at once, its a common mistake made by the amateur to think that because you have mastered a few flashy guitar techniques, Beethoven is your next level.Sorry to burst your bubble but playing real music is not like a video game.
I also checked out the MySpace where the tarot meets baroque metal you are spearheading gets an airing.You certainly revel in this multi-genre approach, dude, I'll give you that.
Its true that Joel Grind's early works were one-man-band efforts, but personally, I really did not like them.In recent years he has formed a real band around him, and is now taking Toxic Holocaust to the next level.
Your philosophical ideas are well researched and from the heart, but in all honesty the one-man-band style is not the best to convey them I feel.Its just not potent, musically, when you play each instrument seperately- they just don't gel or appear cohesive to the listener.
It's more important to master the technique of millisecond timing as it is the flashier guitar moves, because with great timing comes that all-important extra power.Subtle changes to the timing- ie playing either just ahead or just behind the main beat is what gives the best music, be it metal, classical or whatever its groove and swing.Your timings are simply too wayward to even be effective.
But I wish you good fortune with your -numerous- projects.
The Ask Earache blogonauts can check out your highly unique tarot-meets-baroque-metal-hybrid song "The Dark Dao" clip here:
Question: Sorry to bombard with a whole host of questions but here goes...
1. Over the past couple of weeks, I\'ve been getting more into the Croatian grind band Patareni and wondered if you were even a fan of them or ever had any contact with them? Presumably, the Iron Curtain and the then on-going conflict hindered your ability to contact or meet them. I know that Seth Putnam was a MASSIVE fan of them and just wondered if you had any opinion on them?
2. Did you go see Larm in Brighton? I know Barney from ND is a huge Larm fan and they seem to have been hovering about with the British bands at the time?
3. I was reading an interview with Erich Keller of Fear of God, who stated that Earache had tabled an offer to release his stuff and swiftly got rejected. Can you shed any light on this?
4. A few people have complained about their copies of Nailed by Filthy Christians stopping working. Will you ever get round to compiling Nailed and the Split EP with G-ANX, and putting them and the demos on as extras to Mean for a full discography release? Are the CDs still readily available? Do you still stock them? From:
Answer: PATARENI? Who? I can honestly say today is the very first time I've heard of the band which is a bit pathetic given their internet reputation.I read your question and so had to do a bit of research. The Wiki on the band says they were one of the earliest grind bands with releases dating back to 1983.Errr, sorry, but I don't remember that! Thats a bit of wishful thinking created by somebody because personally speaking, I reckon grindcore as a style did not exist until Napalm Death created it and single-handedly popularised it on their Scum debut, in 1987. Before this groundbreaking release there were a select few speedy HC bands- DRI and SEIGE in the USA and LARM (pictured above) in Holland were most well known, plus our own HERESY in UK. Canada's NEOS, MOB 47 from Sweden or even UK's RUDIMENTARY PENI might be considered the precursors to the development of the short, fast intense sound.All were essentially HC punk bands coming from that scene.
None of the aforementioned bands had the heavy down-tuned metallised riffs mixed with the insanely fast drum speeds though. It was this down-tuned metallised guitar sound and gutteral vocals that characterised the early Earache Grindcore acts.Without that you were simply a generic (for the time) if speedy Hardcore band. Aswell as being heavier sounding, Napalm Death were also faster than all the others also. To obsessive observers of the HC scene like myself at the time, the band were playing some seriously 'new level' shit, they were a league above the rest in terms of intensity of performance, both live and on record, this is pretty much what made them the pioneers.
I agree, there was undoubtedly a thriving early-mid 80s European HC scene consisting of mid-paced politically minded DIY Hardcore punk bands: Negazione, Wretched and many more were my faves.Even then a select few decided to up the velocity, write shorter songs and up the intelligence factor in the lyrics.I considered the likes of Larm and Fear of God as those kinda bands-they were more influential on the coming power violence scene, to me, they were'nt metallised enough to be grindcore.
Question: On websites such as www.metal-archives.com and even Wikipedia for the Deicide album \"till death do us part\" it says that there is a deluxe version with a bonus track called \"The Great Lance\". I\'ve never been able to find such a version with said bonus track. So my question is does such a version of the CD even exist or is it just internet misinformation? From:
Answer: Thats the first we've heard of it..we have no clue what you are talking about dude! So we checked the websites you mentioned- like Metal-archives.com and we see the mystery extra song called "The Great Lance" is mentioned on that page. Likewise the bands own wikipedia entry has this song listed as a bonus on the album. Its bogus, not bonus.
Its a total mystery how such blatantly wrong info can be posted as facts.I guess you are right to be sceptical about internet info, many of the wikis I come across to do with our own bands are 95% accurate but also contain an obvious glaring error or two, they might be put there to trap the unwary. I speculate that some fan made an upload of the album to torrents or rapidnazi or megauploadnazi and for a joke added an extra song to his upload. So many folks get their info from torrents that they become the official standard release to many fans, it seems.
What is absolutely scary though is if you type in "Deicide the Great lance" into Google.It returns dozens of pages with listings including this mystery track- some even claim to print the lyrics. Which is truly bizarre.
We cannot explain it.I just reckon some joker is laughing their head off at the way this so-called bonus track listing has spread all over the web.
Question: This kind of relates to the pendulum question, how does it feel as a label always being too early to the party? by this i mean an earache band will come out with a sound and often then a decade later an often diluted version of said band makes it big. Of the two years ive been to download festival ive noticed this for example this year it was pendulum reminding me of pitchshifter and the first time i went a few years ago there was wolfmother who obviously have loads in common with sleep, theres also countless dubstep producers out there who owe their living to mick harris and nick bullen. Im curious does it fill you with pride with the feeling of you were right or do you wish you were around when the genre makes it big as obviously earache is a business. From:
Answer: Yes, I have actually been told this a few times by my peers in the music industry- and I have mixed feelings about it to be honest. It's a compliment to be known as 'ahead of the trend' on one hand, but we do regret missing out on the huge sales potential when the music finally acheives a 'mass-appeal' level. We can't have it both ways I guess.
The two bands you mention- Pitch Shifter and Sleep - were both snapped up by major record companies for big money deals in the 90's, bailing on their contracts with Earache in the process, as it happens. I guess some A&R guy at the major labels had a clue those bands were breaking new ground, it did not go unnoticed at the time. Pitch Shifter did have a few minor hits, but Sleep imploded before the major label album was released.
Its the sheep-like mentality of music fans which turns out to the problem, their conservative tastes dictate that its a least 10 years before radical sounds are accepted as OK, then they all buy into it en-masse, following the herd. Its normal crowd behaviour, and without being smug, we're Ok with being ahead of the curve.
We are absolute music nerds at Earache- we debate bands and upcoming trends all the time at work, and even after work hours aswell.Such nerd-like behaviour is not always welcomed by the average fan. One time after work we got into a discussion with a dude from a local Death Metal band about his favourite band, Cannibal Corpse- he was wearing the T- shirt at the time.So we got some beers at the bar and proceeded to debate their various line ups, the pros and con's of the albums, and the production job done on each.The dude got up and walked away saying were we dickheads. Oh well, turns out he merely 'liked' the band - and couldn't handle our full analysis of their career. I don't blame him actually, I only mention it to show that we are far from casual fans here.
Regarding SCORN - Heres a Spotify Playlist of some of my fave bass-quaking dubstep. Open the application SPOTIFY (Not in USA yet, sadly) and click this PLAYLIST. Scorn from 12 years ago (Twitcher) sounds exactly the same as contemporary Dub Step like La Roux's amazing Skream remix, isn't that remarkable? SCORN 1997
Question: do you think pitchshifter could have been bigger than they were? im wondering as pendulum are sounding mightly similer sure with added empthisis on the dnb elements but alot of the other elements are there. Interestingly pendulum also namedrop the berzerker when describing the more extreme influences on their sound. From:
Answer: There is no mistaking the fact that Pitch Shifter in the 90s were pretty much the same type of 'Rock meets Drum N Bass' type of band as Pendulum are now. Pendulum are extremely huge, having had the good fortune to be picked by The Prodigy to remix them.I saw a bit of Pendulum at Download festival and I actually thought the same thing- this could have been Pitch Shifter a decade beforehand, the similarity is remarkable.
Pitch Shifter's problem, aside from existing a decade too soon, was the beats were more Industrialised, more mechanical, the likes of Prodigy and Pendulum have a more dancefloor groove and beats that kick aswell as swing. PSI was a confrontational, attacking sound which spilled over into the accompanying lyrics and vocals, while Pendulum is a much more laid back groove which is designed to make you dance, its a Pop group actually, Pitch Shifter is a Rock act- there is a world of difference.
I can see a reunited Pitch Shifter, if they are smart, which they are, somehow diluting their sound, adding more dancefloor friendly grooves,adding big-ass quaking basslines, and less harsh vocals, and they could re-emerge on the festival circuit to great acclaim, and huge crowds.It could be a year or two, but the similarity to Pendulum is uncanny.
