The Earache label in the late '80's and early '90's consolidated
the worldwide Death/Grindcore Metal movement into one cohesive
whole for a stream of 99 totally classic records reaching its peak
with Bolt Thrower's IV Crusade, Carcass' Necroticism, Entombed's
Clandestine and Cathedral's Ethereal Mirror (all released 1991-93
with 1992 being an especially fine year) until devolving into a
morass of faceless releases of mediocre-to-bad hardcore,
"industrial" and "techno." The grand announcement (in early 1997)
that Earache had just signed the band led by Prodigy's GUITAR
player is just about the final nail in this once mighty label's
coffin. Regardless of your feelings about Death Metal (or Metal for
that matter), flagship Napalm Death alone through it's branching
out into Godflesh, Carcass, Cathedral, and Scorn have exerted an
inmeasurable amount of influence in the world of powerful and
extreme loud musics of all genres
Earache Records always had the coolest logo- spiky and vaguely
hardcore-ish like an over-xeroxed photograph, yet streamlined in a
superstar Metal way, it holds all these releases together as a
symbol of goofball extremity and pseudo-satanic biker tatoo dread.
Emerging out of the "crossover" phase of hardcore punk, when the
long-hair fury and velocity of speed metal started to seem most
attractive to scuzzy punk bands, Earache's first batch of releases
set up the Napalm Death dynasty and its first diversion into Unseen
Terror and Carcass. Morbid Angel comes in soon after with its
trend-setting Altars of Madness album as Earache starts scouring
the globe for extreme stupidity of all types, and lands in Tampa
Florida's Morrisound studios, the vatican of moronic metal. Next
stop is Sweden, as Entombed's Left Hand Path sounds the opening
shot of the Scandinavian metal onslaught that still hasn't abated.
Add the mighty Bolt Thrower to the mix and the lineup is
untouchable. In the early nineties no one was louder, faster or
dumber than Earache's roster. Besides, their CD's usually have the
lyrics printed, and even if you take Carcass out, Earache's lyrics
can't be topped for creative language mangling and confusion.
