ince its humble beginnings as a means for Digby Pearson to casually release flex-discs of underground English punk and thrash bands, Earache Records has been at the forefront of every significant movement in heavy metal history. Whether it be grindcore (Napalm Death, Terrorizer), death metal (Morbid Angel, Carcass) sludge (Sleep, Cathedral), melodic death (At the Gates), industrial (Godflesh, Pitchshifter) or schizophrenic terrorism (Naked City, Painkiller), Earache has always released records by metal’s most innovative and influential bands. The label’s greatness has waned, with many of their flagship bands having disbanded years ago, but Earache still possesses a handful of stunning bands either at the height of their powers or on the verge of greatness.

By 1986, scenester, tape trader, promoter and once-columnist for Maximum Rock’n’Roll Digby Pearson had accumulated intimate knowledge of the thrash/hardcore underground, a thirst for bands who pushed the boundaries of aggressive music and rudimentary schooling in the areas of music manufacturing, distribution and promotion. Driven by a desire to become more involved in what was then a burgeoning and experimental scene, Pearson began running Earache out of his Nottingham apartment. Releases by Concrete Sox, Heresy and The Accused garnered the label some quaint, early attention, but it was Napalm Death’s Scum that secured Earache’s future and established its legacy for signing and promoting the world’s most extreme music. In 1986, Scum was the most abrasive and violent record ever recorded, and it was revered not just for its savagery, but for its originality as well. (The band’s second album, From Enslavement to Obliteration would debut at number one on the British indie charts.) The label’s success allowed Earache to sign not only the most brutal of British bands (Carcass, Bolt-Thrower, Godflesh), but also Florida’s Morbid Angel, who, along with Terrorizer, helped elevate and establish the label in North America.

Earache continued to blossom throughout the late-80s and early-90s, releasing an unnatural amount of quality music to an ever-increasing fan base, but with the premature dissolution of a 1993 licensing deal with Sony and the defection of Carcass, Sleep, Entombed and Morbid Angel to major labels (Sony, London, East-West and Giant, respectively), Earache began losing momentum. Great bands would continue to be signed, but would often only produce one memorable album, unlike the original Earache kingpins, whose every album seemed to be hailed as a classic. Coasting on the strength of his back catalogue (still in tact after the Sony fiasco) was not an option for Pearson. He continued to sign the heaviest of the heavy, but these second generation bands were not originators. Earache and heavy metal as a whole entered a state of arrested development that only began receding in the late 1990s. With this new breed of creative, cross-pollinating metal bands, Earache and labels like it -- labels who would not exist had it not been for Earache’s presence -- have undergone severe facelifts, with many large labels developing sub-labels in an attempt to relate to a younger, but still jaded audience. While none of these labels -- Earache, Century Media, Relapse, Nuclear Blast -- will capture the novelty and magic of the late-80s birth of extreme metal, at least one of them can say they were there and had a hand in its creation.

Label Roster: December, Cadaver Inc., Hate Eternal, Morbid Angel, The Haunted, Cult of Luna, The Berzerker, Mortiis, Deicide, Without Face, Corporation 187, Decapitated

Essential Releases:
Napalm Death - Scum and From Enslavement to Obliteration
Morbid Angel - Altars of Madness and Blessed are the Sick
Carcass - Reek of Putrefaction, Symphonies of Sickness and Necroticism: Descanting the Insalubrious
Sleep - Sleep’s Holy Mountain
Brutal Truth - Extreme Conditions Demand Extreme Responses
Bolt-Thrower - Realm of Chaos
At the Gates - Slaughter of the Soul
Terrorizer - World Downfall
Cadaver Inc. - Discipline
Godflesh - Streetcleaner
Naked City - Torture Garden
Painkiller - Buried Secrets
Fudge Tunnel - Hate Songs in E Minor
Entombed - Left Hand Path