10 Game Changing Releases From Earache Records

Dub War – Pain

Source // www.discogs.com

A true game changer for Earache Records, Pain marked a time when the label was pushing bands like Dub War into new markets, playing the radio and TV game to court chart success.

Dub War were one of their first attempts to work with a straight-up Rock band and when Benji Webbe launched his gruff Ragga chops on the sea of whiteness that was Metal in 1993, an audience hungry for something new and open to innovation picked up on what Dub War was offering.

True fusion records are rare enough in Metal but rather than coming on like the bastard offspring of parents who secretly hate one another, Dub War sounded lean, mean and unfathomably handsome. The hard, catchy hooks of Jeff Rose on guitar and Martin Ford’s Hip-Hop-tinged drumming also pre-empted ingredients which, by the explosion of Nu Metal, would become all but obligatory.

Spinning this CD for the first time in 1995 we remember being knocked out by the menacing images of urban violence on opener “Why?”. Though Dub War didn’t quite recapture the same rabble rousing spirit on the mellower Wrong Side Of Beautiful , those of you lucky enough to witness their last minute appearance at Download 2015 will be in no doubt that these boys were and still are utterly superb.

Scorn – Evanescence

Source // cdn.discogs.com

Al Dawson recalls that it took a lot of work to establish Scorn and you can certainly see why. Mick Harris and Nic Bullen’s tenure in – you guessed it – Napalm Death gave way to a two-man project that would take Metal’s flirtation with electronic influences to its logical conclusion.

Throughout Evanescence’s duration, rolling drum loops underpin shimmering walls of guitar noise, spoken vocals and mysterious samples and it sounds as fresh and exciting today as it did back then. This is no more evident than on otherworldly gems such as “Silver Rain Fell” and “Days Passed”.

By 1995, Scorn would go completely electronic with the wandering sub-bass and off kilter break-beats of Gyral but 1994’s Evanescence daringly walked the line and we were treated to a strange world of dreamy atmospherics and subtle threat. Once again, Earache were behind a record that challenged the broad-mindedness of a fan base who had been expecting blast beats and guttural vocals. The result was anything but predictable.