Mid-90s major label death metal

[NAD]

Does anybody remember when a handful of death metal bands got signed to Sony / Epic Records I think it was in the mid-90s? Sepultura, Carcass, Entombed, there may have been more.

Anyhow, at the time I thought it would be cool but also knew it would be short-lived. Well it was, but I never really found out the reason they were all dropped (beyond assumption anyhow). Does anybody know any specifics, or where I can find them?

Maybe I'm writing a book on the history of death metal, I dunno, or maybe I'm just curious.

 

[Hatebreeder33]

Sepultura isn't death metal...

 

[MacMoney]

Originally posted by Hatebreeder33
Sepultura isn't death metal...

They were in the beginning of their career. Not in the mid 90's anymore though.

 

[the G Scott]

dunno about Sepultura but Earache records struck a deal with Colombia in the early to mid-nineties which meant major label distrubution in the US for Carcass, Entombed, Morbid Angel etc.

THere was an incident concerning a Fudge Tunnel album where the band had to meet with a colombia rep who implied there wasn't really any 'singles' on the record to which FT told him to 'Fuck Off'. It was Alex Newport who told the story though and I suspect he translated it in such a fashion as to make himself look cool. haha

 

[Vienyard]

Originally posted by Hatebreeder33
Sepultura isn't death metal...

Oh god. Who gives a flying fuck what sub genre it really is. Its metal and extreme compared to most at the time, so give it up already.

Lemme guess-not troooooo enough for you, oh elite one?

 

[union9]

Originally posted by Vienyard
Oh god. Who gives a flying fuck what sub genre it really is. Its metal and extreme compared to most at the time, so give it up already.

Lemme guess-not troooooo enough for you, oh elite one?

Couldn't agree with you more mate.This genre thing is getting very tired.But back to the topic,the earache deal with Cloumbia is the only thing i can think of.It had Carcass,Cathedral,Morbid Angel,Fudge Tunnel,Entombed and a handfull of others.Didn't go down to good.But when reading the press at the time i don't think any of the bands involved were to keen on the whole Idea in the first place.

 

[Cyclonus]

It's not that it's 'untrooooo'...

It's just that it's Thrash Metal...

 

[Vienyard]

My understanding of the whole thing is that they (Earache and Sony/Columbia) expected the better distro to help increase their sales. Well, each pretty much stayed where they were at-Carcass, Fudge Tunnel and Cathedral all remained at 50,000 units sold, while Entomed had a slight spike and regardless, remained near where they used to. Morbid Angel and Sepultura however, got help from it and moved on, remaining with the bigger labels for a bit.

 

[abrasiverock]

I talked with Igor from Sepulura right in the middle of the whole thing and they hated it. The majors may have had bigger distro, but had no fucking clue how to push real metal. They wanted to push the albums with 'Hot Singles' instead of pushing the album as a whole the way it should have been. I was the program director for a metal video show at the time and the major labels didn't know what the fuck they were doing.

 

[NAD]

Gee sorry if I called Sepultura death metal, I've only been listening to them for 12 years, next time I'll be more specific. How about trans-Pacific Brazilian / Arizonian late-80s tribal thrash? Is that better?

Morbid Angel was (and is again) on Earache, but they went to Giant Records, not Sony. I remember this one, because Giant's parent company was purchased by some reborner Christian and got rid of all the metal. He probably saw the pentagrams and upside-down crosses on the Morbid Angel logo and fainted. WUSS.

Anyhow, thanks for all the replies.

 

[NAD]

What, somebody talks shit and I can't respond in a light-hearted manor? Well then fuck you!

EDIT: Whoah, what a wuss, some dude just talked crap to my response to the Sepultura thing and now he deleted his post! I guess my response to him is meaningless... d'oh.

 

[Vienyard]

Originally posted by NAD
Gee sorry if I called Sepultura death metal, I've only been listening to them for 12 years, next time I'll be more specific. How about trans-Pacific Brazilian / Arizonian late-80s tribal thrash? Is that better?

Anyhow, thanks for all the replies.

LOL!! Yeah, much better!! But Sepultura was death metal at one point though...but yeah, everything post Arise wouldnt really be called death metal, if you were to be specific.

Yeah, Morbid Angel went to Giant...I noticed that after I posted. Sorry for the oversight.

Jeez, I hope those bands got bigger advances at least!! Otherwise, what a waste.

 

[the G Scott]

in Europe Morbid Angel have always been on earache