EARACHE Acquires HEAVY ARTILLERY RECORDS

British extreme metal record label Earache Records has acquired U.S. label Heavy Artillery Records, combining two of the premier forces in metal music.

Currently celebrating 25 years in the business, Earache Records has been the home to some of the biggest names in metal, and continues to push forwards with some of the best new and up-and-coming talents.

Heavy Artillery was founded in New York and has consistently stood for quality thrash and heavy metal, with releases from the likes of MERCILESS DEATH, ENFORCER, EXMORTUS, VEKTOR, SPELLCASTER and more.

Earache Records label manager Dan Tobin comments: "Heavy Artillery's policy of signing and supporting fresh new talent was something I personally bought into very early on — raw, energetic, passionate early releases like MERCILESS DEATH, ENFORCER and EXMORTUS really stood out as genuinely exciting new bands pursuing their visions of what heavy metal should be, not just jumping on a bandwagon and hoping for a quick route to success. The label's roster stood out as the work of people with music in mind, and with bands like VEKTOR creating serious buzz, it seemed that Heavy Artillery would enjoy the success its early creativity and chance-taking deserved."

He continues, "Now that Earache is charged with upholding an impressive legacy of releases, as well as embracing the future output of these fantastic bands, I feel like it's a really exciting time to be involved with young, hungry bands who have the potential to become the leading lights of the next few years. We aim to ensure that the seeds sown by Heavy Artillery grow and produce fertile metal music for years to come."

Earache intends to continue Heavy Artillery's vision, beginning with reissues of Swedish heavy metallers ENFORCER's 2008 debut album, "Into The Night", followed by the two studio albums from Arizona thrashers VEKTOR — 2009's "Black Future" and 2011's "Outer Isolation". Earache will also reissue ENFORCER's 2010 album, "Diamonds", in the USA.