Sore Throat

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Sore Throat were a British crust punk / grindcore band, formed in Yorkshire in 1987. They are known for being one of the earliest exponents of the grindcore subgenre known as "noisecore", as well launching the careers of several prominent members of the British metal community.^[1]

Biography

Sore Throat were formed in 1987 by John "Doom" Pickering (bass; previously a member of Doom, Pelvic Thrust, Police Bastard and Cain), Brian "Bri" Talbot (guitar; also previously associated with Doom and Pelvic Thrust, as well as Ackworth St. Chaos Front, Metal Motherfuckers from Mars, Bugeyed, Warfear, Woodhouse Rejects, Stalingrad, Blood Sucking Feaks, Devils and Virtual Reality), Richard "Militia" Walker (vocals; of Wartorn and Warfear) and Nick Royles (drums). The band were vehemently opposed to what they saw as commercialism with the hardcore scene, and used ridicule to lyrically lambast the likes of Napalm Death, The Sex Pistols, Suicidal Tendencies, DRI, OLD, Wehrmacht (band) and SOD. Other lyrics mocked Nazis, capitalism and the straight edge movement.

The band's first release was the Aural Butchery demo in 1987, and like other early releases such as the 42 track Death to Capitalist Hardcore EP (1987) and the Noise Annoys demo (1988) consisted largely of raw, sub-one minute blast of grindcore noise; Death to Capitalist Hardcore was later ranked number 14 in Terrorizer's list of essential European grindcore albums.^[2] After signing to the Manic Ears label in 1988, Sore Throat released their debut album, Unhindered by Talent, which continued the trend, albeit with a number of more traditional, Discharge-style numbers. Their second album, Disgrace to the Corpse of Sid on Earache, showed even more diversity, incorporating distortion, blast beats, screams and grunts, and sound samples. However, whilst the A side of the album consisted of the band's patented noisecore, the B side contained more doom-inspired crust punk, along the lines of Amebix. The band also released the Inde$troy in 1988 under the moniker Saw Throat.

A line-up change resulted in Paul "Hammy" Halmshaw taking over on drums, and Sore Throat released their final full-length album, Never Mind the Napalm... Here's Sore Throat, in 1989, returning to their crust punk roots. A number of other releases followed, including the Soar Throat EP, the And We Don't Care compilation and the Poison Idea / No Handle Beer demo (featuring two Poison Idea covers and one original track), but Sore Throat disbanded in 1990 due to internal conflicts.

Vocalist Rich Walker was already involved with Sludgelord and went on to play in the doom metal band Solstice and epic heavy metal group Isen Torr, as well as some hardcore bands like Wartorn, Warfear, Discontrol, Nailbomb and Harmony As One, all of whom released records in the early 1990s. He currently runs his own label The Miskatonic Foundation and plays rhythm guitar in Pagan Altar. Guitarist Brian Talbot went on to play with doom metal group Khang (latterly Lazarus Blackstar). Bassist John Pickering became a DJ at Radio Kerrang!. Original drummer Nick Royles set up an anarchist book mail order service, whilst his replacement Paul Halmshaw founded Peaceville Records.

Line-up

First line-up

• John "Doom" Pickering (bass)
• Rich "Militia" Walker (vocals)
• Brian "Bri" Talbot (guitar)
• Nick Royles (drums)

Second line-up

• John "Doom" Pickering (bass)
• Rich "Militia" Walker (vocals)
• Brian "Bri" Talbot (guitar)
• Paul "Hammy" Halmshaw (drums)

Discography

Official releases

• Aural Butchery demo (1987)
• Death to Capitalist Hardcore EP (also known as self-titled EP) (1987)
• Noise Annoys demo (1988)
• Unhindered by Talent LP/cassette (1988) (Meantime Records)
• Disgrace to the Corpse Of Sid LP/CD (1988) (earache Records)
• Inde$troy LP/CD (1989)(Manic Ears) (the band went under Saw Throat for this release) (LP rerelease on Epistrophy Records and Skuld releases in 2006, CD rerelease in 2006 on s.o.a.)
• Never Mind the Napalm... MLP/cassette (European edition: 60 tracks, USA edition: 16 tracks) (1989)
• Soar Throat EP (the band went under the name Soar Throat for this release) (1989)
• And We Don't Care CD (1989)
• Poison Idea / No Handle Beer demo (two Poison Idea covers and one original track) (1989)
• Death to Capitalist Halmshaw (featuring all Sore Throat demo tracks, the Death To Capitalist Hardcore EP and rare live material and unreleased material) (2006)

Compilations featuring Sore Throat

• A Vile Peace LP (Peaceville)
• Spleurk LP (Meantime)
• Grindcrusher LP (Earache)
• The Hysterical Years CD (Manic Ears)
• Six Ways 7" LP (Komist-A))
• Summertime Sampler 7" flexi (Skateboard magazine)
• Volnitza LP (1 In 12 Records)

Bootlegs

Aside from their official discography, Sore Throat have been heavily bootlegged. Rich Walker commented that bootlegging of T-shirts has been especially prevalent.^[3] All Sore Throat albums have also been bootlegged on both CD and vinyl; some examples include:

• Abraham's Ear 7" EP (Aural Butchery demo released with bonus live tracks)
• Death To Capitalist Hardcore EP (bootlegged 3three times with red/black sleeve)
• Death To Capitalist Grindcore LP
• Death To Capitalist Thrashcore LP
• F.O.A.D. studio/live LP (first half of this release is Walker's post-Sore Throat band Sludgelord)
• Algo Que Nunca Fue CD
• Encerrado En El Trago CD

References

External links

• Sore Throat Myspace profile
• Sore Throat biography at MusicMight