Sore Throat (band)
British crust punk band
Sore Throat were a British crust punk band formed in Huddersfield in 1987. They are known for being one of the earliest exponents of the grindcore subgenre known as "noisecore", as well as for launching the careers of several prominent members of the British heavy metal community.
Biography
Sore Throat were formed in 1987 by Richard "Militia" Walker (vocals; of Wartorn and Warfear) and Nick Royles (drums). After a short-lived false start that involved Mick Harris & Jim Whitely from Napalm Death on vocals and bass respectively, with Rich actually playing guitar, they soon recruited 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). 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, Sex Pistols, Suicidal Tendencies, D.R.I., OLD, Wehrmacht, and S.O.D. Other lyrics mocked Nazis, capitalism, and the straight edge movement. The band developed a style completely based on improvisation: all of their musical output was made up on the spot, without rehearsals, during recording sessions.
The band's first release was the Aural Butchery demo, recorded on 20 August 1987, and like other early releases such as the 42 track Death to Capitalist Hardcore EP (1988) 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 Magazine's list of essential European grindcore albums. A line-up change resulted in Paul "Hammy" Halmshaw taking over on drums and after signing to the Meantime 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.
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