Fudge Tunnel | |
|---|---|
 L-R: David Ryley, Alex Newport, and Adrian Parkin | |
| Background information | |
| Origin | Nottingham, England |
| Genres | |
| Years active | 1988–1995 |
| Labels | |
| Spinoffs | Nailbomb |
| Past members | Alex Newport David Ryley Adrian Parkin |
Fudge Tunnel were an English band formed in Nottingham by Alex Newport, David Ryley and Adrian Parkin. They were known for straddling noise rock and sludge metal, with their sound being compared to bands such as Melvins and Nirvana. [1]
Fudge Tunnel formed in 1989. [3] After two singles on Pigboy/Vinyl Solution Records ("Fudge Tunnel" in 1989, "The Sweet Sound of Excess" in 1990), they signed to Nottingham's Earache Records. [4] Their debut album was Hate Songs in E Minor , which attracted a large amount of press interest, [4] after the original album artwork was confiscated by the Nottingham Vice Squad. [5]
Fudge Tunnel's reputation was built around their massive guitar sound and ironic sense of humour, and they were popular with the British music press - at least at first. The band's first release was "Single of the Week" in NME magazine in January 1990, [4] with NME declaring "Absolutely and totally the best single ever to be released in 1990. Total nine guitar attack-rock". [6]
The band undertook several European tours in 1991 and 1992 including support slots with Fugazi, Silverfish and The Jesus Lizard, as well as support slots with Swervedriver, Godflesh, [4] and regular performances at popular London venues The Camden Falcon and Camden Underworld.
Two more albums were to follow in 1993 (Creep Diets) and 1994 (The Complicated Futility of Ignorance). [4] Newport also was active with Nailbomb, a collaboration with Max Cavalera (Sepultura), [4] who released one studio album and one live album of their Dynamo Open Air Festival performance. [7] [8] [9] Fudge Tunnel considered The Complicated Futility of Ignorance to be their best album and, satisfied with what they had achieved, quietly disbanded in late 1995. [10] [11]
Following their disbandment, David Ryley ran his label BGR Records for a while. Adrian Parkin played with Tubesurfer until 1996 when they too split up, and then returned to being a quantity surveyor in Bolton. Alex Newport went on to pursue a successful career as a producer/mixer and now lives and runs his own studio in New York. He has produced albums by At the Drive-In, The Mars Volta, Bloc Party, City and Colour, and many others. [12] He also formed the band Theory of Ruin, who released one album, Counter Culture Nosebleed and the Frontline Poster Child EP, both on Escape Artist Records and currently is playing in Red Love with Matt Tong.
In May 2020, Fudge Tunnel released the live compilation Best of the Desk: Volume One, Live In Europe 1993, featuring recordings from various shows on the band's 1993 European tour. [13]
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Sludge metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music that combines elements of doom metal and hardcore punk. The genre generally includes slow tempos, tuned down guitars and nihilistic lyrics discussing poverty, drug addiction and pollution.
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Earache Records is a British independent record label, music publisher and management company founded by Digby Pearson in 1985, based in Nottingham, England, with offices in London and New York. The label helped to pioneer extreme metal by releasing early grindcore and death metal records between the late 1980s and mid-1990s. Its roster has since diversified into more mainstream guitar music, working with bands such as Rival Sons, the Temperance Movement, Blackberry Smoke, Scarlet Rebels and the White Buffalo. The company also hosted the 'Earache Express' stage at Glastonbury Festival in 2017 and 'The Earache Factory' at Boomtown 2018. The label's logo is a homage to Thrasher magazine, as Pearson was a skateboard culture enthusiast.
Nailbomb is a heavy metal band formed in 1993 as a side project by Brazilian musician Max Cavalera and British musician Alex Newport of Fudge Tunnel. They played a combination of primarily industrial metal and thrash metal. The band recorded one studio album, Point Blank, and played a warmup live performance and their only official gig for 29 years at the 1995 Dynamo Open Air Festival two days later, after which the band disbanded. The band reunited for the first time in 29 years in Tempe, Arizona in November 2024.
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The Complicated Futility of Ignorance is the third and final studio album by English rock band Fudge Tunnel, released in September 1994 by Earache Records. The album is notable for being the band's heaviest.
Creep Diets is the second studio album by British rock band Fudge Tunnel, released on 26 April 1993 by Earache Records. It was distributed by Columbia Records in the United States as part of Earache's deal with Columbia, where it sold less than 15,000 copies.
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