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Miles Ratledge | |
|---|---|
| Also known as | Rat, Rat Napalm, Miles Per Hour, MPH |
| Born | 1967 (age 53–54) |
| Origin | Birmingham, England |
| Genres | Hardcore punk Grindcore |
| Occupation(s) | Yoga teacher, musician |
| Instruments | drums |
| Years active | 1981–1988 |
| Associated acts | Napalm Death |
Miles "Rat" Ratledge (born 1967 in Coventry, England) is a founding member of the band Napalm Death, [1] the band credited with creating the grindcore genre which blended elements of extreme metal and punk rock.
Miles Ratledge (Rat) is one of the founding members of Napalm Death, along with Nicholas Bullen (Nik Napalm). The duo had collaborated on fanzines and played together in a number of 'bedroom' bands from 1979 onwards, before forming the first line-up of Napalm Death in May 1981 (when they were 13 and 14 years old).
Ratledge left Napalm Death in December 1985 due to musical disagreements. He went on to form the group Aberration in early 1987 (featuring the poet Andy Nunn on bass, Ian McCugo on vocals and Simon Holland on guitar) and the group Witch Hunt in late 1987 (which featured ex-Napalm Death members Finbarr Quinn and Graham Robertson).
Miles is currently living in Aarhus, Denmark where he runs an Ashtanga Yoga school
Grindcore is an extreme fusion genre of heavy metal and hardcore punk that originated in the mid-1980s, drawing inspiration from abrasive-sounding musical styles, such as thrashcore, crust punk, hardcore punk, extreme metal, and industrial. Grindcore is considered a more noise-filled style of hardcore punk while using hardcore's trademark characteristics such as heavily distorted, down-tuned guitars, grinding overdriven bass, high-speed tempo, blast beats, and vocals which consist of growls and high-pitched shrieks. Early groups like Napalm Death are credited with laying the groundwork for the style. It is most prevalent today in North America and Europe, with popular contributors such as Brutal Truth and Nasum. Lyrical themes range from a primary focus on social and political concerns, to gory subject matter and black humor.
A blast beat is a drum beat that originated in hardcore punk and grindcore, and is often associated with certain styles of extreme metal, namely black metal and death metal, and occasionally in metalcore. In Adam MacGregor's definition, "the blast-beat generally comprises a repeated, sixteenth-note figure played at a very fast tempo, and divided uniformly among the bass drum, snare, and ride, crash, or hi-hat cymbal." Blast beats have been described by PopMatters contributor Whitney Strub as, "maniacal percussive explosions, less about rhythm per se than sheer sonic violence".
The 'original' or traditional blastbeat is a single-stroke roll played between your cymbal and snare, with your kick playing simultaneously with every cymbal hit.
Napalm Death are an English grindcore band formed in Meriden, West Midlands in 1981. While none of its original members remain in the group since December 1986, the lineup of vocalist Mark "Barney" Greenway, bassist Shane Embury, guitarist Mitch Harris and drummer Danny Herrera has remained consistent of the band's career since 1992's Utopia Banished, although, from 1989 to 2004, Napalm Death were a five-piece band after they added Jesse Pintado as the replacement of one-time guitarist Bill Steer; following Pintado's departure, the band reverted to a four-piece rather than replace him.
Suffocation is an American death metal band formed in 1988 in Centereach, New York. It consists of lead guitarist Terrance Hobbs, bassist Derek Boyer, rhythm guitarist Charlie Errigo, drummer Eric Morotti, and vocalist Ricky Myers. It rose to prominence with the 1991 debut album Effigy of the Forgotten, which became a blueprint for death metal in the 1990s. Since then, it has recorded a further seven albums. These feature growled vocals with a downtuned guitar, fast and complex guitar riffs and drumming, open chord notes and occasional breakdowns.
Soft Machine are an English rock band from Canterbury formed in mid-1966 by Robert Wyatt, Kevin Ayers, Daevid Allen, and Mike Ratledge. As a central band of the Canterbury scene, the group became one of the first British psychedelic acts and later moved into progressive rock and jazz fusion. Their varying line-ups have included former members such as Hugh Hopper, Elton Dean, and Andy Summers, and currently consists of John Marshall (drums), Roy Babbington (bass), John Etheridge (guitar), and Theo Travis
Scum is the debut studio album by English grindcore band Napalm Death. It was released on 1 July 1987 through Earache Records. It is widely considered a formative influence on the grindcore genre.
Carcass are an English extreme metal band from Liverpool that was formed in 1986. The band have gone through several line-up changes, leaving guitarist Bill Steer and bassist and vocalist Jeff Walker as the only constant members. They broke up in 1996, but reformed in 2007 without one of its original members, drummer Ken Owen, due to health reasons. To date, the band have released six studio albums, two compilation albums, four EPs, two demo albums, one video album, and six music videos.
Earache Records is an independent record label, music publisher and management company founded by Digby Pearson, based in Nottingham, England, with offices in London and New York. It helped to pioneer extreme metal by releasing early grindcore and death metal records between 1988 and 1994. The label roster has since diversified into more mainstream guitar music, working with bands such as Rival Sons, the Temperance Movement, Blackberry Smoke and the White Buffalo. The company also hosted the 'Earache Express' stage at Glastonbury Festival in 2017 and 'The Earache Factory' at Boomtown Fair 2018.
Michael John Harris is an English musician from Birmingham. He was the drummer for Napalm Death between 1985 and 1991, and is credited for coining the term "grindcore". After Napalm Death, Harris joined Painkiller with John Zorn and Bill Laswell. Since the mid-1990s, Harris has worked primarily in electronic and ambient music, his main projects being Scorn and Lull. He has also collaborated with musicians including James Plotkin and Extreme Noise Terror. According to Allmusic, Harris's "genre-spanning activities have done much to jar the minds, expectations, and record collections of audiences previously kept aggressively opposed."
Shane Embury is a British bassist and, since 1987, a member of grindcore and death metal band Napalm Death.
Third is the third studio album by the rock band Soft Machine, originally released in 1970 as a double LP, with each side of the original vinyl consisting of a single, long composition.
Lee Dorrian is an English singer, best known as a former member of Napalm Death and later frontman of Cathedral.
Nicholas Bullen is an English composer, artist and writer.
"You Suffer" is a song by British grindcore band Napalm Death from their debut album, Scum (1987). It is precisely 1.316 seconds long. The song was written by Nicholas Bullen, Justin Broadrick, and Mick Harris during the March 1986 demo sessions for From Enslavement to Obliteration.
Sore Throat were a British punk rock band, formed in Huddersfield, England 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.
Michael Roland Ratledge is a British musician. A part of the Canterbury scene, he was a founding member of Soft Machine. He was the last founding member to leave the group, doing so in 1976.
Attitude Adjustment is an American crossover thrash band from the San Francisco Bay Area. Their debut album, American Paranoia, is considered to be an early "crossover" between hardcore punk and thrash metal.
Anders Odden, is a Norwegian musician. He is the co-founder and guitarist of the Norwegian death metal band Cadaver, and is the bass player for Norwegian black metal band Satyricon (2009–present). He is founder and guitarist of the old school black metal band ORDER and the industrial rock band Magenta. He played live guitar for Celtic Frost (2006–2007) and has had several guest appearances with bands such as The Young Gods and Ministry, among others.
Ratledge is an Anglo-Scottish surname. Notable people with the surname include:
Hardcore punk in the United Kingdom began in the late 1970s and early 1980s with the second wave of punk rock in the country. The scene produced many successful and influential hardcore punk bands throughout the 1980s such as Discharge, GBH and the Exploited and led to the pioneering of genres such as grindcore, street punk, crust punk and D-beat.