What this is

Regain Records is an independent publication about Nordic metal and the record labels that carried it. It is written in English and it is about objects and processes: studios and guitar tone, the label system that pressed and distributed the music, sleeve art, vinyl and the reissue economy, and the scenes the records came out of.

What we are not

We are not a record label. We have no roster, no catalogue, no store and no distribution, and we cannot sign, release, license or forward anything. The real Regain Records is a Swedish label that appears exactly once in this publication, as one label among many in the history we cover. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to it, or to any other label.

How the pieces are sourced

Everything here is written from the documented record: liner notes, sleeve credits, pressing and matrix data, trade catalogues, label histories and published interviews. We do not invent release years, catalogue numbers, line-ups, pressing counts or sales figures, and we do not fabricate quotations. Musicians are named where they played on the record under discussion; nobody is a subject.

The early-nineties Norwegian scene

Parts of that scene produced documented crimes: arson attacks on Norwegian churches, and a murder in 1993 for which a musician in the scene was convicted. Where those facts bear on how records were made, sold or reported, they are stated plainly and briefly. They are never used as colour, never ranked, never excused, and we give no platform to the ideology some of the people involved held.

The picture editing

Records, vinyl, studios, gear, print shops, rehearsal rooms. Photographed flat-lit and square-on, the way a catalogue or an auction listing shoots an object. No band-member portraits, no crime-scene imagery, no theatre.

No dates

Nothing here is news. Articles carry no publication date because a record does not get older because a page did — the only years on the site are the ones inside the history.