Labels Spotlight: Awakening Records
Country of Origin: China
Genres: Heavy / Power, Speed, Thrash, Death, occasionally with Black Metal influences
Founding date: 2018
In this first instalment, I wanted to cover a label that I totally went nuts for.
Starting in 2018, first as a subsidiary of Alchemy Media - how does these things work economically I have no clue, as Alchemy is mostly used for promotion and distribution. Anyway, Awakening Records was founded by Li Meng (李萌), who also is the leader of a Thrash Metal band, called Ancestor, whose debut album in 2018, also happened to be the first, officially numbered release by the label
The next release, a re-edition of Black Metal band from Taiwan (!), namely Inferno Requiem is something of an oddity, as the label rather avoided pure Black Metal stuff, and preferred, especially early, Speed & Thrash Metal music, which was reaching some spectrum of extremity, mostly Death Metal style.
The earliest success for the label can be claimed by Hellion (Colombia), and Dugu (later Anathematised, China), with their discography getting a deluxe treatment. And this is the time to talk about the quality of the releases, which is the main reason the label grabbed my attention. Namely, glossy paper, cool retro design of the compact disc - straight outta 80s, elegant booklet, containing bio / interviews and lyrics, plus additional art and photo collages. The packaging certainly is worth the money spent.
Next important step was re-releasing two classic, but b-list, Death Metal bands from Eastern Europe, namely Scabbard (Czechia) and Parricide (Poland), which instantly became popular. Now, as this is interesting, the albums got new, superior cover art, but the original version was still included on the back of the booklet. Very rarely any label has any respect for such details, therefore Awakening got another bonus point for that.
Slowly, but surely, the label approached more forgotten acts from the 80s / 90s, like Spiralsea (Netherlands), Bezerker (sic, Australia), Mace (USA), Sarkasm (Canada), Hammer (Poland), and so on... Along with some fresh blood, like Sutura (Brazil), Thirsty Demon (Chile), Nuclear Revenge (Spain). Another landmark release by Awakening, I would dare to say, were another Polish projects - Pandemic Outbreak and Frightful. These two quickly grabbed the attention of maniacs worldwide. Ossuary, a Colombian force also became a surprise hit, with their third album, "Addicted To Human Flesh". And let's not forget that the Master itself had its then-latest album released on the label as well.
From now on, it seems as if the label really got rolling, as the amount of re-releases increased, with notable examples being Rudra (Singapore), Paradox (Germany), and most importantly, Obliveon (Canada). In the future, the upcoming re-release campaign of Magnus (Poland) discography will finally unearth some hard-to-find gems from these respected veterans.
Preferred chosen format by Awakening is CD, with occasional vinyl releases, but mostly stuff that already had a remaster treatment, like Immortalis (Germany) & Captor (Sweden), which were previously released on CD by Dark Symphonies.
The catalog doesn't have many "ghost numbers", meaning that label is operating meticulously and is carefully planned, albeit sometimes a lot of time takes from the announcement to actual physical launch, but hey, music business is hard, so it is to be expected.
Another thing worth pointing out is that the label prefers to invest in less-popular trajectories. Instead of the usual countries, like Sweden, USA, Germany, Finland, Netherlands, the company prefers Eastern Europe, South America, or South Asia. This is very important, as many major labels are very short-sighted and mentally limited, rarely giving a chance to a band from an obscure country. As such, it puts Awakening in the elite of the labels, who dares to show the richness of the Metal World. They even put in their wrappers a very meaningful motto: "LET THE METAL RULE THE WORLD"
I couldn't agree more with that sentiment.
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