Sore Throat were a British punk rock 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.
Sore Throat were formed in 1987 by Richard "Militia" Walker (vocals; of Wartorn and Warfear) and Nick Royles (drums). They 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's first release was the Aural Butchery demo in 1987, and like other early releases such as the 42 track Death to Capitalist Hardcore EP (1987) 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. After signing to the Manic Ears 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. However, whilst the A side of the album consisted of the band's patented noisecore, the B side contained more doom-inspired crust punk, along the lines of Amebix. The band also released the Inde$troy album in 1988 under the moniker Saw Throat.
A line-up change resulted in Paul "Hammy" Halmshaw taking over on drums, and Sore Throat released their final full-length album, Never Mind the Napalm... Here's Sore Throat, in 1989, returning to their crust punk roots. A number of other releases followed, including the Soar Throat EP, the And We Don't Care compilation and the Poison Idea / No Handle Beer demo (featuring two Poison Idea covers and one original track), but Sore Throat disbanded in 1990 due to internal conflicts.
Vocalist Rich Walker was already involved with Sludgelord and went on to play in the doom metal band Solstice and epic heavy metal group Isen Torr, as well as some hardcore bands like Wartorn, Warfear, Discontrol, Nailbomb and Harmony As One, all of whom released records in the early 1990s. He currently runs his own label The Miskatonic Foundation and plays guitar in Solstice. Guitarist Brian Talbot went on to play with doom metal group Khang (latterly Lazarus Blackstar). Bassist John Pickering became a DJ at Radio Kerrang! Original drummer Nick Royles went on to play in several straight edge bands namely Withstand, In Touch, No Way Out, Steadfast, Ironside, Unborn, Season of War and Unquiet Grave. He ran Sure Hand Records and the influential How We Rock Fanzine in the 90s. He also became a DJ with his own club night playing Gypsy Punk and Balkan turbo folk. Currently playing in Howl and Cracked Cop Skulls. Paul Halmshaw founded Peaceville Records.
