HYDRA HEAD

Hydra Head Records is an independent record label that specializes in extreme metal music, founded in New Mexico by Aaron Turner (the frontman of Isis) in 1993. It has another imprint, Hydra Head Noise Industries, which specializes in experimental and noise music.

Hydra Head was founded in 1993 as a distribution company while Turner was still in high school. In 1995, he moved to Boston to attend art school. In late 1995, he was handed a demo by local band Vent. That seven-inch single would be the first record released on Hydra Head. The label grew to accommodate local bands such as Roswell, Corrin, Piebald, and Converge, and after Turner graduated from college in 1999, it became a full-time endeavor. In 2011, Hydra Head relocated to Los Angeles, California, from its former home in Boston, Massachusetts.

Some of the bands signed to the label include Cave In, Xasthur, Kayo Dot, Boris, and Jesu. Its discography includes Botch, Khanate, and Harkonen, who were all signed to Hydra Head prior to their respective disbandings.

On September 11, 2012, Turner announced the “imminent demise of Hydra Head Records”, stating that Hydra Head would take its first steps into shutdown “this December, at which point we are cutting off new releases from the label.” The label would continue to stay operational, maintaining its back catalogue to pay off its “rather sizeable debts.” The label’s final release of new material was Worship is the Cleansing of the Imagination, a split album between JK Flesh & Prurient.

In 2017, Hydra Head released Oxbow’s Thin Black Duke, a long-germinating album that was slated to come out on Hydra Head and had been unable to find another label since Hydra Head’s closure. Discussing the album, Turner appeared open to releasing more albums “on a case-by-case basis”.