No Colours Records is a German

mail order Mail order is the buying of goods or services by mail delivery. The buyer places an order for the desired products with the merchant through some remote methods such as: * Sending an order form in the mail * Placing an order by telephone call ...

and

record label "Big Three" music labels A record label or record company is a brand or trademark of Sound recording and reproduction, music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a Music publisher, ...

from Mügeln specialized in

black metal Black metal is an extreme metal, extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include Tempo#Beats per minute, fast tempos, a Screaming (music)#Black metal, shrieking vocal style, heavily distorted Electric guitar, guitars played with tr ...

Background

No Colours Records mostly releases black metal records, but has also released records related to other

extreme metal Extreme metal is a loosely defined umbrella term for a number of related heavy metal music subgenres that have developed since the early 1980s. It has been defined as a "cluster of metal subgenres characterized by sonic, verbal, and visual tran ...

genres such as thrash and

death metal Death metal is an extreme metal, extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. It typically employs heavily distorted and low-tuned guitars, played with techniques such as palm muting and tremolo picking; deep death growl, growling vocals; aggressive ...

. Most releases appear both on CDs and as limited vinyl editions. Furthermore, the label sells

merchandising Merchandising is any practice which contributes to the sale of Product (business), products ("merch" colloquially) to a retail consumer. At a retail in-store level, merchandising refers to displaying products that are for sale in a creative w ...

articles such as T-shirts and

embroidered patch An embroidered patch, also known as a cloth badge, is a piece of embroidery which is created by using a fabric backing and Thread (yarn), thread. The art of making embroidered patches is an old tradition and was done by hand. During the first ha ...

es. The label's most well-known bands are

Inquisition The Inquisition was a Catholic Inquisitorial system#History, judicial procedure where the Ecclesiastical court, ecclesiastical judges could initiate, investigate and try cases in their jurisdiction. Popularly it became the name for various med ...

, Graveland and Nargaroth. No Colours has also released many of Rob Darken's side projects such as Lord Wind and Infernum. Besides

neo-nazi Neo-Nazism comprises the post–World War II militant, social, and political movements that seek to revive and reinstate Nazism, Nazi ideology. Neo-Nazis employ their ideology to promote hatred and Supremacism#Racial, racial supremacy (ofte ...

bands such as Thor's Hammer from Poland, the label has also signed many apolitical bands like Wigrid and Suicidal Winds, so some are against an association to the

far-right Far-right politics, often termed right-wing extremism, encompasses a range of ideologies that are marked by ultraconservatism, authoritarianism, ultranationalism, and nativism. This political spectrum situates itself on the far end of the ...

History

Steffen Zopf founded No Colours Records in 1993 as a label and mail order for black metal records and merchandise. Among his first releases are

Dimmu Borgir Dimmu Borgir () is a Norwegian symphonic black metal band from Jessheim, formed in 1993. The name is derived from Dimmuborgir, a volcanic formation in Iceland, the name of which means "dark cities" or "dark castles/fortresses" in Icelandic lang ...

's first album '' For all tid'' and most releases by Graveland after their departure from Lethal Records. In 1996, the label released both Absurd's and Falkenbach's debut albums. Absurd's ''Asgardsrei'' EP was also financed by Zopf but released under the name "IG Farben Production".Christian Dornbusch/Hans-Peter Killguss: ''Unheilige Allianzen. Black Metal zwischen Satanismus, Heidentum und Neonazismus'', rat (reihe antifaschistischer texte), Unrast Verlag, Hamburg/Münster 2005, p. 150 In 1999, Nargaroth, another controversial black metal band, was signed. On October 6, 1999, there was a raid by the German police.Searchlight Magazine: Nazi black metal leader arrested in the US
/ref> Besides No Colours label, Christhunt Productions, and Darker Than Black—the former label of Absurd members Hendrik and Ronald Möbus—were also raided. In 2003, Finnish black metal band Satanic Warmaster was signed to No Colours Records. The year 2004 witnessed the US/Colombian band

signing No Colours Records. Inquisition later parted ways with the label. Ukrainian pagan/National Socialist band Nokturnal Mortum was signed in 2005.

Reception

'' Rock Hard'' and ''

Searchlight A searchlight (or spotlight) is an apparatus that combines an extremely luminosity, bright source (traditionally a carbon arc lamp) with a mirrored parabolic reflector to project a powerful beam of light of approximately parallel rays in a part ...

'' magazines see No Colours as a company serving the NSBM scene. German media also reported about the label while reporting about the mob attacks that occurred on August 19, 2007. German newspaper TAZ reported the label was recommended as a "national mail order" in a Nazi internet forum. Nevertheless, the saxonian Verfassungsschutz does not agree with that classification and denies observation.

References

External links

Official homepage
{{Authority control Black metal record labels German record labels Record labels established in 1993 National Socialist black metal