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Relapse Records is a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania based independent metal record label.

The label was started by Matthew F. Jacoboson in August, 1990 in his parents' basement in Aurora, Colorado (with the guidance of his good friend and mentor Kevin Kopp)^{[citation needed]}. The first two releases on the label were 7”s by the hardcore bands Velcro Overdose and Face of Decline, closely followed by three bands which would become amongst the biggest on the label, Deceased, Suffocation and Incantation.

After this, Matt Jacobson became acquainted with William Yurkiewicz Jr., who became his partner in the record label. Yurkiewicz had founded his own record label, which was soon to release albums from the bands General Surgery, Disrupt, Destroy, Misery and Exit-13. The two joined forces to create Relapse Records, aiming to release high quality professionally packaged extreme music.

In 1992, the label was expanded with the creation of its subsidiary label called Release Entertainment, which specializes in experimental, ambient, industrial and noise titles.

The label specializes in extreme and experimental varieties of heavy metal, and they have a history of signing bands that cultivate influence and devoted cult followings in the world of extreme music while being largely ignored by mainstream media, for instance Nile, Mortician, Car Bomb, Amorphis, Neurosis, Agoraphobic Nosebleed, Exhumed, Pig Destroyer and Nasum. Recently, however Relapse Records has become considerably more mainstream, with appearances on the front cover of the magazine Kerrang! and video plays on TV music channels, especially of such bands as The Dillinger Escape Plan and Mastodon. The word has also been spread by the sponsorship of such festivals as the Milwaukee Metalfest.

In October 2006, Relapse Records became the first record label to launch its own branded 'search and win' engine which allows fans to do internet searches while giving them a chance to win exclusive prizes.

• List of record labels
• Relapse Records artists
• Relapse_records_message_board

• Official site
• Relapse 'search and win' engine