Crucial Blast was formed in 1999 as an imprint and web-based mailorder dedicated to documenting and releasing cutting-edge, adventurous, and downright weird sounds from the intersections of extreme metal, experimental music, hardcore, and electronics. The label took it's first breath with a handful of EP's from regional death/thrash/punk acts Strong Intention, Crucial Unit, Fisticuffs, and The BodyBag Romance, and then began to branch out with the debut CDEP from Ohio's Rune (Willowtip/Relapse) and a split CD album that featured a lost recording from the king of harsh Japanese noise, Merzbow. The diversity of these early releases set the tone for Crucial Blast's ongoing infatuation with abrasive, adventurous music, charting out the noisier underbelly of the international extreme music scene with releases ranging from brutal sludge/noise rock, quirky Japanese grindcrust, electronically enhanced grind, sound-collage sludgecore, compilations/chronicles of the legendary Maryland Doom Rock scene and the heavy drone underground (respectively), and including acclaimed albums from artists like Gnaw Their Tongues, Weedeater, Genghis Tron, and Skullflower.
