Since founding extreme-music label Relapse Records in 1990 in his parents' Denver basement--just out of high school and still sweeping up the ashes of a failed fanzine--Matt Jacobson has cultivated a label world-renowned for its diversity and dedication to decidedly underground music. He's also one of the music's biggest enthusiasts. And while his is a typical story of teenage frustrations finding an outlet in music, the longevity and reach of the resulting label has managed to be anything but stereotypical.

"In high school I was a nerd who liked metal," says Jacobson by phone from Relapse's Upper Darby, Pa., base. He's 30 now, but still wears death-metal T-shirts and listens to crunching guitars while the office crunches numbers. "I had a jean jacket and a Walkman all the time, so people lumped me in with the stoners--or 'dirtheads,' as they called them in my high school--but I was too geeky to fit in with them and too weird to fit in with the geeks."

Jacobson found his solace in what to many--despite the arena appeal of bands such as Mötley Crüe and Iron Maiden--was then and still is considered "outsider" music. Iron Maiden lead to Metallica, Metallica to Slayer, Slayer to Celtic Frost, and from there the hardcore, thrash, death, grind, black, and doom metal undergrounds.

If anyone was confused as to the intensity of the music--matched only by the intensity of fans like Jacobson--band names of the era were vivid illustration: In the only issue of Jacobson's Horrendified zine, circa 1989, bands including Carcass, Dead Horse, and Deceased were profiled.

While Horrendified never made it to issue two, Jacobson continued supporting bands any way he could. He printed T-shirts and stickers. A Denver promoter, Bob Rob, had a home label that convinced Jacobson he could do it equally well. So after convincing a friend's band to let him put out their record, he got some lacquers pressed in a basement. And with that 1990 7-inch single by Velcro Overdose, Relapse was born

Jacobson admits the label started more on a release-by-release basis than with any far-reaching plan, but a part of him always saw a future beyond putting out regional hardcore and death metal. "I wanted a name that could fit for metal and heavy music but wasn't limited," he says. "I saw Metal Blade and Kill Your Mom Records, and I wanted something I could do more with in the future."

Relapse came into being when European bands and labels such as Earache and Nuclear Blast defined the genre. At first, being a U.S. fan was isolating, but the lucky coincidence of being in the States and having a wealth of self-confidence provided Jacobson the break Relapse needed.

"One of the things that really got this label going on the level it did initially started with me being fired," Jacobson says. "After high school I was working in a print shop and got fired on a Friday. I heard through the grapevine Nuclear Blast were looking to open a U.S. office, and so that Sunday I was at Kinko's on their fax phone cold-calling Germany saying I would do it for them. Ultimately, they agreed to let us do it, which is crazy because I was an 18-year-old who hadn't done anything. So we started to build up the mail order from my parents' basement, then when we outgrew that, we moved to my partner's parents' basement and ran out of room. So we rented a house and took over its basement, then the house, then the garage. It was gradual and started in the most grass-roots way ever, selling records out of our trunk at regional shows."

By the mid-'90s Relapse had grown alongside Jacobson's work with Nuclear Blast, and he relocated the label to its current Pennsylvania basement home in a seasonal Christmas store that sits around the corner from an Amish-themed amusement park. Its reputation was well-established, but primarily as a death-metal and grindcore imprint. In 1995, however, a single signing raised Relapse's profile and spearheaded the direction it would take, representing the scalding cauldron of styles that is American metal.

"They signed Neurosis from Alternative Tentacles, and that really marked a new direction for the label," says Albert Mudrian, managing editor at Philadelphia's Red Flag Media, a longtime supporter of both extreme music and Relapse specifically who is currently finishing a book on death metal. "Here was a band with serious underground credibility in punk and hardcore circles. Bringing Neurosis into the fold really opened my eyes to Relapse as more than just this label churning out indiscernible death metal. Once Relapse achieved that level of 'sophistication,' they were always one step ahead of what was happening with the extreme-music underground.

"In 1998 they released Nile, who are now the biggest band of the death-metal genre, which then was stylistically and commercially dead," Mudrian continues. "And they had this record with technicality, melodicism, all these new ideas in a seemingly regimented format. Relapse had the foresight to bring in the Dillinger Escape Plan in 1998, and they blew the doors off the notion of how technical, heavy, or intricate something could be. These were musicians with the ability of jazz playing hardcore with crazy changes no one conceived of before. Two years later there were countless bands emulating that style. Same for Nile, and I think now for Mastodon--people will emulate how they bring in 'rock' moments in this extreme flurried music."

"We sign bands we like first and foremost," says Jacobson, who has signed bands off of demos, out of garages (Dillinger Escape Plan), and from basement shows (Mastodon). "A band like Mastodon are just fucking amazing because the flavors thrown in the blender give you a unique experience that reminds you of classic this or that, and then parts that just seem so incredibly fresh. They appeal to a wider range, and we've had groups like Amorphis, Nile, Soilent Green, and Mortician that sell what is easily considered a success in these genres. But it's not all about numbers. I would like to think our thread is we have bands that are all very good at what they do."

While those niches are admittedly smaller-than-average industry nooks, through the Internet and creative branding, Relapse has established a strong presence. It has set up a storefront on South Street in Philly and a secure online store, and is bolstering its mail-order catalog, Resound, as a free magazine. The label has always acted to remove the obstacles--distributors, magazine editors, radio programmers, chain-store buyers, booking agents, etc.--between music and fan. And with the latest Contamination tour (originally a sampler series and now an annual tour, including a 2002 festival in Philadelphia), Relapse continues to deliver pummeling packages aimed directly at those looking for extremes.

"I think Relapse is smart in that they put their money into the right things," says Brann Dailor, drummer for Contamination tour headliners Mastodon and formerly of Relapse band Today Is the Day. "They didn't buy cars and houses [so they could] keep the machine going. I think they're good at marketing, making their bands seem larger than life so there's this picture painted [that] people become interested in. Then we tour constantly, because while they are working for us, we're also working for them."

Work, however, is a relative term. "You go into the Relapse offices, and it's a bunch of dudes with long hair with Deicide cranked to 10," Dailor says. "These guys aren't afraid to get their hands dirty, love to party and hang with the bands, but still run a tight ship. We know with Relapse we're not just a major-label tax write-off that may be dropped. Who wants dudes in suits with their fingers they'd rather keep clean in your soup?"

That mentality is exactly why Relapse has been able to thrive, while putting out music that doesn't get much media coverage outside underground Web sites and specialty magazines like Terrorrizer. "I've learned the hard way you can't make anybody like one thing," Jacobson says. "At times Relapse spent lots of money to try. But things have to grow organically. So we just make sure we work with bands we like, because we're still fans first."

Relapse Records' Contamination Tour hits the Ottobar May 16 with Mastodon, Cephalic Carnage, Uphill Battle, Dysrhythmia, Misery Index, and Swarm of the Lotus. Call (410) 662-0069 or visit www.theottobar.com.