During the course of its 26 years, Relapse Records has become one of the most respected American labels to specialize in metal. Last year alone, it put out praised albums from Inter Arma, Cough, and Tombs. But amidst the sludge and doom and all other manners of heavy stuff, some of the Relapse bands that have garnered the most attention in the last couple of years make music that differs from the label’s perceived bread and butter. Most notable is S U R V I V E, those Austinites whose instrumental tracks are indebted to the anxious synth scores of VHS science fiction and horror films. Their Relapse debut, RR7349, got a boost after two of its members handled the music for Netflix’s “Stranger Things.” In a similar musical (though more Euro-feeling) vein, Zombi made their long-awaited return with a new album on Relapse in 2015. And 2016 also brought Between Waves, the first album from post-rock veterans the Album Leaf on Relapse, as well as Tired of Tomorrow, a new full-length from shoegaze crew Nothing.

Here, Relapse founder Matthew F. Jacobson explains how these seemingly outlier acts fit in with what the label does.

Pitchfork: How did you get into these non-metal signees?

Matthew F. Jacobson: Historically Relapse has had a broad scope. We always had pretty diverse taste in music and actually put out a pretty diverse range of records through a subsidiary called Release Entertainment. Some of the things that fell outside of the metal spectrum didn't gain a lot of traction or get a lot of recognition. We put out electronic stuff and harsh noise. We put out this fantastic Australian act called Trial of the Bow that the best reference for would be Dead Can Dance. But in general, most people are only aware of us for what we've done in the metal or the heavy music spectrum.

Why do you think that the Release stuff didn't get as much recognition?

Some of it was just super niche by nature. Putting out Brighter Death Now, death industrial dark wave from Sweden, or Merzbow, harsh Japanese noise, is only going to appeal to a certain number of people. Then certain things that could have potentially reached a larger audience went almost totally unnoticed. One of my favorite records that we've ever released was an Australian DJ who went by the name Terminal Sound System. At the time [2002], he did something that he referred to as illbient dub. It was very glitchy, lots of heavy bass, but it was pretty sparse. I just thought it was fucking fantastic. One of the reasons it didn't gain momentum is that it's hard to sometimes pivot with marketing when the people who are going to be receptive to that particular genre are just a different crowd than what your tentacles reach into regularly.