Launched On Its True Path With The Release Of Don''t Touch Me There'' By Tygers Of Pan Tang At The End Of 1979 Neat Records Was Arguably The Most Influential And Innovative Heavy Metal Label Of The Early Eighties. Irrevocably Tied In With The New Wave Of British Heavy Metal, The Tyne & Wear-based Independent Embodied The Genre Like No Other Label. Acclaimed For Its Releases And Derided By Its Critics For Trying To Take On The Major Record Labels At Their Own Game, Neat Records Did More To Further The Cause Of Heavy Metal At The Time Of The Nwobhm Than Any Other Label, And In Launching The Careers Of Raven And Venom It Was Instrumental In The Splintering Of What Was Then Just Heavy Metal Into Speed Metal, Thrash Metal And Death Metal, Subgenres Which Soon Developed A Life Of Their Own And Changed The Face Of The Metal Scene Forever; Furthermore, A Number Of Its Other Discoveries Like Heavy Pettin'', Tobruk And, Of Course, The Tygers Themselves, Would Go On To Sign To Major Labels With Varying Degrees Of Success.