We talked to Burton C. Bell of Fear Factory right before Memorial Day in San Francisco. After giving some behind-the-scenes details on their new album The Industrialist (drum machine brutality!), Burton also shared his own candid thoughts on the collapse of Roadrunner Records and the importance of bands today to have a good lawyer and not sign …
Right before Memorial Day, we hit up the Fear Factory/Shadows Fall show in San Francisco and had a chat with the frontmen of both bands. (Burton‘s coming tomorrow!) Brian Fair of Shadows Fall had a lot of valuable info to give to us — making money by getting your songs on video games or ESPN, using …
In the Internet Age, it is essential for bands to talk to their fans. (the sophisticated douchey business term for this is “engagement”) Gone are the days when you could be the “enigmatic rock stars” who only peeped their heads out from behind the curtain once every couple years. Nowadays, it’s a two-way street, hence why …
A few weeks ago, we talked about PledgeMusic as a great fan-funding alternative to Kickstarter for bands outside of the U.S. Naturally, Bay Area death-comedy metallers Feral Depravity heard about PledgeMusic on our Facebook Page and went for it since they could use it with PayPal (Kickstarter only allows Amazon Payments). Specifically, Feral Dep wanted …
Two weeks ago, Roadrunner Records (arguably the biggest metal label in the world) saw all of their international offices shut down by parent company Warner Music Group. It was the proverbial “other shoe [that] dropped” from late 2010, when the Dutch-based Roadrunner was fully bought out by Warner. Officially, it was a cost-cutting move typical of major label …
We talked to Sven de Caluwé of Belgian brutalists Aborted yesterday in San Francisco. Sven really elaborated on the differing aspects of touring Europe vs. the United States nowadays, confirming some long-held suspicions that it’s just better in Europe. Hopefully, it’s not that bad Stateside as Aborted finish up their current tour with Origin and Cattle Decapitation. Note to U.S. venues: …
Chimaira frontdude Mark Hunter is no stranger to calling out bullshit. Whether it’s on his Twitter or in subsequent interviews, Mark consistently shows why he is one of the very few forward-thinking metal musicians out there today. While his much talked about tweets from last September were quite the no-holds-barred reality check for anyone getting into the music …
We talk a lot about organizing your own tours and releasing your own albums and merch. So, it’s about time we walked the walk, eh? With that, we present the Zombie Apocalypse Tour! We’ve linked up with fellow DIY anti-exploitationists Nemesis Records to bring you a trek of the American Frontier (west and southwest) starting …