"Signing with KOCH Records is a breath of fresh air for us," said Throwdown frontman Dave Peters. "KOCH looks at their artists in a progressive way and can see that what we've given a decade of our lives to build is still far from completion. It's no mystery that the music industry is caught in upheaval right now. We're confident in the mutual autonomy of KOCH and Throwdown to come together and not only weather the storm, but thrive in it."
"I am thrilled to add Throwdown to the growing KOCH Metal roster and am looking forward to putting out what is surely one of the most anticipated releases of 2009," says KOCH Records VP of Metal Scott Givens. "The band is poised to claim a major stake in the American metal scene and we are thrilled that they have chosen KOCH to be their partners."
The largest independent record label in the United States, KOCH is home to recent releases from Throwdown's friends and touring mates In Flames and Hatebreed, and has recently signed both Satyricon and High On Fire.
"We look forward to the continued development of our relationship with KOCH and the opportunity to be included with the wealth of talent on their roster," added Throwdown bass player Mark Mitchell.
Throwdown recently completed touring behind their last album, Venom & Tears, which was produced by the band with Mudrock (Avenged Sevenfold, Chimaira). The past two years saw them on the road with Korn (Australia), Killswitch Engage (Canada), Cavalera Conspiracy (U.S.), Machine Head/Arch Enemy (U.S.), headlining the Ernie Ball stage on the Vans Warped Tour, hitting major European festivals like Download UK, and headlining a U.S. tour of their own.
Revolver called Throwdown's last album the band's "most metallic," combining "the hateful groove of Sepultura and Pantera." Outburn elaborated further: "This is a much more expansive, daring record, featuring longer songs and a greater diversity of influences while retaining that core pummeling heaviness the band has built its rep upon."
The band is in the writing stages now for Deathless, which promises to be even more dynamic and pulverizing than the last one. Deathless will be the band's fourth album with Peters as frontman and primary songwriter, its second with Choiniere (who joined the band in 2005) and first with Mitchell. Drummer Jarrod Alexander (ex-Death By Stereo), who performed on the band's breakthrough Haymaker album in 2003, will return to work on Deathless.
"Mark Choiniere and I have been writing material on our own time for months now," Peters explained. "We have a great head start on the writing process. It's always hard to say how the songs will ultimately evolve. You think it's going one way and the slightest idea or change turns it into a whole other animal. The mix of riffs and loose song skeletons we have right now is a lot more eclectic at this phase than it was for any of our other records."
Throwdown has spent the last several years touring relentlessly. Ozzfest (2004), Sounds Of The Underground (2005), Vans Warped Tour (2006 & 2007), Black Dahlia Murder (co-headline), and several other headlining and support tours across the globe including packages with Lamb Of God, Fear Factory, As I Lay Dying and more.
In the coming weeks, the band will announce who will be producing and mixing Deathless."
Throwdown has always and will always be a band for our fans before anyone else.
So it is with great regret that we find ourselves in a situation where we are left with no alternative but to air out years of dirty laundry with Josh Grabelle of Trustkill Records for our fans to read and become as disappointed by as we are.
Several months ago we were forced to send Trustkill Records a “breach of contract” notice (despite the legal fees involved for us with such action) and our “breach of contract” was not cured within the 30 days legally allotted. Trustkill has been in this current breach with Throwdown (it’s not the first time) since March 31, 2008. By his own accounting, Josh currently owes the band tens of thousands of dollars in unpaid royalties for CDs sold. We have not once in the history of our relationship with the label received a royalty payment on time. And now that our three album contract with him is fulfilled, we are not hopeful that will change.
It should be said that our relationship with Josh Grabelle started very positively. We were friends before entering into a business relationship and there was a sense of camaraderie between us and several of the bands on the Trustkill roster. As years passed, however, we saw that not only was Josh driving the label in a direction that none of us could respect, he was developing habits that diminished any trust we once had in him and often left us in a variety of compromising situations.
For example, we were forced to cancel dates on the Vans Warped Tour in 2006 when the necessary and agreed upon tour support to put gas in our van wasn’t delivered on time as promised. Trustkill’s failure to make payments on time during the making of our newest album, Venom & Tears, left us wondering how we would pay our rent and bills. Our producer nearly stopped the recording process after Josh and Rob Dippold at Trustkill repeatedly promised to pay him and repeatedly failed to deliver on time.
Please know that we are not “rock stars” looking to be pampered. In order to do Ozzfest in 2004, we took out a loan from one of our family members and gave up mechanical royalties for six months in exchange for the opportunity — the rest of the money Trustkill has been able to recoup from our artist royalties. It was a wise investment. Ozzfest was great for us, and one we made on our own as you can see. We just want what is owed and what is fair and when it is due according to the terms of our contract.
These stories are the very tip of the iceberg and emblematic of our experience with Trustkill. Josh Grabelle consistently attempted to patronize and dismiss our concerns by calling us the band that ‘was
never happy with anything [I] do’, a tactic we quickly realized was used with several other bands as well. Bands do talk when they see each other and it is a shame that the same camaraderie we felt with a variety of bands from all over the country on his label is now present for very different and undesirable reasons.
We know that our band is not alone. Whether more bands with records on Trustkill choose to make public statements as Hopesfall, Bleeding Through and now our band has done is of course their prerogative.
In spite of our hard and often ill-funded work on the road, in the rehearsal space and in the studio, we were told by Josh that we needed to be willing to sacrifice now and then. There is not a single word
that better represents what we have been forced to do under the Trustkill umbrella these past few years — sacrifice.
We truly feel that if Josh Grabelle would see the bands on Trustkill as actual groups of people with the same needs as him or anyone else versus a simple account or bill to be pushed to the side of the desk in his beautiful suburban home, then we would not be here today writing this unsightly account and maybe even have remained friends with him.
For the sake of new bands signing with Trustkill records, we sincerely hope that Josh can adopt such a perspective and begin to rebuild his label. And we hope that by making this situation public, Josh will be
motivated to get his business in order and set things right with Throwdown and everyone else who has been burned by the increasingly difficult situation.
With love and respect to all of those who support us and touring musicians around the world,
Throwdown
I'm glad Throwdown has moved on, but it sucks that some really good bands have gotten caught in the tank treads because of Josh Grabelle's irresponsibility. A band like BEDlight For BLUEeyes, that put out two great records but got virtually no support from Trustkill as a label has now broken up. Who knows where bands like them or Love Is Red would be had they had more label support. Ohh well.
1 comment:
This solved my big problem
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