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I'm Losfer Words

For me as a teen in the mid 90s it was really important because I knew nobody else into metal except maybe Metallica. Extreme metal CDs often seemed to cost a fortune, so this was the show where I first heard stuff like Emperor, Dimmu Borgir etc, which was mind blowing for me at the time as I had never heard anything like it.

Same. Some of favourite 90s albums I first heard through that show: Tiamat's Wildhoney, Death's Symbolic, Annihilator's King of the Kill. Some of these I would've never eventually found without the show. For me as a teen trying to get into the music, it helped that he would play the most accessible songs on the new albums, likely as they appealled to his somewhat naive ear too. Two things I recall was him asking a member of Slayer why they didn't put a Sex Pistols cover on Undisputed Attitude(!), and I remember him reading out a formal statement from Alan Averill clarifying that their music is black metal not death metal. I also won one of their competitions and was sent a framed cover image of Metalllica's Reload signed by the band, which I still have somewhere. Good memories!

RIP Mike. Engaged with him on Facebook a few years ago and he seemed really sound. The Key is a great album

Devin Townsend: The Moth

I'm only 5 or 6 mins. into it but so far it's awful. If ever a lad needed a slap...

I've only listened once and it's quite dense, but am a bit disappointed given how long it's been in the works. It's constantly changing and in that sense is aurally never boring, but with Devin I just want some good melodies and hooks. Dark Matters had many of the same problems and I consider that he weakest album. Also, the cover is uncharacteristically horrid. 

Also, Somewhere In Time.

Now today: "Maybe I'm just too stubborn to go away" 

Milking is my Business....And Business is Good!

His unusually high wealth is a combination of ghost-writing songs for pop and/or country artists (business must be particularly booming now) and his wife being involved in property. He wrote three Van Halen-like solo albums for a computer game recently (I think two of which were released) and said he made more from them than anything he made off Annihilator.

I love the first four Annihilator albums and Criteria of a Black Widow. The other albums might have two excellent tracks per album but diminishing returns. It just all sounds the same.

Aaron's irreplaceable, but like others I think their last great and consistant album was The Dreadful Hours. I could imagine Aaron and Andrew hooking up again after an album or two.   

Remember reading some court document of his crimes thinking I could handle it, and ended up feeling nauseous for hours. Truly sick cunt

From yer wan, in part:

"We'd like to issue a statement in response to the most recent one by Dani Filth. We consider it a positive step.

We know your mother is battling cancer and we wish her well in this. As I recall I'm one of the first people in the band that you told. I've been praying for her ever since, and I condemn anyone who tries to drag her into this. [...]"

 

I don't believe Dani's explanation of the new contract, which is contradictory: nobody his side looked at it before handing it out but also it was the foundation of a negotiation. Similarly, he's going to use the current drama (now that is has happened and it's public) to 'draw up a more elaborate contract that makes everyone feel protected'. This is also suspect, effectively, 'everybody has just received their publishing advance [presumably from an album released months ago]'.

Dani's references to yer wans alcoholism and suggestions of mental instability are possibly correct but this sentence is a bit undignified, which no doubt will prolong the drama: 'Also, no one knew anything about her pregnancy [and miscarriage] and if she was pregnant, why was she drinking at all?'

Haven't listened yet but Alan Averill weighs in: https://player.fm/series/agitators-anonymous-the-alan-averill-podcast/analysing-the-cradle-situation-and-what-is-the-job-of-a-session-musician

Fucking hell that is wild that Devin Townsend only gets 60k a year.

Devin doesn't like touring much and I suspect he looks after the people he hires, far better than most. His own salary is effectively coming from profit. 

It does seem the band members can work other jobs, just not with other bands

That's super restrictive though. How could they in all honesty find work that allows them to tour at the calling of Dani.

I'd agree it's restrictive, but from his point of view replacing members or finding new members with approaching tour dates must be difficult and a stress. They'd see it better just restricting the contract and, if necessary, threaten there are enough talented and desperate musicians who would jump at the chance. I recall Hamish (I think his name was) from My Dying Bride was fired for something similar: he had already booked a tour with the Paradise Lost's guy's side project. I haven't really heard anything from him since, as per almost every ex-CoF member. Real race to the bottom stuff.   

Yeah, Devin Townsend said he makes about that much although I recall the number being a bit higher - maybe 90K, therefore kinda middle class. He also said the money going through his company can fluctuate wildly, which would make sense, and that makes me curious on what bonuses (if any) CoF were giving their members. Davy implies we're not getting the full truth and these bonuses alluded to in the contract might be what he's talking about - I can't actually think of any other way he's comes out of this looking good.

The fact the guitarist said he doesn't want some song released implies to me he didn't sign a contract for that work. 

Cruelty and the Breach

From a quick read of the contract, it's a lot worse and more onerous than I would've imagined. However, looking at the band's post-gig photos, their audiences are much smaller than I would've expected. I'd be more interested to see how much Davy gets in comparison. It does seem the band members can work other jobs, just not with other bands, and, on my reading, the members likely have a separate contract in relation to royalties and the label 'advance' that yer wan was complaining about initially, which is probably the biggest lump sum any member would be entitled to. Thinking about it from Davy and the managements point of view, it's possible the day-to-day payment is very low to stop the band going into the red, especially when touring, but each member might get substantial bonuses from profits. There are allusions to this in the contract. 

I'm not sure the band have two albums with the same line-up.