Well months pass, understandable since it usually takes a while for an indie vinyl only label to get vinyl projects going, no rush, and finally production is the works (if I can remember this was sometime late last year or something, not exactly sure admittedly). Nonetheless apparently each title became available early this year, I guess around March because I remember it was around the time “Gin” came out, pre-orders were set through GoE and then following the titles were put up for sale finally.

Nonetheless, after some back and forth with GoE and excuses blah, blah, blah, and being dicked around when Profound Lore and the bands were going to get their copies, finally after five/six months Profound Lore gets their share of the Lps (we were still short mind you on what was owed to us and no test pressing of course), I believe just when the owner of GoE was going to leave for Thailand on vacation (must be nice!). I personally inquired about the band’s copies and he said when he returned (this would have been already two/three weeks ago or whatever) he would send the band their share of the copies and the rest of what was owed to Profound Lore (honestly, they could just give what was owed to us to the bands). The owner, from what I recall, made some sort of excuse that he was going to New York or I dunno what the fuck (and even suggested giving them to Erik Wunder of Cobalt in person, LOL!), and after several emails (one of them to give them Wrath Of The Weak’s new mailing address and to make sure he had Erik’s new address in NY now because that’s where Erik is now living) Profound Lore hasn’t heard back from him whatsoever. And the bands have still not gotten their copies owed to them. Phil even made an order through Profound Lore for some swag, and in that order, he actually ordered two copies of the Eater Of Birds LPs! Of course I refunded him and just gave them to him for free, and I plan on sending Wrath Of The Weak some LPs as well too just to at least have the vinyl in their own hands.

But yeah, it’s pretty much a fiasco, I know for a fact that if Garden Of Exile pulled this shit on a label like Relapse, Hydra Head, or Metal Blade they wouldn’t get away with it. I guess Profound Lore is not cool like those bigger labels, lol!

I prefer Bowie, think I’ll stick with that.

Almost every big band that has left Victory has said how happy they were to be gone because when they were on Victory they never got paid. Hatebreed, Thursday, Taking Back Sunday, Hawthorne Heights have all issued statements saying how much they hated being on Victory, how badly they were getting screwed, and how much of an immature, egomaniacal bastard Tony Brummel is.

All of those ads you see on MTV or in magazines shilling for the label? Bigging Victory up as “the voice of the youth” and “the biggest independent label”? Yeah, they were done out of the band’s pocket as an excuse for Brummel to not have to pay his bands (marketing expenses count as “recoupables” and come out of the money that would otherwise get paid as royalties). They may be “independent” but they screw their artists worse than the majors do.

Fuck Victory Records. Fuck Tony Brummel. Since I found out about this I stopped buying anything on that label. I sometimes feel bad about not paying for albums from DH or BTBAM because I love both of those bands, but they’re not seeing the money from those sales anyway.