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Editorials

JESSE LEACH TELLS WORLD ABOUT TIMES OF GRACE LEAK

 Monday, January 10th, 2011 at 12:30pm by

So The Hymn of a Broken Man, the debut album from Times of Grace, doesn’t come out until January 18, but it’s already leaked online. Now, obviously, an album leaking is nothing new in this day and age, but I had no idea about the leak — until vocalist Jesse Leach decided to vent about the leak on Facebook, at which point I read about it on Blabbermouth and Metal Underground. Over at Gun Shy Assassin, where Leach regularly contributes a column, Chris Harris has even posted a story imploring readers not to download the leak. And if you hadn’t already read about the leak from one of these, or any number of other, media sources, well, now you’re reading about it here on MetalSucks.

My point is simply this: I understand that Leach is frustrated that the album leaked. I don’t begrudge him his frustration. But all he’s done now is called attention to the leak, and made who knows how many more people aware of it.

It’s an imperfect world, and there’s the way things should be, and the way things are. And things being the way they are, Leach should have just vented privately, or, at least, waited until the album had already been officially released. Leach hasn’t done anything to combat the leak, or leaks in general, by speaking out about it publicly; I doubt he’s even done anything to really prevent Times of Grace/Killswitch Engage/The Empire Shall Fall fans from downloading the leak. (You can tell people not to download it all you want, but it’s unrealistic to think that a large portion of the population won’t ignore these pleas.) In fact, he has now almost certainly increased the number of people who will illegally download the album.

It’s like when Axl Rose decided to have that kid who leaked some Chinese Democracy tracks arrested — there was suddenly a HUGE SPIKE in downloads of the tracks because now the story was in the news and EVERYONE knew about the leaks. I know that Leach isn’t as famous as Rose… but the concept still applies.

As far as I can tell, Jesse Leach is a really cool dude, and he’s certainly a very talented guy. But I think he could have made a much wiser decision in this instance.

-AR

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  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Maclyn-Bean/1078331801 Maclyn Bean

    derp

  • msv81

    Agreed on all fronts.

    The album leaked about 10 days ago on various private torrent sites and inevitably spread to upload sites like Rapidshare, Mediafire, etc. As widespread as leaks become, there is still a large portion of the population who have no clue where to find leaked music, even though the easiest way is the most painfully obvious (I’ll refrain from giving the clueless people clues since I know the general opinions around here involve looking down upon downloading music for free).

    I can totally understand Leach’s frustration; perhaps he’s also somebody who has a short fuse for things that anger him (I’m one of those people, too, so I can emphatize with it) and in turn couldn’t help but vent. However, in the long run, all he did is spread awareness of the leak, thus leading to an increase in illegal downloads.

    Bands and labels should take note; leaks are FAR LESS LIKELY if advance promos are not released, period. Not to the band’s friends, not to other labels, not to radio stations….nowhere. It’s the advance copies that turn into leaked copies; of course there are exceptions and leaks are pretty much unavoidable the moment an album leaves warehouses in trucks that are headed for retailers, but still, there are various common sense ways of avoiding leaks that are months or multiple weeks in advance.

    • Deth

      I agree that leaks suck but you can’t honestly believe bands to stop putting promos out before an album release – that’s just unrealistic. It’s marketing, it’s getting a name out there to drum up excitement for when the album is released. Promos can’t be stopped.

      It’s the people leaking that need to be stopped, which is also unrealistic (as of now, anyway). Until there’s a way to track leaks to specific people it will continue. It’s sad and it sucks but that’s the modern music business.

      Jesse may have drawn attention to the downloads but that isn’t going to stop people from buying the disc if that’s what a buyer already had in mind. If someone was bent on stealing the music anyway, it doesn’t matter when the leak occurred – they were going to get it either way.

      • Slaughterhouse

        Im sure most of the time that an album is leaked, is due to someone in the warehouse where the cd’s await to be shipped to retailers that it gets snagged. But if thats the case, usually thats only a few weeks out before its released anyways. 3 weeks is much better than 3 months

        • Matt

          I used to work at Best buy and shit like that happens way more than people probably think. When i worked in media we would get our cd’s a week or two early before release date so imagine how long they could have been at a main warehouse before that.

  • Matt

    Yeah when you tell people not to do something of course they are going to do it.

    DON’T PUSH THE RED BUTTON!!!!!!!!

    • Matt

      In fairness after reading his blog he kept a cool head…I can totally understand why he is so frustrated.

  • Gatsu

    Things leak all the time. Bands should be trying to give people a reason to purchase the album, something that they can’t or won’t get out of downloading it. And telling everyone about it was silly, despite the fact that it leaked ages ago.

    • Deth

      So it’s a band’s responsibility to stop or entice some jackhole from downloading their music? The sites hosting the music and the people downloading it are responsible and need to be accountable for their actions.

      • bleak46n2

        how u gonna download Tool’s 10000 Days stereoscopic glasses that come with the physical copy of the record?!?! LOL…

  • Ben Alexander

    Well, at least MetalSucks isn’t responsible for the leak this time.

    • Ray Peterson212

      1

    • Mongorian

      lol +1

  • Nick

    People aren’t buying music not only because its easy to download it, but because there is soo much garbage out there that people have gotten burned so much in the past buying cds that turned out to be complete crap that they aren’t taking that chance anymore. The music industry is drowning in crappy bands there are to many bands with record deals making shit music. Is downloading music illegal of course it is, but its not going to stop so like Gatsu said above you have to find other ways to package your music. If you don’t want to find other ways and you just want to cry that downloading music is wrong you might as well look for a second job. Its not gonna stop and if you don’t try to be active about alternative ways like NIN or other bands that give away their music in hopes that people will buy merch and go to shows than you are screwed. There are plenty of things in this world that are illegal that people do all the time, and you have to adapt to those things if you want to survive. The kid crying in the corner is the kid that is going to fail, its the kid that stands up and tries to figure out another way that is going to succeed.

  • Scourge441

    If Jesse and Adam are hinging the financial success of this project on album sales, they’re probably already doomed to failure. That’s just the way the industry is right now.

    • James

      The entire album was recorded entirely for free since Adam D owns a studio. He played all the instruments, free. Adam D is going to make money on this project.

      This album will be a quick buck for Adam D, which is why he picked Jesse to put vocals over it. “Killswitch sells alot, so since Jesse isn’t doing anything, ill get him to put his voice over it and then all the old Killswitch fans will be interested.”

      Which is exactly what happened, Adam D will make a decent profit on this album minus Roadrunners cut. You’re forgetting, Austrian Death Machine sold 10k their opening week, this will at least sell that and you know he’s getting a few bucks from each album.

      My bet is he’s not walking out from this project without at least 20 grand profit.

  • kelfro

    I was going to download it anyway regardless of the leak/release date. If it makes Jesse feel any better, I plan on paying to see Times of Grace when they come to Austin.

  • Anthony

    I download music for free and download album leaks, so fuck you guys.

    And new Times of Grace album = downloading now.

  • Chris

    I’m hoping that a lot of others are like me: they already bought/are going to buy the album, but are also going to play the hell out of it on Youtube until they get their copy. I don’t see listening to a leaked copy as a guarantee that one won’t also buy the album, if for no other reasons than to support a great band and that Jesse quit his job to go touring (and will probably have to be a garbage man if the album tanks).

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Mikey-Vandwich/502827008 Mikey Vandwich

    im not downloading it

    im buying it

    jerks

  • Bayon

    This is an album that I am actually going to buy.

  • http://www.gravatar.com/avatar/f60fa9e6421f91d4c1d1d0e1fe20a144?s=80 Goro923

    I just thought of giving this a listen today and… surprise!!

  • GrindcoreKaraoke

    Everytime I see something about this band, I cringe. They do such a disservice to the album they’re named after. Fuck ‘em, let ‘em go broke.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Taylor-James-Hamilton/1178820034 Taylor James Hamilton

    As others have mentioned, this is just going to hurt Jesse and Adam in the short term. Hopefully, enough people will enjoy the album and buy a physical copy. Yeah sure, it’s nice to have a download a few weeks early, but in my eyes, nothing surpasses actually buying the CD on release day, opening up the packaging and thumbing through the album booklet and blasting the fuck out of it all day.

    That being said, I don’t like this album much at all.

    • Nick

      I think it is better than anything Killswitch has done since Jesse left, but thats just my opinion, its more diverse than Killswitch who just have 12 of the same song on each album.

      • Type-O-Negative

        Diverse is not the word you are looking for.

  • HorizonsOfChaos

    I might be an odd ball here but I was on the fence about picking this album up prior to the leak. Upon hearing the album from start to finish I placed my pre-order. After talking to a friend of mine who also downloaded the leak he placed a pre-order as well. I guess in some cases it can help but I understand how harmful it can be for an album to leak so far before it’s release.

  • MBen

    Go ahead and dedicate as much time out of your life to music and the arts as Jesse has and try not to get emotional when your creation is tampered with. Musical content aside, this seems to be a labor of love. So, yeah, he has every right to vent. The dude has paid his dues, time and again. Let the man blog about the leak.

    I still never get tired seeing how tough people are via internet anonymity. The web is the perfect conduit for 40 year old dudes in Harry Potter pajamas that sneak upskirt photos after they’re able to muster up enough courage to change out of their pj’s and into their sweats and ride a segway to the nearest LAN party.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Vaughn-James-Green/791630182 Vaughn James Green

    I can download whatever I want; I download new and old albums nearly every day. I didn’t even know about this till just now; now that I am aware, I will go download this leak and if I like it enough, I will also purchase the album.

  • wv

    cant cds be copy protected like dvds? would that make the album cost more?

  • stoneman

    for the most part, revenue from album sales goes to repaying the label who fronted the $$$ for it, it hurts the band in that it will take longer to recoup the costs the label invested when sales are slowed down for whatever reasons; shows and merch are the band’s income. illegal downloads are killing the music industry the same way home taping killed the music industry in the ’80′s, technology changes and everyone has to keep up. on a side note, i don’t know anything about this guy so this comment isn’t directed at him but i’ve always had the feeling that in certain cases albums “leaks” are nothing more than another marketing ploy

  • kmfcm

    Everyone will hear how much it sucks, and then they won’t buy it.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/-/100001824325377 Джефф Лебовски

    How about sometimes people (music fans) just cannot afford a CD? or even buy it in physical format because they live in very small town, and shipping the CD to their place would cost them some.
    I know such examples, but me – i buy CD’s very seldom because there have to be something more than a burned cd there. I mean some enhanced material, photos, lyrics and such. Unfortunately in my country there’s 0,001% chance there will be Times of Grace licenced CD (affordable priced) just because it’s not mainstream music.
    And if i really like the album, i’d buy it (that is not the case i guess. But with Deftones it always that way).

  • Johnny

    this album does fucking rule though…

  • DecrystallizingReason

    I was planning on buying a copy of the album on its release date, but now that I’ve illegally downloaded and listened to it, I’m going to buy copies for myself, my little cousin, my sister, and a couple buddies, because The Hymn of a Broken Man fucking rules.

    So there.

  • scum1

    Ok so this is how it works for me. I try before I buy. I own probably 1000 cds and several hundred vinyls. Years ago I bought blind and got burned by some crappy cds I thought would be good. Now I download first and if I like it I buy either Vinyl or cd copy and often got to see the band when they come to town. Sometimes I even buy a T shirt unless they are trying to rape me for 40 bucks for one. A 2 dollar shirt is not worth 40 bucks no matter how much I like the band. Downloading has led me to buy cds I have never heard of or ever would have heard of. A lot of smaller bands have benefited from that.