Three days ago a writer named Jordan Campbell wrote a piece on the Last Rites web site under the title “Your Carcass Is Leaking – The Surgical Steel Saga”. As the title suggests, what prompted the article was the recent leak of the highly anticipated “comeback” album by Carcass on the Nuclear Blast label — an album that isn’t due for release until mid-September. I saw references to the article, most of them complimentary, by several metal bloggers I keep up with on Facebook. It’s a lively, punchy diatribe, and I was sympathetic to parts of it, but the more I thought about it the more I disagreed with it. So I thought I’d provide a contrary point of view.

To explain why I don’t buy most of the arguments, I need to summarize them. Summarizing arguments with which you don’t agree runs the risk of failing to do them justice, so I’d encourage you to read it for yourself HERE. In a nutshell, Campbell makes these assertions:

Nuclear Blast is still living in the dark ages, ignoring the power of online media and limiting their distribution of advance album promos to print magazines such as DECIBEL. (“Essentially, they’re still mired in the old-world record label M.O., refusing to alter their business model until the roof collapses. . . . Thus, print mags get the advances, and their readers the spoils. Digital ‘zines get the album at the release date, if they’re lucky.”)

Nuclear Blast does this as a form of collusion with DECIBEL and its ilk, in which the print zines get content that will boost their advertising and in return they help promote Nuclear Blast releases. (“One filthy hand washes the other, and their iron fists lord high above the lowly ‘net serfs. We clamor for the scraps.”)

To make this business arrangement work, Nuclear Blast must prevent leaks, which is another reason why they don’t give promos to webzines. (“Along this winding road, the entire package is carefully kept out of undeserving hands, preventing the dreaded leak.”) Continue reading »