Makes sense.
Not to mention bands like Fetus, Mortician, Devourment aren't as appealing and marketable(more so Mortician) because of their niche genre. They aren't making nearly the kind of money a band like Mastodon is. Those dudes have to be smart and responsible about their money(all bands do but more so the bands I mentioned for some of the reasons above). This is just an outsider looking in so if I'm wrong let me know lol.
That's one of the big reasons I love Death Metal and the sub genres in it. 99.9% of the bands aren't into it for the money, because there's no money to be made from it. It's the love of the music. The passion. The scene is all love and support that keeps it going.
Well, I'm not sure you're wrong and I'm not sure if I miscommunicated.
Here's where shit gets complicated. But let me first say this. Death Metal dudes aren't immune to greed. Nor needing their ego stroked. Around the office there were some notorious personalities. Of the top five, three are Death Metal guys. Personally I found the Grindcore dudes to be less conscious of money.
Let's look at Mortician. They were selling 20-25k records at their peak. They recorded the albums themselves. That means no studio advance, which is recoupable against royalties. So they make money from the sale of album #1. They didn't tour much, so tour support wasn't a big thing. They could get enough in guarantees that they didn't need a royalty advance to get out on the road. So they got checks every six months when royalties were due. I know. I signed the checks for years. They were known as the accountant's best friend because the return compared to investment was like printing money.
Sidenote. Mortician I think legit scared Matt. When I got there Relapse was negligent with timely royalty payments. But no matter what, Mortician's accounting was always up to date.
Now let's take a band like Mastodon. They couldn't easily plug in to an established, potentially lucrative niche. Not saying Mortician didn't do something different, but you knew it was Death Metal when you heard it. Mastodon was a bit of a new beast. So those who connected with the music were head over heals. Others took some work. And as I said, we struggled to establish and audience early on.
It also cost money to make the record, which Relapse was sorely lacking. In fact, the company's CPA told a coworker the company was going under. So coughing up 10-15k for some unknown dudes to record was a big investment. Then there was some issues, which I forget. I wanna say the producer didn't like a studio and wanted to change. Or time ran out and the record needed finished up elsewhere. Something like that. Everyone got paid late. lol.
Now imagine you'd seen that band live, and it was about the most crushing thing you've ever seen. I say this as someone who saw Neurosis on every tour since Souls At Zero, and Eyehategod crushing Neurosis when they toured together in like 1995. So we knew we just needed to get the band out in front of people. Trouble is they were still unknown and would be the third or fourth band down on the bill. That shit don't pay as much as headlining or main support. That means more advances against royalties from the label. Could be for van rental, or maybe flights to Europe.
Eventually the band caught fire, but they needed lots of upfront money through the Leviathan touring cycle to take advantage of all the opportunities that catapulted them to Grammy status. Speaking of Leviathan, that went gold in the UK and I could have gotten a "gold record", but it would have cost the label money to feed my ego and I didn't do shit to deserve it. So me and the other guy running the joint declined. Gotta admit, part of me would like to be ebaying that right now. lol.
Here's a band far more interested in making art than worrying about money. Although I wouldn't trust 'em if I left my wallet behind. I caught these guys in Baltimore right around the time this record came out. Baroness was on the same bill, pre Relapse signing, and FDIS just destroyed that night. Dave Witte was trying to sell me on Baroness and I just didn't care.
I know they haven't had a good record since Leviathan, does that count?
In my book that counts.
