Tuesday, November 22, 2011

rapid promotion and the challenges of the top flight

So as per the labelblag, Pilgrim has gotten picked up by Metal Blade; the reaction from New England has basically been "wow, that was quick". As noted a ways back, this band has potential in buckets, but on the evidence so far, it's difficult to say "yes, they're ready to debut on a major". They have, essentially, a single out, and while Forsaken Man is a wicked good doom single, these guys are getting signed a lot more for potential than for past performance. For comparables with other major-label bands from the area, this is a lot closer to their Chainsaw Sacrifice Ritual than Summon The Spawn.

This is where it gets a little sticky, because the guy assessing that potential and its labelreadiness is Alan Nemtheanga, and it's well known that when he's acting ex cathedra, he's incapable of a wrong opinion. Looking at the dynamics around this, it looks very much like a calculated risk; if Pilgrim do develop to that potential, they'll get sold up rapidly to the main label, and Poison Tongue will get more budget for similar artist-development endeavors. If not, the Cali operation will let one or both sink untraced. Hopefully, they do develop and blow up huge; for confirmation, though, we'll need to wait about two months until Misery Wizard drops/gets leaked.

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