Almost every day we read about new crowdfunding campaigns by metal bands. We don’t try to mention even a small fraction of the ones we see; there’s just not enough time or space. But there are three in this post we wanted to spotlight, in part because all three involve bands we’ve supported in the past — because they’re damned good. And to remind you of that, music is included.
NERO DI MARTE
This first appeal for funds was spawned by a tragedy involving two Italian bands. One of them, Nero di Marte, delivered a self-titled 2013 album that our reviewer Andy Synn called “a phenomenal debut” — “an unusual form of technically twisted death metal with a taste for sudden, erratic explosions of extremity, and a progressive streak a mile wide.” (The review is here.) The other, Void of Sleep, are a sludge-rock band whose 2013 album was Tale Between Reality and Madness.
On Sunday, March 23, after playing a show in Rome, both bands were robbed of all their instruments and gear. Here’s their statement of what happened:
In less than 30 minutes someone broke into our van and was able to take everything. It happened in broad daylight near a police station in Rome, despite there being a massive amount of police forces surveilling the area but, alas, no security cameras.
Guitars, amps, pedalboards, drums, merchandise and personal belongings… a total amount of 25.000€ was stolen from both bands. They took everything. A full list can be found here:
The sad reality of this situation is that without any instruments we cannot continue as a band. We can’t play, rehearse, tour, record a new album.
It took us years to buy our gear, and to start from absolutely nothing, without any help, means paralyzing anything we could do for a long time or seriously put ourselves into debt beyond what we can afford.
In an effort to raise the money needed to replace their stolen gear, the two bands will be recording a split 7″, with one original piece of music from each group that will also be available as a digital download, and they have started an indiegogo campaign where donations will essentially function as pre-orders for the EP and related merch:
All proceeds from this new music, merchandise and packages on Indiegogo will be divided solely between the two bands to buy new gear.
Recording of the EP will be done at Studio 73 in Ravenna during this indiegogo campaign and we expect to have everything ready around June/July 2014. Artwork will be done by Alex Eckman-Lawn.
If we can reach anywhere between 10 and 20k that would be a huge help in buying our gear. This EP will be made despite us reaching our goal.
Your donation means these two bands can continue to exist and put out new records this year. If you cannot donate yourself help us in spreading the word!
Thank you, we need your help!
To make contributions and check out the perks, go HERE.
TALANAS
Talanas should be a familiar name to NCS readers, but for those who may have missed our previous writings, they’re a British progressive metal quartet based in London with three releases to their name since 2010, all of which have been distributed worldwide via their own record label, Eulogy Media.
The band’s new fourth release is a five-track EP entitled Asylum, the songs of which “concentrate on Britain’s rich history of supernatural and occult-based tales of murderous hauntings, possession, witchcraft & insanity.” This recording differs from its predecessors in that it’s an acoustic album and includes guest appearances by hammered dulcimer expert Tim Manning (on “My Lady White”) and fellow Eulogy Media artist Beth Ryan (on ‘The Apostle’).
Although the album is now available for listening and download on Bandcamp, Talanas are rapidly nearing the end of an indiegogo campaign to finance a run of “digibooks” that will feature not only the album in CD format but also a 20-page inner booklet containing lyrics, credits, thanks lists, additional information about the album’s creation and themes, and assorted imagery. In addition, the band have also set an excess funding goal that would allow them to add a DVD disc to the package.
UPDATE: Since I wrote the initial draft of this post, Talanas met their fundraising goal — though the opportunity still exists before the campaign expires on Friday to contribute and become eligible for the perks, including the digibook. Talanas also posted this update on their FB page:
“if you feel good enough to do so, any further contributions will up the budget for this extra disc and its video content, meaning more ‘bang for the buck’ (or ‘pump for the pound’, as we prefer to say). if we get more; we can give more. a bit like a charity gimp. above all – THANK YOU for all the amazing help we’ve had so far.”
To learn more, go here (and stream Asylum below):
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/halsinden/talanas-asylum-digibook-album
DERELICT EARTH
Derelict Earth is the brainchild of one Frenchman – Quentin Stainer. To date Derelict Earth has produced three albums “of sublime prog melody and startling aggression, melding bold strokes of creative colour and artistic anxiety into a tremendous triptych of emotionally charged, intellectually stimulating, prog-metal majesty.” Those were the words with which Andy Synn began his December 2013 42nd SYNN REPORT, which was dedicated to Derelict Earth’s discography.
The most recent of those three albums was 2012’s Below the Empty Skies. Derelict Earth has now begun an indiegogo campaign to finance the pressing of physical copies of the album, which would be the first time that a Derelict Earth recording would see physical release. The donations again function as pre-orders of the album, with any revenues beyond the actual cost of manufacture and shipping to be dedicated to the costs associated with recording of Derelict Earth’s fourth album, which is now in progress. For details, and to contribute, follow this link (the album can be streamed below):
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/derelict-earth-s-below-the-empty-skies-a-physical-release