The purpose for this article is to serve as a bit of a window to allow you to glimpse slightly into some of the goings on concerned in dealing with a label. It does not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Cryptic Chamber or its staff. Cryptic Chamber cannot be held responsible for any offense this article may cause. Hopefully, this will allow you the mind to inquire more carefully of things you are looking for in a label or things you are looking for from a label you are signed to now. There are both good and bad sides to absolutely everything involved in the music scene. It is important that you respect that for just what it is so you do not go walking into things blindly just because someone is waving a contract.

Speaking from personal experience, to be honest when, one is offered a contract from an American record label, one is beyond happy and more than eager to sign such a contract. It's the dream of every band without a label to be signed and being able to record/release more CD's. Everyone knows that recording and releasing an album can be very expensive when you're not backed up by a label. Also, I think for European bands it is very special to be signed to an American label. (Let's say it a child's dream as a musician.) I can imagine it would be very attractive for US-bands to get signed by a European label as well.

If one performs some research on the web one encounters more than one story regarding bands being fucked over by labels. Even a band such as The Project Hate got pretty screwed by their former label. There are a lot of these stories on the web, they're not pretty but they do happen. Even the big well known labels fuck bands. So, in my humble opinion it would be best to contact bands signed by labels you wish to approach. Ask them what their experiences are with their label, and then decide how to move on further. If everything seems to be in order I think it is possible to discuss matters with a label. I know for sure whenever a possibility arises again to get signed to a label, I am definitely going to have a lot of things checked; contract, terms, support, promotion, credibility, etc. It may even be a better idea to release the album on your own strength without a label. Of course a lot of problems arise with this, such as costs, limited amount of CD's, bad distribution, etc. On the other hand, your band would be in total control of what you are doing. And with the help of the Internet one can simply spread their own material so, that would be a perfect instrument on behalf of promotion and distribution.

When you are signed to a label for the very first time, you simply trust the label and the contract that you signed. As was the case with Baphomet Records. We had the contract that they gave us somewhat checked and we thought it seemed to be in order. How could we know? I mean we never ever had seen a contract and we were just simply as happy as one can be for being signed as a Dutch band to Baphomet records. It was also very odd that it was decided; Baphomet was to release our demo-CD as a genuine CD. We weren't offered to record the songs again and the mastering they had done on the material was simply terrible. Things got vague and suspicious when I asked for record sales numbers and eventually of course the dreaded royalties. Every time I mentioned these royalties I got the vaguest of answers like;
"The payment had to come through Red Stream; you sold great, the money is coming"
Eventually things came up like;
"I am busy with other projects but the money will be taken care of... you should be happy that we released your album, that's payment enough."

And then no more contact at all. That is when we realized we we're pretty well fucked indeed. Baphomet also offered no back up in the form of merchandise. To get CD's for promotional uses was hell first class. We got some in the beginning but, at the end none what so ever. Looking back now we see where things went wrong and we definitely should have been warned due to these signs. But as I said before we never experienced these kinds of things, it was the first experience.

As far as I can recall the 'Memorial: Enter My Megaron CD'was released in 2002. I remember we signed in 2001 for a 5-year period contract with at least a release of 3 albums. We have never seen any proof of sales, no official statements or documents from Red Stream or Baphomet Records. Just the words that we were killer and sold great. Supposedly we would have sold 1500 CD's, but that is not a confirmed statistic.

Dealing with a label such as Baphomet Records, has certainly made me aware that no matter how promising things may sound, there is a pretty big possibility to get fucked over by labels and certain cult figures in the underground. I will be much more careful the next time concerning dealings such as these, that's for sure.

In all honesty and personally speaking, getting a label is/was like the "Grand Prize" in the band process. The best promotion you can have is by doing gigs. If people enjoy those gigs you can be sure of it, the rumour will spread fast enough. This will enable you to do more gigs thus gaining more fame so to speak. I think the best thing for bands to do is to offer a website so that people can check out the site and check on the music and on the band. The Internet is very underestimated as a power to the means of promotion. Furthermore old school flyers and stickers still do the best trick in the business. Again, personally speaking, looking at things now, firstly I would promote new material on the Internet. But if a label does in time make contact with you, there certainly will have to be agreements made on things such as royalties, distribution/promotion, merchandise and very importantly, the ability to do a proper recording for the first album on the label of course.

I sent our demo to Killjoy just for fun because I knew the guy. He went totally berserk on it and thought it owned big time. He wanted us signed ASAP. So we met somewhere in the middle I guess. We we're promised to be able to release 3 full lengths through the label. And it was said the distribution would work out proper. We found our cd's at some of the strangest places (so it did get spread). Besides that, they (Riddick Brothers) did create a very cool logo for us and the artwork for the cd and released it. From there all reassurances went kind of into limbo, it started off great though in all honesty...

However, we had to arrange our own gigs. I can imagine it may be somehow difficult for a US label to arrange gigs in a foreign country but, it should not prove impossible. We had to arrange that kind of stuff on our own strength and initiative. There was also nothing offered in the vein of joint recordings (which we would have refused) or dvd's. We had planned to release a dvd on our own including some of the recordings we made during gigs and sell that for a very small amount just as an extra, unfortunately, that never happened. But who knows what the future will bring.

There are many bumps in the road to getting your name out there. For instance, it is quite difficult to become known when you play something that isn't trendy at that specific moment. If you play old school BM you're kind of screwed when DM is the trend. The trick is to do what you stand for, just keep playing your shit and especially, do gigs. Gigs are one of the best ways to clear out some "bumps" regarding getting known in the underground. You also will have to be very picky when playing gigs because another "bump" is that when you play at a shitty venue with a shitty audience. You're basically screwed because you won't enjoy playing there and most likely, that same shitty audience could give you bad promotion. So aim for the slightly better venues, it pays off to be picky. Another important thing is to be absolutely certain of what you're doing, be slightly arrogant if you must. People enjoy a band when they see a gig which shows a certain amount of professionalism. And however idiotic and cliche' it may sound; it pays off to headbang on stage and look tough. It's entertaining for the audience. This all makes the road more smooth and people will start to notice you soon enough, that is if you have some good music and a cool act to offer.

At the end of the day, I still think it is still a very cool thing getting signed as an appreciation of your work and efforts as a band. But in all honesty, today with the Internet, you can gain so much attention and "fame". So, for as far as getting to be known in the underground you won't need a label. You can do that perfectly on your own strength and maybe when you're known and a well - known decent label offers to sign you, you can always think about it and start negotiations.