JESSE LEACH TELLS WORLD ABOUT TIMES OF GRACE LEAK
So The Hymn of a Broken Man, the debut album from Times of Grace, doesn’t come out until January 18, but it’s already leaked online. Now, obviously, an album leaking is nothing new in this day and age, but I had no idea about the leak — until vocalist Jesse Leach decided to vent about the leak on Facebook, at which point I read about it on Blabbermouth and Metal Underground. Over at Gun Shy Assassin, where Leach regularly contributes a column, Chris Harris has even posted a story imploring readers not to download the leak. And if you hadn’t already read about the leak from one of these, or any number of other, media sources, well, now you’re reading about it here on MetalSucks.
My point is simply this: I understand that Leach is frustrated that the album leaked. I don’t begrudge him his frustration. But all he’s done now is called attention to the leak, and made who knows how many more people aware of it.
It’s an imperfect world, and there’s the way things should be, and the way things are. And things being the way they are, Leach should have just vented privately, or, at least, waited until the album had already been officially released. Leach hasn’t done anything to combat the leak, or leaks in general, by speaking out about it publicly; I doubt he’s even done anything to really prevent Times of Grace/Killswitch Engage/The Empire Shall Fall fans from downloading the leak. (You can tell people not to download it all you want, but it’s unrealistic to think that a large portion of the population won’t ignore these pleas.) In fact, he has now almost certainly increased the number of people who will illegally download the album.
It’s like when Axl Rose decided to have that kid who leaked some Chinese Democracy tracks arrested — there was suddenly a HUGE SPIKE in downloads of the tracks because now the story was in the news and EVERYONE knew about the leaks. I know that Leach isn’t as famous as Rose… but the concept still applies.
As far as I can tell, Jesse Leach is a really cool dude, and he’s certainly a very talented guy. But I think he could have made a much wiser decision in this instance.
-AR
