THROWDOWN WANTS TRUSTKILL TO, UM, THROWDOWN

Just a little over a month ago, Bleeding Through lashed out at Trustkill Records for allegedly screwing them out of royalties; that conflicts seems to have been temporarily resolved, as Trustkill will release Bleeding Through’s new album, Declaration, September 30.

But now Throwdown vocalist Dave Peters is lashing out at Trustkill for nearly identical reasons (As an interesting side note, Bleeding Through front man Brandan Schieppati used to be a member of Throwdown). A guest column on Headbanger’s Blog reads in part:

Several months ago we were forced to send Trustkill Records a “breach of contract” notice (despite the legal fees involved for us with such action) and our “breach of contract” was not cured within the 30 days legally allotted. Trustkill has been in this current breach with Throwdown (it’s not the first time) since March 31, 2008. By his own accounting, Josh [Grabelle, head of Trustkill] currently owes the band tens of thousands of dollars in unpaid royalties for CDs sold. We have not once in the history of our relationship with the label received a royalty payment on time. And now that our three album contract with him is fulfilled, we are not hopeful that will change.

Peters goes on to accuse Trustkill of reneging on tour support and failing to pay their producer during the recording process – accusations that, once again, echo the ones made by Bleeding Through.

When I interviewed Throwdown guitarist Mark Choiniere back in March, he was considerably more political about the band’s conflicts with Trustkill, although in light of Peters’ blog, it’s much clearer now what he was trying to say:

I mean, I don’t like to talk shit, but… I just think things could have gone better. Just from touring with other bands and hearing how their record label helped them be the band that they are… it’s just kinda like, we could only imagine what it would be like to be on a label that really pushes you.

The people at Trustkill have never been anything but super cool to us here at the MetalSucks mansion – so it makes me kinda sad to see that their moniker is turning out to be all-too-accurate. Hopefully they get their affairs in order and pull themselves out of the Tony Brummel club ASAP.

-AR