THE MESHUGGAH, BARONESS AND DECAPITATED TOUR: NOW A SCION JOINT, COMING TO A DVD NEAR YOU

UPDATE, 2/27/12, 2:30pm EST: Scion is not filming a DVD. Read details about what they are doing here.

Original post:

Whether you think the car manufacturer’s involvement in metal over the past few years is good or bad for the scene (and we’ve certainly heard compelling arguments from both sides and everything in between), one thing is certain about Scion: they’re pumping a fuckton of money into it. Whereas their involvement until now has pretty much been relegated to the death/black/crust/grind/doom types of bands — the more “indie” metal scene — they’re taking a big jump into the metal mainstream with their latest venture, a sponsorship of the recently announced Meshuggah U.S. tour with Baroness and Decapitated.

A tour sponsorship is one thing — big whoop, logo on a flyer — but the real news here is that Scion will be filming and recording the whole thing. In a post to the Scion A/V Facebook page late last night, the car company’s metal division spilled the beans:

And now for something new… Scion A/V Metal is sponsoring the upcoming tour for Meshuggah, with special guests Baroness and Decapitated! While we’re at it, we’ll have the cameras rolling and the studio mics recording. There are good things to come… Thanks Nuclear Blast USA, Relapse Records.

So that’s obviously really exciting news. Bringing a film crew out to every show on a tour of this size can’t be cheap; filming even one show for a proper DVD release is a massive financial undertaking (crew, equipments, time, etc = $5-$10k, easy), so multiply that by a 20 date tour and you’ll see how it can really add up.

I wonder what Scion’s plans for these recordings are? All the records they’ve released to date (Wormrot, Immolation, Enslaved, etc) have been made available for free, so I can’t imagine they’d change up that approach here; they’re after branding, not cash. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think they’ve ever put out a DVD, so even though they’ve done some live bits here and there this is unchartered territory. I’d bet they divvy these things up into several segments that will be released online over time, perhaps coupled with a DVD containing all of it. I guess we’ll see. Whatever happens, how can we complain about a company investing in quality content from some of the best metal bands on the planet?

-VN