Electric Wizard’s Time to Die Removed from Retail and Streaming Outlets in Wake of Financial Dispute Between the Band and Former Drummer Mark Greening
If for some reason you don’t yet own a copy of Electric Wizard’s Time to Die, I’ve got bad news for you: it might be a minute before you can purchase one… or even listen to the damn thing.
What’s happened is this: in June of 2014, drummer Mark Greening — considered by some fans to be Electric Wizard’s “definitive” drummer, seeing as he played on six of their ten albums — left the band for the second time. In September, Electric Wizard released Time to Die on Spinefarm… but according to Greening, remaining members Jus Oborn and Liz Buckingham still owe him money for the work he did on the record.
Needless to say, the lawyers have gotten involved, and Spinefarm’s legal council has now confirmed to Greening that “the album has been taken down in all major markets and is in the process of being removed in other territories to the extent that this has not been done already.” As of this writing, you cannot purchase digital copies of the album via iTunes or Amazon, and it’s no longer streaming on Spotify; Amazon, Best Buy, and several other retail outlets are still selling physical copies, but I’m guessing that will change soon.
A source close to Greening has shared with us two of Spinefarm’s attorneys’ letters to the drummer, which you can read below (click to enlarge):
Of course, former and current members of bands have financial and legal disputes all the time… but I can’t remember an album ever being ostensibly sentenced to limbo as a result, can you?
Which makes this whole thing suck extra-hard: in an ideal world, talented people like these would never end up embroiled in such a feud, but on top of that, fans are now being denied the ability to hear a really terrific album. And on top of THAT, I imagine this is the kind of thing which will increase illegal downloads, seeing as people will have literally no other means of obtaining Time to Die.
Hopefully, this will all be resolved soon. We’ll keep you updated…
