Darkest Hour’s John Henry Calls Victory Records the “Worst Label on Earth”

If you’re unaware of Victory Records’ less-than-stellar reputation within the industry, then you must be unaware of Victory Records’ existence. Bands have been accusing the label of screwing them out of royalties pretty much as long as the label has existed. If you need to play catch-up, I recommend you read this. You’d also do well to remember that the label lost a massive multimillion dollar lawsuit to A Day to Remember just last year.

I mention all of this in the unlikely event that anyone would accuse Darkest Hour frontman John Henry of sour grapes. According to The PRP, during a recent appearance on the Lead Singer Syndrome podcast, Henry called Victory the “worst label on Earth.” And what, pray tell, led Henry to this conclusion? The vocalist elaborated:

“We were one of the few bands that completed a Victory contract. Five albums, yeah, ten years baby. Still haven’t seen a royalty check.”

“Hundreds of thousands of units SoundScanned—not one penny. Maybe someday, we’ll get something from them—not that it’s all about the money or anything…”

When Henry was asked if he still has any contact with Victory’s notoriously, um, passionate founder, Tony Brummel, he replied:

“He’ll like email Mike [Schleibaum, guitarist] every once in awhile when we have to do some business… I haven’t talked to him in forever. He refuses to talk to our manager, too. It’s a whole mess, not the way it should be.”

You can listen to the entire podcast below. Meanwhile, Godless Prophets & the Migrant Flora, Darkest Hour’s latest, and probably best-ever album,  is out now on Southern Lord.

https://soundcloud.com/leadsingersyndrome/episode75