The Black Dahlia Murder frontman Trevor Strnad has urged fans not to illegally download their new album. With the band’s 6th studio album, Everblack, due out in June, Strnad posted a rather frank open letter on Facebook, imploring fans to pay for their upcoming record.
The FB post, which has since been removed, kept it real as Strnad told fans their love doesn’t mean shit when it comes tangible record sales. The sternly worded letter explained that if fans don’t secure a copy of Everblack by legitimate means, the band’s label could deem The Black Dahlia Murder irrelevant and drop them.
Strnad’s post read as follows (courtesy of Anti Music, :
“HOW IT IS: We have almost 1,000,000 likes on here. Will we sell 1,000,000 copies of Everblack? Fuck no! The reality is that 98% of you ‘fans’ are going to be content to steal the album and in turn we get nothing… a laughable fragment of the ‘likers’ will actually be cool and pick it up.
“It’s not about the money, the reality is that we get chump change for CD (and digital) sales BUT WE NEED TO SELL THEM TO EXIST! If there are no record sales the music industry will stomp us out like a bug and it’ll be completely over… the sales show them ‘how relevant’ we are.
“If you don’t buy the albums they’ll determine that there is no demand for TBDM, and there won’t be any more awesome concerts, tours, dvds nor new music. Sure we understand you may really love our tunes, but if you haven’t paid for them, it’s a total loss to us… all the love in the world isn’t going to mean sh*t in the end. We need your support and every two years I am going to ask the same thing of you and make the same goddamn argument.
“Think of it like a vote… If you’d like to see us continue our reign of terror over the metal world, you’ll pick up a copy of “Everblack”. It’s as simple as that. – Trevor on behalf of The Black Dahlia Murder”
The letter reportedly cross the line with many fans and prompted The Black Dahlia Murder to post an apology for being overly-aggressive in their original post:
“I want to apologize to any of you guys that were bummed out by my frustrated, overly aggressive, and pessimistic posts yesterday. Me and the guys are eternally grateful for all of you and your support, whatever form. THANK YOU! We’ll see you this Summer and beyond… – Trevor”
Will the band’s aggressive approach negatively affect The Black Dahlia Murder’s record sales? Time will tell.
