Invisible Oranges alumni

As You Drown Photo by Anton Hedberg

In the early days of this site, I scoured MySpace looking for unsigned bands to review. Now that (a) I do Decibel‘s demo column, and (b) I am deluged with signed releases, demos have become a low priority here. There is just too much crap out there. MySpace has killed off “the legendary demo.” If an unsigned band has enough potential, its MySpace numbers will attract labels. (Well, most of the time. Belladonna, whom I reviewed here, have garnered over one million profile views, and they’re still unsigned.) The market inefficiencies that gave rise to “obscure bands” are long gone. With MySpace, no band is obscure. (Except for Pavor, who are willfully obscure (though they cannot escape the fan MySpace) and willfully awesome.)

Scale the Summit – The Great Plains
As You Drown – Open Wound Salvation

Thus, it’s a trip revisiting the archives of the “self-released” tag here. A good number of demo bands here have gotten signed. The most high-profile one is probably instru-metal band Scale the Summit. I reviewed their demo three years ago and said, “Tighten up the performances, boys, and you’ll be well on your way.” (I can’t believe I once wrote like that.) Tighten up they did, and now they have a great record, Carving Desert Canyons, out on Prosthetic.

As You Drown are now heavy hitters, too. When I reviewed their demo two years ago, they were called Ethereal. (Naming themselves is not their forte.) They have a new full-length, Reflection, coming out on Metal Blade on July 7. It has incredibly crappy Photoshop artwork (de rigueur, it seems, for big metal label releases), but otherwise it’s modern death metal done right: precise, powerful, and not too technical. Some of you may remember “Open Wound Salvation,” with its “AM radio effect” intro, from the demo review.

Other prominent Invisible Oranges alumni are Altar of Plagues (Profound Lore), Crown the Lost (Cruz del Sur), and Romans (Blackmarket Activities). Really, I’m proud of any demo band here that goes on to bigger and better things. Getting signed is not the end-all-be-all of being in a band – see Steve Albini’s “The Problem With Music,” which is about major labels, but increasingly applies to indie labels as they act more and more like major labels (hello, 360 deals!), and is essential reading for anyone even remotely interested in the record industry. In fact, as Devin Townsend says in Working Class Rock Star (reviewed here), “Getting signed is sometimes the death of a band.” But for many bands, it’s a legitimate goal, and I’m glad this site can do its small part in helping them get there.

Below is a fairly complete list of Invisible Oranges alumni (not counting those originally reviewed in Decibel‘s demo column, which include Howl and Revocation, both on Relapse; Vindicator, on Heavy Artillery (which I predicted – it’s fun to play A&R;), and The Konsortium, on Agonia), along with their current labels.

Invisible Oranges alumni

Altar of Plagues – Profound Lore
As You Drown – Metal Blade
Brave – Femme Metal
Crown the Lost – Cruz del Sur
Digression Assassins – Ampire
Eibon – Aesthetic Death
Gloomy Grim – Anticulture
Gwynbleidd – BlackCurrant
Maitreya – Vici Solum
Obscene Gesture – Xtreem
Romans – Blackmarket Activities
Scale the Summit – Prosthetic
Scythian – Necroterror
Vougan – Soundholic