Impending Doom, Burning Human
More popular bands outsell less well known acts all the time. No surprise. What is amazing is when an inferior band outsells a superior one by more than 22 times; even more amazing when that inferior band are on a smaller label. That’s the case between average christian deathcore band, Impending Doom and brilliant death metal band, Burning Human. It’s enough to make you seriously doubt the metal-buying public.
When you hear that Burning Human, the death metal side project of Jason Bittner from Shadows Fall, sold only 190 copies of their long-delayed album Resurrection Through Fire in the first week of release, compared to the 4,300 copies christian deathcore band, Impending Doom shifted of their latest record The Serpent Servant in its first week, it seems crazy.
Impending Doom aren’t a terrible band, but they’re one of that recent troupe referred to as death metal when they’re distinctly deathcore and, just like tons of other young bands, like to have themselves a Meshuggah-moment in their songs now and then; none of which are particularly inspiring. Burning Human on the other hand feature Shadows Fall’s impressive Jason Bittner and the quality of their material far outshines that which Impending Doom have put together. Impending Doom are on Facedown Records, a small independent christian label, while Burning Human are on Koch Records, America’s #1 independent record company.
So, why did Impending Doom, an uninspiring band with the small leverage of Facedown outsell a better band with heavy weight of Koch Records?
Impending Doom
As with so much, which bands kids get into has a lot to do with if you fit their mould. Impending Doom are young, look like them and have a heavily modified MySpace. Topping it off they sing about God – something that appeals to a surprisingly large demographic. Burning Human all look like they’re 30 plus, dress like an actual death metal band and have had their MySpace abused only moderately with Photoshop (it’s something the kids care about these days apparently). If you’re 16 and your favourite bands are Carnifex and Despised Icon, a fitting description for a large proportion of metal fans today, who are you more likely to go for? While the music should be the overriding factor at all times, as we all know that’s often not the case, and when such fickle fans have a, comparably, great deal of disposable income what they choose makes a big difference.
Burning Human
The other significant factor is that while Koch Records (now also known as E1 Entertainment) do have a few well established metal acts on their distribution/recording roster (Hatebreed, In Flames, Throwdown and Satyricon) they’re probably unaccustomed to getting Burning Human’s music to the kind of people who’ll buy it; extreme metal fans that usually avoid mainstream metal media. Facedown know their audience better, they’re likely all deeply involved and interested in the scenes they’re targeting, and acutely accustomed to the methods that group use to hear about and share new bands and use it to their advantage.
I wouldn’t doubt for a second that Impending Doom have worked really hard, but it’s galling to see one band that’s been going since 1995 fail to make an impact for completely spurious reasons while another gains so greatly simply because they ‘fit the bill’.
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Do you agree? Do you think it’s wrong that Impending Doom outsold Burning Human? Or are Impending Doom deserving of the accolade? Tell us below…
Not only does Impending Doom sing about God, but I noticed that Burning Human swears in their music. You could say that metal fans don’t care about that, but I notice there’s’ no swearing in the movie Heavy Metal. You can’t purposely ignore huge demographics and then complain you don’t have more success.
The Impending Doom fans that I’ve talked to see the appeal in how Brook screams. Myself. I must admit, his style is unique due to how he growls all of the songs, which we all agree, sounds friggin awesome. It really shouldn’t matter who a band is signed with, I’ve seen independent bands who could scream burning human off the stage. Yes, sometimes the instrumental drowns out the vocals a bit in in some of Impending Doom’s songs, but all in all, I’m glad that a smaller, underdog band beat a larger, more widely known band, and I don’t think it has much to do with the factors mentioned in this article.
Burning Human is just generic death metal for 40 year olds who think they’re badasses. Impending Doom is better in every way. Impending Doom’s vocals are way more impressive, the guitars are way better, the drums are a lot more technical, and the artwork is better. They’re also unique in the way that they’re christian. It’s no surprise to me that Impending Doom sold more records in the first week.