One year ago, Metal Insider was very excited to have Nachtmystium playing our CMJ party. Of course, that wasn’t meant to be, as band mastermind Blake Judd was arrested for theft, and instead of heading to New York to headline our show, he instead spent time in jail on misdemeanor theft charges. And while Judd had long battled drug problems, there were also many allegations regarding him ripping off fans over merchandise, even to the point of a shirt being made about it. Judd evenutally was released from jail, announced he was releasing one final Nachtmystium album, and calling it quits. Then, just before the August 5 release of the album, The World We Left Behind, he announced he wasn’t ending the band after all. Now, everything’s gotten confusing again, and on first glance, history appears to be repeating itself.
According to Metal Sucks, Judd is once again being accused of ripping fans off, this time for merch bundles of The World We Left Behind. Metal Sucks were told about this a few weeks ago, and three weeks after the album’s street date, the orders still haven’t been filled. Earlier this month, MS reached out to Judd personally, and he told replied, saying “I am simply waiting for Century Media to deliver my copies of the new album [The World We Left Behind] so I can send out the preorder bundles… I’ve posted about it repeatedly on our page. We did a preorder bundle for a signed CD or LP plus tshirt and patch package…. I have everything except the records, which I expect this week. When they arrive, everything goes out.”
Problem being, that he hasn’t delivered them, and there’s been enough people that have complained about it that an Anti-Judd and Nachtmystium page has garnered 478 likes. Meanwhile, Nachtmystium’s Facebook page has been removed. That must mean that either the band is over, or that Judd got so many complaints from fans that feel like they were ripped off by him that he deleted the page. Either way, it doesn’t look good for anyone. We reached out to the band’s product manager over at Century Media and hadn’t heard back as of press time. We’re hoping this is just a lapse in communication, as Nachtmystium is an excellent band and Blake Judd is extremely talented. But it’s hard to keep fans after you repeatedly alienate them. And if he’s ripping off those that want to support his art once again, it’ll be pretty hard to defend him.
UPDATE: Century Media has responded by saying that they’ll be making a statement within the next day or two. We’ll update you further when we have more info.
