[youtube]http://youtu.be/F2Q1qBNrlXo[/youtube]
Last year, we were pretty psyched about Unlocking the Truth. The three pre-pubescent children had made a name for themselves by being a pretty competent metal trio that performed on the streets of New York City, and video of them doing so went viral. The band’s singer and guitarist Malcolm Brickhouse is just 13, as is bassist Alec Atkins. and drummer Jara Dawkins is only 12. Since they blew up online, they’ve played Coachella, opened for Guns ‘N Roses, and are currently playing some dates on the Warped Tour (we saw them on Saturday). While they don’t have anything recorded yet, they’ve landed a two-record deal with Sony, which in and of itself is pretty impressive. However, the press has very quickly blown the details of their signing out of proportion, stating they’ve been signed for $1.7 million.
The New York Daily News broke the news of the band’s deal, breathlessly stating that the deal was worth $1.7 million. The rest of the press picked up mainly on that number, and are reporting it as fact. In actuality, the band will receive a $60,000 advance for the first album, which isn’t bad. For them to start making money on it though, they’ll have to sell over 250,000 copies of their album. As Metal by Numbers readers know, there aren’t that many hard rock or metal albums that have cross that barrier often. Five Finger Death Punch and Avenged Sevenfold are the only ones that immediately come to mind, with Volbeat and Bring me the Horizon hovering around there. It’ll be extremely difficult for them to attain that, unless their debut album is a classic. The second album could net them $350,000, but again, they haven’t even recorded the first one yet. So in short, it’s great that the Unlocking the Truth have gotten signed, and hopefully they’ll wind up being a successful band, but to say that they’ve gotten signed for close to $2 million is an exaggeration.
