Alexi Laiho Quote from the Old Board?

[youngguitarist]

Re: Alexi Laiho Quote from the Old Board?

Children of Bodom has never realeased an album that has sold under gold. Sure maybe they're not big in USA, but are they from USA? No. Who cares if it's not mainstream music? Some of us prefer heavy vocals, some of us prefer the clean high pitched vocals, that's the way it is.

[Infernal Death]

Re: Alexi Laiho Quote from the Old Board?

At the beginning CoB was really a mixture of death/black/heavy metal. So i think the black metal style vocals (yes black metal, since death metal is deep and those screaming of Alexi are black metal type, listen to Tomb of the Mutilated from Cannibal Corpse, that's a death metal style voice and compare it to Alexi's singing style, i guess it's quite obvious) of Alexi really fitted into the picture. The death and black part now almost dissapeared but the singing style now is a part of CoB. I don't think CoB would improve if they know would search for a clean singer, it just wouldn't be CoB anymore.
So love it or hate it i guess [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

I don't wanna get involved in this 80's discussion here, i just want to add two things.
1. Celtic frost isn't german, they are from switzerland.
2. Grave Digger never did death metal style vocals. It's just that Chris Boltendahl can't sing [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

Flo

[lerxstcat]

Re: Alexi Laiho Quote from the Old Board?

[QUOTE]Originally posted by youngguitarist:
[QB]Children of Bodom has never realeased an album that has sold under gold.

What are the actual sales figures? Gold
in Finland is not the same as in the USA,
where it means 500,000 sold. In Finland
it might mean 20,000 copies. I kind of doubt they're selling a half million copies of each record, but who knows? If
anyone has the actual # of records sold,
that would be informative.

[lerxstcat]

Re: Alexi Laiho Quote from the Old Board?

Originally posted by RacerX:
[img]graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

Probably for a different reason than mine, eh Accept? [img]graemlins/brow.gif[/img]

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">She's on MY poohead list for the same reason she's on yours, RacerX! She can really
sing, but you can't screw people over without it coming back at you.

Payback is a mo'fo'!

[ January 15, 2003, 10:35 PM: Message edited by: lerxstcat ]

[youngguitarist]

Re: Alexi Laiho Quote from the Old Board?

Can you guys email me telling me what Kim did that was so bad? [email protected]

[Geir]

Re: Alexi Laiho Quote from the Old Board?

"What are the actual sales figures? Gold
in Finland is not the same as in the USA,
where it means 500,000 sold. In Finland
it might mean 20,000 copies. I kind of doubt they're selling a half million copies of each record, but who knows? If
anyone has the actual # of records sold,
that would be informative."

Well, that means that 20 000 in Finland is just as big a sucsess as 500 000 in the US.

Think before you open your mouth [img]graemlins/nono.gif[/img]

[lerxstcat]

Re: Alexi Laiho Quote from the Old Board?

Originally posted by KE:
"What are the actual sales figures? Gold
in Finland is not the same as in the USA,
where it means 500,000 sold. In Finland
it might mean 20,000 copies. I kind of doubt they're selling a half million copies of each record, but who knows? If
anyone has the actual # of records sold,
that would be informative."

Well, that means that 20 000 in Finland is just as big a sucsess as 500 000 in the US.

Think before you open your mouth [img]graemlins/nono.gif[/img]

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">No, YOU should think before YOU open YOUR mouth. [img]graemlins/nono.gif[/img] The context was a poster saying COB are a major-league band because their releases have always sold at least gold, The major leagues is USA gold, or 500,000 copies sold. Finnish gold is Little League by comparison. Sorry you
couldn't comprehend this basic fact without elaboration; I'm sure everyone else got it the first time. [img]graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

Just to illusrate even more for you,
let's say the band gets $5 for each CD sale. Finnish gold at 20,000 means a gold record generates $100,000.00 for COB. If they split it evenly that's $20,000.00 each.
A 5-piece USA band going gold would
generate 500,000 x $5.00, which totals $2,500,000.00. Divided by 5
that's $500,000.00 per band member. Do you really think those are equal levels of success? The cost of living isn't cheaper in Finland; in fact beer is 2-3x what it cost in the USA, so you think a US band that makes 25 TIMES as much money is no more succesful than the Finnish band?
I can't believe I have to spell this
out, but the US band could be set for
life if they wisely invest the proceeds of one US Gold record, wheras the Finnish Gold artist might
still have to live with his parents in order to survive! That doesn't sound "just as succesful" to me. [img]graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]
[img]graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[ January 26, 2003, 04:43 PM: Message edited by: lerxstcat ]

[Ael]

Re: Alexi Laiho Quote from the Old Board?

Well "equal level of succeess" as like same % of people like their material... but that's maybe too theoretical [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

But lerxstcat's idea of succeess is judged by how much money an artist makes. This sounds a truly american way of thinking to me [img]graemlins/poke.gif[/img] Ok, maybe in the ****ty pop/whatever scene this is indeed the only way. I'm always laughing when I see my sis watching yet another of those shows where they reward the best selling artist / friends / family / whatnot. I'd just like to think that in metal scene you could be considered "succesful" even without huge sales figues...

[lerxstcat]

Re: Alexi Laiho Quote from the Old Board?

Originally posted by Ael:
Well "equal level of succeess" as like same % of people like their material... but that's maybe too theoretical [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

But lerxstcat's idea of succeess is judged by how much money an artist makes. This sounds a truly american way of thinking to me [img]graemlins/poke.gif[/img] Ok, maybe in the ****ty pop/whatever scene this is indeed the only way. I'm always laughing when I see my sis watching yet another of those shows where they reward the best selling artist / friends / family / whatnot. I'd just like to think that in metal scene you could be considered "succesful" even without huge sales figues...

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">So you mean, "Grade Finland on a curve because our bands can't be expected to compete with US bands"?

This question originally came up in regards to someone saying COB was a big band on a European level because "all their abum wen at least gold". Since this was said to infer they were big in the greater European market, I asked the
question (which no one has even answered - maybe you, Ael, can find out since you live in Finland) so as to compare apples
to apples, not apples to grapes. Am I getting too theoretical here? [img]graemlins/poke.gif[/img]

I'm not basing all success on money, but
people need it to survive whether you like it or not - if you're still living with your parents you may not yet know this, but it's very true. You can scale
the gold measure down to even out status,
but it still takes a somewhat similar amount of money to have food, shelter and
utilities in Europe and North America.
If one band makes 25 times as much money as another due to actual sales, then calling them both "gold" by different measures doesn't make them equal. To claim otherwise is only foolish and naive. I'm not saying the band with more
sales is better, nor that you shouldn't be proud of a Finnish band's success, but
it's like saying the Finnish arm, man for
man, matches the US or Russian armies. It may be true, but it won't win you the
war. We're still talking about the difference between being set for life - a
life where you know you can have music as
a career - versus scraping by this year,
but you may have to cut your hair and work in the factory next year. COB may be in Finland, but they have access to sell records in the whole European Union,
just as a USA band from Mississippi can
sell throughout North America. Gold in Mississippi would probably be 5,000 copies just to compare if each state here
had its own standard for gold. Then you'd be mad because COB had to sell 4X as much as a Mississippi band to be gold!

[Ael]

Re: Alexi Laiho Quote from the Old Board?

Hey not every band wants to get on the US market... or maybe they do but i guess there's no room on it for metal or anything extreme - I don't know. [img]images/icons/rolleyes.gif[/img] CoB are selling quite well in Europe and in Japan ( I posted on another thread that they are #1 in Finland now ), but I don't know the exact numbers. I guess they're happy with their current audience...Finnish metal seems to do quite well in German and those Japanese like everything. [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img] Yes, 25 times the sales sounds tempting, but how well do European bands do in US anyhow - not even worth the effort or CoB and others would be trying to break through there as well.

And no, I'm not living with mommy and daddy anymore - hell most of the time I wish I still did [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img] . I do understand that at least record companies do strictly business, they don't care if the music is good or not if it sells. But with these sales figures these extreme artists aren't in it for the $$. So success could be just considered having a roof, something to eat, more to drink and being able to keep the "lifestyle". I bet they wouldn't mind the $$ as well... and the minimum is of course to sell enough records so you can make the next one.

Lol, about the finnish army - we beat the russians in WWII ( or are we the only ones that think so , lol [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img] ). And with the current state of their army, we'd prolly beat them again...

[edit] And I'm not saying selling gold in Finland and US is the SAME or EQUAL thing, but LOCALLY can be considered as such. It's just as "hard"to do on each market. Also note that to sell gold in US the marketing etc. costs are also multiplied by maybe as much as the possible income - Ok, not quite but maybe the idea is right [img]graemlins/scratchhead.gif[/img] [/edit]

[ January 26, 2003, 06:55 PM: Message edited by: Ael ]

[lerxstcat]

Re: Alexi Laiho Quote from the Old Board?

Hey don't get me wrong; I don't want to put down Finland or the bands from there!
I think it's very cool you have such a strong metal scene there, and I wish the
US had that. I think many European bands
think the US market is hard to crack, and
it's costly to haul your gear across the ocean. The problem is more, I think, that the small labels like Spinefarm and
Nuclear Blast don't have the money to send their bands to the USA, where they're not sure they'll sell enough to make a profit. They play it safe by touring them around Europe where you can go by bus, not ship and plane. COB does
well enough to tour South America because
there's a recognized metal market there.
I think there are plenty of metalheads that would see these bands if they came to the USA, because there seems to be an
increase in the underground metal scene in many cities here. The business doesn't yet recognize it, but it's been growing for awhile.

As for the Russian troops, I don't know... if their generals say there's food and vodka behind your lines they may
roll right over you [img]graemlins/poke.gif[/img] Just kidding!

Yeah, I'd just like to see them have more
success than just survival and making the
next record. It's better to do that than
not to do it, but they should get more than that. I just questioned "gold" because to most people "gold record" makes them think you have a mansion and a
big car, and "why didn't Alexi have 10 more Jacksons than the stolen ones" you see? Where they think he's maybe greedy
to go to ESP, maybe he really had no choice. That was what I originally meant before I got into arguing! [img]graemlins/idea2.gif[/img]

Anyway, I hope COB, Sinergy and others can reach these shore, 'cause I think they'd make more $ and we'd get better shows. Hey, nobody thought Scorpions
would ever make it here, but they were HUGE for years once they got here. Accept did well here too, and Warlock/Doro toured here a lot in late 80s, so out of 275,000,000 people there
should still be millions that would go to
metal shows featuring some of this generation's best bands. It could happen!

[Ael]

Re: Alexi Laiho Quote from the Old Board?

Originally posted by lerxstcat:
I just questioned "gold" because to most people "gold record" makes them think you have a mansion and a big car, and "why didn't Alexi have 10 more Jacksons than the stolen ones" you see?

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Hehe, I guess I'm not like most people then - for me selling "gold" automatically means the record company will be nice enough to let you get a next shot. [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Market is smaller, so no one is buying mansions and stuffs... I don't think I got you wrong in the first place, but of course what I said was basically comments on what you had just said, yours being the last post I read and so I go ranting about that. I hope you all knows I means [img]graemlins/poke.gif[/img]

[Geir]

Re: Alexi Laiho Quote from the Old Board?

Saw Ael's post? That's what I meant. %wise, it's the same success.

Sorry if I seemed a little aggressive.

[ January 28, 2003, 02:20 PM: Message edited by: KE ]

[VitaminG]

Re: Alexi Laiho Quote from the Old Board?

yea, it may not be as financially successful, but a gold record is still reward for taking that share of the nation's total record sales. Having 25% (f.e) of Finland's population buy your album is just as impressive as selling it to 25% of the UK or the US's populations. Maybe not as financially rewarding, but still quite an achievement to get that many people in any random group to listen to your stuff.

[lerxstcat]

Re: Alexi Laiho Quote from the Old Board?

Yeah it's an impressive achievement, though I wonder where you got that 25% figure? I'm sure Finland must have at least 10 million people, so 25% would be
2-1/2 million copies. If COB had sold
like that, or even at US Gold level, then
Alexi would not now be with ESP, because he'd have had another 10 Rhoads Custom Shop guitars at home than the 2 that were
stolen. It's not all about money, but consider: If COB only sold 20,000 copies
and Sinergy sells that or less, and they
still have to pay the record companies back for advances (loans) they got to live on while writing and recording, then
it's quite possible Alexi couldn't afford
to pay Jackson upfront to even order a guitar. He was probably in a financial bind where he HAD to take the ESP deal,
both for a guitar and for the money. It's easy to criticize the guy, but we have no idea what reasons he had for doing that. I know this is being covered
on the "No!!! ARRGH!"thread, but it relates to what I'm sayng about the comparisons. When Paul Stanley endorses
Silvertone for money, it's absolute greed
because he's a multimillionaire anyway.
When Alexi Laiho endorses ESP, it may be
simple survival, because his music career
ain't paying the bills. Anyone recall the recent Sinergy show, IN FINLAND, that
cancelled because their bus broke down and management could only get them a minivan to replace it? That tells me they're running on a low budget, and it
affects their whole lives - like how do you replace 2 stolen guitars?

So, does anyone of you yet know how many
sales actually equals gold in Finland?
Or what the popuation of Finland is? I'm
just curious, and figure that if some of you are European you might know or care about those things. Or not, perhaps....

[ January 28, 2003, 12:53 AM: Message edited by: lerxstcat ]