Allegaeon bassist Corey Archuleta unintentionally triggered a movement when he announced his departure from the band to seek a more financially stable career path and pursue law school. Since then the band has launched a Patreon campaign in an attempt to raise the necessary funding for the band to continue touring and making music.

The band explains, “As many of you may or may not know, being in a touring band can be very, very expensive and many bands that make it to the touring level of their careers don’t last very long after that. Between the costs of travel and maintenance on our touring vehicle alone, much of the money that is made on tour is immediately spent on staying afloat from day to day and this leaves the band little to nothing in the bank after the tour is done. This is a huge problem for us as people who have to eject ourselves from real life responsibilities (aka. rent, bills, food) for sometimes months at a time so that we can take our music on the road and bring it to you in a live setting. While we love doing so, the financial repercussions are very real and very pertinent to the survival of bands today.”

The band and fans alike are now facing a very unsettling ultimatum: either the end of Allgaeon as we know it, or the unified alliance and subsidization of the band through fan donations.

On their Patreon campaign page the band states, “After eight years and four full-length albums, Allegaeon has unfortunately reached a tipping point where we can either 1) go completely bankrupt and call it quits to wallow in the sadness of our shattered dreams and disappointed tears of all of our lovely fans OR 2) continue to create and tour the music that you have all grown to love since our formation way back when. However! to do this WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT.”

The campaign offers two tiers of contribution with individual reward packages from which subscribers can choose. The first is an extremely affordable $1 subscription, for which the benefactors will receive a personalized “Thank You” e-mail from Allegaeon and an “IOU” for a group hug at the next show local to them. The next package is for donors of $5 or more, and includes an invitation to the band’s monthly Google Hangout Party (as so in the band reaches their monthly goal of $5,000), which will give fans the opportunity to talk personally with the members of the band and have any and all questions answered. It also includes membership of the band’s “super awesome and exclusive club of secrets” (whatever that may be), as well as a customized guitar pick to commemorate their part in making the band’s continuation possible.