For a little while it seemed like American black metal band Nachtmystium was on the cusp of a comeback. Their singer Blake Judd was said to be off of drugs and had formed new lineup of the well-liked but generally-chaotic extreme metal band. They were working on a new EP and played several shows, including their first in four years.
Judd also issued refunds for scamming fans around the time of the new shows. At that show the band members issued refunds for any fans that purchased merchandise from 2012 to 2014, a period in which Judd’s heroin addiction was at its peak. He cited his drug addiction as the root cause of his behavior.
Unfortunately, as Metal Sucks reports, Judd has faced some allegations of repeating his past bad behavior. Metal Sucks says they received an email from a Portland indie music retailer in April in which they accuse Judd of representing Ascension Monuments Media (AMM) and failing to fulfill and order that was paid for by the store. The site reached out to AMM and received an email from owner Noel Blaney who clarified that the issues had been cleared up with the retailer and Judd was simply an employee and not an owner of the company. That did however, contradict an (slightly hostile) email sent from Blaney to the retailer defending the actions and character of Judd. The retailer confirmed that any issues with AMM were amicably resolved.
Unfortunately, more accusations of fraudulent behavior was levied against Judd and AMM. AMM claimed to have been offered deadstock classic pressings of black metal icon Judas Iscariot’s Distant in Solitary Night. The label said they had 38 copies of the record and sold them on Bandcamp for a very modest mark-up, claiming they were doing the right thing by selling them on that platform versus EBay or Discogs where the records would fetch a much higher pricetag. Once the orders started shipping however, fans noticed some differences between the original pressing and these supposed “deadstock” records. Judd was also documented as asking on social media for photos of the center labels from original pressings of the album. Perhaps the most damning issue was the rubbed out Ascension Monuments matrix numbers on the vinyl. Erikah Blaney, the sister of Noel and partner to Judd, issued the below letter to address the controversy:
Hi everyone –
If you are receiving this email, it means that you either have purchased or are interested in purchasing a copy of the distributed title that we stocked recently from Judas Iscariot’s Distant in Solitary Night album on vinyl. This LP was advertised on our website as a Sombre Records pressing, which is what the product had been presented to AMM as. We are reaching out to inform our customers that upon inspection after their arrival, it has been determined that these are an unofficial (aka ‘bootleg’) pressing.
“We had received an email from an individual in Germany awhile after we had begun corresponding with numerous labels, stores, artists and individuals around the world regarding our upcoming Judas Iscariot releases. He claimed he used to work with the now-deceased Sombre Records owner, Marcel Spaller, during the early days of the label & had remained personal friends. Names, dates, events and details were mentioned that seemed to further validate their credentials as truth. Before purchasing, we were sent photos of the 38 LP’s that were being offered, one photo of all the LP’s to prove quantity (spine side out in a shelf) & one photo showing a paper with the date hand written on it & some records laid out overlapped, showing the hand-numbered backs (face down). With our skepticism eased & excitement overshadowing any remaining doubts, the trigger was pulled on purchasing the records. We did not receive a wholesale, label or bulk deal & AMM paid the cost of shipping all of them from Germany to the US.
“It was decided that these LP’s would only be sold via Bandcamp as a way to show appreciation to AMM supporters & dedicated JI fans instead of appearing greedy by putting them on eBay or Discogs in order to fetch a higher asking price like we could have. A photo of the LPs were posted to the AMM Bandcamp page after we had confirmation via tracking information that they had made it out of Germany & were on their way to us, but before we had actually seen them in person. The picture posted onto the AMM social media pages after the records arrived led to some questions regarding the record’s authenticity. A few dedicated fans lucky enough to own the original Sombre pressing (we had no way to compare it to an original) noticed that there seemed to be some slight variations between the original version & the version we received. We immediately did our homework & were unfortunately able to determine that the copies we had received were bootlegs. We have attempted to make contact with the seller with no luck thus far.
“The LP’s we have do indeed have the ‘Sombre Records’ logo on the back cover. They appear to be hand-numbered ( # / 100). They come in very thick black jackets. The vinyl is 180 gram plain black vinyl (a dead giveaway to us that something was amiss). As audiophiles, at least we can report that the records honestly sound great.
“At the end of the day, we are all huge fans here at AMM. We don’t own original copies & maybe never will, so this LP is welcomed in our collections. Due to the fact that they don’t look, sound or feel like an offensively cheap knock-off, we do not regret buying these at all. We had the best intentions when we made these available to all of you. We do regret that we had misinformed our customers & the JI fanbase; it was not our intention to deceive anyone. For that misunderstanding, we sincerely apologize.
“With all of that out in the open, we’ve halted shipping on ALL copies until we hear back from each customer that has ordered. We will refund your order if you request to do so via emailing back to this email. If you would like to receive your copy or purchase a copy (as I now have some available due to cancellations), then please send a reply back to this email. We are throwing in some awesome JI & AMM merch as our way of showing our apologies for any misunderstandings that may have occurred & to show our appreciation to those getting a copy.
“On behalf of the AMM staff,
Erikah
Co-owner/ customer service & media manager
As an added twist, around this time AMM also announced a vinyl repressing of several Judas Iscariot releases. This is noteworthy because the Andrew Harris, the impresario of Judas Iscariot, had specifically said as he dissolved the project and left the black metal scene, that he did not wish for any of his releases to be pressed on vinyl. With the Distant in Solitary Night fiasco embroiling, music fans understandably started to examine the details of the Judas Iscariot reissues in finer detail.
In a Facebook post that has since been deleted, Judd once again asserts he’s not an owner of AMM. He also details the terms in which Harris “approved” the vinyl repressing of Judas Iscariot releases. Judd talks of an informal agreement between himself and the musician, positing that if someone was to bootleg Judas Iscariot releases, would it be okay for him to start to reissue the records officially. He claims Harris agreed to this suggestion and when Judd found bootlegs of a Judas Iscariot album on EBay, he decided to do the repressings. Judd also states that he did communicate with Harris before announcing the reissues.
Hurting Judd’s credibility were several people who posted test pressing certificates from a Leviathan (a band who’s decided to no longer work with AMM) that clearly state Judd is a co-owner of AMM. Then, fans that pre-ordered the reissues claim their orders have gone unfulfilled, a common issue in the lowest points of Judd’s addiction in the early ’10s. At the time of Metalsucks’s article, the Facebook and Bandcamp for AMM had been shut down. The Bandcamp is back online but not their Facebook.
The band has also been accused of flaking out on a show without any notice. Los Angeles music promoter Angie Gabriel posted this on Facebook following the band missing a tribute show and forcing the venue to come up with an impromptu band.
In more positive news for the band, they have a new EP called Resilient out. It includes the new song “Voidless.”
The band initially broke up in 2013 after Judd was arrested for theft. The year before they released their album Silencing Machine.
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