CREMATORY Calls Out 'Lazy' Fans For Not Buying Concert Tickets, Threatens To Split Unless CD Sales Improve

German gothic metallers CREMATORY have called out their "lazy" fans for not buying tickets to the band's upcoming tour and have threatened to break up the act unless "metalheads start honoring the value of real music and come back to" spending money on artists' physical product.

CREMATORY will release its new album, "Oblivion", on April 13 and is scheduled to embark on a 15-show tour of Germany at the end of next month. The follow-up to 2016's "Monument" is described in a press release as "multi-faceted and timeless," with "the group's classic trademarks still present," while "at the same time new influences emphasize their great commercial potential."

In a March 7 post on CREMATORY's Facebook page, drummer Markus Jüllich expressed his dissatisfaction with the tour's advance ticket sales and painted a bleak picture about the band's future, explaining that the amount of money that trickles down to CREMATORY from streaming music services is less than they can survive on.

Jüllich wrote: "The end of CREMATORY? Will 'Oblivion' be the last studio album and the tour in May the final one?

"CREMATORY's new studio album, 'Oblivion', will be released on Friday, April 13, 2018. We were planning to promote the album with a tour, starting on April 27, 2018 and running through all of May in Germany. That will only happen [if] you fans get off your lazy asses and start buying tickets for the announced shows. The presales are horrible and we will cancel the tour completely if the numbers don't increase radically.

"The most important thing is that you buy our new CD and double vinyl edition, 'cause when I look at our sales statistics, I could start throwing up! Nowadays we are selling way more downloads and streams than we sell the original products, and this will be the death for all bands, 'cause you hardly get any money from this shit compared to the CD compensation. So as a matter of fact, a band will hardly make enough money to put a good-sounding album on the market.

"The worst is, that streaming on iTunes, Spotify, Deezer, Napster and all the other bullshit platforms doesn't pay out for the band at all. Our last album, 'Monument', had 1.5 million streams and we don't even sell 1% of that in original vinyl or CD products.

"This can't go on like this anymore! It's not only CREMATORY who is suffering from all that, but only we have the balls to stand up and tell you the truth. Wake up, you metalheads, and start honoring the value of real music and come back to buying the products. We don't want music just getting wasted and being stored on harddrives, USB sticks, SD cards in miserable MP3 quality.

"We hope you understand how important that is to us. Because of this, we will give you something special with the new album, 'Oblivion', so you think twice before you buy the shitty download or the even worse stream.

"Every CD and vinyl LP comes with a 10 € merchandise voucher that you can use on our concerts or in our merchandise shop at the CREMATORY website. That makes every CD or LP including the voucher even cheaper than a download and you get a great digipack with booklet, lyrics, pictures and poster.

"So, please dear fans, buy CDs and LPs and forget the downloads, 'cause otherwise there won't be another CREMATORY album. Don't make 'Oblivion' the final album and give us your support on the tour. Start buying tickets now, so we can have great shows together. Even after 27 years of CREMATORY, we are still hungry to keep going, but all that is in your hands.

"Believe in you and especially in CREMATORY!"

CREMATORY was founded in Mannheim in 1991 and has released nearly 15 albums. The band began as a strict death metal unit before adding goth and industrial elements into its arsenal.