TMT Metal Fest Organizers Comment On Reports Of Problems With The Festival
The organizers of the TMT metal festival, who had previously issued this statement regarding rumors of band's dropping off the bill, have now update the event's MySpace page with the following statement about reports of problems with the festival: "Well we'll say this. In regards to all the negative people out there! Fuck you! If you can do better then show us! At least we had the balls to do it! So once again. Fuck you! LOL." More information on the festival, and a behind-the-scenes video clip, can be viewed at this location.
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48 Comments on "TMT Metal Fest Comments On Reports Of Problems"
Member
Member
5. writes:
For anyone interested in the awesome history of TMT Metal Fest, check out these links I dug up and watch how it slowly crumbles.
BLABBERMOUTH (2 links):
www.roadrunnerrecords.com/Blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=88862
www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=98400
STATEMENTS ISSUED BY RAVAGE (3 links):
1st, Postponed (scroll down) - metaleater.com/news.php?prevnext=10025
2nd, Fed bull sh** by Randeze - metalunderground.com/news/details.cfm?newsid=45139
3rd, Calls TMT a "scam" - nath-urlich-forum.bb-fr.com/news-f1/ravage-t8456.htm
Member
7. writes:
Ya definitely props to the MU and other music sites for exposing this scandal and getting the word out on being weary of these promoters. ...it's hard to make a Buck in this business, especially with downloading, now this...I wouldn't wish this on any hard working band
8. writes:
THIS IS THE GENERAL ATTITUDE OF TWO OF THE LITTLE BANDS WHO PLAYED THE FEST!
STEEL KINGDOM has posted a comment on your profile:
Thank you to the TMT Festival team for putting on a great festival. The size of the venue and the facilities were certainly all anyone could ask for and more. No stone was left unturned. Lights, sound, stage, security, VIP, camping, facilities, concessions, etc... it all was there and under control. We were glad to be part of it and have made many contacts though the event with bands and fans. We also made a lot of friends from across the USA. Even the weather was excellent the entire weekend. Hopefully all who attended can can find positive things to take from it and will continue to support these in the future. Metal needs them
UNCAGED has posted a comment on your blog post: TO ALL THE HATERS!
..YO Randeze..... You non corporate, non commercial, non herd leading type, like the ones that sh** on society like the wonderful sell out strategists out there that sucker kids into Hot topics for the in thing only to lead these suckers into drinking a monster only to like crap because its considered cool for marketing................
.......whoa whoa... wait a minute,.. Metal was founded just as punk for the simplest reasons, to exploit and unleash havok on the system, the system counteracts by selling out good artists for a few bucks and destroys art and metals origination in the process..................
.........................
....................Giant corporations are and always will be the enemy... NOW.. for a little guy to have the balls to make a dream come true is on every little guys agenda... to have the balls to see it through is only for so many chosen ones. ................................................................................................................All of our friends consider you a hero, for you did what many.. many .. many, only have the balls to dream about. The first show was and always will be the most difficult one, you put foots in peoples mouths, ..............................................................................................................................and for the foot eaters I can only say this ,...... fans who didn't come out to support metal reguardless of whom was on the bill... you can make it up to the music world by burning all your band shirts and throwing out the first cd of every band you every liked, because you don't deserve it. Keep the second and third + cd's because those bands are owned and controlled by corporate bull! ...... other foot eaters include every person in the U.S that had a dream and talent and decided to join a corporation instead of building there dream from the ground up.... cause all these people do is give a negative, lazy, childish, bad footprint on the American dream, they need the foot to start in there own mouths, just to understand the taste that we the small have to endure daily....................
........................For the Fans who showed up,... Keep supporting and pushing... the gate will fall and if more people like Randeze and yourselves keep pushing even harder, we the bands can finally live out our destiny's.... to bring the people back to freedom and f*** the system up so bad that even telmarketers will be affraid to pick up there telephones, CEO's will be affraid to get out of bed!!!...................
.......HORNS UP!!!!...................
.......-Race Martin
......................UNCAGED ......
Member
10. writes:
It's more than likely that it's Randissi posting all of those comments.
So, only two out of the forty or so bands booked are happy with the handling of the festival. Are you proud of yourself?
You, sir, should quit while you're ahead. Don't you think that your name is tarnished enough from this? You are more than likely black listed by several bands already, you do realize this, right?
Hey, if you want to keep adding fuel to the fire then go right ahead and post another 6 million comments. Just letting you know that you might not be able to bull sh** your way out of this one.
11. writes:
GO SEE FOR YOURSELF. THEY POSTED EVERYTHING THAT YOU'VE READ. ITS JUST THAT SIMPLE. MORE OF THEM SHOULD MAKE A STATEMENT. GRANTED YOUR NEVER GOING TO PLEASE EVERYONE BUT I KNOW WHAT THE MAJORITY HAS SAID & IT HAS'NT BEEN NEGATIVE. HATE AWAY IF YOU LIKE! WE DON'T CARE...
http://www.myspace.com/tmtmetalfest
12. writes:
"problems" is an understatement. check out this video of this band that played (Snapring)
http://www.mefeedia.com/watch/33052904
I counted, and can seem to come up with only 20 or so different people watching this band, and half of that by the time the band finishes. what kind of promoting do you call this? thats horrible, maybe TMT fest should have booked this at a bar or something. at least then it wouldn't look so empty....
Member
15. writes:
We performed at TMT Metal Fest, I am not Randeze... lol if you dont believe me you can shoot me a message or email. That being said, I have spoken with Randeze several times leading up to the festival. He was always straight up with me from square one. We are a working band, and most of us have been around the scene for 15 years, we can spot a fraud. If we had felt at any time this was a scam we would have never showed up and considered this a loss. Truth is, Randeze is no different then you or me. He is first and foremost a "FAN" and HUGE supporter of Heavy "f*cking" Metal!! He loves it, and with every resource available to him, he was gonna give something back. He put together a Metal Festival for the true fans of Metal, not to get rich or make a buck off anyone. This was a chance for fans of heavy metal to come together and bang are heads and drink sh*t tons of beer, and just rage all f'ing weekend. Listen, the guy loves Metal so much, he started a company and a free web show dedicated to getting the music out there to the people.... his people! I was there, we stayed the entire weekend, we played on the massive stages and ate the guys food. He provided everything he said he would and more. Even on the third day when it was clear that this festival was doomed, he did not cut cost or skimp on the provisions for the bands.. he came through and made sure everyone was taken care of.. even though it could ultimately cost him everything he has. Randeze did not let the Metal Community down.. THE METAL COMMUNITY LET HIM DOWN!!!! People don't put together festivals in the US because they have trouble pulling in sponsors and commercial support. Just ask Sharon Osbourne. You need sponsors to step up and say "yeah, this sounds like something the fans would really be in to and the potential to make some money." But in this day and age it comes down to profit and greed, and if a company doesn't feel like they have anything to gain from pushing their product at a Metal Festival then you get no support. That didnt stop this guy, he decided f*ck them and put the entire weight financially on his back. If the festival failed, then he would lose everything. Even when facing that reality he pushed on and through blind faith in his metal family, he would see this vision come true.
We let him down, plain and simple. Blame yourselves! If you knew about this festival and just waited at your computer to gloat about this man's failure instead of buying a ticket and coming down there and trying to support heavy metal, then you're the piece of sh*t and there should be a "line at your door" to kick your a55. The guy lost everything he had trying to support the one thing in this world he loved above all else and you mock his failure??? You people are F*CKING COWARDS!!
In closing I wanna thank the 500 or so people that did show up and support the bands at both the local stages and the nationals, you are the TRUE fans of metal and we thank you for being apart of something bigger then yourselves. For the rest of you, we are Last Red Ember, we are heavy metal! We will support it in any form its presents it self to us.
16. writes:
"The guy lost everything he had trying to support the one thing in this world he loved above all else and you mock his failure???"
"...and put the entire weight financially on his back."
Seriously? The only thing he lost is EVERY DOLLAR EVERY BAND PAID TO PLAY THE EVENT.
No he didn't skimp on the food. Did the caterer get paid?
Find out!
Was there any REAL money put into advertising?
Find out!
Don't say the metal community failed him. He obviously had NO business putting on a show (of that size) without the proper money, experience and sponsors to make this work.
HOW DARE YOU BLAME THE METAL COMMUNITY FOR THIS DISASTER.
You're entitled to your opinion, even if its completely wrong.
17. writes:
You are 100% correct, we have no idea what went wrong with this thing from a promotional aspect. With that being said, we paid $1000 to get on this show and when it was over and we drove 4 hours to go back home all we had to say was "would have been nice to play to 30,000 people." The 200 people that watched us play went ape sh*t and approached us after the show, bought CDs and drank beer with us. We play to 200 people almost every night in clubs all over NJ... and at those clubs WE GET PAID. If anyone has the right to get on here and complain it would be bands like us. We have no complaints... the guy gave it everything he had and it tanked. We are not going to kick him while he is down. Neither should any of you, except for the "Security #5" guy... he should be p***ed. I haven't heard anything negative from any of the bands that played that weekend cept for "wish there were more people there." All the ranting seems to be coming from people who couldn't wait to see this guy fail and then laugh when it did. Putting on a festival of this size is some scary sh*t and thats probably why not many people try to do this. We took the risk in playing this festival and it didn't work out, let us be upset. No reason to rub it in this guy's face. For anyone who doesn't understand the "pay to play" philosophy, here is how it works. The national acts don't play for free... if the local acts wanna get noticed they need to pay the bigger bands for that oppurtunity to play to the big crowds. Our money didn't go to put an extension on Randeze's house, it went to Goatwhore, Suffocation, Otep. Should we be mad at them? Hell no! We all lost out. If it was poor promotion then so be it. I am not gonna call for a lynching because of it. Let the people who got burned make comments, I don't understand why people who didn't even attend are taking to the internet to crucify this guy. We got burned, not you, and we are not even upset about it. I just ask that you take this guys' true intentions into consideration before you destroy him.. the guy needs our support right now and maybe a pat on the back for tryin'. Let the ones that got burned rant about it, and then give him the opportunity to make right on what he owes them. This is a bad time for everyone involved with it. No need to pile on and call the guy a crook or thief. I wish him the best and if he owes people money i hope he makes right on it. Thats all we wanted to say. If you think we are wrong thats your opinion, and your entitled to it. We don't mean to cause more drama. We just wanted to make a statement as a band that played the festival.
Thanks to all, STAY METAL!!
18. writes:
You seem sincere.
"I just ask that you take this guys' true intentions into consideration before you destroy him. Let the ones that got burned rant about it, and then give him the opportunity to make right on what he owes them. This is a bad time for everyone involved with it. No need to pile on and call the guy a crook or thief."
Instead of blind faith, maybe you should do some research about this guy. That is what everyone is complaining about.
20. writes:
"T. Rappleyea stated that the promoter, Kenneth Randeze, from Scranton, PA could not be selling tickets without the proper planning and permits, which he is doing. After much discussion, it was decided that the County Attorney's office will send out a letter to the promoter stating that he must cease ticket sales until further approval is given."
http://www.columbiacountyny.com/documents/minutes/April_2010/Public_Safety_April_2010.pdf
also, it appears TMT have problems keeping venues every year. maybe he does this to make bands feel like they wont be playing the middle of nowhere, then changes the venue last minute.
"An anonymous source at the Indian Lookout Country Club in Pattersonville said they weren’t sure why the fest had changed its location a third time, saying 'I don’t even know if they ever even came to look at the grounds.'"
if this guy walks on water, why is everything he does so fishy?
http://www.columbiacountyny.com/documents/minutes/April_2010/Public_Safety_April_2010.pdf
Member
21. writes:
"" if the local acts wanna get noticed they need to pay the bigger bands for that oppurtunity to play to the big crowds.""
f*** YOUR RETARDED MENTALITY ON THAT 1...!!!
""Our money didn't go to put an extension on Randeze's house, it went to Goatwhore, Suffocation, Otep.""
WELL, HOPE THEY GAVE YOU LUBE BEFORE TAKING YOUR MONEY!!!
22. writes:
Ok, we played the festival as well. I will keep this simple. Randeze and his people were nice to us, they were respectful of us, and they outdid themselves via sound and lighting and stage set-up. As a business man, i belive i can say with maximum authority that he undertook wayyyy tooo much with the festival from an investment perspective, but i truly do not believe he was trying to bilk all of us locals. I believe he massively overpaid some of the sub-national acts - we know many of them personally, we know what they were paid - but i DO NOT believe he "took the money and ran" as many others have said. For anyone there, just think how much each stage would cost to rent, including lighting AND light guy, sound AND sound guy, and each stage also had a dedicated stage hand for mic's and what not. 4 stages was just too much given the promotional level, but it is silly to have not attended and then get on here claiming that it was a podunk farm trailer with 20 hayseeds wandering about.
In closing, we had a ton of fun and made fans and friends from those that were there. Would we pay that much to do it again? I am not sure, as the "treasurer" of the band. But he had to have taken a huge hit to run this show the full three days and let us all play, and for that he should be lauded.
myspace.com/beyonddishonor
www.beyonddishonor.com
Member
24. writes:
Ok, we played the festival as well. I will keep this simple. Randeze and his people were nice to us, they were respectful of us, and they outdid themselves via sound and lighting and stage set-up. As a business man, i believe i can say with maximum authority that he undertook wayyyy tooo much with the festival from an investment perspective, but i truly do not believe he was trying to bilk all of us locals. I believe he massively overpaid some of the sub-national acts - we know many of them personally, we know what they were paid - but i DO NOT believe he "took the money and ran" as many others have said. For anyone there, just think how much each stage would cost to rent, including lighting AND light guy, sound AND sound guy, and each stage also had a dedicated stage hand for mic's and what not. 4 stages was just too much given the promotional level, but it is silly to have not attended and then get on here claiming that it was a podunk farm trailer with 20 hayseeds wandering about.
In closing, we had a ton of fun and made fans and friends from those that were there. Would we pay that much to do it again? I am not sure, as the "treasurer" of the band. But he had to have taken a huge hit to run this show the full three days and let us all play, and for that he should be lauded.
Member
28. writes:
I am not commenting about who did and did not go. Frankly, blaming fans for the poor turnout is like blaming fans when your quarterback throws a pick - the fault for the poor turnout lies in promotion, and that is not my job to comment on. The band above who blames metal fans is wrong in my/our opinion. I also am not saying we were "pleased" or "not pleased", i am only saying that I do not believe he was scamming the bands for this 2010 show. That's it. Not speaking to him as a person, his past, nothing. It is not my concern. My concern is ROI from our expenditure and where did those funds go.
@go to hell - I think "pleased" is an awfully strong and inaccurate word here, at least on our end. As a local band, we pay to play constantly, but it is not pleasing to pay so much for so few people. However, I am convinced Mr. Randeze did not run off with thousands given the scope of the set-up, which is all I am saying here on this thread. He couldn't have, and if he did, he should run for office.
@brandedcfh420 - why do I need to post a rebuttal on my site? We are moving onward and upward, I just happened to get sent this link by a friend and decided to throw my two cents in. TMT never even posted us in their top friends list for cross-promotion - we owe them no allegiance and no favors for sure.
29. writes:
"However, I am convinced Mr. Randeze did not run off with thousands given the scope of the set-up, which is all I am saying here on this thread. He couldn't have, and if he did, he should run"
He got away with THIS bands money. (Regardless of what the contract states)
(From Free Advice.com Legal Section)
http://forum.freeadvice.com/sports-arts-entertainment-law-86/backing-out-performance-contract-529085.html
I wonder how many other bands may have ended up in that situation???
Member
30. writes:
BD: well, just a comment here gives me no reason to believe anything you say. all i did was ask a simple question. If bands are supporting the guy by posting at their sites, then that lends some credence to your posts here. but 1 post here means nothing to the casual reader. so far its been he said, she said. if bands want to show that they trully are ok with everything, then make a vid of your band backing up the guy. show yourselves, not some faceless post!!
31. writes:
@Branded - fair enough point on the casual reader. However, I think you might want to re-read my post if you think I said everything is "ok". And if you go to our site, you would see a commercial we shot for the festival, albeit a while back. Faceless we are not, we wanted it to work. This is my last post, best of luck to you and to this site, i like the lively community. Come see us play and I will buy you a beer.
32. writes:
@Branded... I love how you lump us in because we are not joining in the flogging of a downed opponent. We are not here carry the torch for Randeze or to be his sh** shield. You and others made a blanket statement that this guy robbed all the local bands and took advantage of us and that this guys is a creep, and a thief. So now 4 bands have come on here and told you that we all paid to play and that even though the festival flopped we have no beef with this guy and he treated us with the utmost respect. Now you need a video taped confession?? Get f*cked. You're a nobody, you didn't attend, you weren't robbed by this guy and now bands are coming to the site and telling you first hand we didn't get robbed by this guy and thats still not good enough? Dude, get over it.... we have.
Member
35. writes:
@LRE: blah fkn blah! all i was asking about is an actual video of a band telling it like it is! you could be the TMT guy making it look good on himself! thats why i said a vid would be good for people to see the bands speaking up about it. im not saying that you are the guy, but bands that played and are in support of him need to post vids of their support, or else it seems like a worthless post that means nothing!
ill be sure to ignore your band from this day forward!
Founder, owner & programmer
36. writes:
Mr. “Randeze” is trying to silence open discussion about this topic [the TMT Metal Fest]. He has sent me an email with legal threats – despite the fact that he continues to engage/attack our readers even after I pointed out our policy on removing articles and comments - if I do not remove the posts pertaining to the TMT Metal Fest and wash away signs of his unprofessionalism (like he did on his festival's MySpace page).
I have remained neutral and mostly silent on this topic so far, but I would like to hear from any person and/or band who was involved in the event. Please send us an email via our contact form with a subject of “TMT Fest” and let me know about your experience. Please indicate your name/band name and/or involvement with the event and whether I may quote you or you'd like to remain anonymous.
Member
Founder, owner & programmer
Member
39. writes:
40. writes:
Guys, either way, even if those few bands were actually the ones who wrote those comments, that is barely enough to prove that his intentions were innocent. I've ran into people as far away as Baltimore who have heard of Randeze who not only had negative things to say but also warned against doing business with him. I think he's a crook... just a very lousy one.
...and @deathbringer, that is truly pathetic that he is making legal threats. I think it's a very good thing that we have this thread to discuss this, ripping off bands is kind of a big deal...
41. writes:
"Mr. “Randeze” is trying to silence open discussion about this topic [the TMT Metal Fest]. He has sent me an email with legal threats – despite the fact that he continues to engage/attack our readers even after I pointed out our policy on removing articles and comments - if I do not remove the posts pertaining to the TMT Metal Fest and wash away signs of his unprofessionalism (like he did on his festival's MySpace page)."
He will have to hold a benefit "concert" for himself just so he can afford a lawyer...
Member
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To minimize comment spam/abuse, you cannot post comments on articles over a month old.
1. TMT is a class act... cough cough writes:
"At least we had the balls to do it!"
People have the balls every day to get out of bed and dig ditches, pick crops, fight terrorists, teach, etc
It doesn't take balls to do what you did.
Do you have the balls to pay back all the bands that bought into your BS?