Rising Records - Sucking life out of metal?

Anyone who pays attention to the metal music scene these days, in particular those who read the pages of Metal Hammer Magazine  will probably be familiar with the emerging record label 'Rising Records'. The company have sponsered awards at both the Golden Gods and the Kerrang awards and the July 2011 issue of Metal Hammer came with a free cd of bands on the 'Rising' label roster.

Not too long ago, I was in a band who were, for a time, had the (dis) pleasure of being signed to Rising Records and to see the label gaining any kind of widespread recognition in the metal world, frankly, angers me. I genuinely believe, after being part of the label and meeting many people and bands associated with it, that Rising Records and those behind it are parasitically unhealthy for young bands. They are unprofessional, dishonest and take advantage of young bands with no respect for musical integrity.

Firstly, I shall briefly describe my time with Rising Records. My band, (aged between 16 and 19 at the time) sent a demo tape off to a selection of labels and heard back from several, of which Rising Records was one. As a band, we travelled to Ipswitch in order to meet the label boss Mark Daghorn (more on him later). Mark attacked us with a bombardment of impressive offers; music videos, famous metal bands he'd worked with and coverage in popular magazines. We were then given the deal:

The band has to pay Mark £7500 to record an album. A deposit of £1000 was also required before signing. In terms of Royalties, we would recieve just under 50% of what the album made and also retained the rights to our music.

When we left, all of us had reservations concerning the deal infront of us. "How would we raise the money?" being the most prominent. However, I think it is fair to say that the glamour that had been flaunted infront of us was too tempting to resist and we soon phoned Mark to confirm our signing to Rising Records. Interestingly, the contract itself was merely a MS Word document emailed to our drummer that only required one of our signatures. Cunningly, we allowed the contract to be signed by our drummer, at a mere 16 years of age, rendering the contract completely void, should ever we need an escape route.

The only contact from Rising we had from this point was to ask for the £7500. However, not only did we not have the money (we were kids!) but we had discovered more about the label that did not sit well with us. Seven Year Kismet, a metal band with whom we were close friends had signed to Rising 6 months before us and had recorded their album shortly after we signed our contract. The stories SKY told us gave us grave misgivings about the label and their motives.

Firstly, there was no choice available to bands regarding studios, producers, engineers, etc.. All bands on Rising were forced to record at the 'on site' studio with Mark himself acting as producer for each album.

Secondly, the £7500 that was initially quoted was merely the price for the recording itself. The mixing and mastering process cost an extra £4000 aproximately.

Thirdly, Mark seemed to have no interest in the artistic integrity of his bands. All albums HAD to be under 40 minutes in length. Furthermore we were told the story of when upcoming metal band The Dead Lay Waiting were recording their debut album for Rising and Mark had all the clean vocals on the album performed by the vocalist of The Morning After, another band on the label.

After hearing these things, I personally sent a message to Mark asking to part ways with the label, to which we recieved no reply and have heard nothing from since. I can only assume he accepted...

Reading this, you may assume that my anger towards Rising records in purely based on a personal experience however I assure you, I am unbias in my anger.

Rising is not a record label. It is a one-man business. The model of forcing the bands to pay for their albums represents a 'no-risk' policy for Mark. It is clear from the amount of bands who pass in and out of Rising's roster constantly that Mark signs bands, regardless of quality (my own band, looking back, were nowhere near good enough to merit a record deal!) and lets them record an album. If it works, great, if it doesn't Mark still has made a profit on a band that is exactly where they were before they signed.
The restrictions in recording environment and album length simply do not encourage artistic freedom and further enforce the fact that Mark is looking for a quick business transaction, rather than making any effort to produce a high quality metal album.
It frustrates me that in the pages of my much-loved Metal Hammer, Rising is referred to in the same breath as labels such as 30DaysofNight, In At The Deep End and Napalm. Especially considering that Hammer's on reviewers rarely give Rising albums a high score (flicking through recent issues, 6 looks about as high as it gets) and whatsmore, only two sucessful bands have come out of Rising since its inception; Bleed From Within and Trigger the Bloodshed, both of whom seem to openly resent the label.

How on Earth has Daghorn forged a respectable reputation for his joke of a business, I simply don't know.