Last month, Nachtmystium mastermind Blake Judd came under fire for allegedly failing to deliver merch for which fans had already paid — not the first time he’s been accused of such unethical behavior. When I reached out Judd in order to tray and figure out what the hell was going on, he told me that “I am simply waiting for Century Media to deliver my copies of the new album [The World We Left Behind] so I can send out the preorder bundles.” Unfortunately, the album has been out for a month now, and those orders remain unfulfilled. Furthermore, Judd has deleted both Nachtmystium’s Facebook page and his own personal Facebook page, which doesn’t exactly make him look as innocent as he claims to be.

And while Nachtmystium’s label, Century Media, had previously told disgruntled fans that they couldn’t help with orders made to Judd directly — which is actually a reasonable stance if you ask me, because doing otherwise would basically be paying out of pocket for Judd’s behavior — the label has now changed their tune, per the following statement:

Century Media Records understands that many people have not received their copies of ‘The World We Left Behind’ even though they pre-ordered the album directly from front-man, Blake Judd. We know that this is not only frustrating but also a let down to the fans of the band. So, we’d like to help out in this situation and deliver the fans their pre-ordered copies on the format that they ordered. Please e-mail us at: nachtmystiumorders AT centurymedia DOT com with proof of your order and we will get you your copy of the album on the format(s) that you ordered them on. We just ask that this e-mail address be used for issues with ‘The World We Left Behind’ band direct pre-order issues only. Blake will not be reading any of the e-mails and we will not be forwarding any e-mails about other items that Blake sold through his personal pages or the NACHTMYSTIUM Facebook page. ‘The World We Left Behind’ also marks the last album NACHTMYSTIUM has with Century Media Records. We wish Blake Judd the best of luck with all future endeavors, both musically and personally.

Although no one at Century ever returned our request for verification of Judd’s claim that he was just waiting for his copies of the album to arrive, this would seem to indicate that the guitarist/vocalist wasn’t being truthful. Certainly, it doesn’t make Judd look particularly virtuous when the button on the statement amounts to “P.S. We are not working this guy ever again.”

You gotta give Century some props for doing what they can to make this right. It’s a really shame that this is going to end up being such a big part of Nachtmystium’s legacy… whatever else you wanna say about Judd, you can’t deny that he’s an incredibly talented musician who has created a highly enviable body of work. Bummer.