It seems like we’ve got another somewhat anti-consumer thing that people have to consider when buying anything they enjoy, as Black Label Society becomes another band with an anticipated album that’s offering a limited digital bonus track. You may recall that Lamb Of God did this with Into Oblivion and the bonus track “Wire” earlier this month and it’s looking like BLS’ Engines Of Demolition will follow suit.
According to the band, the digital deluxe edition of the forthcoming album will feature two exclusive tracks: “Broken Pieces (Unblackened)” and “Back To Me (Unblackened)”. The catch, however, is that the digital deluxe edition is only available for pre-order until midnight tomorrow. After that, you’re shit outta luck.
It’s very similar to the situation with Lamb Of God’s Into Oblivion, which confused fans so much that the band had to issue a statement explaining what was going on with the bonus track.
With this Black Label Society release, fans are vacillating between frustration, anger, and confusion over the bonus track situation. Some are complaining that they only buy physical media so they were screwed from the start, while othesssady preordered the standard edition because it was the only one available at the time feel like they were duped. It’s not a good look, really.
For the longest time, bonus tracks were used as a way to incentivize people to buy the physical version. Now, it’s just an attempt for bands and record labels to tap into consumers’ sense of FOMO and pushing them into preordering a more expensive version of the album.
And though Black Label Society is also offering some cool physical versions of the album, including a limited edition vinyl that includes even more unique bonus tracks in “Name In Blood (Unblackened)” and “Lord Humungus (Unblackened)”, it might have soured some people to the entire situation.
In a time when people are getting pinched financially, it’s totally reasonable to see why people would be frustrated by this whole ordeal.