It all began in mid-Summer 2001 when I, on behalf of ROSSOMAHAAR, was negotiating with Markus @ Last Episode Productions on the subject of a possible deal. Well, sad to say, but the contract was signed shortly thereafter, and we were hoping to become the next big thing... It didn't happen. In fact, ROSSOMAHAAR gained a certain recognition long before we happened to sign with LEP, although all of us realized that we need a serious label behind us to warch our backs and promote the band the way we couldn't promote ourselves. LEP was chosen due to a couple of rather important factors (which seemed to be permanent before, but unfortunately turned out as transient afterwards): firstly, it's pretty huge label which released a lot of good CDs in the past; secondly, they have a large web of distribution; and lastly, I never heard a single bad thing said concerning them (too many GRAVEWORM interviews read, I assume). Anyway, it turned out as a pile of crap. Now I realize that I had to discuss everything with the label's boss, Karsten Jacob, however back then, I thought that telling Markus (promotional department's head-chief) all that I had to tell the guys at the label, was enough. I was wrong. I never spoke to Karsten, before... well, later about that. The point is, it was quite a mistake to deal with Markus and no one else.
As time was passing by, LEP proved us they aren't worth a bullshit. We had to be payed for the studio on August the 17th. Needless to say, we weren't. I kept on emailing Markus for a long-long time, however, in the end, he told me he doesn't have anything to do with financial part of our agreement, and forwarded me to Karsten. Ok, I emailed herr Jacob for a thousand times, and still received no single reply. Not even a word. Lastly, I thought it would be nice to make 'em think of us, by making a phone call. Ok, I phoned Karsten and was assured we will be payed next week... Then, a week later, - next week. Then again. And then... he wasn't answering my calls. Either he's out of the office, or they have a holiday, y'know. Even our studio's chief emailed the man, and guess what he was answered? "Yesterday I've transfered the money for your studio costs. Best regards". So you see? He DID answer the guy at the studio we've been recording at, but did NOT answer the band he has a contract with, signed! Nevertheless, the studio was rip-offed as well. No money were received, neither on 23rd of October (when, if you believe Karsten, he made a transfer), nor later.
So in case you take part in a certain band and are looking for a label, NEVER - listen, NEVER!!! - deal with Last Episode.

Here's one of the latest emails I got from Markus:

"Karsten told me he couldn't transfer yet, but he will be trying to transfer this friday or at least on monday. Sorry for that trouble, but we had to pay lots of studio costs the last weeks and we are no major label. I wanna be honest with you, so please wait these some more days." (Mon, 12 Sep 2001)
 
Well, needless to say, money were never transferred to our account. And, by the way, what studio costs had they been covering??
 
I mean, lately I've emailed many bands that are / were signed to LEP the same kind of message (see below), and here's what they say:

"Salve.
Kai's here @ Rossomahaar.
Recently we have inked a deal with Last Episode, and now it seems like
it was a mistake. A HUGE mistake. As far as I know, you also have (had?)
certain problems with Karsten's behavior and unwillingness to cover the
studio expenditures. Could you please tell me more on this subject?
Would be much appreciated.

Respect,
Kai"

Clemens / AMORTIS

"Actually I cannot tell when or if Last Episode is going to pay you. I have had more negative than positve experience with the label and "letting you wait" seems to be one of their prior label philosphy :-(
There is many rumor that LE are going down the drain / having much financial problems... but I cannot say whether this is true or not. As they were not
paying us for such a long time and our studio (of course) wanted to get
their money we finally decided to stop working with them and to look for
another label. Actually I'd strongly suggest to keep away from LE as the
relation to their bands is very impersonal too. We always had to phone them or contact them to keep informed about latest news etc. and their was never feedback about our material and so on... We do not seem to be the only band
who had these problems as acts like SUIDAKRA or NEBULAR MOON also decided to part from LE. Furthermore AEBA were telling me about the same troubles."

Exul / AEBA

"Many Last Episode bands currently have the problem that LE didn't pay
their studio costs. I can only give you some advices to deal with Last
Episode. I think they are going to pay your studio expenditures if you
don't give them the recordings until they haven't paid! (if they still
promote your cd in some magazines then you have very good chances!) Set
them under pressure! Call them as often as you can! (But I think it's
very expensive to call from Russia to Germany) Our studio costs were
paid as our studio threat to erase the recordings and we placed a call
to contact LE on our homepage. This takes nearly a half year! Isn't Karsten willing to pay your studio costs? This is new for me... Karsten often said to us that they have paid but they didn't or the cheque was booked back.
As we signed a deal with Last Episode in 1997/98 the situation with LE
was much better but LE always took very long to do something."

V. Orias A. / AD INFERNA (ex-DE PROFUNDIS)

Message 1

"You touch a real problem my friend.
It takes now 2 months that we have finished the studio at the Excess, and
Karsten has not yet payed the studio bill. So, we should had already
received the master the 15 of August, and at this date (19th of September 2001), no master yet!  I guess it's the same for all the LEP bands, sorry... I imagine that Karsten is a real problem for all of us."

Message 2

"Karsten told me one week after the recording session that he will launch the transfer the same day. Two weeks after, he told me that he has launched the transfer the previous day. One month after, he said me that he has already launched it, and finally told that he hasn't transfered any money because the time. At the moment, he said me that it should had been a transfer problem... Well, not very convincing... We decided to sign for LEP because Skaldic Art hadn't got enough money to release our album in time. Moreover, we were aware that Skaldic Art doesn't have the same promotion department than LEP, the same for the distribution. In deed, LEP has a very good promotion dpt with Markus, and some real fucking distributors. It was always good to have such a deal. But we begin to regret to not have signed for other interested labels like Candlelight, CCP or again Listenable... We will see. Moreover, I don't know if you have the same contract than us (3 albums) but it should be really hard to leave out from LEP so far!!!"

Message 3

KMS: Yeah, Markus is a nice guy. And besides that, yes, I agree at 100%, LEP
perform very good promotional campaigns, and yes, their distribution doesn't leave anything to be desired... These are the good points. Karsten, however, is a "bad point"...

"Very bad point, but I guess he changes at the moment he knows that the band sells well... not before. I don't know if bands like Di'Anno or again
GRAVEWORM has the same troubles with him, I guess not."

KMS: NEVER, NEVER EVER even think of dealing with CCP!!! This company isn't
worth a shit!!!!! Much worse than you could ever imagine...

"Ooh, Ok, I keep it in mind for the future! Anyway, they seemed very
interested in us a few months ago. But anyway, I really think we will stay
at LEP for the future, at least for the first 2 albums..."

KMS: The contract is the same. 3 fucking albums. Actually, I still hope that
LEP will pay us and release CD in time and then... and then we'll try to find some good reason to break the contract. There're many opportunities to do it, believe me... F.ex., after all this mess with studio costs, I don't even hope for getting any royalties - and here we go: you guys don't pay us royalty, which is in fact a violation of the terms indicated in the contract, so we demand to stop our collaboration. Makes sense, doesn't it?

"Yes, for you it's make sense, but for Karsten, it's an another story. I
think he knows that it's too hard and too expensive for a band to take any
lawyer or something. So, he also knows that he can take his time to pay the
bills. By the way, the payment of the royalties is for him just a detail
that he really doesn't care. We have our own lawyer right now, and I think
Karsten shouldn't play a game with us, otherwise, it will be also his last
episode, eh eh..."

Birgit / GARDENS OF GEHENNA

"We do not have any problems with Last Episode now.
But I remember for the first CD we released there we also waited 7 or 8 months for our money as Carsten told me that he always pays the money when the CD is out (although in the contract stands that it is a prepayment).
As we had already payed all studio costs before it was - more or less - ok for us, or it had to be as we could not change anything.
This time it is so that the studio will not give out the masters if they are not payed, ok what can Last Episode do? If they want to get out the CD in time they will have to pay. Just mail and phone again and again (ok phone will be too expensive) and good luck."
 
Claudia / VIOLATION

"Yes, we had problems with Karsten! He is a difficult person. But we don't have a deal with Last Episode anymore. Karsten quit the deal, because he didn't want to pay for Abyss studio again, and because we didn't sell enough CD's. And we were not sad about the divorce."

Bart / DAMNATION

"Yes, we had problems with Last Episode. We signed them for three records
First one was "Rebel Souls" album, but the money was transfered to our Polish promotor (fucking amateur guy!) and we haven't even knew how much it was, but we got money for studio, mastering, cover, photo session and layout was made in Germany. And it was released as amazing digipack. But Karsten did nothing for us, no shows, no shirts, no vinyl version....
So the next release was split with BEHEMOTH and then we decided to record for him MCD to fulfill the deal, not a full-length album. He covered the costs, but we waited a long time for CD's. We spent a lot money for faxes, telephones to him etc. I think he is not good working with the bands.
Fuck Off and Die to Karsten!"
 
In fact, there were way _more_ people telling me the same thing about Karsten @ LEP. However I can't cite 'em nor even mention their names because the bands they take part in, are still signed to Last Episode, and obviously, the guys have had enough shit already... Enough in order to avoid gaining even more problems.
 
And just by the way, "Quaerite Lux In Tenebris", the second CD by ROSSOMAHAAR, has to be out on 19th of November 2001. One doesn't need to be a clairvoyant in order to say for sure there won't be any CD released. I hope so too, actually.

Kai Mathias Stalhammar,
on behalf of ROSSOMAHAAR

Markus Wosgien / LEP <markus@last-episode.de>
Karsten Jacob / LEP <karsten@last-episode.de>
                    <rosi@last-episode.de>
 
P.S. Here's what our studio told Karsten:

"Good evening.
This is Yaroslav from Cdm Records Studio writing you.
This message is about the band called ROSSOMAHAAR which booked our
studio to record their album this July (07.2001). We let them record in
advance because I personally knew the guys before and was sure they will
pay us in time. Unfortunately, this did not happen. Almost two months
passed and we saw no money payd to us. The problem consists in that we
will erase the master-cd by the end of september if there will be no
money payd. I guess it's not your problem, but the guys from Rossomahaar
told me they cannot afford to cover the studio costs now, and not even
later, and told me to contact you as their recording label.
This letter is just to let you know about the problem that maybe you
didn't know about.
I'm really sorry to say that, but we're tired of waiting. This is not
professional from the band's side. Please tell them at least to respect
others' work and be a bit greatful.

Best regards /
Yaroslav at Cdm Records Studio"

If you didn't get the point, check this mail once again... The master-CD was to be destroyed by the end of September, however Karsten managed to reply Yaroslav only on 24th of OCTOBER... A nice guy he is, isn't he?