Three albums before the deal
When Forefather signed with Karmageddon Media in September 2003, the English band already had three albums behind it: “Deep Into Time”, “The Fighting Man” and “Engla Tocyme”. A contemporary announcement says all three had been released through the band’s own Angelisc Enterprises. It also says the Karmageddon editions were planned with bonus tracks and remastered sound.
The deal was described as worldwide. The same announcement presented the fourth album, “Ours Is the Kingdom”, as in recording for an early 2004 release. That pairing matters: the arrangement was about a forthcoming record and a route back into the existing catalog, not just the discovery of an unsigned band.
Two histories on one shelf
An artist-run imprint and an outside label answer different needs. Angelisc records the band’s ability to make and circulate its own early work; Karmageddon’s deal offered another label and distribution network for new and older titles. A reissue can widen access, change the package or add material, while the original edition remains part of the album’s history.
Catalog pages list a Karmageddon edition of “Engla Tocyme” as KARMA033. That identifier points to a particular edition; by itself it cannot tell us how many copies moved, where every copy was sold or which version a listener encountered. Those details require evidence from the edition itself or a more specific contemporary record.
What the example makes visible
Forefather’s route is a useful counterweight to the familiar label story in which a company finds a band and makes its career possible. Here, the band had already produced a three-album catalog under its own name before a larger network became involved. The surviving sources let us describe that transition without deciding that one route was more important than the other.
It also explains why this archive separates first releases from reissues. Treating both as a single release date erases the band’s earlier work and makes the later label credit look like an origin. Keeping editions distinct makes the catalog more useful to listeners and collectors.
