The original plan was just to license release albums of bands that they love for Korean underground music enthusiasts like them. Their very first release was Strapping Young Lad’s classic album, City. Shortly, they have decided that they also need to share to the world the unique brand of Korean punk, rock, hardcore and metal that resulted in signing of the best underground bands that Korea have to offer. So far, they have 12 releases of the best local bands and 96 licensed titles (including Cannibal Corpse, Dark Tranquillity, Shadows Fall among others), and countless number of distributed titles from well establish record labels.
2002 was an uncertain year for the label, as with most of newly formed labels, they are plagued with financial problems. It’s the time to quit or do something. Kevin (one of the owner) fueled by his love for the label invested all he got to keep it going. It is one of the riskiest and wisest decisions that he ever made as it made Dope as one of the leading labels not just in Korea but in the whole of Asia as well.
Today, Dope Music was officially known as Dope Entertainment Music Company as they have also branched out to distribution (Dope Distribution), online shop (Dope Eshop - www.buyhard.co.kr), and publishing (Dope Publishing).
Dope is in partner with the Century Family, Metal Blade Records Inc, Kick Rock Music (Japan) , Theory and Practice Records (Japan) , GMC Records , M & I Company Ltd (Japan) , Prosthetic Records (USA) to satisfy us of our punk, rock, hardcore, and metal needs
You can now buy some of our releases at INTERPUNK.COM, CDBABY.COM and you can also purchase our releases online at the Korean specialty shop www.mrkwang.com. Just click the banners below.
"Falling to Hell", the new video from Korea's thrash metal quartet MAHATMA, can be viewed below. The clip was directed by 1999 Productions in Korea.
"Falling to Hell" is the first video from MAHATMA's latest album, "Perseverance", which was released in Europe on February 13 via Listenable Records. The CD will be made available on May 21 via Soundholic Records in Japan.
In other news, MAHATMA will spend two days (April 22-23) at Sonic Boom Studio in Korea this month with engineer Kyung Su Hwang recording a cover of the TESTAMENT classic "Practice What You Preach", to be used as a bonus track for the Japanese version of "Perseverance".
They will also be co-headlining this year’s Summer Slam (The Philippines biggest annual rock/metal events with 35,000 in attendance with Death Angel as the headliner) with USA’s DARKEST HOUR (Victory records).
For more Mahatma related news, please visit www.myspace.com/mahatmametal
MAHATMA - Falling to Hell Promo
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MAHATMA's first ever National TV appearance.
MAHATMA - Violence / Live at EBS TV Feb 12
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We are very proud to announce that screamo/hardcore act HOLLOW JAN won the "Best Rock Album" award at this year's Korean Music Awards (the Korea's equivalent to Grammy Awards) for their 2006/2007 release "Rough Draft in Progress". The awarding ceremony was held last March 5 at the SeongKyunKwan University Hall in Seoul, Korea. The band also performed and played two songs ("Empty" and "Blaze of Trail") during the ceremony, which will be broadcasted in early April on the ITV channel.
We want to thank all those who vote and support Hollow Jan. Without you, this wouldn't happen.
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We are proud to announce that 4 of our bands (Hollow Jan, Mahatma, Same Old Story, Vassline) are nominated in this year's Korean Music Awards (the Korean equivalent of Grammy Awards). We can never be any happier for them and we wish them all the luck. We would like to also thank all those who voted and who will vote for them. We really appreciate all of your continuous help and support.
HOLLOW JAN is nominated for Best New Act and Netizen Awards. Their album "Rough Draft in Progress" is nominated in two categories, Best Rock Album and Album of the year. Their song "Empty" is nominated for Best Rock Single.
MAHATMA's sophomore album, "Perseverance" is nominated for Best Rock Album.
SAME OLD STORY's "One Season in Hell" is nominated for Best Rock Single.
VASSLINE "Permanence" is nominated for Best Rock Album and their song "Memories of One" is nominated for Best Rock Single.
"Best Rock Album" nominees at the Korean Music Awards 2008
MAHATMA - Perseverance VASSLINE - Permanence Son Byung Hui - Life 86 Ahn Chee Hwan - 9th HOLLOW JAN - Rough Draft In Progress
"Best Rock Single" nominees at the Korean Music Awards 2008
Mary's Story - Not happy without you Vassline - Memories Of One Same Old Story - One Season In Hell Son Byung Hui - River run thru the river Ahn Chee Hwan - Dam Jaeing Ee Hollow Jan - Empty
We have two exciting upcoming new licensed releases, first of which is “Plague†the newest album from the critically acclaimed Christian Metalcore from Dayton, Ohio, USA THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA. The Korean version will be out on February 22 and will have two bonus tracks which are not available on the US release. It is being licensed from Rise Records (USA). You can listen to some of their songs HERE
Our second upcoming licensed release will be the sophomore album from Kobe, Japan’s melodic death metal band SERPENT. The albums will be titled “XGODX†and it will be released in Korea on the 4th of March in a luxurious digipack format. Serpent had been praised for their ability to make great melodies and is being compared to old In Flames. You can listen to songs from their first album HERE
Metalunderground.com in conjunction with Korean black/dark metal band Moonshine and Dope Entertainment have posted an exclusive Moonshine track on Metalunderground.com’s MYSPACE page
"The Song Of Retrospect" is from Moonshine's previous album, "Songs of Requiem," but the band are hard at work on their upcoming album, "Eternal," due out in March on Dope Entertainment (www.dopemusic.co.kr ) . You can listen to the track exclusively on www.myspace.com/metalunderground for the next month.
Dope Entertainment launched a new website for our punk and hardcore releases. You can visit it at www.dopemusic.co.kr/punk . The new site will make it easier for you to browse our punk and hardcore related releases and news. You can still visit our old website for our metal releases and news.
The Suck Stuff “rough times ahead†is now available at CDBABY.COM. You can buy it on cd and digital format. You can directly buy it at http://cdbaby.com/cd/suckstuff
We are very happy to have Burning Hepburn as part of the Dope Entertainment family. Having them in our roster is great start for us this new year. We have been fans of their previous album and they have always impressed us with their energetic live performance. They have a new single titled “We are†and you can listen to it at www.myspace.com/burninghepburn . You can expect that a new album is on the works and hopefully a new release early this year.
Please do add them up as one of your friends at www.myspace.com/burninghepburn
We proud to announce that Korea's black/dark metal visionaries, Moonshine, have joined the Dope Entertainment family. We can't be much happier to have them as part of our family since we've been very big fan of them ever since we helped them distribute their sophomore album (The Songs of Requiem).
Moonshine is currently in the studio self-producing their self-titled third album and their debut release for Dope Entertainment. The band is expecting an end of March, 2008 release date.
Giga & Amon of Moonshine comments "We are excited and honored to be on a label that we truly respect and have proven that they are the best rock/metal record label in Korea. The sound of our new record will be true to form Moonshine. Very melodic and dark yet still extreme enough to satisfy the taste buds of those black metal purists. To all our faithful fans we promise that we will be bringing our best ever and most ambitious album very soon. We can't wait to get this record out."
Their 2nd album have been already compared to Rotting Christ and have received praises for their phenomenal ability to make mind lingering melodies and excellent guitar solos. If they were from Europe, they should have been big by now but I guess that their mastery of the genre and their exceptional musical skills will speak of themselves. It's just only a matter of time that the metal world will know that it is not a matter of where you come from but it is a matter of what you can do.
"What stands out to me about this album is the guitarist Amon's ability to create awe-inspiring melodies and catchy riffs. The time changes in the music are numerous and his guitar work holds surprises for the listener at each and every one of those time changes. Their sound is mid-paced Black Metal for the most part, but in a few spots on some tracks they have a more traditional Metal sound, even reminding me of Judas Priest at Priest's heavier moments once in a great while. The drummer is absolutely amazing and the keyboardist is a master at what he does, and I especially like the piano sound he creates with the synth. It sounds like the real thing! Still, I have to keep coming back to comment on the guitar parts. I just can't get enough of the melodies and neat little hooks this guy comes up with. He can hammer out some excellent solos as well. Phenomenal!" (an excerpt of the review of their 2nd album, Songs of Requiem, at www.metalcoven.com ) - http://www.metalcoven.com/review_moonshine_songs.html
"Lady in Black" video (from their 2nd album, Songs of Requiem)
"The Memorable Tide" video (from their 1st album)
You can visit them at www.moonshine.co.kr or you can add them at http://www.myspace.com/moonshineofficial
Suck Stuff "This Wasteland"
Suck Stuff "Tuhon"
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