Trivia / Chelsea Grin

• Career Resurrection: Tom Barber joining the group and Eternal Nightmare did wonders for the group’s popularity. A lot of people thought between Alex’s deteriorating health and Dan Jones and Jake Harmon leaving the group, the band’s days were numbered. Eternal Nightmare released to a warm reception, and live performances with Tom put most concerns to rest. Chelsea Grin would see their biggest growth in popularity since the Myspace era and have done their biggest tours yet.
• Creative Differences: Why Jason Richardson left after Ashes to Ashes. Harmond said via Reddit that they actually got along with him well enough, it’s just that he is a far better musician than anyone else in Chelsea Grin and has a different approach to songwriting than the band.
• Creator Backlash: Jake Harmond dislikes Ashes to Ashes and called it a "clusterfuck", and said that most of its problems stem from the fact that everything was written separately and there was no attempt at making the album cohesive. While he does like a lot of the individual songs, he has acknowledged that it just didn't work as an album. Harmond also doesn’t have a high opinion on Self Inflicted. He said the band was essentially “broken” and Alex’s alcoholism was getting worse during that point in time. The band HAD to get something out, and didn’t have the time or morale to write better stuff. It’s no coincidence that they quickly dropped songs from Self Inflicted once Tom Barber joined.
• Creator Breakdown: Why Alex left the band. Being on the road most of the year didn’t do well for his mental health, and he turned to the bottle. While the other members like to drink and have fun, Alex’s drinking issues spiraled out of control, to the point where multiple people have acknowledged that had he stayed, there's a good chance he would have died. After cancelling a major tour with Motionless in White, Alex, Stephen and Pablo came to the decision that Alex needed to leave the band, for his sake and the sake of the band. For the most part, Alex is doing MUCH better now, he’s clean and healthy and doing his own thing. This was also why Michael Safford left - as per Jake Harmond, his mental health was steadily deteriorating and he became increasingly paranoid and convinced that the band was conspiring against him, and he believed he needed to leave to save himself.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: The self-titled EP through Ashes to Ashes are long out-of-print, and according to Jake Harmond, they will almost definitely never be reprinted due to the rights to the EP belonging to a sketchy independent label, and the Artery-era material belonging to a publishing group who bought the rights from them a long time ago.
• Screwed by the Network: Straight from the horse’s mouth. Artery didn’t pay them royalties, which might explain why there was so much turnover early in the band’s life.