Chris O'Brien and Josh Smith's Immortal Music Group Teams With Believe to Power New Heavy Music Label
Global artist development company Believe has partnered with Australian management company Immortal Music Group (IMG) to launch a new heavy music label.
Global artist development company Believe has partnered with Australian management group Immortal Music Group (IMG) to support the launch of a dedicated label platform for heavy and alternative music across Australia and New Zealand.
Founded by Destroy All Lines' Chris O'Brien and Northlane's Josh Smith in 2019 as Open Door Management before rebranding last year, with a roster that includes Northlane as well as Make Them Suffer, In Hearts Wake and Windwaker, IMG will look to bring its artist management and creative development for local heavy acts with Believe's global distribution infrastructure and international capabilities to provide an artist-first model.
“We’re excited to develop our partnership with Believe, who have been supporting us since 2021 with Northlane’s independent releases," Smith said in a statement.
“We are proud to combine Believe’s global capabilities with our own extensive experience in heavy and alternative music to create a compelling release option for heavy artists of any level.”
Mick Tarbuk, Country Manager AUNZ for Believe, added: “We’re incredibly excited to partner with Immortal Music Group and to support the next stage of their vision. IMG has built an exceptional roster and a genuine understanding of what it takes to develop Australian heavy and alternative artists with global ambition.
“What makes this partnership particularly exciting is that we’re not simply providing distribution, we’re building something together. We can combine IMG’s artist relationships, creative vision and genre expertise with Believe’s global infrastructure, technology and market expertise to help take that vision beyond Australia and onto the world stage.”
To celebrate the news, alt-heavy band Reliqa have been announced as the latest IMG signing. The Sydney outfit, which has performed with the likes of BABYMETAL and Spiritbox, is gearing up for the release of its new album, High Risk Thoughts.
Reporting from inside the Australian music business since '94.
“The team at Immortal have managed us with such great care for nearly six years now, so it made perfect sense to expand our already wonderful professional relationship this way,” Reliqa's Monique Pym said.
“We've worked so hard on this new album and we have the utmost trust and faith in our team to give it the service we believe it deserves.”
