Lumberjack Mordam Music Group, known as Lumberjack Distribution prior to buying Mordam Records in 2005, has officially announced plans to cease operations. Circa 2002, Lumberjack was the go-to distributor for hardcore and metal labels, with labels such as Ferret Music, Jade Tree Records, Trustkill Records, Facedown Records, Eulogy Recordings, Deathwish Inc., and Level Plane Records among their many clients.

Fast forward a few years and for a host of reasons, including the general downturn of the music industry, Lumberjack Mordam was gasping for air. Almost all of their big selling labels had jumped ship (many of them under less than amicable circumstances), employees began leaving, and anyone paying attention could read the writing on the wall.

Here's a statement issued to LMMG labels via company Chairman Dirk Hemsath:

"I want to give everyone an idea of where things stand with LMMG as of now and where things will be in the future. At this point LMMG will not be able to continue to provide distribution services for labels. We had hopes for the last several months that we'd be able to find a way to move forward but the triple hits of an expensive merger, a dying business and a bad economy have made it impossible. We are hoping to be able to get some money to labels, but I'm not sure how much or when as we have to try and collect money from customers. If you have not yet moved your distribution to another company, please make arrangements to do so as soon as possible... I am very saddened that things ended up this way, it was certainly not from lack of trying to make it work. Many people put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into LMMG over the past 12 years and I'd like to thank each and every one of them. I sincerely hope that you are able to continue in your business and continue to support great music."

On a personal note, Lambgoat Records' two releases to date (albums by Lye By Mistake and Unholy) were distributed by Lumberjack. We don't have anything bad to say about them per se; they appeared to do their job. On the other hand, we haven't done any meticulous audits to see if we've truly been treated fairly. We'll see how quickly we get our remaining stock back.