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 title: Tool Engaged In Legal Battle With Record Label
author: 

September 15 [16:00 EDT] -- Tool is coming under fire from its record 
label for what the company calls "a course of action that contradicts 
the legal and binding terms of their contract."

Freeworld Entertainment, formerly Volcano Records, announced on Monday 
that it filed a formal complaint against the band on Friday in New 
York State Supreme Court. The complaint claims that Tool made a 
"wrongful attempt to abandon its exclusive recording contract" with 
Volcano.

A spokesperson for Freeworld told MTV News Online that the camel's 
back was broken when the label learned that Tool's management was 
courting offers from other record labels while still under contract 
with Volcano/Freeworld.

In announcing the record label's move, Freeworld founder Kevin Czinger 
says, "(Tool) have left us with no other choice but to protect our 
company and artists by filing this suit."

A label spokesperson says that the band then filed a complaint of its 
own in Los Angeles claiming that Volcano/Freeworld never renewed 
Tool's contract, and that the group is consequently now free to find 
another label.

In his announcement, Czinger says, "Tool has taken what was a 
creatively and financially successful relationship and has recklessly 
abandoned it... We will do what is necessary to preserve this 
relationship."

Before these legal hiccups, the relationship seemed to be working just 
fine. For its part, the band had earned a level of creative control 
that most artists rarely see as the group directed its own videos, 
designed its own cover art, and chose to do interviews only rarely. 
For its part, Freeworld (then Volcano) scored a chart-topping album 
when Tool's latest effort, "Aenima," was released. Tool's management 
was unavailable for comment at press time.
Posted to t.d.n: 02/24/99 08:44:59