German label SPV, home to many excellent bands including Kreator, Motorhead and Saxon, has declared itself insolvent, the German equivalent of filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the US. Billboard.biz reports that managing partner Manfred Schutz and court-appointed attorney Richard Sack will continue to run the company as-is, even after the application. That could be good news for metal fans.

The purpose of the case now in progress is to make it possible for SPV to continue on the basis of a restructuring plan to be jointly drawn up. According to a statement issued, the aim is not only to secure as many jobs as possible in the long term, but also to retain the justified confidence of its customers and suppliers, built up over a period of 25 years.

In other words, it’s business as usual for the time being. Meanwhile, Blabbermouth is reporting that Annihilator mastermind Jeff Waters has stated that he left the label before anything went down.

I wish them [SPV] all the best and they have given us metal fans some great releases for a long time. The good news is that I signed a deal with SPV, only a few weeks ago, releasing Annihilator from their contractual commitments to SPV, in return for a live DVD that we shot last summer in the Czech Republic. SPV will be releasing the DVD soon (and it rocks; co-headlining in front of 30,000 metal maniacs!) but Annihilator are now free from the label and negotiating with others to release the new and finished 13th studio release.

In other news, did you know that SPV stands for “Schallplatten Produktion und Vertrieb GmbH?” Neither did we.