The SJWs keep up a simple strategy for dealing with #metalgate: pretend it never happened and, if it did happen, it died an early death.
Instead, #metalgate is ramping up as the collision between Political Correctness and heavy metal intensifies. Recently metalcore band All That Remains’ vocalist Phil Labonte made some comments that riled a few basement neckbeards:
In 2005, on the ‘Sounds Of The Underground’ DVD I said, ‘PC is for f–gots.’ That was the first time people went, ‘Whoa, what did he say?’ I have nothing against gay people. It’s just a word. Honestly, I think the only people that have a legit grievance when it comes to any racial slurs is the black community. I know the homosexual community has problems with it and I understand their hurt feelings.
But homosexuals were never property. They’ve had a rough time and I’m not trying to minimize that, but I think the black community has a whole lot more room to be upset about a word than the LGBT community.
Apparently this outraged and upset Rob Flynn of alternative-metal band Machine Head, who seems to spend a lot of time on Facebook. He carefully assembles a series of clichés and strung them together into a post which raged against Labonte:
Where are the god damn protest songs? Where are the “War, What Is It Good For’s”? Where are the “Fight The Power’s”? Where are the white metal bands protesting about Ferguson and Staten Island? Why don’t metal bands stand for anything anymore? When did we reach this point in society where it’s unpatriotic to question our military or our police? Why are so goddamned proud to just fall in line?
Here we see the underlying issue that propelled #metalgate rising to the top: the PC people recognize only certain issues, but metal is in fact fighting back against the actual problem, which is a religious approach to reality denial through secular (but unrealistic) politics. In the PC view, if we just change our thinking, we have changed reality. This is why for SJWs it is essential that everyone think the same way, speak the same way and act the same way regarding political issues. We will be in lock-step like good Nazis/Communists/Christians and since we will all be uniform, no deviation can occur. Problem solved! …right?
The metal point of view takes an entirely different approach. In the metal view, problems do not go away until you find the root and fix it. People do not “just get along.” In fact, the more you push people to publicly affirm an idea, the more they resist it in private. In the metal view, there are no magic bullets like laws, rules, and speech codes that fix problems that have persisted since the dawn of humankind. In the metal view, it seems reckless to — knowing that these problems exist — bring them into our communities by demanding that we “tolerate” the endless clashes that result.
Flynn’s rant is stupid because he refuses to acknowledge that metal has for years endorsed sensible responses, but they are not ones that are politically correct because they do not affirm the public paradigms that everyone else is affirming. Every major corporation, police department, court, Congressperson, media outlet, and metal magazine agrees with Rob Flynn and will enthusiastically say so. They do this because people act as a herd, and while the herd is always wrong, the herd rewards its own. His opinion is not radical, it’s the norm. Metal has resisted the norm and this is why it upsets him. He even admonishes us to be more like Bob Dylan and John Lennon, two hypocrtical Baby Boomer communists who quietly enriched themselves while talking up the working classes.
Let’s face it: in the highly politicized decade in which we live, songs about social justice are the equivalent of love songs in the 1950s. They offend no one. They shock no social norms. They give people something to bond over, which is how terrible gays, lesbians, women, minorities and other groups who should be pitied are treated by the bad white people. Because, see, SJWs are the good white people — and the vast majority of SJWs are college-educated whites who didn’t quite hit the jackpot, the same audience that creates all the hipsters. Being into social justice is their way of showing you that they are “good” (and thus concealing all that is bad about them behind that symbol of goodness) like politicians kissing babies or celebrities giving money to the homeless. SJW metal is like Justin Bieber except instead of using candy pop to sell records, it uses candy opinions and recycled hippie cons to make you think the people behind it are “good” even though you know only one thing they think or do and the rest is concealed.
Metal says that society is illegitimate because it denies reality. Whether that is through its approach to religion, politics or social activity, it is all lies: it would not be popular if it were not a lie. That is not the same as saying “because it is popular, it must be a lie,” because some things are popular for simply being catchy and vapid, and sometimes society is even correct. But it says that only lies or other things which do not threaten the human pretense at the root of our rotting society become popular. Thus, if you see that all the dunces are in confederacy in favor of something, be suspicious.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vou_0RW5T5g
SJWs have a simple plan. They will censor through guilt. This allows them to avoid using Nazi-style government tactics to enforce speech codes when they can simply make Soviet-style speech codes mandatory by attacking anyone who does not agree. Rob Flynn is the witch-hunter here, the same sort of person who 200 years ago would have burned witches when the crops went bad, hung black people without a trial when a rape happened, or even a generation ago would have banned kids from school for wearing all black. He is the totalitarian. He and the SJWs are using “social justice” as a means to seize power and subjugate the rest of you. Metal — nearly alone, but with a few brave others in #gamergate — is resisting this authoritarian takeover.
The same thing gets tried every generation. Charlie Hebdo was attacked so that all cartoonists and writers would think twice about criticizing Islam. Despite all the protests by people who were at absolutely zero risk, and all the warm fuzzies from media about how free speech will save us, the result of the attacks is more crackdown on people who criticize Islam, both from governments and their insurance companies who do not want to pay out for preventable deaths. The PMRC’s campaign to have record warning labels made law failed, but the legal campaign won because it intimidated record labels into putting the warnings on those records or they could not get them into stores. SJWs will do the same thing by labeling some metal as “verboten” because it did not join their politically correct view of the world, and then it will be unable to be sold openly. That is their goal: censorship. Their method is a 2.0 to book burnings, public executions and other censorship 1.0 techniques, but it aims at the same thing and is more effective.
You can see how Bieber-like it is when you look at this comment on Mr. Flynn’s comments:
You just GAINED one more fan. I don’t even know what you sound like yet.
The SJW outlook is not new. It is not revolutionary. It is what governments of the USA and EU endorse. It is in fact conformity. They however want to convince you that their ideas are “revolutionary” so they sound unique, different and exciting. They want to look like brave outsiders denying the will of shadowy oppressive forces and liberating us all. In fact, they are attempting to enslave us all — wonder who our Al Sharpton will be — and they are every bit as mainstream, ordinary and socially accepted as Justin Bieber. They appeal to the herd by telling it what it already accepts, just like Bieber offers music with absolutely no surprises that resembles every big pop act that went before it. But if you listen to them, they are heroic Christ-like bearers of enlightenment and the rest of us are just idiots in comparison and should be silenced as a result.
Tags: censorship, gamergate, Heavy Metal, metalgate, political correctness, sjws
Here is a question that I would be very, very interested to see Flynn try to answer: Why would a metal band full of white guys protest the kid getting shot in Ferguson? To what avail? Who stands to gain?
Examining this question and the possible responses would expose the deep misunderstanding of human nature at its core that Flynn and his braindead ilk maintain.
White Liberals claim they care for Minorities because they want a good guy badge, so they can claim that they are better than other Whites and thus gain Power over them, so SJW/Liberals are not really braindead. All this stuff is just an expression of the fact that Life is War and that everyone and everything living on this planet is Willing to Power, some actually gain Power, some don’t. The only thing that matters is Power, if you wan’t “Peace”, you need Power.
How much power is that good guy badge really worth, though?
Not much really.
You know, you don’t have to interpret everything through Nietzsche.
It might have something to do with the fact that whites have humanity and are capable of empathizing with others over extra judicial execution.
Do they really? History suggests otherwise. Who gained more in Heart of Darkness, Kurt or Marlow? Depends on what I mean by ‘more’, I guess. So whose attitude was more useful when it came to industry and power?
You mentioned Ferguson. My reply expands on Ferguson and discusses broad spectrum mistreatment of Blacks. If you have something to say within your own topic, please continue. This reply veers well off that topic.
Actually Flynn commented on Ferguson first. I asked why white bands would/should care about the Ferguson incident. Then I concluded that they wouldn’t and can’t be expected to. That kind of “taking up another’s offense” is not a tactic that gets a group to forge ahead into new areas of industry. I used Conrad’s characters to illustrate the two attitudes (caring about a foreign race vs. exploiting them) and what the payoff might be if either. I’m not veering, just going too fast, I suppose.
Flynn hasn’t been white since The Burning Red.
Flynn has never been white, as he is hispanic.
https://www.deathmetal.org/wp-content/uploads/rob_flynn-machine_head1.jpg
Interesting. Can someone explain the last name Flynn? Might be halfsies. Seems a nice fellow, sorry he’s an SJW.
Adopted.
Nice guy really, but a bit confused on this issue. Easy to get dumbfounded about a world that seems to make no sense.
Facial piercings are usually the first alarming symptoms of leftism.
Best not to initate any long term relationship. Any other relationship is ok, but beware of STDs.
I use faggot as an insult and I regularly partake in gay orgies. Flynn can go try performing autofellatio.
just a FYI
we have centralized our metalgate efforts on irc @ irc.gamesurge.net #heavy to keep metal from being tainted by sjws
gamergaters and metalgaters are welcome
(c) brahma guru 2015
Off topic.
A few weeks ago there was an article on a band named DAED https://www.deathmetal.org/?s=daed+ep
Does anyone know of a band that may sound similar to Daed or what genre are they playing ?
Thank you in advance.
Daed is breakcore, so is Venetian Snares – sort of a flagship artist for that genre.
It also reminds me of some tracks from Aphex Twin’s Drukqs album. A lot of these electronic musicians seem to congest their albums with comedy tracks, random experiments, etc. and it becomes novelty. Squarepusher, for instance, has tracks that sound not too dissimilar from dubstep whereas others sound like elevator music or ambient (one track reminded me of Scorn). Is there any album in this style that you could suggest that works as a flowing, complete listening experience?
Also, I know that breakcore is separate from glitchcore and all these other “abrasive” electronic genres, but the differences seem marginal or superficial to me (using Aphex Twin being known as IDM/”drillcore” for that album as an example). It’s like with all these hipster bands that draw influences (or just the sounds) from so many genres: shoegaze, electro, new wave, etc. who claim to be post-this or post-that to be different, but when they’re put together a majority of these bands all end up sounding the same.
You may like Whourkr, if you haven’t already checked them out.
In order to read this article, I decided to temporarily suspend my doctrine of pretending that Flynn and Demmel vanished into thin air after the release of Oppressing the Masses.
…I think I’m going to go back to my happy place now.
Can you guys tell me really why any of this metalgate shit matters? I mean, isn’t your desired goal to be looked at as the dangerous metal underground who should probably rejoice that there is a mainstream backlash against your views? None of the bands that write music under the metal umbrella and have a social justice lyrical slant will ever be covered here, so I don’t get it. Do you think that eventually you’ll be censored artistically? Aside from a parental advisory sticker what are you worried about here?
It seems the biggest concern here is that you guys want to freely be able to throw around words like “faggot” on the internet with little repercussion, which has nothing to do with metal and more to do with knowing how to conduct yourself in a public setting. Who cares if someone is offended by what the mainstream public thinks metal represents? Is that going to cause death metal to not exist in a few years? Outside perspective has never been kind to metal, the only difference now is everyone has a public forum to whine about it. But who cares. There is NO THREAT to metal. It’s not going anywhere.
This shit should just be ignored. There are better things to talk about in metal than what nonmetal fans think of it.
Well, to each its own I guess. Why does it matter to you ARA? Why does it matter what Cory or Prozak write about? You can just browse around the site to check if any underground goodies slipped past your attention and be done with it.
If to you, these articles are pointless, then it’d be equally pointless for you to post a comment about it no?
So let’s just say that indeed #metalgate articles are pointless, why does it bother you that other people might think otherwise and act accordingly to their convictions??
It seems to me that you’re not much asking why all this matters but rather disapproving that it does matter to someone.
Back in the late 90s there was a big issue on Christian metal and its followers. S.R. Prozak fought them back too. It mattered to him and he did what he had to do because he can. And there was no clearer voice on the issue than him. In retrospective I observed he had an impact on the matter and at least I’m glad for that…
Personally I don’t have a problem with non-metal outsiders voicing negative opinions on the metal subculture. In fact that’s even a good thing because ideally it helps to keep posers at bay.
The problem is with faggots that want to be part of metal but sanitize it to fit their own faggoty tastes that result in faggoty metal-flavored muzak. Then you get a faggy audience that believe they are too into metal now and, creates a market for faggola pseudo-metal that floods and outsells everything else because great metal appears on arguably 4-6 year intervals.
I believe it is a form of infiltration.
Every great band, every foundational band, were warriors in their own right. They underwent all kinds of hardship and came on top with awesome music. The audiences back in the day were also warrior-like to some extent. There was “something in the air”, like a spirit if you will and the music reflected this with high quality releases. High quality was consistent.
Social Justice Faggots wouldn’t know what I’m talking about because they weren’t there. And yet, they think they are entitled to opine on how metal should be, through all means possible including shitty music and written media and worst of all, they come as if they were too part of this subculture. There are indeed, classic metal musicians that would agree with the social justice faggots’ ideology but that’s a different story.
Problem is, their worldview is quite often alien to what metal has stood for all these years and thus destructive. The bigger issue it that becase metal subculture does not fit into their ideological mindset metal needs to be reconditioned because chased away with pitchforks hasn’t worked in four decades.
I do come here to look for articles on underground releases I missed, but I see a lot about “metalgate” here and I’m just curious what everyone is worried about. If social justice warriors get their way (and I’m not sure what that way actually is), what happens? You get more shitty mainstream metal bands that don’t say “faggot” here and there? Who cares? None of those bands will be on the radar in the underground anyway. I wouldn’t say I disapprove that “metalgate” matters to someone, I just think it’s a lot of wasted energy that you could put into I don’t know, making metal music or something. There is no threat to the underground, that’s why it’s underground. Focusing on some kind of mainstream infiltration of metal is like if an executive chef lost his mind finding out McDonald’s is getting rid of their dollar menu.
(Don’t worry, they’re not)
Another thing to note is that “spirit” in the air that you miss nowadays when metal was forming has as much to do with quality of material as it does with the excitement of growing up and immersing yourself in a new idea that you adopted as your persona. Nostalgia is a powerful thing, and it’s natural to chase that feeling of when you first heard the opening notes of what seemed to be a dangerous musical artform. Mainstream metal isn’t going to express these things accurately, and quality material SHOULD be scarce in order to account for having good taste. Any “reconditioning” of what metal is by the mainstream will only result in better material from those rebelling against it and probably cause less of a drought in between quality releases.
People might just get sad in the meantime that you throw the word “faggot” around so much. Is that an even trade?
So I’m a little hammed up while writing this so forgive the transparency, BUT-
The metalhead’s outrage over “metalgate” seems to me like manufacturing a problem where there isn’t one, and using it as a soundboard to express your own personal insecurities in the face of a dominant way of thought, which strongly parallels the feminist M.O.
Don’t be the enemy guys. Beat the enemy, through art.
Ara dude, #metalgate is basically the administrators chance to make it big as a writer and perhaps a leader of some sort of movement. If you want more perspective look at related political work (Amerika). You are entirely correct, this is a manufactured issue and in fact you are reading a propaganda article by one of the primary manufacturers. Please, dont let this give you the impression that there is any substantial support for this nonsense. Also, dont get the impression the writer cares about it, its a tool. If it doesnt set off right or stops working at some point it will be cast away.
That is some valid criticism.
I’m personally supporting metalgate because it is an opportunity to educate a generation that completely missed out on what made metal good. I would never have known if no one had been around to tell me; I would have kept listening to comacore like Ara (lol) and thought that I was getting the full metal experience.
If metalgate just turns into a circlejerk of edgy tryhard faggots (which it pretty much is) then whatever; a handful of smart youngsters will understand why metal should resist censorship and hippiezation; because the best metal only existed due to resistance against those things.
Pardon my uncharacteristic optimism but we may as well make the best of the situation. That’s from The Art of War, by the way.
Have you listened to our comacore records, Mr. Head?
http://arawi.bandcamp.com/
Demonizing all “SJW” perspectives is almost as silly as the outside world sneering at what metal is supposed to mean. While you guys are all afraid of censorship and infiltration, it seems that most people just kind of want others to, I don’t know, be a little more considerate maybe? You can be an uncompromising metal fan without being an asshole, you know. Times are changing, and you can argue whether it’s for better or worse, but it’s not like this is an unfamiliar evolution in society, I mean do you guys go out in public brandishing the word “nigger” still? If “faggot” goes away, is it really that big a deal?
Its good that you try to understand us Ara dude and I can even sense a kinship. You got a lot of shit here pretty much entirely because of you bands music, which is unfair (execrable though it is). All I will say is, before you ask us to be critical about ourselves, absorb the point of view completely. Once you do that you will be well equipped to diagnose identity, insecurity etc. I didnt even have pubes during the metal `golden age` and most of the people on this website fall into that age range or younger (18-35 roughly). By absorbing the point of view I mean; get metal like we get it. There is obviously something here that keeps you around so might as well no? Dig into the DLA reviews.
What I am telling you cannot in fact be told, it can only be experienced. Until then you just dont know. I tell you only because I think you are capable of making positive steps in that direction. If this seems presumptuous or patronizing I apologize, certainly not the intent.
I know you think I don’t “get” metal like you guys do, but that’s silly and unfounded. I may not like the exact same shit as you guys, but you’re assuming I haven’t devoted myself to the genre in the same ways. You’re asking me to delve into articles here to get enlightened enough to politicize my views on metal when I’m already comfortable with how I feel about it, and you’re saying that because I don’t have the same perspectives I obviously lack the historical knowledge. Casting preemptive judgments is kind of what makes you guys hate the nonmetal outside world when they do it to you, yet that is pretty much all I’m met with here. And calling my band “execrable” is fine but I guarantee neither you nor anyone here besides Brett has listened to our records to make up your minds for yourselves.
We all can stand to learn a thing or two here. I’m sure if we weren’t incorrectly labeled as metalcore and the readers here took the time to listen to what we are doing, you’ll find we don’t commit any of the current offenses in modern metal, but that would require a fair assessment of a product you’ve preprogrammed yourself to hate based on the political side of metal you’re asking me to indulge myself in.
Dont get me wrong bro (I told you its difficult to say!). Not making a claim to some hidden knowledge, just a different point of view. You make it pretty obvious you dont `get it` or whatever, but there is nothing wrong with that. It is offensive, it is presumptuous….
But despite my presumptions, you are easily making more. This really isnt about politics or even a belief in a certain direction for metal, certain aesthetics etc. Dont assume a monolithic stance for the users here. What the guys here ultimately share is taste and I am just asking you to absorb our taste is all. I believe that from that point you can give the ideas that sprout from those bases a fair shot.
Sorry, I didnt mean to diss your band, honest. I dont like it, but for what it is its pretty smart and unique stuff.
And not liking it is totally fair. It’s clearly not for everybody. But I would prefer if those taking a dump on the band were to actually listen to what we are doing before doing so. “Execrable” is not a word I would use to describe anything smart or creative regardless of genre. If it is not your thing however, that is totally respectable.
As for me not “getting it,” do you think I’m in my 20s or something? That I don’t understand what it’s like to be the only metal fan in my high school of over 1000 kids? That I didn’t spend the little bit of money I had growing up on records just because I thought the artwork looked cool?
You talked about taste and perspective, and that is where our differences lie. I may think differently than a majority of people here but I understand metal and am familiar with the stuff you guys love. As you should understand given the fear of SJW perspective trying to enforce all thought into a grey form of mass appeal, those in metal should respect the perspectives of those also partaking in metal who are not trying to “ruin its legacy” or whatever. I think if people listened to what Ara does, even if it’s not something you enjoy, you can’t pinpoint us as an outside threat looking to cheapen the genre.
Forgive me for intruding, but why are we talking about SJWs and Ara in the same sentence? Is Ara an SJW band?
No-nobody wants to infiltrate Metal,,, it’s all just in your aspie imagination. Assburgers 4 all!!!! Aspic warriors will fap fap,, a real threat to Metul is the metulhead in the first place because it is he who rots the genre from within with also ran albums and the urge to become a 4th rate copy of maiden, slayer or morbid angel. aside from the founders of each subgenre, everybody else is guilty of killing metal with participation and socialization after the same founder bands sold out that is. metal has been dead since 1994 and brett stephens is feasting on a corpse cuz he’s too much of a pussy to act like the 40 yr old man he is.
Lol, what a faggot wrote this piece of crap. Hey, author, you better start asking your friends to call you imbecile.
This article is cool: https://www.deathmetal.org/news/5-albums-that-invented-death-metal/
Cory please review later Master’s material, only Brett would argue that they’re worth anything.
Are most retro-death and retro-speed metal bands also hipsters?
What about those über-kvlt i wish is were darkthrone black metal bands? Those surely must to hipsters too no?
Yes.
Calling someone a hipster is hipsterish behaviour.
I have noticed only hipsters and their cousins get riled up over that word.
I highly recommend Kaczynski’s article “The System’s Neatest Trick”.
WINNER!!!!!
I highly recommend not bathing and mailing various low level government functionaries anthrax.