Thrash til' Deth wrote:
cry of the banshee wrote:
North From Here wrote:
While we are talking about taboo subjects, does anyone know of any mainstream press/fallout over Nile being somewhat critical of Islam recently?
I realize this story is a few years old, but it was good to see that Taake's Norwegian Grammy nomination held despite some anger in the Arab media:
http://noisecreep.com/taake-anti-islamic/.
Why should being anti-Islam be "taboo"? Anti-christian rhetoric is basically a cliche in the genre. Fuck Islam. Metal being PC is weak and frankly, gay as hell. Since when is this stuff supposed to be a safe space for the pigeon-hearted? This Flynn dude clutching at his pearls over some shit Anselmo said is soft. Anselmo should have just said "yeah, I said it. So what?" Just once I'd like to see one of these guys
not blubber out a lame apology in the pathetic attempt at being accepted by the herd.
I don't think Flynn was out of line for calling Phil on that bullshit, piss weak though his response may be. As an American and a former soldier, it irritates me to no end to see a bunch of backwoods retards throwing up the Hitler salute as some show of white solidarity while being completely oblivious to the fact that they are honoring the culture of one our greatest enemies. Thousands of our boys (as well as our British allies) died to purge the world of those fucking sadists and these dumbasses are acting like it's this great 'fuck-you' to the PC crowd. Get an education and learn to express your opinions like a civilized human and not an ignorant scumbag.
That said, I strongly agree that metal culture should not be constrained by the ebb and flow of the status quo. Individualism has always been championed as one of the genre's most important core values and extreme opinions are bound to exist among this type of people. Racist or not, Anselmo should just damn the consequences and be himself regardless of other peoples' opinions. This is who I am, you can either take me or leave me. Totally up-front and brutally honest. It's up to the listener/fan to decide whether to support your music or not.
And yes, Islam (or any other religion) is definitely not beyond scrutiny. Valid criticism is not racism/nationalism/whatever-ism.
Quote:
Thousands of our boys (as well as our British allies) died to purge the world of those fucking sadists and these dumbasses are acting like it's this great 'fuck-you' to the PC crowd.
This is true, but I never looked at WWII through a "good guys vs bad guys" lens; we may have purged the world of a certain group of sadists, but we were also allied with another group of sadists, allowing them to roll their tanks and boots over half of Europe, and it could be argued that that was a pretty bleak period of time for said countries.
But, anyway, that's a whole other topic.
As for Anselmo, well, I think it's safe to say he'll never be a finalist on Jeopardy!... or even Wheel of Fortune, for that matter.
As to the whole "White power" thing... maybe due to the fact that when I was growing up and metal was just coming around, it was a much more exclusive (White, long-haired and denim and leather wearing) sub-culture than it is today. It was lower working class, which meant we grew up in shittier neighborhoods, where blacks and whites did NOT mix, let alone get along. My old man and most of my friends' fathers rode chopped Harleys, and with that comes a certain attitude regarding race relations. Tattoos like "SWP" and "White power" were not uncommon, along with the usual grim reapers, skulls, etc. and nobody really thought twice about it. Funny thing was, nobody thought Hitler was "cool" or any of that shit. So maybe being from that generation and that particular sub-culture has desensitized me to these things, or maybe metalheads today aren't cut from the same rough cloth as the ones of yesteryear. Either way, Anselmo grovelling like that douche Dog- the Bounty Hunter was just sad.