Metal Reviews

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCBKzWg4WYo

I guess Phil Anselmo did some joke of a racial gesture at a show, and it went viral. Flynn goes off on a tirade about racism.

Is the metal community a bunch of CIS white male oppressing minorities?

Your thoughts.

I love metal and am slightly racist although I never show it.

I wasn't born racist but I've developed feelings like that over the years, especially after playing basketball with people for years on end.

You can write about raping babies, gutting women and children, gargling with fetuses, genocide, slaughtering nuns, etc. but saying White power is crossing the line...

By "people", I gather you mean "youths"...

You'd think so judging from Rob's little tirade. Pretty sure I heard a ton of boos from the crowd when Anselmo started throwing up the Hitler salute. I don't disagree with Flynn on calling Phil out on his white power bullshit, but he comes across like such a snide little Millennial college student that it's hard to take him seriously. If Anselmo's racist language pissed you off so much back in the day, why wait till now to call him on it? Playing the online warrior instead of confronting Phil to his face smacks of fear and a lack of conviction.

He does bring up an interesting point about fans turning a blind eye and supporting the music of some very morally ambiguous characters. While few are supportive of Jon Nodtveidt's extracurricular activities, many fans rightly hold up the first two Dissection albums as black metal masterpieces. Same with Burzum. The musical greatness is not in question, but the moral compass most definitely is. Where do you separate musical appreciation from personal values? Where do we draw the line?

Ah, there's people in their late 20's and 30's who I would call full fledged adult men who act obnoxious as fuck over the shit.

Honest question: does anyone know whether people in the rap communities worry about this too? The argument over whether to include Burzum reviews on this website is, or was well-known, but I'm totally ignorant as to whether moral quandaries trouble rap fans of these 10 charged with murder, for example: http://hiphopwired.com/2015/02/04/murder-case-10-rappers-charged-murder/.

Anyway, I understand why a website wouldn't review Burzum, or why someone wouldn't financially support Varg with a purchase, but I always appreciated his musical contributions regardless of what a nutjob/asshole he is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gShmJV2 ... e=youtu.be

I don't even care about this type of shit anymore...people just do shit like this to get attention.

lol phil anselmo

from what i can tell the situation is about the same in rap as in metal where morality etc get talked about, some people think it's reason to boycott music, others don't. i don't know if there's any rappers who've recorded classic albums and also been convicted of murder as is the case with varg/jon though

personally music involves sharing feelings with the musician and i don't like sharing feelings with icky people so when i discover people are icky it clouds their music enough that i give up on trying to enjoy it

Phil, you poor drunken sap. Those day-after hangover apologies always sting like a son of a bitch.

Obligatory

Yeah this was all over MetalSucks recently. When did metal get a tabloid press?! Anyway, like others said, drunken fool. I'd have been more respectful if he'd have owned up and said "yes, white people are oppressed" or whatever than making up a pissweak story about it being a joke because he was drinking white wine. Shows it's more likely just a cultural difference, I think, re not recognising the effect things like that can have on people, rather than genuinely being a fascist or whatever. Anyway if he is, so? Definitely not the only one out there in the metal scene, thankfully seem to be a small minority. Ultimately, not the first ex-smackhead to say something stupid, and won't be the last. Every other blog Varg posts is far more genuinely racist.

Ig(g)or Cavalera has chosen this moment of racial introspection in the metal community to do a photoshoot in a Burzum t-shirt.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BBQPGMpoAtc/

I think Phil dabbled in the white power stuff back in the day, but never went full Hitler with it. Anselmo strikes me as a dumb redneck that hates ghetto culture much more than being a legit racist. He's always been a knucklehead (especially when he's intoxicated) and his mouth has got him in trouble several times before this incident. A shame he hasn't learned anything in that time. For the record, I still love Pantera and will not forsake the band regardless of Phil's dimwitted antics. That band is bigger than just Anselmo and supporting their music is not a show of approval to his drunken ramblings. Rob Flynn needs to stop being a prissy little drama queen because metal fans don't share in his overblown outrage. Phil was right about one thing though. The Burning Red was a terrible album and a total sellout for a guy like Flynn who has such a distinguished Bay Area thrash pedigree.

Yeah, that's pretty much what I meant. Shocker, middle-aged man from Louisiana with substance abuse issues throws the n-word around and doesn't like rap! I find it hard to believe that Phil Anselmo is the only non-PC musician out there, too - sure members of, let's say, Exodus or Malevolent Creation could be held to a similar level of outrage if they were recorded drunk...

he seems pretty legit racist to me but that's mostly from the whole yelling white power on stage thing but maybe most dumb rednecks meet my criteria for legit racist

Well, that's a fair bar to pass, I guess. I wouldn't put Phil Anselmo in the same category as, say, Rob Darken though.

Down are having appearances cancelled now.

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/.