I say this as someone who listens to extreme metal almost exclusively
my issue with a lot of metal is it is "angry but not political" which is a vector for people with shitty politics and too much aggression, whereas (good) punk and hardcore cannot separate the political from the anger, so chud fans are somewhat filtered out. also, solos are dumb.
It feels like the genre as a whole has kind of moved away from solos in the past decade or two, at least for the more extreme subgenres
Most obnoxious thing is when fans start going on about how they're all so tolerant and welcoming as if there aren't several popular explicitly Nazi bands.
Pantera is one of the most popular bands in the genre and their vocalist is a racist/general dickhead and their guitarist was sus at best.
The amount of times that I've heard the same person who says they don't have a racist bone in their body defend shitstains like Varg Vikernes is too damn high.
Granted, it might have gotten less common since the late 90s, don't meet many metal fans these days.
It's definitely less common now because black metal has kind of become a meme and Varg is just a racist car rant guy who makes shitty ambient music now.
Someone on reddit said they were on a forum with Darryl back in the day and his handle was "Dimebag88"
I understand it's through the grapevine so take it with a grain of salt but still
There are way too many metalheads who try to rationalize the shit Varg says. "He's not a nazi he's just really into paganism!"
I still consider it a shame he didn't drown himself when he tried swimming across a river in chainmail. The dumbass didn't even have a guide line.
as if there aren’t several popular explicitly Nazi bands.
There are?
Mostly talking about stuff like NSBM, but there are also bands where members are nazis (see Pantera) without the music being nazi. Popular might be an overstatement, I guess accepted is another way to put it.
It is far from the majority of metal, but they made up a significant enough amount and get fairly mild pushback by metal fans (at least back when I was meeting them on a regular basis, it might have changed). I remember people getting defensive about it as if it was a free speech issue, that they were just breaking taboos or that I just lacked the "edge" needed to appreciate it.
How do you go from Black Sabbath to fucking Sabaton.
"Politicians hide themselves away; they only started the war. Why should they go out to and fight; they leave that all to the poor."
vs.
"Dying for bourgeoisie ideology is heroic"
I dislike power metal in general but Sabaton is power metal for Redditors who learn history from Wikipedia summaries
I kinda like power metal. But sabaton just feels.... I dunno. Lots of power metal is escapist. Just music about shit that's not real. Heroism in a vacuum. glory without stakes.
You can just put your headphones on and let it fuel you to do physical shit. To focus on your hands and your muscles. Get work done.
But sabaton... it feels like it's making real events into something not real. Tear away all that real shit until only something glorious remains. And that doesn't feel right at all. And the more you think about it, the more not right at all it seems.
Eh Sabaton is about as political as a hollywood WWII movie. Empty valorization of the "good guys being heroes" without really looking at the broader context.
To their credit they are pretty explicitly anti-fascist and occasionally vaguely gesture towards an anti-war stance.
I only listen to stoner metal these days, seems more chill and less reactionary. Used to like black metal a lot more but way too many nazis there.
I avoid metal communities in general because they're pretty insufferable. Seeing the meltdown metalheads on RYM over Infest the Rats Nest and whether it's "real" metal is a prime example.
Oh god I remember actually getting into those "is it real metal?" discussions as a teenager.
Yeah metal communities are cringe as fuck.
Well I don't like to shit on people's music taste considering the guttural shit I listen to, but ska is pretty... not good. I imagine the fans are stuck in 2003.
what, you don't love hanging with 30-40 year olds trying their best to skank?
I prefer listening to some fat 42 year old Finnish guy burp into a mic for 50 minutes
That's alright. First minute reminded me of Carseat Headrest which I love.
I’m convinced a lot of them don’t listen to lyrical content and just see it as a reason to act aggro at shows. Prob why there’s a ton of chuds in the scene.
Dying Fetus: the military industrial complex is bad
Metalheads: hell yeah dude I love killing infants
I feel the same about hardcore as someone who most listens to hardcore and punk.
The toxic masculinity and obsession with purity seems more apparent in the metal community to me. There's also more nazis and murderers.
Yeah. I’ve always felt detached from the scene because of it. I rarely even buy merch to support bands because the symbolism reflects those shitty values. Let alone hang with em.
Hardcore at times trys to play up an almost cultish fervor tied to practically nothing.
Yeah. One second you're talking about a band you both like, and then you bring up another band you like, and you get this long rant about how it's not "real" metal, and it sucks for reasons x, y, and z.
And now the conversation is dead and the vibe is ruined.
as a recovered metalhead, yes. also theres a looooot of reactionary shit in metal fan groups
Ministry: George W. Bush is a liar and a war criminal and I would kill him if I could
Rivetheads: Man, I would totally hunt down Bin Laden to this song
"No, Mikko Aspa is NOT A PEDOPHILE NAZI!!! Just because he has a label called Northern Heritage where the 60% of the bands are explicitly racist? Just because he was in a documentary about black metal advocating that white people have to defend themselves against Muslims? Just because he played in an RAC band on a benefit show for a well known nazi murder who kicked an antifascist to death on a protest? Just because he has a band whose lyrics are exclusively about how """"The people of Zion"""" should be exterminated? Just because he referred to the Holocaust as "the most wonderful act of human intolerance" on his shitty noise forum? Just because he has a noise project glorifying pedophilia with scantily dressed kids on the cover and the booklet?
You SJWs are so fast to cry racist, i think maybe you guys are the real fascists!"
I'm a huge fan of listening almost exclusively to metal and talking to almost no one about it.
When I was young I didn't show anyone the kind of music I listened to because I was afraid they were gonna think I drank goat blood or something but now I don't show anyone because I don't want them to think I love hitler
I remember looking at the comments on like Amon Amarth songs on Youtube over 10 years ago and being amazed by how many nazis there were
HELLO EUROPEAN BROTHERS I AM FROM SLOVAKIA, WE MUST BAND TOGETHER TO SAVE EUROPA FROM THE N*****RMUSLIMS, HAIL ODIN
Imagine deriving your worldview and or politics from lyrics from like viking or folk metal lyrics
Defending the white race by listening to melodeath and playing skyrim
Sucks discovering a new band and then finding out they're nazis. I guess I made a weird 180 because I went from listening to shit like Ulver and Leviathan to Charlie xcx and Dorian Electra lmao. Still bang to some Alterbeast or Shadow of Intent or get goofy and listen to Galneryus.
If any of y'all got any non reactionary recommendations for some good metal I'm down. Here's one: Body Void It's sort of a blackened sludge and the lyrics deal with dysphoria and depression and shit and I don't feel weird supporting them.
I just remembered Full of Hell, one of my favorite bands, are explicitly left leaning
Necrot is a death metal band and the vocalist is open about supporting antifa. That's the only one I can think off the top of my head. I just started listening to Body Void a few days ago and it kicks ass.
I know about them but I don't really like their music. Dawn Ray'd is another one but I don't like their music either.
Charli XCX and hyperpop in general is a shining light in a world of musical shit. God bless them.
