This was inspired by my post yesterday about how the metal community is full of chuds and other varieties of reactionaries, so I've been compiling a list of all the bands that I know are at least not reactionary. I'm only including extreme metal bands because there's more ambiguity since these bands aren't as mainstream as something like Black Sabbath, Metallica, or Judas Priest.
This list doesn't include bands that are 'apolitical' because the list would be way too long and it would be 99% death metal bands that most people already know. I'm also not including any bands who fuse metal with other genres like Rammstein or most metalcore bands unless the metal influences are extremely strong, not because of "metalcore not true metal" but just because many of those bands don't consider themselves to be metal anyway.
- Necrot - American death metal
- Body Void - American sludge/doom metal
- Primitive Man - American sludge/doom metal
- Dawn Ray'd - English black metal
- Neckbeard Deathcamp - American black metal
- Feminazgul - American atmospheric black metal
- Napalm Death - English grindcore (early)/death metal (later)
- Panopticon - American black metal with bluegrass/folk influences
- Vile Creature - Canadian sludge/drone/doom metal
- Thou - American sludge/doom metal
- Bolt Thrower - English death metal
- Iskra - Canadian black metal with crust punk influences
- Sepultura - Brazilian death/thrash metal (mostly)
- Full of Hell - American grindcore/death metal/noise
- Dystopia - American sludge metal with crust punk influences
- Carcass - English deathgrind (early)/melodic death metal (later)
- Kreator - German thrash metal
- Extreme Noise Terror - English grindcore
- Nails - American grindcore/powerviolence
- Blut Aus Nord - French industrial black metal/atmospheric black metal/avant-garde metal (they switch a lot)
- Darkthrone - Norwegian black metal (these guys used to be edgelords but they've distanced themselves from the right-wing aspects of the scene)
- Godflesh - English industrial metal
- Spectral Lore - Greek atmospheric black metal
- Gojira - French death/progressive metal
- Cattle Decapitation - American grindcore/progressive death metal
- Terminal Nation - American death metal with hardcore punk influences
- Sportlov - Swedish comedic grindcore/black metal
- The Body - American experimental/drone metal/noise
- Uniform - American industrial metal
- Oozing Wound - American thrash metal
- Cloud Rat - American grindcore
- Trespasser - Swedish black metal
- Antichrist Demoncore (ACxDC) - American grindcore/powerviolence
- Power Trip - American thrash metal
- Mammoth Grinder - American death metal with hardcore punk influences
- Nasum - Swedish grindcore
- Venom Prison - Welsh death metal with hardcore punk influences
- Minenfeld - German death metal
- Rotten Sound - Swedish grindcore
- Bismuth - English doom/drone metal
- Darkest Hour - American melodic death metal/metalcore
- Anaal Nathrakh - English industrial black metal/grindcore
- Discordance Axis - American grindcore
- Mystifier - Brazilian black metal
- Samael - Swiss black metal (early)/industrial metal (later)
- Warsore - Australian grindcore
- Pink Mass - American grindcore (very gay)
- Ragana - American blackened doom metal (very gay)
- Ilsa - American sludge/doom metal
- Sankara - American death metal
- Baneblade - American death/black metal/noise
- Marxthrone - Spanish black metal
- Gaylord - English black metal
- Vermin Womb - American death metal/grindcore
- Gama Bomb - Irish thrash metal
- Falls of Rauros - American black/folk metal
- Wolves in the Throne Room - American atmospheric black metal
- Liturgy - American experimental black metal
- Havukruunu - Finnish pagan black metal
- Pig's Blood - American death metal
- Profane Order - Canadian bestial black metal
- Blasphemy - Canadian bestial black metal
Feel free to give me suggestions and I'll update the list when I can
I'm gonna copy and paste a reply I made in a SRA post on r*ddit a few days ago.
"My favorite leftist band is Gojira. A lot of their music has an anti-capitalist environmentalist message. My favorite songs of theirs, in no particular order:
But to be honest, I love every single on of their songs.
Cattle Decapitation is.... More anti-human than anti-capitalist. But I love them too.
These two aren't that hardcore, but I enjoy them and they kind of got me into understanding the appeal of metal.
Protest the Hero is a progressive metal band that I know is at least anti-right. They did a anti-Trump album last year, but I got into them from a song about how Newfoundland was nice to them.
Thank You Scientist is kind of a midway between progressive rock and progressive metal, and their drummer is trans so definitely anti-right. If you know what drum corps is at all, they played their first single from their most recent album (FXMLDR) with the Bluecoats back in 2019.
I listened to a few Protest the Hero songs and I don't really think 'extreme' would be an accurate label for them but they would fit this list if it was all types of metal.
If anyone here still uses reddit, I'd recommend r/rabm for leftist black metal. You can also find discussions about leftist music that isn't specifically black metal.
I visit that sub occasionally but the less I have to use Reddit, the better
I was hesitant to put them on the list at first but with songs like Sleep and Broken Shell I figured they belong
I think Spectral Lore counts, considering they put out a single in 2019 called No Excuses for Fascist Sympathy.
Pretty dope atmospheric Greek BM, I think the Gnosis EP is really spectacular.
hilarious bit of an interview, looks like the interviewer was sympathetic to some anti antifa-cancelling-shows and other chud bullshit lol
In general, nazism and nationalism are one of the greatest self-eating viruses of humanity and not acknowledging their graveness and danger in 2018, is mind-boggling suicide. It’s also the same for creating artificial borders between politics and art, just because it’s convenient to separate art and artist for our personal consumption. But the inner truth of the matter, concerns us, the listeners and co-creators. Why did we get into a genre with such a problematic history in the first place? What does this say about us? How can we go on as usual after we’ve learned, instead of doing a radical re-conceptualization, according to better values, as we should have had? The answers to all of these questions are hard and uneasy, yet, I’ve still got hopes for the latter. Until then, fuck nazis and kick them out of shows and anywhere else, even if you, or reader, does not agree with everything above: it’s very important.
Seems like the musician is fairly influenced by the Argentinian writer Borges who seems to be some kind of radical centrist from what I can tell, but eh, gotta take what you can get I guess
Terminal Nation could be added to the list; https://twitter.com/terminalnation
I only found them because one of their shirts had the wrestler La Parka choking out Stephen Miller
The Body - noise metal from Portland
Uniform - industrial metal from NYC
Oozing Wound - thrash from Chicago
Cloud Rat - Michigan grindcore
Also talked more about it on the buttrock premium episode on the 2010s. Buttrock series has been 10/10, worth the extra cash if you can
Thanks! Not loving the forcable retirement of some of my band shirts.
Not really metal, but the prog band Tides of Man has an album Empire Theory, which is pretty critical of US empire.
Dystopia fucking rules, but they're way more punk than metal really. Also Cattle Decap started out as a punk/grindcore band and they ruled, but are full metal heads now. If you want full on leftist music, you can't go wrong with underground punk. Pretty much all of it is super politically charged and far left. Check out Antischism, Aus-Rotten, G.I.S.M.(more metal), Harum-Scarum, Mankind?, Dirt...
G.I.S.M. is definitely not far left. Maybe sort of in the 80s, but nowadays they are pretty fucked up, openly anti-semitic and homophobic.
Oh damn really? That sucks, I only really listened to Detestation and Military Affairs Neurotic which seemed pretty leftist to me.
Yeah, they had an album maybe 5 years back that literally said on the cover that "the Jews" finance both sides of wars.
Panopticon - American black metal with bluegrass/folk influences
I have to hear this, what's a good song that shows that off?
The opening track of the Kentucky album is straight up hyper bluegrass and whips so much ass; they also cover Which Side Are You On? on that album. But the metal/folk is more compartmentalized on Kentucky, I think it’s blended a bit more on Roads to the North
