The Metal/Punk/Rock Thread

[Keith Houchen]

I’m sure Laurence Fox will sign him to his label. 

[Accident Prone]

2 hours ago, Keith Houchen said:

For all their claims of being alternative and social outcasts, metal is so conservative. Uber white, heterosexual, and misogynistic. Such a toxic subculture 

I'm having flashbacks to Download 2009, sitting on the grass whilst Five Finger Death Punch were stinking up the joint. The lead singer, an absolute arsehole by all accounts and clearly pissed off at the lukewarm reception to his drab band, shouted down the mic before the last song, "Everyone who doesn't mosh to this is a fucking f****t". Yep, very welcoming.

Coincidentally, that was the same festival where a drugged-up Manson put on the worst set of all time. He was so off his tits that he spent five minutes asking the crowd if he should remove his jacket or keep it on before grumbling away through an uninspired collection of songs.

[WyattSheepMask]

I didn’t even realise he was signed to a label these days, last I knew he was self-releasing 

[BomberPat]

11 minutes ago, Accident Prone said:

Coincidentally, that was the same festival where a drugged-up Manson put on the worst set of all time. He was so off his tits that he spent five minutes asking the crowd if he should remove his jacket or keep it on before grumbling away through an uninspired collection of songs.

My dad got into the habit of watching Download highlights on Sky Arts all the time. One day when I was living at home, he was getting really annoyed because there had been something he wanted to tell me and he couldn't remember it. 

A couple of hours later while I was out, I get a phone call from him. He never phones me without arranging it ahead of time, or at the very least texting me first to ask if I'm okay to talk for a bit, so I assume it had to be something important. 

"I remembered what I meant to tell you earlier. Marilyn Manson got big and fat, didn't he?"

[Panhead]

Manson was my first gig when I was 15. I went with my two best friends, wore nail varnish and had a fucking awesome time. That was 20 years ago. Out of all the bands I listened to back then, there's only really Slipknot that I still love and follow. I didn't miss an issue of Kerrang! for 21 years and was still buying it until it went on hiatus last year. I've bought Metal Hammer every month since. They've introduced me to some great bands like Spiritbox and Imperial Triumphant. 

I still love Metal and I always will do, but as much of an awful cliche as it is, I fully believe that there's just good music and music that someone else likes instead. My most listened to artists at the moment are Tegan & Sara, Ramones, Bruce Springsteen, Paramore and Slipknot. I love Venom Prison, Taylor Swift and Creedence Clearwater Revival. If you'd have told me at 15 that I'd enjoy Neil Diamond and Glen Campbell, I'd have been mortified. 

As much as I love going to Download and other metal gigs, it's a little disheartening when you get talking to fans who smell like rotten veg and still think Courtney murdered Kurt. Like when Die Antwoord played the last Download, me and my mate were talking to a guy and his girlfriend before Slipknot. He was fucking livid that Die Antwoord had even been there. I said to him that there were plenty of other bands that he could have watched instead. I thought it was their most ballsiest booking in ages. 

But yeah, sorry for going off on one. Fuck Marilyn Manson. The horrible cunt. 

[gmoney]

3 hours ago, Keith Houchen said:

For all their claims of being alternative and social outcasts, metal is so conservative. Uber white, heterosexual, and misogynistic. Such a toxic subculture 

I used to live with a few metalheads while I was at university. They were lovey guys in the main, a touch untidy. I used to go with them to a metal night every week and often a load of people would end up coming back to ours. They almost always ended up being massive arseholes, would get shirty if anything got put on that wasn't deemed metal enough. One guy we kicked out of the house for coming out with a load of anti-semetic guff. I stopped going in the end. 

[martyngnr]

7 hours ago, Accident Prone said:

I'm having flashbacks to Download 2009, sitting on the grass whilst Five Finger Death Punch were stinking up the joint. The lead singer, an absolute arsehole by all accounts and clearly pissed off at the lukewarm reception to his drab band, shouted down the mic before the last song, "Everyone who doesn't mosh to this is a fucking f****t". Yep, very welcoming.

Coincidentally, that was the same festival where a drugged-up Manson put on the worst set of all time. He was so off his tits that he spent five minutes asking the crowd if he should remove his jacket or keep it on before grumbling away through an uninspired collection of songs.

Yeah, he was atrocious that afternoon. The absolute worst gig I've ever seen, just a mess. 

Well fuck him, we wont be seeing him anywhere near big festivals or gigs ever again.  

[cobra_gordo]

10 hours ago, martyngnr said:

Well fuck him, we wont be seeing him anywhere near big festivals or gigs ever again.  

I dunno. Give it a few years and there will be one promoter that thinks he's enough of a draw to risk booking him, then it'll snowball.

[Kfogg1991]

17 hours ago, Panhead said:

Manson was my first gig when I was 15. I went with my two best friends, wore nail varnish and had a fucking awesome time. That was 20 years ago. Out of all the bands I listened to back then, there's only really Slipknot that I still love and follow. I didn't miss an issue of Kerrang! for 21 years and was still buying it until it went on hiatus last year. I've bought Metal Hammer every month since. They've introduced me to some great bands like Spiritbox and Imperial Triumphant. 

I still love Metal and I always will do, but as much of an awful cliche as it is, I fully believe that there's just good music and music that someone else likes instead. My most listened to artists at the moment are Tegan & Sara, Ramones, Bruce Springsteen, Paramore and Slipknot. I love Venom Prison, Taylor Swift and Creedence Clearwater Revival. If you'd have told me at 15 that I'd enjoy Neil Diamond and Glen Campbell, I'd have been mortified. 

As much as I love going to Download and other metal gigs, it's a little disheartening when you get talking to fans who smell like rotten veg and still think Courtney murdered Kurt. Like when Die Antwoord played the last Download, me and my mate were talking to a guy and his girlfriend before Slipknot. He was fucking livid that Die Antwoord had even been there. I said to him that there were plenty of other bands that he could have watched instead. I thought it was their most ballsiest booking in ages. 

But yeah, sorry for going off on one. Fuck Marilyn Manson. The horrible cunt. 

Yeah I was also at Download in 2019 and the amount of people around us that were moaning and having a cry because Die Antwoord were playing was outstanding, I heard so many people say what were they thinking booking this shit it's awful, It's not metal ext what they didn't realise is Slipknot as headliners got to make the choice of who sub headlined there day and out of all the bands THEY chose Die Antwoord, Not Andy copping or Live nation. I will say though I cried laughing when 1 particular angry metalhead walked past me and said how are you enjoying this I would have rather they booked lostprophets that this shit. 

Manson has gone on record as being into alot of weird shit like rape fantasies and whatnot but he has just been dropped by his record label because of this. They don't just make that decision over nothing he is and always will be a big selling star so there has to be something serious in this allegation 

[BomberPat]

I supported Igor Cavalera's band Mixhell a few years back, one of my last gigs. They're brilliant - live drums from Igor while his wife DJs, so it's basically kind of live drum and bass and electronica and just tonally/genre-wise it's all over the place. Lovely stuff.

But there was a substantial contingent in the front row of grubby metallers clutching Sepultura LPs to their chests and either grimacing all the way through it or desperately trying to convince themselves they were enjoying it. It was great fun.

[Merzbow]

2 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

I supported Igor Cavalera's band Mixhell a few years back, one of my last gigs. They're brilliant - live drums from Igor while his wife DJs, so it's basically kind of live drum and bass and electronica and just tonally/genre-wise it's all over the place. Lovely stuff.

But there was a substantial contingent in the front row of grubby metallers clutching Sepultura LPs to their chests and either grimacing all the way through it or desperately trying to convince themselves they were enjoying it. It was great fun.

Have you heard Igor's latest Industrial project, Petbrick? It's pretty nasty, in a good way.

[cobra_gordo]

5 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

I supported Igor Cavalera's band Mixhell a few years back, one of my last gigs. They're brilliant - live drums from Igor while his wife DJs, so it's basically kind of live drum and bass and electronica and just tonally/genre-wise it's all over the place. Lovely stuff.

But there was a substantial contingent in the front row of grubby metallers clutching Sepultura LPs to their chests and either grimacing all the way through it or desperately trying to convince themselves they were enjoying it. It was great fun.

I had a similar experience watching Fantomas in 2005. Mike Patton on vocals, Buzz from Melvins on guitar and Terry fucking Bozio on the worlds biggest drum kit playing an hour of mental noise and cartoon samples. It was fantastic. I used to get free entry to any gig in Sheffield because of where I worked which also meant I got to go in first so I was pretty much always on the barrier at gigs. I turned around a few times during their set to see a few people in Faith No More shirts peppered around the crowd with the most confused, pained looks on their faces, it was perfect.

[BomberPat]

Similarly, I saw Fantomas at ATP in 2008, doing the "Director's Cut" album, which I bloody love.

I'd only started going to ATP the year before, immediately fell in love with it in part because the crowd were so much more polite and reasonable than what I'd been used to from rock/metal festivals. 2008 was headlined and curated by Mike Patton & The Melvins, and it attracted a lot of that audience - including a fair few of the worst offenders I recognised from Jersey's metal scene - and was far less enjoyable as a result.

Patton was, as ever, fucking brilliant, though.

[cobra_gordo]

I remember really wanting to go that year. I'd always read about how different ATP was to the usual metal festival and it always seemed to result in some mixed bills and weird collaborations. 

I met Patton and Buzz after that Sheffield show and they were both perfectly weird and charming. Buzz just stood stock still and barely said a word, Patton was really quiet and seemed genuinely intimidated by people getting their records signed and saying how important his music was. He's also tiny.

[BomberPat]

we always had a competition at ATP, where each of us had a soft toy dinosaur we bought from the Butlins' toy shop and tried to get it photographed with either as many members of bands as possible or the best person possible. One of my mates wasn't playing the game, but then managed to get a photo with her and Mike Patton holding a stuffed toy monkey instead when no one else had managed to see Mike all weekend. And he kept the monkey.

Buzzo was everywhere, though, we saw him watching other acts all the time. Hard to miss him, though. 

It was a really good line-up, and still a mostly positive experience, there was just a definite downgrade in terms of audience behaviour compared to every other year we went.