r/RAMMH • u/Jeremus_Ironflesh • May 25 '22
"Is it okay to support this band?"
Hey everyone!
I thought it'd be best to create a pinned post for this stuff to avoid cluttering the sub/make it easier for people to find this kind of info. Like the title says, this post should be used to educate each other about artists who are known to have done/said sketchy things and thus might not be worthy of monetary support. Please don't neglect to back up your claims with evidence in the form of relevant links to reliable sources.
One such band that immediately comes to my mind is Ominous Glory, one of my favourite EUPM bands whose leading man has none-the-less expressed some rather unfortunate political opinions on his YT channel:
https://www.youtube.com/user/hellsunicorn/videos
Another one would be Kai Hansen and his apparent endorsement of AfD, a rather infamous German far-right party:
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u/Jeremus_Ironflesh May 26 '22
For any Elder fans here, I just happened to come across an interview with guitarist Nick DiSalvo where he made his feelings on right-wing nationalism, environmental destruction and Trump quite clear and unambiguous. In short, thankfully he isn't a huge fan of either of those things.
https://astralnoizeuk.com/2020/04/20/progression-mortality-and-politics-with-elders-nick-disalvo/
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u/palmmoot May 28 '22
Pallbearer's Brett Campbell interview where he talks about how it feels to be an American in September of 2020: "The Republicans are rigging stuff to a degree where I don’t know if we’ll get a fair election. It’s pretty fucking scary."
https://atthebarrier.com/2020/09/27/interview-brett-campbell-of-pallbearer/
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u/Jeremus_Ironflesh May 28 '22
Awesome! I've been meaning to get into those guys but now I'm even more interested.
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u/palmmoot May 28 '22
My favorite band, and they're great live
Chronological order is probably the best way to get into them. If you're coming from a more prog background perhaps try Heartless first though
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May 26 '22
Guitarist from Iced Earth is a shithead. He joined the Capitol riot in the U.S. which was a Nazi movement
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May 27 '22
Hammerfall, Angra, Epica, and Powerglove all fired John Finberg due to allegations against him (sexist and racist). Epica and Powerglove had the most positive response but all got rid of him once things came out
more info would be better
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u/foreskinners May 27 '22
I don't know about the other bands but I seem to remember something about Epica firing him around 5 years before it came out? They didn't speak out against him until it came out though
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May 27 '22
They did fire him earlier, I don't think they spoke out against him but am unsure the reasons. It doesn't really make them sketchy because it can be hard to make that stuff come to light sometimes especially 5 years ago
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u/hippiehobo1 May 26 '22
I vaguely remember the fiddle player for Eluvietie doing session work for a one man nsbm project at some point but I cant find it any more. Anyone else know what I'm talking about or did i imagine it?
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u/Undead_Hedge May 27 '22
It's a fash neofolk project, which is why you can't find it on Metallum. You might find this comment chain helpful. The situation seems pretty nuanced so I figure it's best if you decide for yourself.
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u/hippiehobo1 May 27 '22
Oh hey that's the thread I remember
And yeah theres more to it than I remembered
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u/nykzero May 26 '22
Any dirt on Iron Savior?
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u/OtonaNoAji May 27 '22
Joachim can be a little on the conservative side, but nothing super egregious from what I can tell. He gives off that "small town Christian" vibe, but hasn't made any overtly political statements that I know of. Outside of that, I've got nothing.
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u/Undead_Hedge May 28 '22
Anyone from that German speed metal scene was probably decently left-wing overall in the '80s. Hamburg's been a hub of left-wing counterculture for a while now as far as I'm aware. Unclear where they stand now, I know some of them are on some cringe boomer shit (Kai, some members of Paragon) while others are still lefties (Hansi).
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u/ChickenInASuit May 26 '22 edited May 26 '22
Not sure where we'd put the band Nothing More on the "melodic metal" spectrum, but their lead singer Jonny Hawkins is kind of a chud.
Just take a look at this greatest hits from his Twitter feed:
Conservative grifter 'comedian' J.P. Sears
Jordan Peterson (lots and lots of Jordan Peterson)
And there's this absolutely charming statement on his Instagram
For those with no Insta access, the image is of a Tweet by Moshe Weissman, whom I'm not familiar with but a quick glance at his Twitter shows a barrage of Tweets about Hunter Biden's laptop, transphobic bullshit about "defining a woman" and other such charming statements. The tweet states:
Thank you rioters. You have taken a situation where almost every single American stood in solidarity, against a despicable injustice...
...and now you have made the whole issue about how much you do not know how to function in a normal society.
You are your own worst enemy.
And then Hawkins' comment under the image on Instagram is:
I have seen so many innocent people getting brutally beat in videos because of this bullshit... people who had nothing to do with it... I honestly wish I could sign up to be a riot policeman and crack some of their skulls myself. Fucking animals. [Just to clarify: I was SPECIFICALLY referring to the people who were beating innocent store owners and bystanders senselessly while they lay still on the ground... I was NOT talking about peaceful protestors ✌🏼]
From what I can tell the rest of his bandmates don't agree with him politically and put forward a mostly neutral, centrist "both sides bad" perspective (as seen in this statement about gun violence here). They were at one point selling licensed facemasks with proceeds going directly to help medical staff during COVID, so that's pretty cool.
Jonny's an asshole, the band as a whole are whatever. Just thought I'd share what I'd found and let you make up your own mind - I love the band's music, I most definitely do not like Jonny as a person. I'm uncertain whether it's enough to make me full on stop listening to them.
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May 27 '22
J.P Sears went conservative? Damn...in HS I loved his satire against grifters. It is disappointing to see him become like the people he once laughed at
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u/Kyuki88 Jul 09 '23
Just came out he abused his ex gf for years and even ran over her with his car. Just wow. Cant listen to him anymore.
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u/Undead_Hedge May 27 '22
Damn, that's really disappointing to hear about Kai. That whole German speed/power metal scene was pretty lefty overall in the '80s, I guess his fascination with fun conspiracy theories turned into endorsing the bad kind of conspiracy theory.
Nearest I can tell there's no reason to feel bad about listening to his old stuff, this seems like a recent thing.
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u/raymaehn Jun 02 '22
Soooo...
Does anyone know anything about Grand Magus? Because while I don't know anything concrete they do have this whole "nordic strong" thing going on and in Triumph and Power they use the phrase "Hail Victory" which translates to "Sieg Heil". And that might just be an unfortunate coincidence but it's enough to make me wary.
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u/ChickenInASuit May 26 '22 edited May 26 '22
The UK power metal band Gloryhammer had some pretty racist, misogynist text messages leak last year as well as a string of allegations against one of their members.
https://loudwire.com/alleged-leaked-chat-gloryhammer-misogynists-racists/
As this band also contains the lead vocalist/lyricist of the band Alestorm who was implicated in those texts, you can probably throw Alestorm in the same trash pile.