Black metal against racism
“There’s no point denying metal has a more complicated relationship with race than many of its adherents would like to admit, or confront,” as the Guardian writes. In fact, the existence of a genre called “national socialist black metal” is indicative of the discussions about the relationship between certain types of metal and white supremacy.
However, over the past few week some big names have come out in support of the antiracist movement. This has generated no small amount of outcry, even among their fans. Black Sabbath, for example, released a t-shirt whose proceeds will be donated entirely to BLM. The graphics chosen are inspired by Master of Reality, the band’s historic 1971 album.
System of a Down frontman Serj Tankian has consistently supported the protests on his Instagram profile, writing in a post: “Coordinate online and block every street everywhere and force the regime to resign. The time has come. Your time has come @realdonaldtrump”.
Even Guns N’ Roses have expressed their support of the movement on Instagram, and Axl Rose clearly stated his disapproval of Trump’s politics by tweeting: “Lamestream media ISN’T doing everything within their power 2 foment hatred n’ anarchy, that’s U!”.
Many other bands have also shown their support for Bandcamp‘s fundraising efforts.