(Hey, new here but long time lurker, cos I just wanted to have a vent)
Despite heavy metal being a world wide phenomenon a vast majority of the bands consist purely of white males, which I think is a tragedy. Sure, with the likes of Arch Enemy, Nightwish and Within Temptation there are thankfully and finally an increasing number of women joining the fray, but progress is going incredibly slowly.
I mean how many girls were there in the last Norwegian BM explosion? Or for that matter black or Asian bands? There are hardly any black black metal bands from the first or second waves. I mean, blacks invented rock music and the blues and folk music and are responsible for all good modern music, so why are they so rare in metal? I think it is because of discrimination. I think metal needs to become even more diverse and bands should have more ethnic minorities, I think this could end up being the inspiration that metal needs. Suffocation is one good example but it isn't nearly enough.
But the most worrying thing I have seen recently is the opposition to homosexuals in metal bands. I went to a local metal gig the other day, and it was literally "fag", "queer", "homo" and shit the entire time. There is nothing wrong with gay people, and in fact a lot of my friends are gay, I'm not gay but we get along great, going shopping, playing the Xbox 360 and so on. I mention this because I was looking for reviews for some metalcore bands when I came across this page at a metal review site: http://www.a n u s.com/metal/hall/index.php/topic,5168.0.html (despite the URL it isn't porn or disgusting but stands for American Nihilist Underground Society, they have some weird writing stuff on there).
I think this kind of behaviour is disgusting tbh, and I am wondering wtf are they thinking? Chuck isn't even a fucking homosexual for God's sake, and if he was who cares? He made great music so why does it matter if he had sex with men?
What do you guys think about getting more minority groups in metal?
Despite heavy metal being a world wide phenomenon a vast majority of the bands consist purely of white males, which I think is a tragedy. Sure, with the likes of Arch Enemy, Nightwish and Within Temptation there are thankfully and finally an increasing number of women joining the fray, but progress is going incredibly slowly.
I mean how many girls were there in the last Norwegian BM explosion? Or for that matter black or Asian bands? There are hardly any black black metal bands from the first or second waves. I mean, blacks invented rock music and the blues and folk music and are responsible for all good modern music, so why are they so rare in metal? I think it is because of discrimination. I think metal needs to become even more diverse and bands should have more ethnic minorities, I think this could end up being the inspiration that metal needs. Suffocation is one good example but it isn't nearly enough.
But the most worrying thing I have seen recently is the opposition to homosexuals in metal bands. I went to a local metal gig the other day, and it was literally "fag", "queer", "homo" and shit the entire time. There is nothing wrong with gay people, and in fact a lot of my friends are gay, I'm not gay but we get along great, going shopping, playing the Xbox 360 and so on. I mention this because I was looking for reviews for some metalcore bands when I came across this page at a metal review site: http://www.a n u s.com/metal/hall/index.php/topic,5168.0.html (despite the URL it isn't porn or disgusting but stands for American Nihilist Underground Society, they have some weird writing stuff on there).
I think this kind of behaviour is disgusting tbh, and I am wondering wtf are they thinking? Chuck isn't even a fucking homosexual for God's sake, and if he was who cares? He made great music so why does it matter if he had sex with men?
What do you guys think about getting more minority groups in metal?