So I was going to do a post about Demons & Wizards over on our sister community !heavymetal@lemmy.world, link the song called Diabolic, say a few things about where they’re from, what album and style they play etc. I do a lil bit of research, you know - the bare minimum that allows me to get away with my style of posting this past year. Come to find that the Band itself, Demons & Wizards, was a joint side project from the creative head of Blind Guardian, and one Jon Schaffer of Iced Earth.
Fucking gross, immediately scrapped the post, blocked the band after having appeared in my recommended feed and (I shoulda done this sooner tbh) literally blocked anything that has the name Jon Schaffer attached to it. For those who don’t know who he is, that’s good, as he’s truly a nobody now, but his history is tied to the band Iced Earth.
Iced Earth was one of my absolute favorites back in the day, playing a mix between thrash metal and power metal perfectly. Night of the Storm Rider, Burnt Offerings, and to an extent Dark Saga were all albums I spun regularly. I especially loved, cherished even, the re-written song Cast in Stone, the hopeful instrumental The Funeral, and the 16 and a half minute epic Dante’s Inferno.
Anyway, Jon dookie-diddler Schaffer took part in the January 6 US Insurrection, where he was one of the rioters that infiltrated the capitol building. The writing was on the wall in hindsight, with all the lyrical themes and conservative biblical references. For crying out loud, there’s a song called Colors - which is about getting jumped at night in a city lol. I almost feel ashamed to admit that I enjoyed that music once upon a time. Tbh I still would enjoy it if I remained ignorant! But I’ll never give that catheter-sucking piece of offal another click for as long as I live.
Idk what my point is here - I detest the regressive policies on the right, the fear they use against their own kind to divide and rule. The way it gets people to hearken back to the “Good Old Days!” As if things were better back then! Fuck it all - things were never that great to begin with, we are just burdened with knowledge the older we get. And it feels like the world gets worse as time moves on with the more burdensome knowledge we gain. It’s easy to be consumed by it all. And that is by design - it’s what the ruling class want.
Sorry for the rant. It feels thrash metal related, cuz gods damn, I would have loved to have shared a tune or two, but not if that fucking ingrown dingleberry would profit off of it. Thankfully the rest of the members of the band never followed his bullshit and left him behind pretty damn soon after the incident - and needless to say, Demons & Wizards was broken up and Blind Guardian has nothing to do with anything related anymore!
Let me know how you guys feel about this shit; I personally felt like I had to get it out. Haven’t even mentioned anything else about the other pieces of shit stewing the rightward trend of hatred and erasure that are playing OUR MUSIC, like quite a few black metal bands - especially of the second wave, so influential on the world of extreme metal, but that’s it’s own topic and idk, I only have so much energy lol.
I’ll link the former other member’s current bands too, however they’re in bands that plays mostly progressive metal or heavy metal.
Stu Block (vocals): The Midgard Project, Into Eternity
Jake Dreyer (guitars): Witherfall
Luke Appleton (bass): Blaze Bayley, Absolva
Brent Smedley (drums): Out of Darkness
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Thank you for this, Myr!
I feel like the whole world, including the world of metal, is jerking to the right further and further.
When I grew up in the 70’s/80’s, I found hardrock/metal as an escape from the mundane and restricted reality of pop music.
This new found underground movement was open, welcoming and progressive to new ideas and all people who were open and searching themselves.
I literally witnessed the birth and growing up of thrash, and it was the most exciting thing I have ever felt in my life!
This movement taught me the strength, worth, liberty and respect that life could (and should) be. The scene felt so incredibly united then, it was a thing of awe.
Metal was, in my experience back then, the most open-minded community that I could wish for. Anybody was welcome, provided they just loved the music!
These days, I just am baffled by the conservative and closed-minded ways metal (and the world as a whole) is in. I don’t know why and how it happened, but I feel lost. This is not my world anymore. The unity has gone and I wish it would return.
So, again, thank you for calling out the enshitification and standing up for what you believe in.
I’m with you! And I hope metal will find its true strength again and will lead the world to be a better, more open and understanding place once more.
Nuclear Assault • When Freedom DiesWell fucking said!
Hell yea, solidarity. We can only try to build a better future for ourselves and each other!
Powerful words, I appreciate this post. Fucking hate that people like that exist.
Thanks man. Hate the weakness that takes hold with fear and then thoroughly corrupts… or something idk lol. Some of my best words yet! “Dookie-diddler” lmao.
Ultimately musicians are just people, and sadly even talented people can be just as wretched as the rest of us. I don’t think the metal community is actually essentially any worse in regards to noxious political opinions than any other genre, it’s just the extreme and aggressive nature of the music encourages the artists to be more open about their own opinions.
I get being one person and being alone with such swirling negativity. And it’s definitely a personal problem for me cuz I loved this music at a very young point in my life. I’m just so fucking disappointed with his conclusions.
I’ll probably never forgive but I mean at what point do I reconcile this within myself? I definitely had to make this post as it’s been building since then.
At least there’s a wealth of other great artists out there that havent fucked up so royally. At least for me.
Always remember that the things that you liked about Iced Earth, are not the same as what has lead you to not being able to stand them. You did not love his music BECAUSE it had subtle chud adjacent messaging, you were most likely just doing what a lot of us subconsciously do, tune it out.
I’m not too far away to recognize that your reply is very wise. It’s still a little rage-inducing for me lol. The betrayal I feel won’t go away unless I shift my point of view but I suppose I’m not quite ready for that just yet.
I bailed on Iced Earth when the pretentious pile of shit The Glorious Burden came out. Jingoistic trash. Still enjoyed their earlier stuff, along with D&W (Hansi and Blind Guardian are among the GOATs IMO).
Seeing Schaffer at J6 was not a surprise. But it did poison the well. I can’t listen to IE without being reminded of what a trash human he is. D&W is somewhat more borderline as the main sound there is Kursch and not Barlow (who is another can of worms entirely), but it still has Schaffer’s fingerprints all over it.
It’s very frustrating. BG and IE were central to my entry into power metal, and D&W was a dream matchup 25 years ago (holy fuck I’m old). Sometimes I’m able to distance the art from the artist (GNR immediately comes to mind), but a lot of times I cannot. It sucks.
Man, thanks for this reply! Totally felt something was off to with all the “American bullshit” he put into Glorious Burden.
And while I’m only a power metal fan with certain tracks or bands, at the end of the day it’s still metal and I love it just the same. I do still gotta try more BG tho!
Was watching a playthrough recently of Brutal Legend from a Youtube channel I support and fucking When the Night Falls came on and immediately brought me out of my enjoyment, used to love that song too, for fuck’s sake lol. Now it’s a thorny complicated mess for me. I can’t seem to separate art and artist here like I could with H.P. Lovecraft or say… Doctor Seuss stuff lol.
Also wasn’t aware Matt Barlow was trouble either, I actually really liked his voice. Ashes of Ares, his band after IE, isn’t really doing anything for me though so, oh well.
It’s just such a complete shame.
Edit: just noticed your profile has a mashup of the “take my money!” Futurama meme and fucking G Gundam of all things and i love it.
Thanks lol, though I can’t take credit for the pic.
Re Barlow, I don’t know of anything specifically problematic. But if I’m remembering correctly, he quit the band after 9/11 because he wanted to join DHS and “defend the country.” The closest he got was cop. I remember seeing a video of him on stage at a local fair or something, in his role as law enforcement, rapping about safety or something like that. It was cringey and, well, bad. So it’s more association than anything else. I like his voice too, but I saw some live stuff after he got back together with Schaffer in 2020 I think and it was, um, not good.
Re Blind Guardian, their earlier stuff was more speed than power, so that might be more up your alley.
One final note on Schaffer, take a look at the edit history on his Wikipedia page. After the pardon, someone went on a prolonged whitewashing spree. Anonymous IP claimed to remove false information, registered user restores it with sources. Back and forth. Fucking loser.
