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
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.