If there’s one thing metal fans love more than nasty riffs, it’s bickering. About what? Anything, really. From how big Machine Gun Kelly is to a laundry list of things pertaining to Metallica, there’s a lot that metalheads need to just get over already.
More than 30 years after the release of …And Justice For All, it seems as if the subject of the absence of bass on the 1988 record is a monthly talking point. The be-all and end-all answer fans have been searching for will simply never come. Perhaps it already has and nobody is willing to accept it, but the reality is that many people involved in the process have a different story to tell. Can we please — PLEASE — just give it a rest? Yes, it sucks and, no, there’s nothing anyone can do about it (other than remix the album yourselves and slide those EQ faders off to the left up).
In short — there is no dead horse left to beat here. The horse has been turned into an unrecognizable pulp that only a powerwasher can effectively clean off the street.
Don’t get this wrong — debate is a huge component of what makes metal fans so loyal and passionate. It fuels decades of conversation between aging heshers and newcomers alike, but discussing the merits of Judas Priest vs. Iron Maiden is a more enjoyable wellspring of chatter than hashing out an argument about whether or not Poppy deserves to be in the metal scene. Unless you work in A&R or talent booking, it’s not up to you!
And, of course, there’s the whole Machine Gun Kelly debacle. A common reaction is to dismiss his success — which is far greater than almost any band we cover on Loudwire — and ding him for switching careers from rap to pop-punk. Since when does finding success in two radically different genres make you a failure? It’s actually quite the opposite — it makes you a unicorn.
This isn’t meant to slag the entirety of the metal community. There are many redeeming elements to this scene, but sometimes enough is enough and it is time to move on from certain things and no longer let them dominate your emotions.
So, here are 16 Things Metalheads Really Need to Get Over.
“We love you all!” —Ozzy Osbourne
16 Things Metalheads Really Need to Get Over
The ‘Big 4’ of 17 Metal Subgenres
Everyone knows the ‘Big 4’ of thrash metal, but what about some other styles of metal?
