Do you know this guy? Yes? Then you will know about him and what he has recently done to upset most of the metal community, if not the entirety. If not, then in a nutshell Mr. Phil Anselmo formerly of Pantera and now front-man of Down deliberately used the Nazi salute and bellowed 'White Power'.

Racism does not belong in metal, well only in one sub-genre and for blatantly obvious reasons, the aforementioned NSBM movement which essentially is 'National Socialist Black Metall'. Said bands would sing about the Holocaust (in appraisal), fascism, pagan-related topics and hatred towards not just Jewish people but also various ethnic groups such as Muslims, Blacks, Orientals and other people of non-white and Aryan descent. Varg Vikernes is one musician who is an open racist and  supporter of said metal sub-genre, in fact he would be applauding Phil's antics during this gig, despite it's appalling nature and his 'grovelling' apology, come on do you really think the metal community would forgive you? Actions speak louder than words, and Phil? The metal community will take you 'Down'.

When you see metal bands emerge from various parts of the world with widely different ethnic backgrounds, in fact not only bands but musicians alike. Think Jesse Leach (Devil You Know / Ex-Killswitch Engage), Freddy Lim (ChthoniC), Derrick Green (Sepultura), Mike Smith (Ex-Suffocation), etc., I'd love to see these musicians perform with Phil on that night, I just can't imagine Phil walking off the stage in a straight line let alone legs intact.

Racism is bad enough as it is without a (well it seemed) respected metal musician doing something so blindingly stupid and highly abhorrent, from which has mounted a huge social media storm against him - essentially he has fallen victim to his own actions.

But despite this, racism appears to be receiving a welcomed kick in the teeth by metal musicians, bands and fans alike. Global Metal Apocalypse has analyzed planet metal and has come up with three points as to how and why metal music has become a way of bringing the worlds peoples together through one passion, one music, one love.

1. Sub-Saharan African Metal

You know to think that Africa is developing a rapidly growing breadth of metal bands from East to West and South to North, disregarding North Africa for this point (as covered later) we begin on the topic of bands who live south of the Saharan desert, or to put it plainly black people.

The pictured metalhead is from Botswana as highlighted in a CNN article linked here, when you think about it when Africa is the last frontier for metal music to emerge from and then to think that these are people from medium-to-poor nations in terms of economy, life expectancy and the like.

To think that the following listed countries have at least one metal band in their country, more importantly one with black musicians:- Angola, Botswana, Uganda, Cape Verde, South Africa, Mozambique, Kenya, Togo, Madagascar, Mauritius, Zambia, Namibia, Nigeria, Cameroon, Burundi and Zimbabwe just goes to show that the African nations are enjoying a musical shift and because of this they have attracted fans from their own and neighboring countries.

In fact it's the likes of Skinflint, Vale Of Amonition, Iron Sliver and Mortal Soul who are making a buzz in Europe, with the first former signing to a label in Europe.

So yeah Phil? Sub-Saharan Metal fans and musicians stand united and point their fingers at your face with disgust.



       2. Alienating your peers in the metal community.

Well Robb Flynn hits the nail right on the head, watching this video he makes the statements that Phil Anselmo sympathizers ought to apprehend and hear. Because those who support Phil's actions are just as racist!! No, there is no room for racism in metal.

I hope, and I don't, which I agree is a contradictory before I have even started writing the next paragraph, that Down do not get to perform anymore. I hope, no matter what band Phil belongs to he never, ever gets on a major stage again. There again, he might as well get the deserved abuse from the respectable metal community he deserves, not Nazi sympathizers battle crying 'white power', this action by Phil Anselmo SHOULD NOT GOT UNNOTICED, NOT ONCE, NEVER.

Well Phil let's be honest I very much doubt that the likes of Corey Taylor, Robb Flynn, Bruce Dickinson, in fact all the metal greats could not even look at you in the eye. As for the bands who looked up to you, note I say 'looked', probably now hate you as much as your band mates hate you for one being a closet racist and two bringing shame on the band Down.

The media alike will say what the community is thinking, heck I am speaking on behalf of the global community of whom I love endearingly. We are all brothers and sisters, we are all one in this music movement, but you, he he, you Phil Anselmo are nothing but a disgrace to the metal community. Apologize all you like, it's all on the internet for the world to see.

We are a community, A COMMUNITY PHIL! WE LOOK AFTER EACH OTHER, YOU ARE NOT WELCOME WITH YOUR RACIST VERBIAGE.

        3. Folk Metal

Why folk metal? Why bring this into this article? The clue is in the name.

We are all folk in this community, not you Phil Anselmo. Racism is not welcome. What? Are you racist towards Black Metal? Get a grip, retire because your career is considered redundant, finished.

Folk Metal is embraced by various races, nationalities and religions. We have had bands from Israel like Orphaned Land, creating Middle-Eastern influence folk metal thus touching upon their own cultural understandings. ChthoniC from Taiwan, who sing about their historical past - are you racist towards them because they're Orientals?

Or how about Myrath from Tunisia? Because they're Muslim? What about Tyr from the Faroe Islands, because they're not American? Because none of the bands mentioned are like you? We are all folk in this community, we are all together standing as one. You know Phil? You've said so much hatred and disgust over the years and we've tolerated it, but this is beyond toleration.

As a lover of the global community, I was offended and I stand by the world's musicians, be it Robb Flynn, Till Lindemann, Devin Townsend or my beloved brothers and sisters in Asia, Africa, etc. In fact I stand by every single metal musician who opposes your vile and cowardly antics.

I respect all metal musicians, well not all, I don't respect Varg Vikernes and CERTAINLY NOT YOU PHIL ANSELMO.

RACISM DOES NOT! DOES NOT BELONG IN METAL.

Considered to be one of the most underground metal scenes in South America, Venezuela is under the spotlight and not for any good moral reasons.

Verging on bankruptcy for anyone is never good, but for a country it can only be compared to an apocalypse, in this case a financial one. Having run amok financially with inflation at an eye-watering 720% and trying to sort out a shrinking economy that shows very little promising signs of resurrecting itself, Venezuela cannot even look over it's shoulder at it's vast swathes of oil reserves as a means of shoring it's financial sector up.

Of course the moral of spending less than you earn or profit is basic common sense with or without it being placed into an economic context, however Hugo Chávez's socialist government clearly forgot this logical ruling and thus spent money as if it was going out of fashion. In the long-term this resulted in the government doing what badly-run economies do, which is print more money (yet you need money to operate the printing machinery right? Funny no?) and so whilst your reading this no doubt you will be thinking, how on earth does this apply to metal music? Read on to find out.


Speaking to a musician who won't be named for confidential reasons, he states that there are numerous factors "which contribute to the current situation, on the one hand Venezuela is a country that always lives off of oil revenues and on the other the low oil price has been compromised due to the economy", so if oil sales are meant to drive up profits and thus turned into revenue and the oil itself is dirt cheap, then thinking like an accountant would enable anyone to see the flaw in this.

Well, ok so for example oil is sold at a low price, this is great for consumers because they have to pay less right? Theoretically that's great, but if oil is your sole sector that the nation depends upon to raise finances to 'fuel' the economy then having low prices means minimized profit thus in turn means lower annual revenue and without going too economically-deep, you see where it is heading right?

Moreover the musician blames the economical state on "political factors linked to the extreme right who want to overthrow the current government through economic force, they are also finance by the American and Colombian governments, this is usually something that traditional media outlets make no comment on despite it's wholesome truth". If this proves to be the case, then perhaps this would be extremely damaging for all three entities mentioned, not just in  the Americas but more globally.

In a music context, this economical impact has left musicians with a a somewhat ironical contradiction in as far as the crisis has brought on opportunities, such as limiting "the musicians to get equipment made in other countries, because Venezuela sadly is a consumer society, instead of not developing their income", so much for the notion of spend some and save some. However the importance of said people and what contributes to the current economical crisis is that in Venezuela it "becomes extremely difficult to bring foreign bands to our country, but allows our people to be aware of local music", now you would think that by bringing in foreign bands it would help boost interest by bands booking venues to perform at, thus the venues and promoters earn from this and in a macro-environmental context enabling the economy to feel some relief from the 'foreign indirect investment'.

Ending on a slightly positive note, it means that Venezuelans are learning and adjusting to consume national rock and metal bands, however the sole downside is that at present they seem to be fairly closed to supporting only foreign bands and "hardly support national bands, it is this crisis that is allowing and enabling awareness of the national movement of rock and metal to be raised", thus suggesting that whilst economical and social turmoil may well be hampering the metal and rock music scenes, Venezuelans generally are growing accustom to the breadth of national talent that are parading about their streets in extremely dire times.

The Romanian artist Costin Chioreanu recently released a collection of music entitled “The Quest For A Morning Star”, to raise funds for the victims of the recent tragedy at Club Collectiv, in Bucharest (30.10.2015)

All proceeds raised from the paid digital downloads were donated to a foundation collecting funds for the victims.

His campaign ended on 27.11.2015, and Avantgarde Music took over now a physical release in Deluxe A5 digipack: again all profits will be collected and transferred to the Foundation.


Chioreanu is well known and highly respected for his graphic works for At The Gates, Arch Enemy, Napalm Death, Arcturus, Darkthrone, Mayhem, Ulver and many others. A musician himself, he has collaborated with various artists to create “soundtracks” to accompany his exhibitions in the past. These soundtracks have been made available via BandCamp until 27.11.2015, with all proceeds to be donated to help with medical bills and funeral expenses of those who have been affected by the fire.


What happened:

The Colectiv nightclub fire was a deadly fire in Bucharest, Romania, on 30 October 2015, which killed 60 people (26 on spot, 34 in hospitals) and injured 151. The fire, the worst incident in Romania happened at an entertainment event, occurred during a free concert performed by the Metalcore band Goodbye to Gravity to celebrate the release of their new album. The band’s pyrotechnics, consisting of sparkler firework candles, ignited the club’s flammable polyurethane acoustic foam, and the fire spread rapidly.

Most of the victims were poisoned by toxins released from the burning foam. Overwhelmed by the high number of victims, Romanian authorities transferred some of the seriously injured to hospitals in Israel, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, UK, Norway, Germany and France.

An all-stars benefit project whose profits will be entirely donated to the victims of the 30/10/2015 arson in Bucharest, Romania, where 60 metal fans died while attending a concert by local band Goodbye to Gravity.

Costin Chioreanu, worldwide known visual artist and musician, together with nonetheless than David Tibet (CURRENT 93), Rune Eriksen “Blasphemer” (ex-Mayhem guitarist), Attila Csihar (Mayhem) and Mirai Kawashima  (from SIGH) have forged a marvelous album, both musically and visually. Marvelous, intimate and obscure soundtrack-like music adorned with 8 stunning arts / designs made by Costin.