NPZ #2 — DECEMBER 2024 — PAGE 13
From the early days of metal in Black Sabbath’s condemnation of war and the pigs that feed off it, the genre has never been without politics. And beyond the music, the ideological leanings of the fans and the musicians have also shaped the attitudes within the scene. Some may call for a separation of music and politics, but metal history has proved that politics have underlined, uplifted, as well as darkened the footstep of the genre’s legacy.
To examine how political opinion is distributed in the scene, a sample from various metal musicians and their attitudes towards Donald J. Trump, 45 and to-be 47th U.S. president. To clarify, commercially successful musicians do not necessarily reflect their fans when taking into account class status, and if their music is considered more or less blatantly politicized:
THOSE IN OPPOSITION TO PRESIDENT TRUMP
METALLICA, Kirk Hammett: “To say America is not great, that it lacks greatness, sets up a scenario for manipulation and control from others - pay attention people!” (@KirkHammett, Twitter, 2017)
EXODUS, Gary Holt: “You can't believe anything he says, 'cause he's a serial liar” ([Youtube] 2016)
SLIPKNOT, Corey Taylor: “I hate Trump and everything that he fucking stands for. I think [his supporters are] following blindly someone who doesn’t give a fuck about them. But the whole reason that you have this cult of Trump right now is because of just how far the gulf has become between the two political sides.” ([Consequence] 2023)
SEPULTURA/CAVALERA CONSPIRACY, Max Cavalera: “What Trump did here was really just taking the mask off and just exposing all the ugliness that was underneath America. But now the masks are off. And it's fucking crazy.” ([Blabbermouth] 2020)
SLAYER, Kerry King: “Trump is just a sideshow. I'm not even going to apologize to all the Trump followers. He's the biggest liar I've ever seen in politics. I mean, most of them are liars, but he just outright in-your-face lies.” ([Rolling Stone] 2016)
SYSTEM OF A DOWN, Serj Tankian: “Donald Trump is an absolute maniac. He’s only interested in himself, his own ego, his own everything. He doesn’t even care about other Republicans, it just happened to be the party that he took. He’s a showman, he’s almost unreal, but he is very dangerous.” ([Louder] 2024)
MUNICIPAL WASTE, Tom Foresta: On their controversial shirt (fig. i) “I mean, if you look at the past Waste art and our other bands’ imagery, this shirt is kind of a no-brainer…Don’t just hate Trump because our ridiculous band did a shirt. Read up on it, ask questions and form your own opinion.” ([Vice] 2016)
THOSE NOT-OPPOSED/IN-FAVOR TO PRESIDENT TRUMP
EXODUS, Steve Souza: “I vote for who the guy I think can do it. And over the last 10 years, I completely went right wing” ([Loudwire] 2021)
SYSTEM OF A DOWN, John Dolmayan: “I voted for him twice, and I'm not ashamed to say it. I'd vote for him again. I will vote for him again if he runs. I hope he does. I hope he does; you have my support. And the reason why is because I think he's doing things for the right reasons.” ([Blabbermouth] 2022)
THOSE AMBIGUOUS/AMBIVELENT TO PRESIDENT TRUMP
METALLICA, James Hetfield: “Politics, we try to stay away from that 'cause it polarizes people. If I sit here and say that I hate Trump or I love Trump, someone will think, 'Oh, I don't like his music anymore.' It's silly. So I like to keep it about music…” (La Tercera, 2017)
MEGADETH, Dave Mustaine: “I've got this reputation that I'm a right-winger. Well, check my voting record to see that I've voted Democrat and Republican. And it's just a shame that people are trying to destroy people's careers because of a vote.” ([Blabbermouth] 2019)
SLAYER, Tom Arraya: “I never would have guessed that there where so many snowflakes commenting their distaste for the new president. Like him or not, he is the president.” (referring to a post he made on the Slayer Instagram (fig. ii) that received lots of negative attention) [(The Quietus 2017)]
PANTERA, Phil Anselmo: “I’m no politico, but in my mind I always took for granted that Hillary would win because she was the superior political mind, or perceived to be so. Honestly, I’m still a bit surprised that Donald Trump won.” ([Clrvynt] 2016) “I think that if I had to be stuck on some political scale, I would be easily on the left, and probably surprisingly so on the left on a lot of topics” ([Blabbermouth] 2018)
HAVOK, David Sanchez: “Well, about the only upside I can see to that guy being in the White House is that people might begin thinking about why these things are happening and why they are allowing these things to happen…It’s not Donald Trump that’s the problem, [the] whole system is the problem.” ([Youtube] 2017)
HONORABLE "WOKE LEFTY" MENTION: RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE (pg. 1)
In conclusion, it is difficult to parse current day opinions, especially regarding the upcoming term, as many musicians may choose the James Hetfield method of silent ambiguity=profit. It would be interesting to see if metal gets more and more political in the next few years, or will the "keep politics out of music" crowd prevail? Time will tell.
Photos
LEFT: fig i — Municipal Waste’s Trump shirt
I saw someone wearing one at the Exodus show (pg. 7). Nice.
RIGHT: fig ii — Image posted by Tom Arraya to Slayer’s Instagram, 2017
