The LBGTQ+ heavy metal podcast reveals that Anathema’s “Untouchable Part 1” and “Untouchable Part 2” are a perfect pair of songs for a heartbroken gay man, plus there are HCGB picks from No/Más and Septicflesh.
After promising to do a Camp Classic on ‘Untouchable, Part 1’ weeks ago, and having to keep putting it off for various reasons, Hell Bent for Metal finally get to discussing the queer relevance of this beautiful song by goth metal-turned-prog superstars Anathema.
The hosts come at it from very different angles but can instantly recognise the other’s viewpoint. First up, Matt reads the song as the situation which many can relate to where you’re in a loving relationship with someone for a time, but they fall out of love with you and break up, and how hard that can be to deal with, and how hard it can be to repair yourself and move on from and be able to face the world of beginning anew with dating and relationships.
Tom, however, sees the song as having that same loving relationship with someone, but then rather than one person falling out of love with the other, one has to let the other go for whatever reason – maybe work, family commitments or a vast array of other justifications. There’s talk on how, after knowing that that’s the best thing and the right thing to do, it’s still hard to try to block the ex from your mind, the regrets and the wanting them back, and how every little thing you see or hear can somehow remind you of the person you lost and what you once had together.
There’s chat on the various methods of trying to get over such a heartbreak and get back to normalcy, but recognition that there is no ‘correct’ way to do so, and that everyone needs their own time and space to figure out their way back and adjust to single life. Tom recounts why the song is particularly close to his heart.
After that, the guys explore the other side of the same coin in ‘Untouchable, Part 2’. This time, the hosts both view it from the lens from which they viewed the first part, albeit at a different part of the story. Matt opts for the viewpoint of trying to chase the person who broke up with you and win them back, even if it’s clear that they don’t feel the same way and that the energy and effort is probably being wasted. There’s a lot of discussion about how difficult it can be to stop hyper-focussing on something that causes pain, and theories as to why perhaps that is.
Tom this time relates more closely to Matt’s interpretation, albeit from a place much closer to home. He recounts the time in his life where he’d had to go through a situation much like that described, and his experiences of dealing with it at the time. He tells of listening to this song during that period of his life and how in one way it felt beneficial and cathartic, and in another it only made everything feel worse. The song did, however, stop that notorious text begging the other person to come back, from being sent.
After all the sorrow, the guys visit the Hate Crew Gay Bar to cheer themselves up with some disgusting metal. This week’s picks see Consume / Deny / Repent by Floridian grindcore maestros No/Más entered, along with the 11th full-length effort from symphonic death-metallers Septicflesh, Modern Primitive.
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