Matt returns, and finds there’s a bumper crop of news (including talk of the the LGBT+ heavy metal podcast’s first live event), a Camp Classic on how Black Breath’s “Black Sin (Spit On The Cross)” feels like defiance to homophobes, plus a big week for the HCGB jukebox, with albums from Trivium, Four Stroke Baron and Frontierer.
The main chat for Hell Bent For Metal this week (given the busy week for the opening of the show) is all about how the most Swedish sounding band ever to come out of the US, HM2-enthusiast death metallers Black Breath, wrote a song that makes Satanism sounds like queer defiance to homophobes. Sort of. Who knew it was so easy to get from “Black Sin (Spit On The Cross)” to eschatological religious extremists to oral?
It’s very much 0 to NSFW mph in record time here, as both hosts immediately identify the concept of sin (of the variety Black Breath play with in precisely the way Satanic panic peddlers are absolutely obsessed with) as being hugely reminiscent of the way the religious variety of homophobe obsess about certain gay sex acts. They also both notice that this particular “sin” often gets more interest from these hate-mongers than it does from gay men themselves.
The conversation moves on to how Tom sometimes feels that, taking into account the connection between these two things, that might just mean there’s something pretty metal about same-sex relationships: Given heavy metal’s enduring relationship with opposition to religion, and given that those who’ve worked hardest to restrict the freedom of queer folk are frequently dogmatically religious, isn’t doing the bit of being queer they object to most a very metal form of rebellion?
With Matt having missed out on a pick last week, there’s a trio of additions for the Hate Crew Gaybar jukebox this time round. First up is what would have been Matt’s choice in HBFM #48, as ‘Classics’ by Four Stroke Baron is entered. It’s a completely batshit combination of prog, tech metal, and, er, The Human League (if The Human League lost their minds, anyway). Mad.
Second up, Tom’s pick is ‘In The Court Of The Dragon’ by Trivium, with the Floridians’ latest getting compared to classic Iron Maiden (although not stylistically – tune in to find out why). Surely, given Matt’s confirmed status as a Trivium superfan, Tom must be in for resounding agreement… right?
Last up, Matt wants everyone to have their mind liquidized by ‘Oxidized’ by Frontierer, the fourth album from the Scottish/American band who seem to want to ruin your brain before stomping your face into a squishy mulch. (Although their music’s not as nice as that sounds.) One for party night in the bar, obviously.
Listen to Hell Bent For Metal on Spotify here, listen on iTunes here, or choose one of the other ways to listen here.
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