The LGBTQ+ heavy metal podcast discusses a variety of ways an Amon Amarth banger makes them think about gay stuff (and Vikings), and puts albums from Grave Pleasures and Lamp Of Murmuur into HCGBs’ jukebox.
This week’s Camp Classic examines Viking melodeath masters Amon Amarth‘s ‘The Pursuit of Vikings’, from their 2004 album Fate of Norns. Whilst the record itself wasn’t entirely well-received, this song marked their first ‘hit’ and took them into new, much wider territories. After some fawning over how much they love the band, Tom and Matt manage to find a multitude of reasons why this song spoke to their queer side, naturally with a multitude of weird and wonderful digressions along the way. Namely the song’s stylistic similarities to Destiny’s Child, of course.
Matt goes first with his interpretation that the song could read like the advice of a senior queer figure, guiding a younger closeted queer through the coming out process, and how to navigate the tumultuous times thereafter, including finding self-acceptance and self-love, having to make hard choices and sacrifices, and the hopeful eventuality of finding true happiness.
Tom focusses more particularly on the song’s title, it sounding alike to those gay men who are only into guys who belong to a certain tribe. This leads to a wider discussion about the whole ‘tribe culture’ in the gay scene, the toxicity of ‘dating’ apps, and how it’s more common for queer people to be more open with others about their physical and sexual preferences after they’ve already done the hard part of telling people that they like the same sex in the first place.
After all the thirst in this week’s episode, it’s time for a drink at the Hate Crew Gaybar and this week the entries to the jukebox come from Finnish post-punkers Grave Pleasures (FKA Beastmilk) with their new, more upbeat effort, Plagueboys, and the third full-length release from solo black metal project Lamp of Murmuur, Saturnian Bloodstorm.
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