The last-minute cancellation of Swedish black metal act Watain’s concert last week and the brouhaha surrounding the saga has left me frustrated and concerned.

It all began when I heard about the petition raised on the eve of the concert, which sought to get the show canned. While I understand that the band’s “Satanic” antics and lyrics may be offensive to some, a band playing to a small group of fans didn’t seem like a credible threat to public safety.

What’s more, all the upset parties could have stayed safely out of reach of the band’s allegedly corruptive influence by simply not attending the show. Instead, some 17,000 petitioners succeeded in imposing their values on another, much smaller group – yes, metalheads have rights too – and denied at most 200 Watain fans their right to a night of music.

Even more aggravating were a handful of petitioners – still rejoicing from their perceived success in influencing the concert ban – who decided that they should step up efforts to block even more upcoming concerts from taking place.

And in case anyone thinks that no one was hurt in the process, spare a thought for the show’s local organisers who have been left out of pocket and are now awaiting the authorities’ response to their request for compensation.

Adding fuel to the (hell?)fire were baffling comments made by Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam, not least of which was his claim that the “petition per se did not influence the (Ministry of Home Affairs’) decision” at the eleventh hour to “advise” the Info-communications Media Development Authority (IMDA) to cancel the show.

Nevertheless, he also admitted that the MHA had been aware of the many concerns expressed in the days before the concert and conducted a “further security assessment”. Senior clerics were apparently consulted, too – although one would imagine that they would be the least reliable source for an objective assessment of the threat that Watain poses to our society.

View photos All I see are angry musicians and metalheads. (PHOTO: Facebook / Boplay Photos) More

In further explaining the need for the cancellation, Shanmugam highlighted the race of some of the concert attendees by referring to a photo showing the band and their fans giving the “one-finger sign” to the camera. He claimed that Christians looking at the picture – which he described as comprising “mainly young Malay men” – might wonder “(Is) this what Muslims think of us?”

I believe this assessment is off the mark in its presumptions. It would seem more reasonable to think that those viewing the picture – whether Christian or otherwise – might see only a bunch of angry musicians and fans defiantly expressing their disappointment.

It would have been better if Shanmugam had not brought up the race issue at all, given how it has sparked vitriol online. Better, too, if the concert had been allowed to quietly take place without interference.

Instead, in an ironic yet somewhat predictable turn of events, an act meant to appease the feelings of a select group has only led to greater animosity and furthered divisions within our society.

Now that our nation rests safe from Watain’s “Satanic” influence, I would like to ask a few (rhetorical) questions:

1. Has stopping the show helped to stem the tide of moral decay from reaching our shores?

Spend just 10 minutes on the internet and you’ll find worse things than whatever’s contained in any of Watain’s lyrics. A night spent at Orchard Towers would also likely prove more “corruptive” than any concert.

Meanwhile, Spotify can stream just about any black metal band you want straight to your ears, at least two porn sites still rank among Singapore’s most visited websites and there’s even a Netflix TV series called “Lucifer” – alongside a host of other shows about serial killers, zombie apocalypses, porn stars, cult leaders and drug dealers.

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