OpEd

Heavy Metal Rules, Metalsucks Sucks

Metalsucks published an article last week that essentially questions why Vegard Sverre “Ihsahn” Tveitan, the ringleader of black metal legends Emperor, would continue to work with some of his bandmates who were involved with the criminal activity of the notorious Norwegian scene in the early ’90s. The article’s author(s) discuss the often referenced arson of churches that guitarist Tomas Thormodsæter “Samoth” Haugen was involved with and convicted for as well as former drummer Bård Guldvik ‘Faust’ Eithun’s murder conviction, erroneously referring to the latter act as bigoted in nature by jumping to a conclusion based upon assumption. Additionally, in a separate Metalsucks article published in 2017, one of the site’s editors/writers, Axl Rosenberg, wrote, “Yes, Bård Guldvik ‘Faust’ Eithun murdered a gay man, Magne Andreassen, who allegedly propositioned him (not that propositioning Eithun would make Andreassen’s murder okay, obviously — but to hear Eithun tell it, it’s the reason for his homicidal act).” Rosenberg later added that he speaks “for both Vince and myself when I say that we won’t give Emperor a free pass any longer.”

At press time, I was unable to verify whether or not Metalsucks’ editors/writers actually wear superhero capes.

The problem with Metalsucks’ claim is that they provide no evidence suggesting that the act was motivated by homophobia. It is conjecture. In these two instances, and this appears to be a recurring problem with the website, Metalsucks prove themselves to be sloppy at best and disingenuous at worst. Eithun was quoted as using a homophobic slur in Lords of Chaos, a 1998 book that he described—upon my request for this article—as one including “a vortex of bad statements, misquotes and still youth gone wild out-eviling each other.”

Today, Eithun is quick to dismiss any suggestion that his regrettable actions had anything to do with hate crime. “I was never homophobic. I was born and raised in a home where I learned to respect women and everyone regardless of skin colour and always to defend the weak. What I did was a result of a troublesome childhood; I had no job or education, so I didn't`t really see a future for myself. And on top of that, all moral standards around the Helvete scene went out of the window. I am not saying that this makes my crime better in any way, but I never was a homophobe. I have friends today that are gay and I couldn’t care less.”

Looking back at what happened, Eithun was visiting his family in the city at which the Winter Olympic Games took place a couple of years later. After leaving a pub and walking through the Olympic park in the summer of 1992 in Lillehammer, Norway, he encountered Andreassen who propositioned him, according to Eithun. He followed Andreassen into a forest outside of Lillehammer where he stabbed him dozens of times before repeatedly kicking him in the head. Eithun was later imprisoned and served almost nine and a half years for his crime. His actions were unquestionably unjustifiable and inexcusable. A man’s life was cut short unnecessarily.

As undeniably deplorable as the act itself was, attempts to properly engage in media analysis and critique require that focus at times needs to turn from understandable value-laden judgments of content toward the form and presentation of said content. And on a fundamental level, if we are to have any faith whatsoever in journalism or any form of historical documentation, factual accuracy is mandatory. Metalsucks misses the mark yet again.

The demographic background of any victim is a logical point of inquiry as to a perpetrator’s motives since hate crimes are all-too real, but Metalsucks jumped to their conclusion. During an interview that I conducted with Eithun in 2007 for Unrestrained! Magazine for a feature on his band Blood Tsunami, Eithun expressed remorse for his actions—something Metalsucks incorrectly claims has never happened. He went on to state that the prospect of seclusion with someone is what opened the door for him to commit the heinous crime that day. Seclusion was opportunity. Rage and an inclination toward violence were the causal factors, not homophobic impulse.

As an exclusively op-ed driven site, we can obviously expect Metalsucks to express themselves. But no one should accept the website’s increasingly evident sloppiness in reporting. Worse than being guilty of questionable, agenda-based historical revisionism, Metalsucks is simply guilty of spouting factual inaccuracy. Aside from the aforementioned instances, they’ve recently accused Taake of being nazis. While none of the musicians being discussed in this article are likely to ever be in line for sainthood, Taake’s one-time, foolish, GG-Allin-like use of a swastika to be provocational, an act the band has since publicly apologized for, doesn’t mean its members are nazis, nor do the act’s anti-Islamic lyrics. While an anti-Islamic perspective can go hand-in-hand with racism, that isn’t unequivocally the case. There are numerous reasons justifying one’s criticism of a religion that has fostered, coming full circle, rampant homophobia and sexism. Who knows what Taake’s motivations were for penning those lyrics? Metalsucks doesn’t, but they pretend that they do. Metalsucks is increasingly disseminating flawed information via shoddy, sensationalistic, clickbait-hungry presentation that’s habitually filtered through clouded bias rendering them an unreliable source for those expecting factual accuracy in reporting.

Metal doesn’t suck, but Metalsucks sure as hell does.

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Those of us wanting to see clickbait sites like Metalsucks become less relevant need to stop clicking the hyperlinks. They thrive and survive from clicks. I caved in a handful of times the last couple of months, but the best approach to dealing with them is to ignore them altogether. Alternatively, to minimize the revenue-generating clicks they receive, if curiosity does get best of you, go to archive sites like archive.is and use the second box available at the bottom of the page labeled “I want to search the archive for saved snapshots” and enter the website’s main URL (web address).