In case you’ve been hiding under a stone-like idiomatic cliché for the past week, the United States Supreme Court decided that gay people really should be considered people. In other words, the banning of same-sex marriages in any state was ruled unconstitutional.
The Dillinger Escape Plan, possibly the most technical metal band on the planet, happened to think this was pretty sweet news. After all, their bassist Liam’s mother is out, and, while they all happen to be heterosexual, they’re pretty cool dudes.
As such, TDEP released some merch to commemorate the momentous ruling. They tweaked a powerful image of two muscle-y arms locked in what looks simultaneously like a manly embrace and arm-wrestling stance.
As they put it, the punk/hardcore/metal scene has not always been very friendly to homosexuals or women (which is definitely true), so they felt the need to make that statement. Really, in 2015, supporting human rights as a band should almost come across as attention whoring in disguise; it should’ve stopped counting as activism decades back. Fucking Macklemore even made that blandest of tracks for the cause years ago.
Still, of course, homophobic metalheads came out of the woodwork to publicly ‘de-fan’ the band on their Facebook page, where all of these announcements were made. So, the tech-shred pioneers did what you’d expect rebels of that stature to do: release more merch, only this time sell something about as gay as physically possible. As they describe the merch:
“[A] Pegasus, with a cock for a horn, ejaculating a giant rainbow, on a tie-dye…shit I mean rainbow soaked…tank top.”
Before all this hullabaloo, their pet cause was fighting depression. However, now the proceeds from this merch will be helping LGBTQ youth through The Trevor Project. So, aggro homophobic dudes in traditional basketball shorts, we salute you. Your ignorance is making these ridiculous tank-tops fly off the shelves and putting dough in the coffers of gay-friendly support groups. Hell, I hate tank tops but I think I need one myself.
TDEP are now an institution who don’t need to cling to shitty fans, because “there’ll be another, just like you.” Or, to put it in a more direct Dillinger beatdown: [LISTEN]
You smell like shit, not the truth
Full of device, not devotion
Conscience came right up to you and then you threw it back
You are the scum of the earth
You are the scum of the ocean
To you it’s above as below
You smear your filth across the world
