Don't be an asshole

 We as metal heads are one of the tightest groups of people who aren't actively involved in one another's day to day lives. Most metal heads will defend another when attacked by a normie for our taste in music. I don't have to know anything about you other than you are wearing a Gojira shirt and you actually know who they are.

 So why then is there so much hate within the community. Especially online. It's constant on Facebook, Twitter and Reddit. Hell even on Instagram. The nicest social media site on the web.

 I see comments all that time that belittle or straight up spew hate because someone likes a band the commenter doesn't. Why. It's so easy for you to just say nothing. Or dissent with the opinion without being a hard boiled dickhead about it.

 We have probably all heard "you can't really like that music" from someone. But we do bitches. So why when a fellow metal head who has dealt with the same thing we have get berated by the community they feel like they belong to?

 Music, like many things in life is highly subjective. In no world do two people exist that have the exact same taste in music. If I have 100 bands in common with you there are 50 you love that I hate.

 I saw a scenario take place on Facebook just the other day. A kid (not a kid but you get it) posted a meme about a band being awesome. In the text he said something to the effect of, thanks for the add, I'm new to metal, can't wait to hear about new bands.

 This kid got trashed because the band in the meme was what we love to call entry level metal. Comments like "start by getting better taste in metal" or "that band is trash" were running rampant. 

 Sure as someone who is well versed in metal maybe it did look like normie behaviour. But we all start somewhere. Very few of us are born into the scene. Who knows what happens from here for this kid. Maybe he brushes it off and keeps exploring. But maybe he sees all the hate and listens to mumble rap instead. Whatever that is.

 Point being lift each other up. The metal community can be toxic. I love you all but some of you are assholes.

 We should strive to do this in every aspect as life. Especially when discussing something as highly objective as our taste in metal.

 I'm not saying we can't have fun with it. We should. Some ribbing and humor is fine. Fuck! I literally just got chirped for not caring for something. "I'm sorry it doesn't have 10,000 blast beats a minute". I laughed. Literally laughed out loud. But two factors were at play here. The conversation was with someone I know, and the conversation didn't start and end with my friends opinion. We have established that we aren't going to see eye to eye on everything. But I have discovered a lot of bands I like or even love because of his recommendations. If this were my first interaction with him I probably wouldn't listen to shit else he had to say.

 The worst part about it all is that the majority of us can tolerate little to no music from other genres. But we don't go out of our way to fuck with them. Most of the time it's a broad swipe at a genre as a whole. Yet we feast on our own. Straight Donner party style. But without an ounce of necessity behind it.

 I have seen content creators like Jared Dines or The Punk Rock MBA get the most hateful comments vomited in mass on their YouTube channels. Why? Sure Jared can be a bit hacky at times. But he is also creating original content for the purpose of entertainment. If you aren't entertained move the fuck along. On top of that both of them are spreading the gospel of our blessed hardcore and heavy metal to someone who may have never been exposed otherwise. So instead how about we say something like "you're not for me but keep spreading the good word". Fucking copy and paste if you need to.

 All that said keep making fun of Five Finger Death Punch. Mad respect for supporting the troops but maybe write more than two riffs and quit, for the love of Satan, quit bastardizing classic songs.