Hell Bent For Metal talks to Annabelle and Alisha from Witch Fever, the Manchester, UK-based majority-queer band who are all women or non-binary people. Tom hears from them about LGBT+ spaces in heavy music – or, more specifically, how they would love to see them exist, but queer spaces are more likely to be full of pumping pop music.
Annabelle and Alisha also speak about how their band exists in part to provide the representation in the scene they want to see – both from the point of view of their gender, and as members of the LGBT+ community. They explain their view on why heavy metal and alternative music in general has, historically, been less welcoming to people under both umbrellas.
Perhaps inevitably, this leads onto a discussion about the spectacularly poor behaviour they've been on the end of from straight men. Both of them are, however, quick to place that behaviour in context of the more positive experience of our world.
Matt talks about "Shock Me" by Baroness, why it has meaning for him as a bi man, and what it has to do with learning to deal with homophobia – especially in how you counter it when it's directed at you. He also explains why Baroness are one of his favourite bands, and why Tom is very wrong about them.
Both hosts also enter into a discussion on living honestly as queer folk – but how there's both a period when that has not been the case in the life of many, and how it's sometimes necessary to be dishonest even after you're out. They also talk about how the song relates to the feeling of unfairness many LGBT+ folk feel while grappling with their identities.
Tom also sees a relevance to the experience of coming out as gay, expecting everything to be sunlit uplands, and discovering the harsh realities of some aspects of gay life. And, somehow, manages to link the song to a classic Monty Python sketch. Because.
Plus this week's new entries for the Hate Crew Gaybar jukebox are 'Corrupted Pillars Of Vanity' by French avant-garde black metal band Ætheria Conscientia, and 'Dark Triad: Bitter Psalms To A Sordid Species' by mysterious British expansive extreme metallers Epiphanic Truth. And regular listeners will find it entirely predictable whose pick is which, based off those descriptions alone.
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