Defiled
[Photo via YouTube]

Metal band involuntary cancels shows amid religious authority backlash

The debate between death-metal fans and contrasting religious officials continues to heat up amid a band’s recent forced cancelation. According to Loudwire, Defiled involuntarily canceled their shows in Miri and Sibu this weekend due to Christian authorities in Malaysia contesting the band’s lyrical components.

Furthermore, the Council of Churches Malaysia suggested their scheduled appearance would be inappropriate given their show would occur during Easter weekend.

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“The CCM calls upon the relevant authorities to explain the basis for granting permission to such bands that promote their music by using extremely offensive and denigrating language that can hurt the religious feelings of others,” the council’s general secretary Rev. Dr. Herman Shastri says in a story with Channel News Asia. “This will be considered an affront to the religious sentiments of Christians in the country.”

Now, record label Season Of Mist has taken to Facebook to share the news.

Additionally, Defiled’s guitarist weighed in on the situation:

“I am quite disappointed that some people still have serious misunderstanding about metal music and metalheads in general,” guitarist Yusuke Sumita says in a Facebook post. “Some bands may be singing about satan, but it has to be understood that metal music is just metaphor to stand for intentional aberration… Most metalheads are peaceful and open minded individuals, nobody has intentions of hurting anyone. Nothing more, nothing less. I truly hope people will start to understand that.”

However, the band assure fans no other dates on their Doomsday tour have been canceled.

Recently, metal has been seen as the source of many violent crimes in the mainstream media. Just last week, the burning of three historically black Louisiana churches was alleged to have been influenced by “black-metal” music.

However, it was also noted that the 21-year-old suspect, Holden Matthews, was also a law enforcement officer’s son.

What do you think about the stigma surrounding metal music? Sound off in the comments below.

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