I'm uncertain of why, but have some intuitions as to why it seems a bit more common than average for a Vegan to be a fan of metal music (although this might be from confirmation bias, and maybe it's just that "metal-head" Vegans are more outspoken about their musical preferences, possibly.)Mr. Purple wrote:It's interesting how metal fans and veganism intersect so strongly. It seems so random, but there seems to be some correlation.
Though it's also worth noting that it seems pretty apparent that the metal community is kinda all over the place when it comes to interests and personality types. For every Vegan Black Metal Chef you have; you've also got some jerk who thinks it's a fun idea to parade pigs' heads around on the stage. For every lyricist who does a pretty good job at making intellectually provoking, well though out lyrics; you've also got some guy rambling about the new world order. For every socially progressive metal fan; you've got some Nazi apologists, etc. (I know that I did the "for every" thing a lot, but I just want to make it clear that I don't think that there's a perfect balance between the two, I just wanted to try to get across how it seems to be common for there to be a wide level of diversity in metal "circles"/communities. Then again, other genres likely also have very diverse listening bases.)
I guess something which draws some metal fans to Veganism might be partially from how there're various but similar kinds of notions that permeate much of the social dialogue in the metal community, like individualism (being okay with looking into things which aren't mainstream,) standing up for what's right/what you believe in (although this can create as many problems as benefits for some of the people who adhere to this general idea in a bad way,) and it's also common for bands' lyrics contributors to touch on topics in a way to try to bring intellectual insight to the listener (although it can get pretty pretentious and anti-intellectual if the person making the lyrics is trying too hard, or just doesn't know what they're talking about, but acts like they really do.) So, that may increase the likelihood of a metal fan becoming aware of animal agricultural practices, and possibly feeling more compelled to change for the better, if they value that.
Also, somewhat unrelated, but if there's one thing which I hate being so common among metal bands, it's the appreciation for leather apparel which so many bands have. It's gotten me to wonder if I should just stop listening to some of these bands as I like to buy my music, but don't want to support them, but in a way (I may be rationalizing) I feel that if I just buy their music, but don't buy any merchandise, or see them live that that may be a decent compromise, as I would prefer to keep listening to stuff which doesn't in itself have to do with this harmful stuff, although purchasing it does. I kinda feel that (for an analogy) that it's like "why did this evil company have to patent/trademark this tasty Vegan specialty food which isn't harmful itself, although it's also unnecessary, and the purchase of which supports a corporation which does cause some harm in its other business ventures with its monetary resources, that I would slightly contribute to in the purchase of such a product." Then it also comes to if I should only listen to Vegan artists, and if I should listen to much music at all with my time, since it's not necessary for me. I mean, while some bad metal musicians probably contribute more to animal suffering than average, other music artists also consume animal products (although it's also worth keeping in mind that many musicians have day jobs and could afford the food and normal clothing and would buy it anyways, but maybe if they made a profit from their music they might buy more than they would normally, but I'm not certain on that,) so I'm kinda thinking that maybe it is just the musicians who tie in acts which bring harm to animals with their live music act and such which would be worth avoiding, as that is more of a causal link? Then there's that I can't always find a lot of information about what various bands' values are, so I'm kinda wondering where a decent compromise could be made, although I guess it's really up to me to decide how far I think I can go... I guess I'll try to think more about this and come to a decision hopefully sometime in the near future.
So, on the music's merit itself, I would like to recommend this really interesting experimental black metal band which incorporates electronic, folk, industrial, pop, and a decent bit of other stuff into the band's sound, called; Thy Catafalque. I would guess the main guy who's behind the band (it's been him and one other guy for most of the band's career as full time members, although there've also been about a dozen guest musicians on the project's albums over the years) isn't Vegan just because of statistical probability/likelihood, (since the majority of the world's population isn't,) as I haven't seen anything where he said he was, although I haven't seen anything about him actively promoting any bad things, unlike some other bands in the genre.
Here's a link to the song (it's about 19 minutes though, also at about 18 and a half minutes anyone who wishes to listen might as well stop as it's just talking and ambiance after that point.) -- http://thycatafalque.bandcamp.com/track ... -g-pezetek
