I have so many fond memories of my first heavy metal festival. It was Download 2012, and I was 15 years old. Metallica headlined, playing their landmark Black album in full as part of its 20th anniversary tour, and it was my first exposure to one of my future favourite bands, Trivium. But just as important as the music I heard that day was the sense of acceptance I felt when I was there. Outside of that field, my shaggy hair and my penchant for noisy riffs were looked down upon; inside, everybody looked like me. It seemed like some kind of paradise, and I went home feeling empowered.
I’m far from the only person who’s had an experience like this. It’s easy to dig up interviews with everyone from Metallica’s James Hetfield to Judas Priest singer and gay icon Rob Halford about how heavy music champions the misfit – or at least it’s supposed to.
This week, Marilyn Manson was confirmed to support Slipknot in front of 90,000 people at Wembley Stadium next July. He was booked despite the wave of sexual misconduct allegations levelled against him, plus a lawsuit from his former assistant alleging physical, emotional and psychological abuse that’s set to go to trial in November 2027. (The singer denies any wrongdoing, and in 2025 a four-year investigation into his alleged crimes was dropped with no charges filed.) If metal is supposed to uplift the downtrodden, then putting a man accused of wrongdoing by more than a dozen women on one of Europe’s biggest stages feels like the antithesis of everything the genre stands for.
