So last night, Saturday the first of December 2012, I went to the Rock And Roll Hotel to see Cannibal Corpse play. The show was brutal and fun, as Cannibal Corpse shows tend to be, but unfortunately this isn’t a review of that show.
At the Cannibal Corpse show I was informed that a post I had recently written, namely my review of the Darkened Nocturn Slaughtercult show at El Caracol Bar (posted here), has caused the venue to back out of any upcoming metal shows there. That includes the upcoming thirteen band Satan’s Unholy Abomination Fest that was to take place there on December 15th. The fest will still happen on December 15th but it has now been moved from Silver Spring to El Oasis in Baltimore, Maryland, and info on that is posted here. Some Montogomery County inspector stopped by El Caracol last Wednesday and didn’t like how it had hosted the show and I guess that was enough to cause the venue itself to decide to stop hosting metal shows there at all. At last night’s Cannibal Corpse show, I was told about all of this and that my review had been used as some sort of evidence about how things were run there. I was told all of this by someone who is part of putting those metal shows on at El Caracol Bar but I’m not trying to call anyone out or name any names here. Anyways, this person wants me to completely take down my review of the show, or at least edit it drastically to remove the parts I wrote about safety. And that is what brings us to the title of this post.
I can’t in good conscience censor my website like that. I just can’t. I’ve worked too hard to make this site what it is to just take down unpopular posts after they are written. It would be one thing if I had made up stories and lies about the show I went to there but I didn’t. I actually enjoyed the show overall. The person I spoke with said he didn’t want to have to tell everyone that I was the reason the Satan’s Unholy Abomination Fest got moved to Baltimore and that no more shows will happen at El Caracol. I don’t know what they meant exactly by that. Maybe they meant that by outing me some people would stop visiting my site and actively talk trash about it or maybe they meant some of the regulars of the metal shows there would come after me or something. Either way it doesn’t matter, because I’m calling myself out in this post. Even if I did remove the post I don’t think it would make any difference now, the damage is done.
I certainly didn’t want the venue to stop hosting shows there. Hell, I even spoke to several people at that show who told me they wouldn’t have even known about it if not for my site. I love black metal and if there is a way I can help them find a new venue in the area that would host these well attended concerts of underground black metal bands I will gladly do so. I certainly don’t harbor any ill will to them and I’m not trying to create some divide here in the local metal scene. I try very hard to get more people out to more metal shows in the area and it isn’t like this website is paying my bills. I do this because I fucking love heavy metal. I’m sorry that El Caracol isn’t going to host any more metal shows there but even if some sort of authorities were somehow tipped off to the place by my post, I’m not the one who was over serving people and not kicking people out for fighting, and it certainly wasn’t me who constructed the stage or anything else there. I am a writer and I wrote about what I saw and experienced, the good and the bad. That’s what I’m supposed to do. Would you all really prefer my site if I only wrote glowing reviews and complimentary posts about everything? What kind of journalistic integrity would I have then? This isn’t the first time someone has asked me to take a post down or edit content on my site, and it probably won’t be the last. I don’t plan on ever taking down any of my content though. I have to stand for something.
Feel free to leave any comments below you have regarding all of this, even if you want to trash me or this site. I’m not here to censor you either. Tomorrow it’s back to normal on the site and that starts with a new concert ticket give away. Stay metal everyone, and support the scene you’re a part of!
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