
There's been a considerable amount of chatter recently about whether or not Inquisition is a Nazi band. That's nice for headlines and click bait, but the bottom line is, "Who cares?" They are a middle of the road black metal band on an extremely independent label. They aren't exactly spreading their message to the masses, whether that message is racist or not. Furthermore, this is art, right? Is Inquisition unable to create the art that they want to create? Isn't it up to the music community to choose whether or not to buy the albums? If you're uncomfortable with whatever those dudes are doing, just ignore them. It's not your job to warn others of potentially offensive content, unless you are Tipper Gore and you think you are important. In an era where we have dickheads hiring folks to kill their wives or sick bastards using their "fame" to seduce women in order to molest their children, should we really be concerned about whether or not a dude from an underground black metal band complimented a guy on his swastika tattoo 8 years ago in a rented van? Wow. If that's interesting news, then you're looking way too hard.

There has been a recent rash of Cincinnati bands using Kickstarter or similar campaigns to fund recording projects. I don't know if this is big in other cities, but with this being Cincinnati we're talking about, I'm sure we're the last city to go this route. Everything that happens in Cincinnati already happened in the rest of the country 5 years ago. For example, people are still obsessed with limp wristed, effete indie rock around here. Enough said. Regardless, I'm just not comfortable with the idea of asking friends, family and complete strangers for money to record an album. It's not like you have cancer or something. Recording an album is a privilege. You are not entitled to recording fees just because your mom thinks your band is neato. I don't know any of these bands or their members personally (and I'm not aware of any metal bands participating in the disgusting trend), so I can't jump to conclusions, but the whole thing seems like the result of the spoiled, entitled generation that spawned out of the 90's. What happened to working hard, saving up money, and then recording an album when you are ready? One of these dudes even went so far as to ask the general public to help support his "life's work". There's a one in a billion chance that this becomes your life's work, pal. I didn't ask anyone to help me become an engineer (or a fake journalist, for that matter). Quit looking for handouts and get back to practice. That's how you make music your life's work. As an aside, I've supported bands on Indiegogo for tour funds, but that feels different to me. If you get offered a once-in-a-lifetime tour, you might need to come up with some funds pretty quickly or you might have to pass on the tour. I don't mind throwing $20 in the pot for that. An album on the other hand, that can wait until you raise the funds on your own.