As for piracy, I do not “embrase” (sic) it. I have stated numerous times in my other blog entries about music that I actually condemn it, as I do the music industry for continuing to spread the falsehoods that piracy has led to their sales declines. The music industry is falling apart, there is no doubt about that, but they have no one to blame but themselves for it.

As for my dislike of these two stories… 1) I don’t like hypocrites, as Lars has shown himself to be and 2) I think the FBI has FAR better things to be doing with their time than chasing down some blogger over leaking some tracks from an album that will probably never see the light of day.

ass….e

Great point about the roots of heavy metal tying in with punk rock, though that genre has its fair share of bands that are part of the machine too. Still, these musicians need to realize that their fans really don’t want to hear them whine about only making x amount of millions of dollars, especially considering the blue-collar nature of the heavy metal fan. It’s a big reason Rage Against the Machine still has its diehard fans even though they haven’t released a new album in years.

I wonder if there’s been any economic or psychological studies done as to why the richer you get the richer you apparently want to be…

Heavy Metal was supposed to carry with it some of the same founding principles as punk rock, but as the metal bands got bigger and bigger, they became part of the machine they supposedly hated.

Now, don’t get me wrong, there’s certainly nothing wrong with getting paid for your work, but when you’ve made millions upon millions and you whine and cry that you’re not getting another million or whatever, it all comes across as very, very shallow and immediately devalues a lot of your music.

Now, I was never a huge fan of either of these bands, but I though they were these bad-ass heavy metal rock stars / cowboys, turns out they’re just pampered divas!

Lars doesn’t get it, he just wants to appease his customers but doesn’t understand it’s the music that won them over and the lack of quality music that lost them.

It’s sad really, and it just ties into my long standing belief that you can only attain so much power / money before it gets to your head and changes you. So if I ever make it big, I’m donating that money, because as Kelly Price so eloquently put it:

“It’s like the more money we come across, the more problems we see.”