A black metal band from Houston, Texas came under fire after playing an overly literal game of Pass the Pigs at one of their shows. On Friday January 19, Houston-based black metal band Martyrdom was playing a local gig at the Houston venue The White Swan Live, and a band member tossed a severed pig’s head around the crowd in a move that has most likely ensured Martyrdom will never secure an opening slot for Earth Crisis. One Instagram user did capture the incident on video.
Apparently, some people took offense to an innocent animal’s head being tossed around like a beach ball. One of the offended parties was Kim LaFon of Flying Pigs Animal Sanctuary in nearby Waller, Texas. LaFon told Houston Public Media:
“I can’t imagine that most of the people in that crowd did not think that was the most disgusting and horrific thing they’ve ever seen. If they didn’t think that, there’s something inherently wrong with them.”
Still, in online discussions, reactions ranged from disgust to “been there, done that.” A Los Angeles hardcore band called DIMEBAG bragged on Twitter that they pulled off the stunt first at one of their own shows, while metal veterans brought up the time that Bad Luck 13 did the same thing at Hellfest 2004. To be fair, the kids from Lord of the Flies did it before any of them.
Following the controversy, Martyrdom issued an apology that was carried by Lambgoat in which they apologized to vegans and Muslims although, strangely enough, not to pigs:
“Hi everyone
“we just want to start off by saying we are incredibly sorry to anyone we offended with our actions and gimmicks on stage.
“We are a black metal band, and as part of it, we try to add a little bit of imagery and shock value to our set. Unfortunately our acts has gotten carried away and way out of hand, offending many and even harming some.
“We want to apologize to any vegans, Muslims, or other minority groups we may have offended, and to anyone who was harmed by our act.
“Most importantly we want to apologize to the White Swan, and Harry, the sound guy, specifically. thank you so much white swan for giving us the opportunity to play there.”
The apology brought on almost as much criticism as the original stunt had, with NBC News reporting that social media users were harassing Martyrdom for “Bending over for cancel culture.” Apparently the only way to win over everyone on the Internet is to never do anything and certainly never apologize for it afterwards.