Disney hates Metal Machine Head gig censored

Disney cancelled a series of metal gigs back in September.

Worcester Telegram & Gazette News -Thursday, September 20, 2007 Machine Head’s music rattles Disney

Machine Head is disturbing The Mouse.

Twice this month, House of Blues concert venues on Disney-owned property — one in Anaheim and one in Orlando — booted long-booked Machine Head concerts just days ahead of the scheduled performances. The Orlando House of Blues also forced death-metal band Cannibal Corpse to change venues.

Headbanger’s Blog � Guest Blog: Machine Head’s Robb Flynn Talks Censorship

Machine Head frontman Robb Flynn wrote a guest blog about his views on citizenship and censorship...

I have been on the road touring for over half of my life, 13 years of which have been with Machine Head. This is what we do. Frankly, it’s all we know how to do. And in the 13 years we’ve been touring, we have never experienced the kind of flat-out extortion that we were just privy to. Never did we think that what we just witnessed over the course of the last few weeks would ever be possible, let alone tolerated in this day and age. But as I sit here writing these words to you, we are still in an utter state of shock.

About a month ago, we were told that our concert at The House Of Blues in Anaheim, California (which is on Disney property) — after having been on sale for six weeks — was going to be moved on two days notice because Disney had begun silently enacting a blanket policy to eliminate all heavy metal shows from the two House of Blues venues that reside on Disney property. Now, of course, no one would go on record about exactly what Disney’s brand new issue(s) with metal seemed to be (understandably so). But the “unofficial” gist is that metal lyrics were deemed “inflammatory” and metal fans deemed “undesirable.”...

But when a corporation like Disney forces the cancellation of your show because your style of music is “inappropriate,” it really sticks in your craw, especially when you think about what’s playing at the theater right next door. For example, now playing at the Downtown Disney AMC Theater are a number of movies rated “R” for, among other things, “strong sexual content”, “strong horror violence,” “intense sequences of graphic brutal violence,” nudity and drug use. It goes without saying that a heavy metal show is (with the exception of violence) fairly tame by those standards. Hell, even by the oft-assumed worst-case scenarios preached by ignorant conservative groups about “the evils of heavy metal,” the genre still falls well short of offering its fans the sort of influences present in the major motion pictures playing a mere hop, skip and a jump away.

The entire post is intelligent and well thought out and raises important issues.

More background here on coverage:

Machine Head - News

Given the popularity of Machine Head in the UK in particular this is an interesting choice.

Disney Bans Metal, antiMusic calls for Disney Boycott - antiMUSIC News

Nevertheless, we here at antiMusic will do our part and we will no longer carry any articles related to anything Disney including Hollywood Records until they stop their censorship. We encourage you to join us in this boycott and refrain from all things Disney. Shouldn't be too hard.

Machine Head, Arch Enemy, Throwdown, Sanctity, Cannibal Corpse, The Black Dahlia Murder, The Red Chord And The Absence, Obituary, Alabama Thunderpussy, Full Blown Chaos And Hemlock have all suffered under the new Disney fascism.

Machine Head/Arch Enemy