Nachtmystium, Wolves in the Throne Room - Free show, unlikely sponsors
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Nachtmystium and Wolves in the Throne Room are playing a free show at the Knitting Factory in LA tomorrow (RSVP required – see here). The reason it’s free is sponsorship by Scion and Vice magazine. In this era of corporate-branded everything, including metal – e.g., the annual Jägermeister tour (which is schizophrenically inconsistent – having Slayer, Alter Bridge, Disturbed, Staind, Slightly Stoopid, Stone Sour, The Cult, Hatebreed, and Hinder as successive headliners pretty much guarantees zero brand loyalty) – such sponsorship is perhaps unsurprising. What is surprising is that the ecologically-minded Wolves would lie in bed with an auto company and a conservative hipster magazine. Even liberal hipster sponsorship (i.e., Pitchfork) would make more sense.
Nachtmystium – The Antichrist MessiahWolves in the Throne Room – Face in a Night Time Mirror: Pt. 2
I don’t know what to make of this. On one hand, if Scion and Vice want to throw money at underground metal (they’ve also sponsored shows by Today Is the Day/Withered and Motörhead/Enslaved/High on Fire/Napalm Death – ironic, the latter), that’s great. Henry Rollins has made a career out of redirecting corporate money towards worthy ends. On the other hand, it’s weird as hell to see corporate logos on flyers like the one above. Where to draw the line? If Philip Morris and Wal-Mart had really great taste and bankrolled the mother of all shows featuring a reunited Godflesh, Kyuss, and Sleep – but with corporate logos splashed everywhere – would you go? I once went to a Buju Banton show sponsored by a cigarette company (Camel, I think), and the whole time, company reps walked around passing out free cigarette packs like candy. I still shudder at the thought.
