Each week, HEAVY will run a fresh list of 15 things to do with metal. They could be anything from metal karaoke songs to bands that have been banned from playing to horror-themed metal bands. You name it, if there are 15 or more of them out there, then HEAVY will assemble them into a list for you! This week’s list is Metal Bands Who Have Been Banned. What’s more, at the bottom of each weekly list, we will tell you the subject of next week’s list and how you can use it to win yourself a signed CD from Better Noise Music artists.
Metal bands have always walked the fine line between acceptance and offensiveness, largely because of their general disregard for convention or regulations. While that line is admittedly blurry and differs from country to country, stage to stage, and media outlet to media outlet, there have been instances over the years where bands have inevitably pissed the wrong person (s) off and have been told their services and music will no longer be welcome. Some of those are:
FALLING IN REVERSE
Trouble seems to follow poor Ronnie Radke, and whether it’s all generally true or fabricated for ratings by media outlets, there’s no denying the U.K. Home Office (a fancy term for people with a stick up their ass) aren’t big fans.
The band was denied temporary entry to the U.K in late 2024, which forced the tour to be postponed, and all because Radke had spent time at Her Majesty’s Pleasure in his home country. He had been deemed to have suffered for his crimes where he committed them, but it seems officials of the U.K still think he needs to serve some form of justice by denial of entry to the country. This has fucked plans for any U.K tour for Falling In Reverse until the issue is resolved.
Focus Track: Watch The World Burn
FEAR
As if the band name didn’t give it away, the good folk at Saturday Night Live reportedly issued a permanent ban on FEAR appearing on the show due to the chaos the band caused during their appearance. SNL creator Lorne Michaels denied the ban, saying no one was ever permanently banned from the show… but FEAR have also never been invited back…
Focus Track: More Beer
LAMB OF GOD
Religious shepherd’s Lamb Of God upset the Malaysian government so much that they faced bans from performing in the country in 2013. Apparently, the band had blasphemed somehow at shows in their home country, word of which had filtered down the Cloud In The Sky Phone all the way to Malaysia, who defiantly said words to the effect of “not in this bloody country!” Furthermore, it was implied that Lamb Of God’s music as a whole was entirely blasphemous and had the potential to lead Muslim’s astray if they heard it live.
Focus Track: Redneck
BEHEMOTH
Even artistic expression is being regulated these days.
Behemoth landed on the naughty list with Russia, which promptly banned the band for the universally ambiguous reasoning of “religious objections”. Such are the convictions of some of these places (Russia isn’t the only one who have taken Behemoth off their Christmas list), the usual reasoning behind such setbacks are based on not having proper visas or something related, but we all know the real reason Behemoth are not universally liked. Some people just don’t like their makeup.
Focus Track: Bartzabel
SYSTEM OF A DOWN
It seems the good folk at Saturday Night Live just don’t like metal bands or their music. System Of A Down were once temporarily banned after one of the band members supposedly changed the lyrics in the performance to be political and anti-war. HEAVY calls bullshit. As if System Of A Down would have to change any of their lyrics to be political?
Focus Track: Chop Suey
BLOODHOUND GANG
Those crazy kids that re-introduced the world to porn with their song The Ballad Of Chasey Lane should have earned a few get-out-of-jail-free cards by virtue of that song alone, but those metal-hating Russians mustn’t be fans of the oldest profession in the world, promptly banning Bloodhound Gang from strutting their stuff in the country.
Bass player Jared Hasselhoff was also banned from entering Ukraine for five years after allegedly putting a Russian flag down his pants during a concert in Ukraine and appearing to urinate on a Ukrainian flag during a previous concert in Kyiv. That last one is a bit disrespectful, but notice the terming says “appearing to urinate” which means it may or may not have actually gone down like that…
Focus track: The Ballad Of Chasey Lane
LIMP BIZKIT
It seems Ukraine have issues with more than one metal band, with Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst being banned from the country for five years due to grave security concerns flagged and confirmed by the national security service. Durst’s crime? He had the nerve to express interest in buying a house in a place called Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014. How dare he!?!
Focus track: Break Stuff
THE REPLACEMENTS
Saturday Night Live have banned more bands, apparently unhappy with The Replacements. It’s about this time HEAVY is wondering, if you don’t like bands and live music, then don’t invite them on the show. But if word on the street has any basis in truth, The Replacements may have deserved a tap with the naughty stick after their supposedly drunk and unprofessional live performance on January 18, 1986. But then again, they probably got pissed on a drink rider supplied by the show, so really, who is to blame?
Focus track: Bastards Of Young
BAD BRAINS
It’s a bit rough when you a) get banned from clubs in your home town, and b) when that ban is because your fans are deemed to be too destructive. But that’s what happened to Bad Brains when many venues in Washington D.C did just that, leading Bad Brains to immortalise the whole cause and effect thing in their iconic song Banned In D.C.
But it didn’t stop there. The band moved to New York City in 1981, hoping to be able to play in more venues, but also found themselves banned from playing some venues there, so the band did the only noble thing they could do and said fuck it, let’s ban ourselves from these venues before they get a chance to do it to us. Good lads.
Focus track: Banned In D.C
SLIPKNOT
Especially in their early days, Slipknot were placed on many a naughty list due to their over-the-top stage shows and other incidents, such as refusing to wash their uniforms or carrying a severed goat head with them, which reportedly led to the Smell Police taking issue with the band.
One such venue was a Washington State U.S. Army command post in 2017, and the other was a reported 2020 show at the Hydro in Glasgow following safety concerns. There were also various less permanent restrictions at specific venues for certain imagery, according to prominent media outlets at the time.
Focus track: People = Shit
MACHINE HEAD
Timing is everything, and unfortunately, Machine Head have none of it when it comes to world events. Their music video for Crashing Around You was banned by MTV due to its depiction of falling buildings, a decision made shortly after the September 11 attacks. There have also been suggestions of a “banned list” from Disney that prevented Machine Head from performing at certain venues or events, though evidence of this list was never provided by Disney.
Focus track: Crashing Around You
EXODUS
Who would have thought that alleged historical inaccuracies would stop a band from playing in certain countries, but that is what happened following the release of Exodus‘ 2014 film, Exodus: Gods and Kings. The movie was banned in Egypt, Morocco, and the UAE due to historical inaccuracies, such as falsely claiming Moses and the Jews built the pyramids, and its “Zionist” perspective. Additionally, Morocco banned the film because the Islamic interpretation of the story forbids portraying God.
Focus track: Downfall
SEX PISTOLS
If you have never seen the Sex Pistols movie The Great Rock And Roll Swindle, then why are you even here? If you have seen the flick, you know full well why, where, and how the Sex Pistols made the naughty list, and if you haven’t, you are going to have to throw it on to find out why they were banned. Because we’re not gonna tell you…
Focus track: God Save The Queen
MARILYN MANSON
Marilyn Manson is such a bad egg that several U.S states have actually passed legislation prohibiting him from performing at state-owned venues. HEAVY knows stuff all about politics, but we are pretty sure that means they actually drafted a new law and passed it through Congress just so Manson couldn’t play in that state. Seems a bit excessive to us, but maybe there’s more to the story. Like that one time Manson took out one of his own ribs…
Focus track: The Beautiful People
OZZY OSBOURNE
Ozzy Osbourne. If there was ever a musician that should have been on the naughty list, it’s The Prince Of Darkness. The man who lapped piss from the ground, snorted ants and was a God like role model for impressionable kids the world over was sanctioned for urinating on the Alamo Cenotaph in 1982. He was eventually pardoned and was able to perform in the city again in the 1990s and later made a return to the Alamo itself for a TV show.
While that probably wasn’t Ozzy’s proudest moment, the defence should have been, “but it’s Ozzy. Ozzy fucken Osbourne. I rest my case.”
Focus track: Paranoid
Next week, HEAVY will be assembling a list of 15 Mosh Pit Anthems and if you want to be in the running to win one of three weekly draws for a signed CD from Better Noise Music artists, including Cory Marks, whose album Sorry For Nothing Volume 2 is out now, simply sign up to the free weekly digimag HERE.
Then email [email protected] and tell us three bands you think should be in our list of 15 Mosh Pit Anthems. Please put 15 Mosh Pit Anthems in the subject area. Existing subscribers just have to email the three bands. Does it get any easier?
