Metal Album Cover Artist Compares Black Lives Matter to Nazism
An artist who has done work for a plethora of prominent bands, including Whitechapel, Carnifex, Impending Doom, Fit for an Autopsy, Revocation, Gatecreeper, and (most appropriately!) Book Burner has come under fire for creating and sharing a piece of “subjective/satirical art” likening the Black Lives Matter movement, socialists, Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, and George Soros to Nazis.
(Soros, in case you don’t know, is a billionaire philanthropist and Holocaust survivor who is at the center of many disproven right wing conspiracy theories. These conspiracy theories are, without fail, explicitly or latently anti-Semitic.)
Samuel Mills, a.k.a. “Defame,” posted the image on social media over the weekend.
Included with the illustration was this statement:
“Some subjective/satirical art. Please DO NOT tie anyone I’ve worked with to this. This has nothing to do with the businesses I work with or have worked for. This is solely my personal expression through art, my right to free speech. I’m for freedom and for all races, nationalities, creeds, and religions concerning rights, liberty, freedom and equality.”
Then, earlier today, Mills released a video statement in which he sought to further explain “why I do what I did” (not a typo), reasserting his position that the illustration is “a comical satire image.” He also insisted that he will not be taking the illustration down because “I’m not insisting violence” (also not a typo):
“What’s up everybody. So I’ve been getting a lot of people asking me, like, why I do what I did and what it means and all that stuff. I just wanted to make people think, and I found it funny, it made me laugh, I had a blast of a time doing it. Why it’s still there and I haven’t taken it down? It’s my freedom. I can do whatever I want. I’m not insisting violence or anything like that. It’s just a comical satire image. That’s it. And it’s completely interpretational, you can take it however you want. So you wanna take it in a good way, bad way, whatever, that’s completely YOUR freedom to express how you feel. So… not taking it down.”
In case it isn’t readily apparent, Mills’ position is total bullshit because:
- If you’re sharing anti-Semitic conspiracy theories online, you are most certainly not “for all races, nationalities, creeds, and religions concerning rights, liberty, freedom and equality.”
- Maybe Mill is not insisting violence. But he is inciting it by tying peaceful political movements and prominent (if not necessarily personable) liberal figures to the most infamously evil governmental regime of the twentieth century. I mean. He put what looks an awful lot like a blood splatter around Soros’ head, for crying out loud.
- It’s not “completely interpretational.” There’s no way to look at this and see it as pro-Black Lives Matter, pro-Biden, etc., unless you for some reason support progressivism and Nazism. It’s not ambiguous, like, at all.
Still, I agree that Mills can say whatever he wants, and that I, in turn, can say whatever I want. And what I want to say is this: I cannot imagine any band in their right mind will ever hire Mills again. I also believe that Mills’ brain is slightly smaller than his dick. Don’t get mad, Sam. It’s just a comical satire blog.
Additional reporting by Emperor Rhombus
