Iced Earth’s Stu Block is Banning Fans for Asking His Opinion on Pro-Trump Riots

Three days after Iced Earth leader Jon Schaffer stormed the Capitol at the pro-Trump riots in Washington, D.C., the other four members of the band finally issued a collective statement yesterday in which they said they “absolutely DO NOT condone nor do we support riots or the acts of violence.” But that statement is at odds with opinions Iced Earth frontman Stu Block (ex-Into Eternity) has shared in recent days, and now he’s taken to banning fans who bring up that contradiction.

While the band’s collective statement gave the appearance of creating distance between the four members who issued it and Schaffer — who is now wanted by both the Washington, D.C. police and the FBI — it’s what was missing from the statement that was the most telling: it did not mention Schaffer by name, suggesting the band members are attempting to side-step the thorny issues of either 1) potentially enraging the person who cuts their paychecks, or 2) potentially enraging their fanbase, depending on which side of the issue each band members’ opinions lie.

But the internet being the internet, we now know how at least one member of the band truly feels: Block, who was active on social media shortly after the riots, but has since been trying to cover his tracks and silence those who call him out.

Earlier in the week Stu shared a taste of his feelings, sharing an image of a giant red heart with the simple caption, “Nuff said #love” and telling a fan who said they can no longer support the band in light of Schaffer’s actions that “t[h]is is your decision and how you feel and I must absolutely respect that.”

But it’s an earlier message Block posted, which he later deleted, that’s more damning. Writing on his personal Facebook page on Wednesday (January 6), the day of the riots, he said, “Oh it’s happening! History in the making. Sending love to my friends in the US and all over the world!” (Block is Canadian). When a fan asked, “Are you condemning what happened today Stu?” he replied, “and where in my statement would you get that impression?”

Since that time, a number of people have commented a screenshot of the above exchange on Stu’s other Facebook posts, and not only have those comments been promptly deleted, but the users who posted them have been banned from Stu’s page.

Multiple people have reported this behavior to MetalSucks. One of them, Chris B., tells, us, “I’m fucking pissed. I’ve been a fan for a long time, both of Iced Earth and Stu since he was in Into Eternity… It’s bad enough what Jon did, but to try to sweep at least Stu’s condoning it under the rug is just as upsetting. I am so fucking done with Iced Earth and Stu Block.”

We’ve seen a ton of chatter in recent days to the same effect, even before Stu’s personal opinions became known; despite Jon Schaffer’s long history of openly expressing his conservative views, including in a MetalSucks interview last summer in which he claimed Covid-19 is a hoax, his political leanings seem to have come as a surprise to a large segment of his fanbase.

But it’s out there now. And it’s abhorrent. And Stu trying to cover his tracks is making it look even worse.

I’m sure Schaffer, and likely Block (and possibly other members of the band — we don’t know), will try to argue that media sites like ours coming down hard on them for these opinions amounts to “censorship” or an infringement on “freedom of speech.” But that displays a complete lack of understanding of the First Amendment, as we’ve written about at length before.

So, I say to thee, Iced Earth and Stu: get fucked. You’re gross. You’re a punchline now.

You can take a look at screenshots of the exchanges noted earlier in this piece, as well as some fan chatter on social media, below.