Deicide’s Glen Benton Says Metal’s Full of “Wannabe-Weezer-Looking Dudes”
There’s a new Deicide record out, so you know what that means — frontman and techno-hipster Glen Benton‘s out there taking interviews and putting people on blast. At nearly 57 years old, the dude might as well be called an metal elder statesman and he’s making his opinion known about the current state of the genre and where it’s headed these days. And needless to say, he’s not too thrilled.
His latest comments came during an interview with KNAC (as transcribed by Blabbermouth), during which he spoke about his heavy metal awakening. And like most dudes his age, it all started with one band — Black Sabbath.
“Ever since I was a little kid, man, I remember, I even have it in my files upstairs in my boxes. I was asked as a small child, man, like when I was 11, 12 years old, whatever, they asked me what I wanted to be. And I put down exactly what the hell I am right now. So I had a long-term goal, man. Even when I was a little kid, it’s what I wanted to do.
“I grew up, man, watching bands and listening to all kinds of music. I was exposed to music at a really young age. My uncle was a drummer. He had guitars hiding in the closet all the time, and I was around that a lot. And not that dad did it for me, but when I was a little kid and I heard [Black] Sabbath the first time, it was all over — it really was all over, man. I remember being at the breakfast table 7:30 in the morning with my boombox blasting ‘Paranoid’ at my mother… I was a huge Sabbath, huge [Ronnie James] Dio fan, man, and that era of metal, when they had [Judas] Priest and all that stuff from that era, man.
“Metal was metal back then. Metal right now — you have so many subcategories of metal now, it’s ridiculous. I understand individualism and that, and we can really use a lot more frontmen like that, like Ozzy [Osbourne] and Ronnie and all them people, Lemmy and that. We don’t have that anymore. All we have is a bunch of wannabe-Weezer-looking dudes trying to play metal. Everybody’s sporting black-frame glasses and wearing trucker caps. Nobody gives a shit about imagery anymore, looking the part of metal and that.
“I walk around 24 hours a day looking [like I do]. I can’t shake it, man. I’m never gonna fall into that. I’ve always been that way, too, about the guys on stage, man. You’re not gonna come out there wearing a fucking plaid shirt and white tennis shoes. It’s not happening.”
Sounds an awful lot like “those kids better get off my lawn,” to me. I mean, I may be named Hesher, but the dudes that actually looked like heshers back in the day wouldn’t get a whiff of the opposite (or same, who’s to judge) sex these days. Times change and if the music kicks ass, who am I to judge?!
But this is Glen Benton we’re talking about. If there’s one thing to say about the dude, it’s that he’s got convictions and fuck you, he’s gonna stand by them.
