Black Metal Rainbows Releases Compilation Benefitting Queer Youth
Black Metal Rainbows, the group that brought us the book by the same name, have now released a compilation benefitting queer youth.
The album, released on Bandcamp Friday, featured contributions from Krallice, Dawn Ray’d, Pupil Slicer, Caïna, Sacred Son, Merzbow, and more. These bands are coming together to speak out against the massive outcry from the Right that any support of queer youth being themselves and expressing themselves is “grooming” or worse.
According to the group’s press release, “Black Metal Rainbows is a show of strength: 100-plus queer, trans, leftist, anarchist, and antifascist bands from the global underground rising in support of LGBTQ youth—who are currently the victims of a wave of repressive state measures and stochastic terrorism whipped up by fascist and conservative force worldwide. From blackened grind to epic black metal, blackgaze to dungeon synth, noise to avant garde, there is leftist metal and extreme music for everyone!”
This type of attitude is sorely needed in black metal, a genre that still has some issues with white supremacy and creating a space that makes almost no one feel welcome. The goal of the group’s art book and compilation is to bring supportive black metal bands together to change that perception and create a space of acceptance for queer folks.
The compilation also goes to benefit organizations that work with queer youth, including The Trevor Project, Mermaids, Minus 18, The International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Intersex (LGBTQI) Youth & Student Organisation.
Check out the first single from the compilation, Valravne, “This Has No Redeeming Value.”
“Love and support to the queer community,” say Plague of Insomnia, one of the featured artists, hailing from the U.K. “Fuck the TERFs, the fash, and everyone that enables them. Black metal and dungeon synth should be music we can listen to without wondering if the band wants us dead, and as this compilation shows, it can be.”
“We’re honored to be included in a project like this raising money for a good cause, we are opposed to all forms of discrimination, inequality and fascism and hope that our music can connect and inspire those typically marginalized in the scene who would like to see more people like them in the space,” adds Pupil Slicer from the U.K.
