MetalSucks

MetalSucks is a heavy metal music-themed news website. The site features reviews, interviews, information on latest metal releases and blog-like posts from the writers, most notably Vince Neilstein and Axl Rosenberg.
History.
The site was founded in December 2006 by authors Ben Umanov and Matthew Goldenberg who use the pen names Vince Neilstein and Axl Rosenberg.
In April 2009, MetalSucks was awarded Metal Hammer's Web of Death Award for "Best Reviews" for its "honest, insightful, unpretentious – and fun – reviews."
On April 12, 2011, F.Y.E. released the MetalSucks Fan Pack, a CD compilation that included 20 bands and a T-shirt. The item was exclusive only to F.Y.E. stores.
On August 15, 2011, MetalSucks announced The Metal Suckfest, a two-day music festival to take place in Manhattan on November 4 and November 5 of that same year. Municipal Waste and Cynic were announced as headliners. If the inaugural festival is a success, there are plans to make it an annual event.
Controversies.
Converge album leak.
On October 4, 2009, one of the writers for MetalSucks was accused of leaking the album "Axe to Fall" by Converge onto the internet prior to its official release. The site formally apologized for the leak.
Axl Rosenberg's statutory rape joke.
On May 18, 2011 founder Axl Rosenberg made the following comment when asked about the origin of his pen name. "A lot of people think it's so we can do undercover investigative journalism and express our honest opinions without fear or reprisal, but that's not true at all. It's just that if the father of a fourteen year old girl you met at Avenged Sevenfold show is looking for you, and he thinks your name is 'Axl Rosenberg', it's going to be a lot harder for him to track you down."
Years later this remark began to generate controversy contradicting the progressive message Metalsucks was attempting to get across in its modern form prompting Rosenberg to issue an apology.
Confrontations against alleged racist musicians.
Black metal musicians.
In July 2016, MetalSucks featured a negative piece on black metal band Deströyer 666. In a Facebook post the site stated, "Deströyer 666 frontman K.K. Warslut is a racist, and apparently doesn't mind being labeled one, as he calls his fans 'faggots' and 'pussies' at an NYC show earlier this week." The post linked to a page on their site where they expanded on the moment and the history of K.K. Warslut in the metal community, stating "Earlier this week, we reported that K.K. Warslut, frontman of Australian black metallers Deströyer 666, has alarmingly racist, misogynistic and violent tendencies." In response, the band claimed they have received death threats, and published the personal information for Goldberg and Umanov. MetalSucks eventually deleted all negative articles about the band and apologized for the posts, citing their regret that the band had received death threats because of the posts.
In August 2017, MetalSucks published an open letter by The Anti-NSBM Working Group to Hells Headbangers Records, a metal record label, that they alleged sold music by white supremacists.
On February 28, 2018, MetalSucks wrote about controversy surrounding Norwegian black metal act Taake.
On March 27, 2018, MetalSucks posted a photo they received of Watain touring guitarist Set Teitan giving the Nazi salute. The band refuted the photo stating, "The gesture on that picture was done in jest that’s as much as we have to say about that." On March 30, 2018, MetalSucks followed-up by posting both the band's denial and video of the same guitarist doing the same salute in 2011.
On April 4, 2018, MetalSucks (expanding on a 2016 story by Swedish outlet "The Etc.") reported members of Swedish black metal band Marduk allegedly bought items from a National Socialist group with the intent to distribute. Marduk would go on to deny the claims. In February of that same year, MetalSucks reported that the band had a concert cancelled in Oakland due to security concerns. Vince Nielstein wrote, "The Swedish black metallers have been plagued by accusations of Nazism for some time. These accusations seem to stem from misinterpretations of their work, although it’s easy to see how those misinterpretations come about."
On April 11, 2018, MetalSucks wrote a lengthy editorial about the owners thoughts and feelings on the topic of Nazi imagery in the metal scene along with what they considered to not to be acceptable usage and what was based on history and context. The article included Anti-Semitic insults they had received due to their multiple articles and posts regarding the topic in the past.
On May 3, 2018, MetalSucks posted a second editorial about Nazism and racism in the metal scene called, "Of Course Black Metal Is Racist—It’s Evil". In it they recapped events that had happened in 2018 on that topic to that point in time.
On December 20, 2018 Adam "Nergal" Darski (of Polish black/death metal group Behemoth) took to his personal Facebook to respond to an email his management received from MetalSucks regarding a photo of Nergal with Rob Darken of Graveland who MetalSucks accused of National Socialist associations as well as the Bölzer shirt Nergal was wearing in the picture, another group accused of NS ties; according to Nergal, MetalSucks was requesting comment from Nergal on the matter. Nergal later noted that he's aware of the situation and disagrees with Darken's political views. Nergal has since referred to MetalSucks as "the biggest troll" and "least reliable source of information". The article was subsequently never published.
Pestilence.
On July 24, 2018, MetalSucks reported on a 2017 Facebook post belonging to the Pestilence vocalist and guitarist Patrick Mameli. In the post they alleged that Patrick Mameli, on his personal Facebook page, response to a photo of him with blonde dreadlocks, responding to a comment that compared his look to Milli Vanilli with the statement in his native Dutch, "Je zegt dat ik een neger ben?" The site translated "neger" to English as the discriminating vulgarism nigger. Along with the comment, MetalSucks also alleged that the singer also "propagates Jewish stereotypes", pointing to a facebook comment where he asserted that Donald Trump would have been assassinated by the deep state if he did not.
In response, the band posted a statement, reading in part, "PESTILENCE nor myself are in any way a political band. We do not condone or support nazism or racism in any way. Pestilence exists only to create awesome music for our listeners and fans." Patrick Mameli adding in the statement, "On being a racist, 'for god's sake, my 'soon-to-be' wife is ASIAN, how could I be rasist?"
On July 26, 2018, Pestilence announced that their entire U.S. tour was cancelled, blaming it on MetalSucks, stating "Thanks to metalsucks and their followers, our US minitour has been cancelled by our U.S. promotor." The website responded with the comment, "For the record, we were fans not that long ago."