Ripped to Shreds’ Andrew Lee Responds to Master Controversy

Yesterday, October 10, we reported about the somewhat tangled and messy situation surrounding Andrew Lee of Ripped to Shreds, death metal band Master, that shit fuck white supremacist band Arghoslent, and the recent Metal Threat fest that happened last weekend. Now, Lee has released an official statement—along with a few screenshots—that give a bit more context.

Here’s a tl;dr summary of what’s happened so far: Master was booked to play the Metal Threat fest, that Arghoslent was also playing. Master chose to still play, despite knowing Arghoslent’s views (it should be noted that the bands were not scheduled to play on the same day). Lee’s band Ripped to Shreds were set to play a separate show with Master, to which they cancelled because of Master’s decision to stay on the fest. Someone then called out Lee for being a hypocrite for working with and associating with people in the Arghoslent ether.

So there’s that, and here’s Lee’s response to it all so far:

“The drummer of Twisted Tower Dire played in Arghoslent in the 90s, and quit in ’96, because he did not want to be associated with their racist rhetoric. Neither Marc nor TTD have had any association with Arghoslent or Grand Belial’s Key in the 25 plus years since, openly committed to being anti-racist in interviews, and that was a point Nameless Grave Records (Brandon and Andrew) insisted on confirming multiple times before committing to working with TTD.

“Brandon’s conversation with Chris Eakes (Exaugarate) seven years ago was deceptively edited by him to show Brandon in the worst possible light, as the two were talking about why openly displaying racist merch emboldens racists. In the same conversation, Brandon specifically stated that Chris’ himself wearing a GBK shirt while performing was just as bad as wearing an Arghoslent one. We’re not interested in policing whatever merch someone owns in their own homes and never takes outside. You can read the full conversation with context below.

“I wouldn’t have objected to performing with Master if they had played this festival lineup a few years ago and apologized for playing with openly white power bands. But they did so literally yesterday, while being proud about it, and that’s not acceptable. Not only that, the drummer (Ruston Grosse) accused us of being paid to spread “anti white” propaganda, which is absurd.

“Note: even in an interview with Arghoslent themselves, they said marc quit because he didn’t agree with their political views.”

The post Ripped to Shreds’ Andrew Lee Responds to Master Controversy appeared first on MetalSucks.