BMTH live in Jakarta 2024

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This time around Ravel gets it right and BMTH (Bring Me The Horizon) are headlining the Nexfest festival in Jakarta which also features Babymetal. In this format there is no seating - which makes for a much more intimate experience - although you do have to arrive really early if you want to pick a spot right up close to the stage.  We arrived about six hours before BMTH were scheduled to start their performance and bought plenty of drinks to stay hydrated in the tropical afternoon heat (mind you, some of those were Iceland vodka mix!) This was a gig I had long been looking forward to - especially after the debacle last year. Not everyone likes BMTH of course. For deathcore fans the band sold out. For metal heads the band is not purist enough. And for the wider mainstream audience, the band is too heavy. You can't please everyone of course but there are few bands in the rock world which can match the sheer emotional velocity of BMTH. To bring metal and even aspects of metalcore t...
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Religious satire and Islam

Poor old Denmark.

Well known for its pacifism and incredibly good looking chicks, this small and peaceful European nation is now even more vilified than that most evil of nations, the Great Satan, the USA.

But I can’t help but wonder why the radicals reacted as they did.

After all, if they had just shut up, most people would never have been aware of the Prophet Muhammad cartoons in the first place.

But they couldn’t keep their mouths shut. And by generating a media frenzy over the whole thing, they only served to fan the flames of a well lit fire.

The fact that the self-censoring politically correct mainstream media bottled the issue – the CNN, BBC, and supposedly free British press all chose not to show the cartoons – didn’t matter a jot. Because bloggers of all political persuasions and from across the entire globe soon posted the cartoons on their blogs, or at least provided a link. The pictures also spread rapidly by email of course as people - including many Muslims - forwarded them onto their mates to see.

So what the heck was Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono doing on Saturday when he gave a speech attacking the cartoons? Wasn’t he merely encouraging curious Indonesians to seek out the pictures for themselves?

As for the Danish cartoonists, they must have mixed feelings at the moment I guess. On the one hand they stand to become incredibly rich having drawn some of the most criticized and talked about cartoons ever, but on the other hand, they must obviously fear for their lives.

Oh hum…

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