The events of January 6th, 2021 have shocked us all. A cosplaying viking and a bunch of other country folks decided to storm our nation’s capitol during a meeting of congress regarding the certification of President Elect Joe Biden. Several of these people held important job titles, but none more infamous than one man in particular – Jon Schaffer, the core guitarist of one of metal’s most well-known power/thrash acts, Iced Earth. I once tried to get an interview with Schaffer while working for New Noise Magazine, but was denied because according to his publicist, “Schaffer just didn’t want to do an email interview.” This news definitely hit me rather hard, being the hardcore Iced Earth fan that I was. I’d had a great deal of questions too, as I had been into the conspiracy stuff quite a bit around that time (but never got into Q-Anon as even Alex Jones said it was full of shit. Look, when someone like Alex Jones tells you that your theories are full of shit – they’re probably full of shit) and remember that the publicist was thrilled with my questions and really wanted to do this interview. So old man Schaffer let us both down just because his ass can’t use a fucking keyboard. Vulgar I know, but I haven’t forgotten it.
Anyone who is familiar with Iced Earth albums The Glorious Burden, Dystopia or Plagues Of Babylon knows that Schaffer has been into the conspiracy stuff for a long time. He even created a band called Sons Of Liberty where he in fact sang. Not too badly either. So I didn’t even bat an eye when I saw Jon Schaffer storming the capitol building and was in fact kind of impressed – he really took his lyrics to fucking heart. But what really surprised me is when I read tweets from bands that talk about this kind of insurrection all the time in their music, but seemed to be largely against the real thing. Now I get that there are death metallers out there who are strongly against the kind of vile murders that they sing about, however I’ve now learned that all these strongly political bands are also full of it and would never take part in acting out the lyrics that they preach so heavily both on their albums and on the stage. So then what does that tell listeners? Maybe we need to put warning messages on albums that state “this is a work of fiction and the band does not condone any messages apparent in the album’s lyrics.” That would probably also affect album sales quite a bit, as people looking for more revolutionary are anarchist type metal would be strongly put-off when they realized that the bands themselves are completely full of shit. After all, Rage Against The Machine supported the machine far more than one might expect from the political content in their lyrics. It’s literally all a show.
That being said, none of those people had any business in the capitol. However, it also makes me very curious in regards to the policeman being killed, because I remember quite clearly (and even looked up some verified sources to prove it) that many police officers were being murdered by rioters over the summer who were calling for ACAB (All Cops Are Bad) as well as attacking law enforcement in several videos. In all honesty, this had to have been the most hypocritical thing I’d ever seen. People were parading in the streets about dead officers, but when someone of an alternate political party attacked a police officer, they suddenly used the officer as a contention point. They didn’t even consider the fact that this dead officer may have in fact been a crooked cop, he may have committed police brutality and he may have shown racial prejudice towards minorities when making his rounds. Because of this man, minorities could have been unjustly jailed. These people don’t think of things like that. They were also creating their own autonomous zones apart from the government and were challenging government, offering demands in the vein of terrorism. With an estimated two billion dollars in damage and many businesses, even black owned business destroyed in the chaos, the summer riots are just as bad as whatever hijinks stirred up in the nation’s capitol over the past week.
Though not quite as destructive, the capitol riots showed that the right are as silly as the left as they smeared feces on the walls, stole government property (including computers with highly sensitive information) and were apparently planning to have their way with former Vice President Mike Pence and Speaker Of The House, Nancy Pelosi. What they would have done when they found her is anyone’s guess, but surely it wouldn’t have been good and it would have left the entire world in shock. To be frank, people would be even more shocked than they are today.
Schaffer now faces six federal charges, one of which involves a can of bear mace. Now, there is no video evidence that shows Schaffer was using a can of bear mace and even people have commented on social media to state that the can he was holding was far too large to be this defensive spray. I’ve also seen mixed messages on the media, where sources state that bear mace is more dangerous than pepper spray. This largely depends on brands. Bear mace normally has about 1% of capsaicin content, while pepper spray can have 2-3% capsaicin content, according to dozens of MSDS sheets I’ve looked at regarding the product. Whether or not Schaffer used the bear mace, the product is normally not as strong as pepper spray and from what I’ve read “is not designed to incapacitate a human.” Reports from cops being sprayed though indicates that they may have never been sprayed with pepper spray before. I would not be surprised by this. Regardless of the situation, the court is motioning to deny him bail, which seems to be the court’s idea of making an example out of a famous rock star. It is more than likely that Schaffer would have been able to pay bail and even the gentlemen who put his feet on Pelosi’s desk is now out on bond. Century Media also removed both Iced Earth and Demons & Wizards from their roster, which may affect the other musicians in these bands. Hansi Kursch has come out against the behavior portrayed by Schaffer and could only be described as “shocked.” Iced Earth formally came out against the behavior as well. Schaffer of course, is now in prison awaiting trial.
So as an Iced Earth fan, you have to wonder if I’m still going to listen to the music and the answer there is yes, of course. I don’t just stop listening to one of my favorite acts because someone in the band did something stupid, or was accused of doing something stupid. If that was so, I would have stopped listening to Dissection, Decapitated, Destroyer 666, Pantera and several other acts years ago. And as history shows, maybe this won’t be the end for Iced Earth after all. Around the time of Phil Anselmo’s infamous “white wine” incident, he had been completely canceled. However, all of Pantera’s albums have been re-released and reissued, with several albums from Anselmo’s various projects still coming out every year or so. It seems that while some people may have not forgotten about the incident, others did and they decided it was time to consider his music viable again. I cannot say for certain if this would be true of Schaffer, but he does still have a lot of fans as far as his bands are concerned and I’m sure that no matter what happens, we will definitely see them come back to his music again. Now that Joe Biden has been inaugurated as the 46th president of the United States, we’ll see the media slowly work their way from Trump based hit pieces to something a bit different and this will generally cause people to quit caring so much about this incident. It will take a number of years, but people will eventually move onto something else that they’ll feel the need to criticize and all of this that I’m typing now won’t even matter.
I have to agree with some metal heads that what Schaffer did is actually incredibly tame compared to what others have done in this industry, like Mayhem, Varg and Jon from Dissection. Even if Schaffer had the intention to spray an officer, he did not kill anyone in the horrifying ways that these men did. Both the left and the right committed grievous offenses regardless, and both the CHAZ/CHOP as well as the Capitol riots are considered acts of treason against the US constitution. The perpetrators of both acts have been arrested and were/will be dealt with in a court of law either way.