GATEKEEPING: Ruining Metal for Everyone

I wanna talk about gatekeepers, cause diving into the world of basement dwellers who hate sunlight and fun is better entertainment than cable.

If you’re new to the world of gatekeepers, you’re forgiven for not knowing. But when I say “gatekeeper”, there seems to be some confusion amongst even most metalheads of what a gatekeeper is - including what I’ve experienced recently myself… but we’ll get to that in a second.

First off: What is a gatekeeper? Again, there seems to be some confusion…

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary: Gatekeeper (noun) is one that tends or guards a gate, or a person who controls access (in this case in metal).

What that can look like varies, but the most common one we’ve been seeing in metal is the notorious “Name 3 songs” gag. While this started out mostly as a way to determine if someone wearing metal merch was a fan, it slowly became an excuse for gatekeepers to shame people suspected for being a poser. These posers do exist, but most of the time it’s directed at fellow metalheads (especially if they’re women).

Whatever your thoughts on potential posers wearing metal merch are, you can’t deny the trend has become a problematic issue when it comes to gatekeepers. But you should know: that’s not the only kind of potential ‘gatekeepery’ possible. Which brings us to what I had to deal with recently…

3 words: … ‘Sleep Token’, and ‘TikTok’

… here’s what happened…

Late last year I had decided to bite the bullet and download TikTok. I had no real intention of using it really, just posting clips from the various corners of Metal Robot; from the YouTube show to podcast clips or whatever short videos I wanted to make. This past February I posted a clip from a recent episode of the Metal Robot Podcast featuring Collin Sterling of Thrashers Paradise, where we got to talking about Sleep Token and about their (what appeared to be) overnight rise in popularity. You can check out the TikTok clip below.

Lo and behold, this did not sit well with one particular Sleep Token fan, whom I will refer to from this point forward as “Sleep Token Guy”, cause I can’t stop reading these comments like comic book guy from The Simpsons. He started by calling us gatekeepers for commenting on the music before listening to it (we weren’t), and saying we should “maybe try listening to them before u speak 🤡“

Now admittedly, I was bored and having a bad day. So, I did what most YouTubers should usually not do for their own sanity and engage with these folks.

I responded - more confused than anything - explaining that we were not commenting on the music without hearing it, cause THAT would be a dick move and WOULD be the quickest way to lose respect from you and myself.

He then made a comparison that it was similar to what happened with Jinjer in 2019 with “Pisces”, and that we still shouldn’t be talking about them without listening first. “it's called being informed“ he said.

I was a little annoyed by this attitude, and admittedly got a bit snippy.

“Yeah and we were saying the same thing about Jinjer, it’s called being surprised and talking about it tongue and cheek with friends. Try not to take it too seriously mah dude 🤘🤖🤘“ I wrote, before soliciting recommendations on starting points for listening to Sleep Token.

I’m trying to be as polite as possible here because I genuinely want to know what a “true fan” thinks is a good place for new fans to start. But….

“bro its been like a year since the album came out and over a month since you claim to make this clip and you still haven't listened to it.“

“maybe I dunno start with track 1 bro like u don't got 5 min of free time.“

… well no I don’t actually, thanks for reminding me of my work-oholism. I’m a recovering workoholic and am attending meetings (of course those meetings are at work, so recovery is a bit all over the place.)

Let me see if I got this right; we’ve got a couple of non-fans, showing interest in the huge rise in Sleep Token, having a bit of fun… and a fan - who could’ve been of help with opening the gate for us and showing us the way to go - got offended, became overly protective of their favourite band, and scolded us for daring to mention his favourite band’s name without having heard “track one” of whatever album he thinks we are talking about. Is that right?

Maybe I could be stretching, but THAT is what I would call gate keeper behaviour. I don’t feel welcomed to the Sleep Token community as a result of this, which is unfortunate because I do want to check them out.

Side note, I told a friend of mine about this - who’s a Sleep Token fan as well - by saying “I had the pleasure of being welcomed by the Sleep Token fans of TikTok”, and her first response was “Oh no, what did they do?” which tells me way more about not just this particular fan but also the vocal minority of fans in that space.

How comforting…

Now that’s just one example. And while it does bother me to have had this as the first experience to who the band attracts, I also recognize that this dude is in the minority and doesn’t represent the band or even their fanbase.

But it’s that kind of unwelcoming feeling that turns a lot of potential fans away from metal as a whole (not just Sleep Token). And that has the potential to keep us isolated from new fans and stifle the growth of the bands these gate keepers claim to love so much.

Ask some non-metalheads what they hate most about metal, and aside from the intensity of the music and vocals they’ll usually tell you about a bad fan experience. Even ask most metalheads (especially women) and they’ll have plenty of those moments.

So what do we do? Well there’s not much to be done as a whole, but it is worth recommending to everyone to try and be more welcoming to newcomers or even just try to not immediately assume someone is a poser before you talk to them. I’m not saying non-metalheads shouldn’t be called out for wearing metal merchandise without understanding the meaning and significance of the artwork or the clothing in general, but we should be more careful with how we’re interacting with potential new fans.

If you’re noticing that someone is making a video talking about your favourite band, questioning who they are (even if it seems like they’re being dicks), try suggesting a starting point for them. In this entire interaction with that Sleep Token fan, I would’ve loved it if he said at any point “There’s a reason for it, listen to this song or album to understand better”. Even if you think me and Collin were being a couple of dicks with microphones, why get defensive?

And as for new fans, if you’ve been reading this far then clearly you’re actually interested in what we have to offer in the world of metal and while I could give you lots of recommendations (I’m actually working on a video right now talking about it), all I can say is don’t listen to the gatekeepers. Ignore the metal fans trying to make you feel bad for not listening to metal music or wanting to dig deeper into their favourite bands.

Your metal journey is your own, and you find that climbing over the gate is surprisingly easy…

If you wanna hear the full podcast with me and Collin talking about Sleep Token, Eurovision, and everything we’ve been listening to in 2023, listen to it HERE or wherever you get your favourite podcasts!

And while you’re at it, yeah you can check out the TikTok page to.