What a day for heavy metal stories coming out of Russia? First, this gruesome murder/suicide loosely linked to Chicago's Novembers Doom and now we have American heavy metal linked to Russian politics.
Vladislav Surkov is an adviser to Russian leader Vladimir Putin, one of his top advisers, and apparently a Five Finger Death Punch fan? The Moscow Times reports that Surkov quoted Five Finger Death Punch multiple times in a column for RT criticizing the United States' actions in Ukraine:
“The line ‘Done with all your hypocrisy’ sounds like a prophecy, a verdict, and as the motto of a new era,” Surkov writes.
Surkov links the 2016 presidential election that led to U.S. President Donald Trump’s victory and an ongoing sexual harassment scandal in the U.S. with a widespread desire among Americans to “wash it all away.”
[..] Russia's advisor on Ukraine closes his column with an ominous warning — quoting again from the American metal band — that a strong hand will lead the confused crowds from “all of the chaos and all of the lies."
A more thorough analysis of the actual political drama behind these words can be found on Bloomberg.
MetalSucks notes that Surkov has contributed lyrics to rock group Agata Kristi, so you know he's had hearty debates about whether Metallica or Megadeth are better and which version of Black Sabbath is the best.
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Five Finger Death Punch guitarist Zoltan Bathory, who lived behind the Iron Curtain in Hungary responded to the news on Facebook:
Ha… Another one in Bloomberg…. The title reads: "How U.S.-Russia Diplomacy Went Heavy Metal – In the new Cold War, pragmatic dialogue is out. Quoting Five Finger Death Punch is in"
Well…. let me just say…. It's especially interesting that we just happened to be in Russia at the moment. We had a fantastic show at the Stadium in Moscow yesterday… The energy of the crowd was incredible. We love our Russian fans just as much as they love us… They are at the airport when we arrive, follow us all over Europe, all the way to America, even to South America… We see their faces and we see their sawn together Half-Russian-Half-American flags everywhere… We are family… Music Unites…. ?????
I can tell you…. between the people … there is NO hate… there is NO cold war here… so let's NOT make one. I grew up on this side of the iron curtain in communism… so I have ACTUAL memories of the cold war…. Even back then… though we were told by the communist media that America was the "Enemy"… Nobody… and I mean nobody sane actually believed that… We loved American Music, American culture… and the American people… We understood the difference between propaganda and reality…
Just as I ran into some Iranian kids in the elevator… as they were taking photos – they actually said – "please don't believe the media" … they are lying to you! We don't hate America… and they tried to explain that regular (especially younger) people don't feel that way whatsoever…
The media needs to be responsible with their words – choosing ratings over peace is irresponsibleSo let's tone down the hysteria and try harder with that dialogue…
Of course, the actions of a country's government should be separated from the actions of the people, as evidenced all over the world, even here in the United States.
