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Stranger Things fans are canceling Metallica after the band's song Master of Puppets was featured in the cult-favorite show's latest season. The cancellation comes in light of a viral TikTok that highlighted the legendary band’s “problematic” past.
TikTok user Serena Trueblood, otherwise known as "Is Your Fav Problematic," recently went viral after creating a video about the band's questionable past. The social media user also shared footage of the heavy metal band’s former bassist Jason Newsted seemingly doing a Nazi salute onstage. The TikToker further highlighted how band members publicly joked about the death of Nirvana artist Kurt Cobain and mocked Layne Staley’s heroin addiction.
Metallica’s singer James Hetfield was also accused of racism in Trueblood’s video. One clip from the TikTok video included Roberta Freeman, a backup singer for Guns N’ Roses alleging that the singer had used a derogatory word to describe rapper Ice-T.
In another video, the TikToker also featured an MTV news segment which claimed that Guns N’ Roses member Axl Rose had accused Hetfield of racism with regards to Ice-T and the band Body Count.
Netizens react to Metallica getting “cancelled” by Stranger Things fans
The California-native band recently uploaded a TikTok video of themselves performing Master of Puppets and welcomed their new fans, who started listening to the band following their Stranger Things feature. The band also criticized the concept of “gate-keeping” and stressed that fans from any generation are welcome to listen to them. They said in the video:
“FYI—EVERYONE is welcome in the Metallica Family. Whether you've been a fan for 40 hours or 40 years, we all share a bond through music. All of you started at ground zero at one point in time."
Along with this, the band posted a video of themselves rocking out with actor Joseph Quinn, who plays Eddie Munson on Stranger Things.
Many netizens noted how the band warmly welcomed their new fans only to be “cancelled” by them. Despite the backlash against the band, avid Metallica fans stressed that even if they lose a portion of their followers, the rockstars will continue to remain popular.
Some tweets also mocked how newer fans were attempting to cancel the iconic rock band and dismissed their attempts as being "funny."
“Psyched”: Metallica expresses excitement at being included in Stranger Things
After their popular song was featured on the show, the band took to Instagram expressing how thrilled they were to see their song incorporated in one of their episodes. In a post, they wrote:
“The way the Duffer Brothers have incorporated music into Stranger Things has always been next level, so we were beyond psyched for them to not only include Master Of Puppets in the show but to have such a pivotal scene built around it. We were all stoked to see the final result and, when we did, we were totally blown away."
The band further praised how well directed the scene was, especially because some fans were able to identify the song just by seeing Quinn's (Eddie Munson) hand movements in the trailer.
At the time of writing this article, the band had not responded to the backlash against them.
