Source: Official Government Logo
New Grave. Oh how we do love the New Grave Scene. The very scene that bought us some of our favourite new acts like Fearless Vampire Killers, New Years Day, Creeper, Ashestoangels, Never Found, Solace In Nightmares, The Dead XIII, we could go on! The spread of darkness, rather ironically, fills us with happiness and soaks our ears some epic sounds. It’s not a genre, but more an attitude, from rock to metal to electro to acoustic, New Grave can be found.
However, not everyone is as enamoured with this artistic collection, which has developed to involve musicians, artists, writers and a whole heap of other creative sorts, as the rest of us. In fact, somebody has gone so far as to create a government petition to have any music considered to be part of the New Grave collection banned in all music outlets, with an online signing site stating the following:
I believe this genre of music is harmful to our youth as it promotes worthlessness, low mood and incorporates subjects such as suicide into its lyrics. Anything that promotes these things should be spoken about at length by MP’s as it is a very distressing and sensitive subject that affects many. Bands such as ‘New Years Day’, ‘Ashestoangels’, ‘Solice In Nightmares’ and ‘The Dead XIII’ are examples of this genre and should be referenced to build up an idea of the gravity of this situation.
Remember the time when a certain nation newspaper said the sinister cult of emo was going to kill everyone involved? Does anybody get the feeling that this may be more of the same? Utter bollocks spouted by somebody without any real knowledge on their chosen subject?
Now, we’re not going to sit here and pretend that a lot of the acts involved in the scene don’t sometimes tackle some tough subjects, including some of them mentioned in the petition creators words. Musicians often tackle tough topics in their music, including war, death, politics, sexuality, personal struggle, famine, poverty and all manner of different sadnesses and atrocities. To say that New Grave promotes such sadnesses is entirely incorrect. In fact, the opposite is so often the case. Hope, holding on and fighting through the hard times are so often the lyrical ingredients on offer. A couple of examples from the artists on this scene would include (please forgive us for any mistakes in lyrics, these are written from memory):
‘Just hold on it’ll be fine and this can’t last forever, because it is cold and it is dark and all we are is tiny sparks. From a spark, there can be flame and I promise you’ll be fine again’ – Lumi, Ashestoangels
‘When the rain comes falling down on this fucked up side of town, it’ll wash away the pain’ – Sick To The Teeth, Without Andrew
So, is New Grave a sinister death cult that needs to be stopped? You’re damn right it isn’t! In fact, from the experience we at MOSH have had of it, you only have to scratch away the very top layers of the culture and you’ll find a group of creative, music loving people, with a penchant for tight black jeans and a rainbow wash of hair dyes, in which every culture, class, sexuality, race and gender is welcomed equally.
Some people just have too much time and too easy an access to creators of governmental petitions on their hands these days don’t they?
(The petition can be found at https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/116420)
