Twelve Foot Ninja are an Aussie metal band who have always marched to the beat of their own drum. And sometimes, that drum takes the form of a bongo or steelpan, much to the ire of the internet’s legion of metal purists.
The Melbourne fivesome have been tapped as one of the most unique up-and-coming heavy acts in the world because of their inimitable fusion of metal riffage with jazz, funk, latin and a range of other spicy musical styles. And after straddling festival bills alongside some of the biggest acts in the world – including Guns N’ Roses, Avenged Sevenfold and Motorhead – they’ve been busier than a cat burying shit on concrete honing their one-of-a-kind sound into a brand new album.
Taking to Facebook to thank satellite radio station SiriusXM’s listeners for voting their latest single One Hand Killing into the metal show’s top 12 for six separate weeks, Twelve Foot guitar dynamo Stevic shared some of his thoughts about why the Ninja’s music tends to be so divisive, particularly amongst the metal faithful.
“*Ting* *Ting* *Ting* I’d like to make a speech” he writes, before paraphrasing the legendary producer Rick Rubin’s famous words, “If there are people who absolutely LOVE and absolutely HATE your music, you’re doing something right.”
Stevic goes on to explain that – although the love and support that the fellas have received has been “overwhelming, inspirational and very encouraging to say the least” – the corresponding hate has also been “very interesting”.
“I have a theory I want to share (Stevicism v3.0),” he begins. “Twelve Foot Ninja seems to be seen as a threat to SOME metal puritans sensibilities because of the divergent genres we blend into heavy music (metal). Often these folks seem to attribute their sense of masculinity and/or identity to what music they listen to and have an adverse reaction to their sacred (and subjective) definition of metal being bastardised by jazz, latin, funk, reggae (or any of the other flavors we blend into our music).”
He continues: “Homophobic language is often used to express their disdain for what we do . . . which is further insight into their definition of “self” being correlated to what music they allow their ears to listen to . . . like they’re gripping onto some alpha male image that could be compromised any second by listening to music with clean vocals . . .
“Those with nothing to prove don’t seem to be bound by the same restrictive shackles. Ironically I bet the most hardcore mother f!@kers on the planet probably listen to Roy Orbison, Neil Diamond and f!@king Enya!!!”
He concludes: “For the impressionable metal fans coming up . . . I just want to say: forget about any concept of conforming to an image or idealogy in music. It’s okay to like Pantera and the Doobie Brothers. It’s okay to like Meshuggah and Adele. It’s okay to not like what you actually don’t like void of any superficial construct telling you, you SHOULD like it. There are no rules with this sh!t! That is “metal” to me!”
Twelve Foot Ninja’s new album is due out in 2016. Check out their latest single One Hand Killing, and read their ass-whooping Facebook post in full, below.
Watch: Twelve Foot Ninja – One Hand Killing
For anyone outside of the U.S and Canada: SiriusXM is a satelite radio network with more subscribers than the entire... Posted by Twelve Foot Ninja on Saturday, December 19, 2015
