"It's kind of like having a group called Abstinence for the Sexually Anxious holding its convention in San Francisco. Or a group called Society for the Hatred of Corn deciding to meet up in Iowa." - Steve Huey (Allmusic.com)
Tampa, Florida is arguably the birthplace of death metal. Deicide, Six Feet Under, Obituary, and Morbid Angel all hail from the region. There's also a ton of others, including Hate Eternal, Massacre, Nocturnus, The Absence, Malevolent Creation (well, they moved to Tampa from Buffalo, NY shortly after formation, but whatever). Atheist was formed in Sarasota, which is just down the road. Death was technically from Orlando, but it's only an hour away! Additionally, nearby studio Morrisound Recording has seen a slew of big name metal bands roll through its doors for the past few decades.
Anyway, Republicans will be holding their convention in Tampa next week, at which time they will nominate religious conservative Mitt Romney for president. While Cannibal Corpse has not been asked to perform, the irony of Republicans' geographical selection hasn't been lost on international news agency, Reuters, which has issued a story on the matter titled "Death metal, the sound of Tampa, won't be heard at Republican convention."
Tampa Bay Host Committee president Ken Jones pleads ignornace when it comes to Tampa's death metal scene: "Maybe I'm just a really boring human being, but I was not aware of Tampa being a death-metal capital. Maybe had I known that, I could have used that to raise a few dollars." Could he be lying? Probably not. But somebody search his closet for an Obituary hoodie anyway.
Personally, I think Morbid Angel frontman David Vincent summed up the whole thing rather nicely: "There is usually something far more creative and worthwhile happening that distracts our focus from the ever-important empty suits who promise everything and deliver nothing."
You can also read the entire piece on Yahoo, where commenters don't seem too happy that this particular article ever saw the light of day.
