Suicide Silence's Mark Heylmun releases new guitar, says "gatekeeping makes the scene stronger"
Johnathan L. Peters
The world of heavy metal is known for its significant amount of gatekeeping present in the scene, with rigid definitions of what constitutes a particular genre and who is allowed to belong to it. This gatekeeping is something that Suicide Silence's Mark Heylmun has spoken about in a recent interview with Guitar.com talking about his new Jackson signature series guitar.
Heylmun has just released a new seven-string, Randy Rhoads-style signature guitar, which has been labeled as a "premium guitar designed for progressive metal players" on the Jackson Guitars website. This has caused some confusion, as Heylmun has never positioned himself as a progressive metal player. Instead, he is known for his heavy chugging and screeching harmonics.
"'Progressive' is a strange term because shouldn't you always be progressing?"
He goes on to explain that he wanted to create an instrument that would help him up his skills and that he added a 'shredder heel' to make it easier to reach the higher frets.
Heylmun has also faced criticism and gatekeeping from fans and peers who feel that his sound does not fit into a particular genre or scene.
Heylmun recalls:
"Death metal didn't like us, and metalcore wasn't really into us, either. We didn't look 'death metal' enough either, and our breakdowns weren't really things that death metalheads wanted to hear."
"That was the linchpin of all the heckling that happened when we toured with Nile, Behemoth, and Cannibal Corpse. We did all those tours, and that's what you'd hear: people talking shit about your breakdowns."
Despite this adversity, Suicide Silence has enjoyed success, proving that it is possible to thrive in such an environment. Heylmun believes that gatekeeping can actually make the scene stronger by creating conversations and bringing different perspectives to the table.
Heylmun explains:
"My hot take is that gatekeeping makes the scene stronger."
"I know that sounds weird, but if you don't have people talking shit and saying, 'This isn't this or that,' you don't have the other side saying, 'Yes it is!' or 'Fuck you for even saying that!' It creates the conversation that makes scenes stronger. I've seen that since I was young, and I've been a part of that."
35 comments
Post CommentHey Mark, remember when you guys tried to go all Deftones and it failed miserably and you lost half your audience so then "went back to your roots" the next album to try and save face? Everyone else does
Drop tuning is literally for loser lethargic players on dope
"Drop tuning" guy strictly listens to Tom Petty and ZZ top
Gatekeeping creating deathcore is not the endorsement he thinks it is.
We can't write like Morbid Angel, Deicide so breakdowns and some weedillie, weedillies
anonymous 42 minutes ago "Drop tuning" guy strictly listens to Tom Petty and ZZ top permalink | report abuse Nothing wrong with that
People who listen to this band also listen to five finger death punch. This dude can suck a dick
Perfect picture of this trash musician from a trash band to use. Idiot face in full effect.
Yeah, because the last thing we want in 2023 is a load of untalented bands coming in and reducing the quality of deathcore. How many people genuinely listen to this sort of music now? Did its novelty not peak 15 years ago?
MY NAME IS MARK HEYLMAN ACKNOWLEDGE YOUR TRIBAL CHIEF
The "we're too hardcore for death metal but also too death metal to be accepted by the hardcore community" is the calling card of marginally-talented bands who just don't produce music interesting enough to actually obtain a real audience in either genre. Bands with actual fanbases don't say things like this, nor do I ever hear any fans of either/both genres say things like this.
This guy and his band are a steaming pile of shit. Mitch did the right thing.
Garza should just do a traveling podcast that follows weirdos on tour.
UPDATE #2: To those of you who have suggested or demanded it, no, we're not going to disable comments. We're certainly not proud of them, but disabling them will serve no purpose. We're not going to make the world a better place by silencing people here. If you come to Lambgoat looking for solace during a time of grief, sorry, but look elsewhere. Assholes exist, and a few of them post here. Don't waste your time worrying about what they type into their keyboards, because that's exactly what they want. Personally, we ignore the comments and mourn the loss of Mr. Lucker. You should too.
They stripped me naked had me lift my ballsack up so they could check underneath it, and then had me bend over and spread my asscheeks apart so they could look inside my asshole.
Is this a bad time to acknowledge the fact that Sleep Token sold out the Ovo Wembley Arena in 10 minutes? That's over 10,000 tickets. . .
anonymous 2 days ago They stripped me naked had me lift my ballsack up so they could check underneath it, and then had me bend over and spread my asscheeks apart so they could look inside my asshole. Honestly, this never gets old lolol
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