Marilyn Manson is set to support Slipknot in front of 90,000 people at Wembley Stadium next July, a booking that critic Matt Mills argues is the antithesis of heavy metal's supposed mission to uplift the downtrodden. The singer, whose real name is Brian Hugh Warner, faces allegations of sexual misconduct from more than a dozen women, plus a lawsuit from a former assistant alleging physical, emotional and psychological abuse, set for trial in November 2027. Manson denies any wrongdoing, and in 2025 a four-year investigation into his alleged crimes was dropped with no charges filed.
A genre's contradiction
Mills, writing in a commentary piece, recalls his first heavy metal festival at Download 2012, where he felt a sense of acceptance among fellow fans. He notes that heavy music has long championed the misfit, citing Metallica's James Hetfield and Judas Priest's Rob Halford as examples. But booking Manson, he argues, feels like the opposite of what the genre should stand for.
Manson retreated from public view after the allegations began in 2021 but returned in 2024 with a new record deal and high-profile tour dates. He is not alone among allegedly problematic figures making comebacks: Chris Brown, who pleaded guilty to felony assault of Rihanna in 2009, and Ye, who made antisemitic statements in 2022, are playing large venues. The Guardian recently published an op-ed about Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme's image rehabilitation after he kicked a female photographer and his ex-wife accused him of domestic abuse.
Patterns of leniency
The Manson news came three months after Pantera supported Metallica at London Stadium. Pantera singer Phil Anselmo faced backlash in 2016 for shouting "white power!" onstage, later apologising but calling some detractors "phonies". The band reunited to much celebration in 2022. Nuclear Blast Records, Manson's label, will release a new album by Anselmo's other group, Down, in November.
As I Lay Dying are set to release a new album in February. The band split in 2014 after singer Tim Lambesis was sentenced to six years in prison for soliciting the murder of his ex-wife. In 2024, everyone bar Lambesis quit the band, and video surfaced of him flipping a table at which another ex-wife was sitting. The former couple have each accused the other of abuse. The band's latest single, "Polarized", has amassed 560,000 YouTube views in two weeks.
Fan reaction and industry complicity
Falling in Reverse's track "Joseph" has 20m YouTube views in two weeks, boosted by guest spots from Slipknot's Corey Taylor and System of a Down's Serj Tankian. Frontman Ronnie Radke has made transphobic comments on social media and used backlash as part of his image; the cover of the band's 2024 album "Popular Monster" bears his mugshot after a 2012 arrest for domestic assault, a charge dismissed in 2014.
Disappointed fans have dominated the announcement of the Slipknot/Manson tour, with the BBC and NME reporting on it. But Manson's UK tour in February 2025 completely sold out. Five Finger Death Punch guitarist Zoltan Bathory said it was OK to tour with Manson because he is now "clean and sober". Lamb of God toured with Pantera in 2023 and 2024, with singer Randy Blythe later calling Elon Musk a "fucking asshole" for raising his hand in a manner similar to Anselmo's gesture.
Mills concludes that metal has never been entirely a post-judgmental utopia, citing a drought of female representation and hate in underground subcultures such as the Nationalist Socialist Black Metal scene. In 2026, with some of its biggest artists accused of heinous acts only to return as popular as before, the genre feels fractured and unwelcoming, its inclusive messaging hollow. He says if he attended his first metal festival today and saw Falling in Reverse or Marilyn Manson perform, he might never go to a second.
