Yesterday, Jorma Vik of The Bronx posted a photo on Facebook, purportedly taken by a friend at this year’s Warped Tour, of a bunch of empty amplifier cabinets in the backline of pop-metal band Black Veil Brides. “This is what kids are calling ‘rock n roll’ these days,” Vik said. “I’m lighting fire to every drum I have and becoming an investment banker.”
Well, the kids were calling it “rock ’n’ roll” long before the sentient Mötley Crüe caricatures in Black Veil Brides did it. Immortal took some heat for the same thing a few years ago (see below), but the practice goes back three decades, from Kiss to Judas Priest. Even a cool-kids band like Sleigh Bells indulges in what it likes to call “aesthetic volume.” BVB frontman Andy Biersack tweeted that the band uses “staging” in its “stage show,” which apparently takes place on stages. “Also, these are tattoos,” he wrote. “I wasn’t born with the batman logo on my arm.”
Black Veil Brides may be pioneers in one department, though: Has anyone else ever pretended to have a wall of Peavey amps?