When Bands Split

Nobody likes to hear when their favorite band disbands, it can be devastating given the influence they have on fans, and lately I saw that this month appears to be the splitting of two bands I know.

These bands in terms of how much I love them, on a scale of 1 to 10, are sitting at the halfway mark of 5 or below, but I still enjoy their music and both splits shocked me; however, one of them I did see coming.

Delain

I was not expecting this one to happen, and when it did there were two statements. Charlotte released something on all her platforms that a lot was going on behind closed doors and that founder Martijn revealed that many people in the band, including Charlotte were not happy in their current roles. There must have been some drama going around that they tried to resolve, but there was no solution that came. I mean, it’s sad when one band member leaves, but I’m talking about the departure of Charlotte, Timo, Otto, and Joey. Merel also left in 2019 so now it’s continuing on as Martijn’s solo project and he said he will eventually bring others.

It always sucks when a compromise cannot be achieved and some fans are disappointed because there hasn’t been much explanation as to what happened. I might check out some of Charlotte’s solo work from here on (I still have to do that with Anette’s new band Dark Element!) and it might be really good. I have only seen Delain twice and the second time I remember better because they were headlining and I remember standing by the soundboard and I met Otto. It was all unexpected and our conversation was very brief but he was a nice guy.

Yeah it’s pretty sad because what I do listen to by them, is really good but some things are just not meant to be in the end. I wish people would just chill out because this shit happens, just respect the choices and move on. I’m still going to listen to Delain’s stuff, I have yet to give the last album a listen and I’m not sure if I will listen to anything new that Martijn comes up with so we’ll have to wait and see.

Iced Earth

Okay, I definitely saw this one coming. I went through a time where I actually really loved Iced Earth and that was in 2014 when their Plagues of Babylon album released, even though Dystopia was way better. That was the time I realized I had a crush on Stu Block, then that crush faded away because I discovered something about him that he did that turned me off. But recently I decided to no longer let that bother me and give him another chance in my heart because there’s so many other things to love about him: He’s Canadian, loves cats, and has a great voice and sense of humor.

Anyway, that’s not why, I knew this was going to happen because I discovered on the news that the band’s founder and songwriter Jon Schaffer participated in the riots at the Capitol in January this year. He was reported to be using bear spray at the police and was soon arrested and is now in custody. Not long after, Stu posted on social media that he does not condone the actions of what happened and I’m sure he was disappointed as well because Jon was basically his metal brother. Then about a week later Stu announced his official resignation from the band, Luke and Jake also left the band so only Brent and Jon remain. There has been no statement from Brent about his view of the situation. But Jon basically killed his own career with some stupid act and the record label Century Media dropped the band from their deal as well as Jon’s other project Demons & Wizards.

I believe that people should have the right to protest against something peacefully but I cannot support it if it turns violent. I also don’t ever let politics or law decide what I listen to, especially if it’s a band I really love. Iced Earth isn’t a band I love deeply, but I like I said, I did go through a time where I did feel that way about them so I’m not sure what I’m going to do from here on. If I decide I still want to listen to what remains of their music, I’ll just have to mentally separate the music from Jon because I lost a lot of respect for him as a person for what he did.

So when this shit happens, how I feel about it depends on what caused it, I just wish that people would chill the fuck out about it, especially if the breakup is due to personal reasons. It is none of our business and if we really love the band, we should respect their decisions and wish them the best, not blast hate comments at them or fans who support them.

Now, if it’s due to legal issues, then well we fans have a choice to make. We can choose to either turn our backs, or not let it bother us and focus on the music that we love as it always lives on. I mean, I bet there is is still a cult out there that follow Chris Brown and his music despite the charges of domestic violence in 2009. It all depends on how personal the legal matter is to you.

Where do we go from here? There will always be other bands out there, but when one does disband it can leave a scar in one’s heart, not saying it has in mine but there may be some people who read this and one of these bands may have meant a lot to them.

👽Emily