Metal Anarchy

Bad Omens previously made headlines after dropping off their early 2019 tour with The Amity Affliction and Senses Fail due to an alleged admat dispute. The co-headliners said Bad Omens were upset about the size of their name on the poster, but the band claimed that was not true. Now, The Amity Affliction’s Joel Birch has reignited the beef via Twitter, causing Bad Omens’ Noah Sebastian to respond with a lengthy statement in which he opened up about a past mental breakdown.

Here’s Birch’s tweet:

Here’s Sebastian’s response:

“For most of 2017 I was in a very sensitive state mentally due to a total breakdown I don’t want to go further into detail about because I don’t like talking about it, and it simply isn’t your business.

In this state I was prone to all kinds of erratic behaviors, triggered by almost anything, to a point that both myself and other people around me were concerned for my safety.

Fortunately – I got it all sorted and I’ve been feeling better than ever since the start of 2018. Fast forward a bit to when the internet blew up as a result of what I can only imagine at this point was lots of miscommunications and a bad judgement call to make an announcement in the tackiest most unprofessional way possible.

When we issued a statement about the situation I mentioned that I had felt “bullied” and lots of people find that hilarious. So I’m gonna explain what I meant.

Now my whole life I’ve never been a sensitive person and I’ve been through enough fucked up shit growing up that a crude joke, or a keyboard warrior are the last things that could phase me.

I thought I was psychologically invincible. But after experiencing a totally unpredictable panic and anxiety beyond manageable for such a long duration of time, and seeing what it truly meant to lose your power over your emotional state, I learned how relative these seemingly innocent situations can be.

We got hundreds maybe thousands of hateful messages and comments and tweets – sometimes even threats? Over this goofy band “beef” and a decision we felt was best for our band.”

Now I’m not dressing myself as a victim here, and as I said before, I was in a good place at this point so while it was frustrating having so much to say while trying to maintain some level of professionalism – it wasn’t detrimental.

But the point I’m trying to make it that inciting some kind of gang mentality in an attempt to encourage the masses to send a negative response or energy to someone – is always potentially a risk when your knowledge of the actual situation is limited and something maybe you’d rather be safe than sorry about when you never know what that person is going through.

And that’s a gamble both TAA and SF were willing to take and let’s not all play dumb and act like they didn’t know that would happen.

An ironic gamble considering the message Joel monetizes while advocating all kinds of positive mental health agendas, but after almost 40 years to accumulate any kind of wisdom on the subject, wasn’t able to consider.

So no we aren’t pussies, or divas, and if you talk enough shit to us we will likely talk shit back.

But we are self aware enough to check ourselves, and keep the conversation going about a problem we actually care about and have all been affected by. I’m not trying to call on anyone to “cancel” these bands or dudes. You word it a certain way, and it’s funny. I get it.”

The memes are still funny. No such thing as bad press. But it’s also a good example of a situation that at the wrong time or place, with the person, could’ve gone worse, and I think that’s worth thinking about. Love all you guys. See you on the road. Hopefully the higher one.”

https://twitter.com/noahsebastian/status/1140021878393696256

Birch has since responded to a number of people who were critical of his original tweet:

[via Alternative Press]