Ronnie Radke, the lead singer of Falling In Reverse, who seemingly has to say something controversial every week has now criticized Scowl and SPEED for pulling out of the upcoming Download Festival. Several bands, including Scowl and SPEED, withdrew from the festival lineup due to concerns about one of the event’s main sponsors, Barclays.
Scowl made the following statement on June 10th:
“We will not be playing Download Fest this year due to Barclays Bank sponsorship of the event and Barclays connection to Israel and the genocide Israel is committing in Palestine.
Free Palestine!”
Scowl joined Pest Control in withdrawing from the festival due to their objection to Barclays bank’s involvement in financing companies supplying defense products to NATO and its allies. Following their lead, other artists such as SPEED, Zulu, and Ithaca also dropped out in solidarity. Instead of performing at the festival, some of these artists are organizing a benefit show for Palestinian aid later this week.
Radke addressed Scowl‘s decision on social media, accusing them of hypocrisy. He pointed out Scowl‘s past association with Taco Bell in 2023, highlighting Taco Bell‘s parent company Yum Brands‘ business ties with Israel as undermining the band’s credibility.
Radke took to both text and video stating:
Hey, what’s up? Remember that video I made about how I’m leaving the scene because a bunch of you guys, you bands, are incels, and everybody kind of sucks in metalcore and like hardcore and all that stuff, and all the pronouns for Palestine and stuff, yeah? Well, this just reassures me. I want to show you guys why:
[Radke quotes Scowl‘s aforementioned statement:]
‘Free Palestine. We will not be playing Download Fest this year due to Barclays Bank sponsorship, sponsorship. Remember — remember I said sponsorship — of the event and Barclays connection to Israel and the genocide of Israel, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, right?’
Damn dude, you guys are so ‘punk’ and like, real people, right? Yeah, real people.
Meanwhile, you’re doing Taco Bell commercials for the Super Bowl. This is why I hate your scene, because you’re a bunch of posers, dude. Fuck you, dude, Fuck you. You’re not real. You’re fucking posers. You fucking, oh my god, you boot licking shills, dude. Here’s another one.
[Radke quotes SPEED‘s post on X]:
‘We will no longer be playing Download Festival Friday, June 14, due to the recent news of Barclays sponsorship….’
Cool, man. But check out these, these Nikes that I, that, I, that I, yeah…. Communism, man. Punk Rock. Communism. But here, let me sell you guys some Nikes that we collabed with, and let’s do Taco Bells commercials, man. You guys are all fucking loser posers, and you’re not real punk, dude. And you get fucking checked at a show dude, if I ever saw that shit. Fuck you guys. Even my bird agrees with me. Fuck you.”
Radke captioned the aforementioned video post with:
“Fuck @Scowl40831 fuck all you fucking communist posers. You aren’t real. it’s all fabricated.”
Radke was referencing the SPEED/Nike collaboration and is calling them out for associating with the brand, who has relationships with defense contractors. As of right now, neither Scowl or Speed have responded to Radke.
In yet another follow-up post, Radke went after Scowl again with:
“so you better make a statement denouncing fucking Taco Bell for being associated with Israel too. straight up performative fucking shit. Go do a benefit show in palenstine on a rooftop while you’re at it”
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