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    John Joseph (Bloodclot, Ex-Cro-Mags) Calls Out Activist Bands For Staying Silent During Pandemic Years

    SenecaBy 144 Comments2 Mins Read
    The Mosh Network - Bloodclot promo 2025

    John Joseph, frontman of Bloodclot and former vocalist of Cro-Mags, has taken aim at what he calls the hypocrisy of “activist bands” who, in his view, failed to speak out against government actions during the pandemic years.

    In a recent Facebook post made on November 3rd, Joseph questioned why “99.9%” of politically outspoken bands didn’t challenge what he described as government overreach or lockdown restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic.

    “Why is it that 99.9% of the bands who made a living putting out records over the years about “fighting the system” didn’t release a single f*cking song against the bullsh*t “the system” pulled in 2020 and the years that followed? Answer: They were either scared of getting cancelled by the online muppets – or they backed what “the system” was doing. As for us we were sneaking into studios during the illegal l*ckdowns to make a record that spoke truth to power. “SOULS” – the opening line of the title track says it all- “Caught in a vicious cycle, ever impending de*th – darkness pushed illusion – spoken through their breath – nature holds what they deny – humans forced to d*e – madmen at the controls – for the manipulation of souls.” Music video in the comments.”

    Joseph went on to highlight Bloodclot’s song “Souls”, referencing its opening lyric as an example of speaking “truth to power.” He added that his band recorded during lockdown restrictions to release music that pushed back against what he viewed as control and manipulation.

    Since posting, Joseph has continued to engage with commenters on Facebook, responding to both supporters and critics alike.

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    144 Comments

    2. John Snider on

      People are getting disappeared in the street without due process and this clown is still mad he got asked to put a little piece of cloth on his face for a couple months.

      Reply
      • Kris Beck on

        John Snider you don’t have rights if you aren’t here legally. Literally none. You are a criminal. Its really simple high school level comprehension.

        Reply
        • John Snider on

          Kris Beck yeah you do, stupid. That is what Habeas Corpus is. You don’t get to change the rules just because you’re racist and want to lick boots.

          Reply
        • Kris Beck on

          John Snider no, no you dont retard. Constitution. Read it. No wonder so many people are so fucking dumb.

          Oh yeah, im racist and lick boots. Weird, last I checked I dont like any sitting politician. They’re all tyrants and retards, apparently like you.

          Reply
        • Chris Supay Déélgééd on

          Kris Beck “I don’t support any politician, they’re all tyrants and retards”

          *votes for some libertardian candidate who’s 10x more tyrannical / retarded than Dems or Repubs*

          Reply
        • Michael Siciliano on

          Kris Beck this is actually false, unless you don’t support actual laws in which case, you do you ya fascist bigot.

          Reply
      • Paul J. Haley on

        Jeff Dalrymple 1000% right. I honestly think the suburban kids destroyed hardcore the older I get. And I am one of those suburban kids but at least I see how all these hardcore kids fell in line when the shit hit the fan.

        Reply
        • Jeff Dalrymple on

          It was just the young kids (generation) all around, I don’t think it matters whether suburban or not. When we had the scene it had a point, now? …..

          They just follow along with what their teachers in school tell them, and then what the government tells them, and of course they’ll throw a tantrum when they don’t get their way. They always take the path of least resistance ya know?

          We gave them the keys to a Cadillac(hardcorepunk)

          ….and they wrecked it

          Reply
    5. Chris Supay Déélgééd on

      Aww the junkie only wants to put needles in his arm when the big bad gubahment isn’t FoRcInG him to

      Reply
    6. Tony Berryman on

      What a moron. Pissed off because the government did what it had to do to survive a deadly pandemic. Loads of people kept working throughout the lock down.

      Reply
        • Tony Berryman on

          Preston Scharf you fuck right off with that bullshit. I lost people to that pandemic. Stop letting social media control your every thought and take a look at the real life world around you man. Touch some grass maybe.

          Reply
        • Preston Scharf on

          Tony Berryman *scamdemic im sure they had pre existing health conditions that was the main factor! Be mad at the democrats they made the virus in a lad not me!

          Reply
    7. Mike Doyle on

      Meh. This guy sounds like a whiny turd. How about looking at what’s going on in America right now. Write a song about that, instead of continuing to moan and groan about that one time a couple years ago when you were asked to stay inside for the common good. Lots of people died from COVID. Use your brain and prioritize

      Reply
    8. Veil Ripper Record on

      Metal loves to aim at the safe villains priests, crosses, the Church ghosts that no longer haunt anyone. It’s easy rebellion: shock without consequence.
      Meanwhile, the real temples of control stand untouched corporations, algorithms, technocrats shaping minds in silence. The scene spits fire at old altars but bows to new ones made of screens and slogans.
      It’s not rebellion anymore. It’s theatre for the domesticated.

      Reply
      • Kyle Kamp on

        Veil Ripper Record wow it’s like the overwhelming majority of metalheads trust science so we shit on everything that is anti science and anti people. Plenty of anti corporation bands out there, you must not listen to much music.

        Reply
        • Veil Ripper Record on

          Kyle Kamp that’s exactly my point.
          When rebellion starts echoing the slogans of authority, it stops being rebellion.

          Reply
        • Veil Ripper Record on

          Kyle Kamp Funny how none of you addressed the point just who said it.
          That’s how rebellion dies: when the crowd defends dogma, not truth.
          Metal used to question priests; now it kneels to “science” with the same blind faith.
          The medium isn’t the sin the submission is.

          Reply
        • Kyle Kamp on

          Veil Ripper Record just say you’re a conservative that understands little to nothing, AI bands are absolute dogshit and have no place in the world. Fuck off

          Reply
      • Craig Tangata on

        Veil Ripper Record rebellion simply for the sake of rebellion is the realm of teenagers. Directionless tantrums. Acting like you were oppressed by non-existent federal mandates is Hot Topic rebellion. Punk, hardcore and metal’s rebellion was and is best when aimed at true inequalities and real oppression. Acting like suggested safeguards while people were trying to figure out and get a handle on a fast spreading virus is oppression is performative victimhood.

        Reply
        • Veil Ripper Record on

          Craig Tangata I don’t confuse rebellion with tantrums, that’s the difference between impulse and conscience.
          The point isn’t about masks or mandates. It’s about how every generation ends up defending the very systems it once swore to fight.
          Rebellion loses its soul the day it asks for permission.

          Reply
        • Veil Ripper Record on

          Craig Tangata explain this to me then,
          how the same system that floods streets with poison suddenly cares so deeply about our health.
          Maybe rebellion isn’t refusing care, maybe it’s refusing hypocrisy.

          Reply
        • Jon Rioux on

          Craig Tangata “Suggested safeguards while people were trying to figure out and get a handle on a fast spreading virus…..” 🫡 Maybe for the first 2-3 months of flattening the curve and not 2-3yrs ? Revisit old ads, commercials, double standards, taunting rhetoric of threatening livelihoods, families and the elderly dying alone, even after all the data and direct evidence of transmission within the jabbed populus, Real experts outside of beaurocracy who were shunned and expelled from humanity for their broadened yet challenging inquisitions and/or their true findings of factual evidenced data, and let’s not forget the heavy tactics of exclusion being likely THE biggest segregation efforts ever in our history as mankind because “not everyone was essential…” OR – simply get back to burying your head in the sand, and we’ll keep those boots above room temperature for ya when its time to lick them again. 👍

          Reply
        • Craig Tangata on

          Jon Rioux “real experts”? You know who won’t shut up about the “oppression” they suffered during the pandemic? The least oppressed group of people in the history of humanity. That’s a weird coincidence huh? Literally nothing happened to you outside of being inconvenienced and you so desperately want to be oppressed. Performative victimhood.

          Reply
        • Craig Tangata on

          Jon Rioux “seriously, dude, commercials were mean to me and I couldn’t go to Tim Hortons without putting a mask on for eighteen seconds. It was seriously the holocaust, bro.”

          Fuckin dork.

          Reply
        • Chris Berner on

          Craig Tangata Well said, but I disagree. Letting the government and whoever flex their muscles, and yes, limiting our freedom, is a huge deal that we will continue to see the consequences of

          Reply
        • Craig Tangata on

          Chris Berner what “freedom” was limited? The pandemic was the best time in the last decade. Besides there being no shows, nothing else happened. Roads were empty, had people over all the time, worked through the whole thing, got food to go (with drinks), literally nothing happened. What you’re saying by saying your freedoms were limited, is saying that you let them tell you what to do. If you just went about your life, you know what happened? Absolutely nothing.

          Reply
    10. Chris Cantrell on

      He’s 100% right punk became mostly commie shills for authoritarianism and “public private partnerships” of the world economic forum

      A few stood against the BS thank God madball and a bunch of bands stood up in New York rather than being gay shills for the new world order

      Reply
    13. Ryan Danley on

      Dude is the Alex Jones of hardcore. Hes been a conman since the beginning. Read stories about him dressing up like Santa Ckuas in a wheelchair for charity. The ‘system ‘ actually wanted you to go to work and die from a vurus to keep making people rich. His antivax stance is just right wing douchbaghery. This is why Harley won that fight.

      Reply
    14. Paddy Thee Lad on

      Good call. This is when “punk” went commie. Nothing says rebellion like doing what authority and government tell you to do. Clowns

      Reply
    16. Christopher Nicholas Nemeth on

      Out of all things happening, being mad about bands not “speaking out” against a lock down during a pandemic about a virus in which little was known about seems like an odd thing to complain about. But we are on the internet

      Reply
    22. Barry Donegan on

      Most punk rockers and metalheads are rule followers nowadays. This was something that was edgy around 50 years ago.

      Reply
      • Mike Doyle on

        Steven Matheny that is nothing but a bunch of idiotic strawmanning and prevarication. I lost two immediate family members to COVID, which they caught independently of each other, because people believe that it was a “hoax” or that it wouldn’t happen to them.
        Throughout none of this was I ever prevented from “worshipping the real king” and in fact my church and pastor were central to me being able to get through it.
        Your ideology is empty-headed and poisonous, and you need to start listening to people smarter than you, and re-evaluate your life, and probably get a therapist and a better church.

        Reply
        • Minor Thread on

          Dan Mullan no one was arrested for not wearing a mask. People were arrested for disorderly conduct or trespassing because they would cause a scene when asked to leave a private business.

          Reply
    42. Josh Griffith on

      Yeah ok. He wants to know why bands weren’t complaining about the government trying to keep people alive? Get the fuck out of here dork.

      Reply
      • Ray Badabing on

        Will Rip Ozzy Cro-Mags.

        The Age of Quarrel, is probably better than half the stuff you currently listen to. Seriously. Check that album out

        Reply
        • Will Rip Ozzy on

          Ray Badabing best hardcore album of all time . If you read the article it was about why aren’t hardcore bands writing about covid and what was forced on us due to it . So I simply wrote what song did he write for it . I also read John’s book . You should pick-up the evolution of cro-magnon . It’s a sad telling story about all he endured.
          And how he got to where he is today .

          Reply
        • Ray Badabing on

          Will Rip Ozzy oh crap, i read over the “it” in the end. Haha

          I got the audiobook as soon as it came out years ago.

          He’a definitely a case of sucking to see your heros become old and shity

          Reply
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