Mark, My Words: Mainstream has taken over metal, it's time for metal to take over the mainstream

Funny and clever as always, NME's Mark Beaumont delves into questions of fashion and identity in his latest Mark, My Words post: "Metallers' image has been assimilated deep into the mainstream. They’ve undergone painful surgeries at the hands of their drunkest mates in order to declare their extreme tastes and lifestyle to the world, yet if you wander into a record shop (remember them?) in 2020 with piercings through your pancreas and Cannibal Corpse lyrics tattooed across your eyelids, you’re more likely to be recommended a Post Malone, Billie Eilish or Lil’ Jaily record than anything that might even slightly melt your face. The ultimate signs of personal non-conformism have become the New Normal. Luckily, there is an answer – if the mainstream has stolen your identity, why not steal theirs? So be released from your basement cave bars, ye wicked, get your nails done and roam the All Bar Ones so long denied you and your kind".