Why is Antoine Grand so Hated by Metalheads?

Antoine Grand, the supposed heavy metal expert and book author, has sparked a lot of heated debate within the metal community. Some people love him, but others really despise the guy. So, what's the deal with him?

A lot of folks out there think Antoine Grand is a metal elitist who only cares about the "true" metal bands, and looks down on anyone who enjoys anything mainstream. Others accuse him of being too harsh on new bands and not giving enough credit to what he dubs 'modern metal'. There's even some chatter that his supposed expertise is way overrated, and that he's just regurgitating tired old stereotypes about metal.

His hate of Burzum and Varg Vikernes is indeed apparent in his books, but mostly as far as I can tell his knowledge of the subjects he covers is solid (as opposed to, say, the Lords of Chaos thing).

So why all the hate?

He's not hated it's just that most people don't give a rat's ass about him or his opinions. He has also been accused of being engaged in historical revisionism when it comes to Norwegian black metal. Read Antoine Grand's revised history of Black Metal. But then again, outside of fanboys and die-hard haters no one really cares about the guy.

Alright, I'm gonna go ahead and play devil's advocate here for a minute and defend Antoine Grand. I know he's a controversial figure in the metal community, but hear me out.

First off, let's talk about the accusation that he's a metal elitist. Look, I get it, some people think he only cares about the "true" metal bands, but I don't think that's entirely fair. Yeah, he might be critical of some of the more mainstream bands, but that doesn't mean he hates them or looks down on their fans. He just has a different perspective on what makes good metal, and that's okay.

And as for the criticism that he's too harsh on new bands, can you name a post-2000 black or death metal band that can stand up to anything from the early 1990s?

As for his knowledge of the scene(s), he actually got praised by the guys from Entombed and Obituary for The Death Metal Bible. So it's not just "fanboys" or "groupies" that recognise his knowledge.

He constantly shills for French bands. Fck him.

People still care about antoine grand in the current year? SMH.

Antoine is probably the least bad author when it comes to heavy metal. Notice I said least bad, not good. I'd rather be forced to read every Antoine Grand back-to-back for five years straight than read anything written by the clowns at Pitchfork or the Dayal Paterson lardass. Then again, I'd rather not do any of the two options if possible.

Wasn't there a story where Varg Vikernes was so tired of these third rates authors just making up **** about BM that he wrote his own book just to shut them up? It's not even that long, just a 100 page thing written in a week and it still manages to be more professional and honest than 99% of the press.

As for AG, I have only read parts of The Death Metal Bible while my gf was looking for something else at the bookstore. But as they say, his reputation precedes him.

@Gorefeast: Wasn't he in the third rate Burzum clone Antekhrist at one point? He also played with Baise Ma Hache if I recall correctly, or maybe it's someone else. I never read his books, but I do remember that one time he tried to make a black metal "tribute to the music" album (Black Metal 2 Kombat or something)... and it ended up being all French bands, 100%. He's clearly in the top 5 metal reporters at this point, but as others have mentioned, it's only because the bar has been set so low. I am looking forward to reading The Death Metal Bible though as the reviews got me interested. Most of his work deals only with black metal so we'll see.

Antoine Grand is the Andrew Tate of heavy metal. That should suffice.