A few weeks ago, we wondered if Chelsea Grin's new single, "Clickbait," was about us?
Fortunately, vocalist Alex Koehler let it be known to us, via Twitter, that the song is not in fact about us, but about "something bigger." He also thanked us for discovering him on an early episode of our podcast, the RIP a Livecast
Sorry, but I had something bigger on my mind.
Thanks for discovering us though. Couldn't have done it without ya! @metalinjection ?— Grudges (@AKGrin) May 8, 2016
So, who could it be about? Alex spoke to Team Rock and gave a few hints (which we've bolded) as to which specific media outlet it could be:
"People have asked if it was about the media in general, but it’s more so about a certain media outlet that’s been a bastard for so many years. We’ve done so many things for them but it’s never been reciprocated. When our band first came out they gave us a bad review, but whatever, that happens. Then it kept happening, and we’d do things like signings for them, stuff like that, and always be very good to them and they’d turn around and shit on us. Finally I was like, these people are never going to benefit us in any way, ever, so I’m going to call ‘em out for what they are. And it ended up being a pretty fun song."
And later adding:
"They were always bashing on the music, and I know people have their own opinions, but we’d do things for them on a daily basis that would bring them traffic, and we never got anything out of it apart from a shitty review and some guy talking shit. There was nothing on our character, we just feel like we respected them and had nothing but good things to say about them, but then they were like ‘fuck you’."
I think the real tell here is the autograph signings. We've never organized any autograph signings, neither have other sites like MetalSucks, ThePRP, Lambgoat, etc.
Alex also tweeted that it is a media outlet he considers to be "bigger" than Metal Injection.
The majority of summer/festival touring that Chelsea Grin has done has been on Warped Tour.
Who is a major sponsor of Warped Tour, that organizes signing there? Alternative Press. AltPress even has a Warped Tour microsite with a listing of band signings (!) at their tent.
Alex said this outlet trashed their albums, let's take a look at the first sentence of AltPress' review of Chelsea Grin's 2012 EP, Evolve:
If there is an original idea on Evolve, Salt Lake City’s Chelsea Grin have done a damn fine job of concealing it.
Ouch!
Unfortunately, we can't track down any other AltPress reviews, but at this point, I think there is enough evidence to see who exactly Alex was talking about. We tweeted asking him to confirm and will update if we get an answer.
@AKGrin So is "Clickbait" about @AltPress or what?https://t.co/Za8vDuaIyL
— Metal Injection (@metalinjection) June 9, 2016
