Band's act is gross and illegal
by Zach Herman
Opinion Columnist
October 02, 2003
The Tampa-area metal band Hell on Earth have attracted significant national media attention in recent weeks, but their music is not the story. Rather, the band renowned in Florida for their audacious stage behavior has promised to allow a terminally ill fan to commit suicide on stage at a show this weekend.
Our country desperately needs to create a national discourse on the concepts of euthanasia and an individual's right to die, but this stunt is a frightening, inappropriate and very illegal method of sparking that debate. The band's complicity would constitute a second-degree felony in Florida, as well as compromise accepted standards of proper public and private behavior.
Unfortunately, neither caveat seems to concern Hell on Earth frontman Billy Tourtelot. The singer has maintained a defiant posture since the scandal developed last month, assuring fans that the show would go on even as one venue cancelled the band's Saturday booking there and another club refused the show. According to the group's disturbing official Web site, the concert/suicide will take place as scheduled "at an undisclosed location within St. Petersburg city limits" and broadcast over the Internet. Public warnings from law enforcement officials and reproachful words from local politicians have likewise failed to alter the band's plan.
This is not the first time Hell on Earth has shown an alarming disregard for proper public conduct. The band has long practiced a sadistic form of performance art that makes other acts' on-stage antics appear positively mundane.
Among other stage exploits, the shock rockers have sodomized skinned calves, placed live rats in a blender and consumed the results and used breast milk as a prop. This resume of gross misbehavior suggests that, for Hell on Earth, the planned suicide is likely just another shock tactic designed to sell tickets. While they may have a worthy agenda, the band's horrific methods obscure any message they hope to send about an issue they claim to care about. That is, perhaps, the most tragic aspect of Hell on Earth's disgusting tactics.
Tackled intelligently, a debate about euthanasia could shed some light on a very contentious issue. There are quality arguments both for and against physician-assisted suicide. The pro-euthanasia movement claims that the government is denying the terminally ill their civil rights by preventing them from legally and safely committing suicide under a professional's watch.
Opponents of the act argue that a repeal of the ban would amount to implicit government acceptance of suicide as a viable solution to personal difficulties. This debate needs a public forum, but Hell on Earth is attempting to establish that dialogue in precisely the wrong way.
Music and activism often intersect, and rightfully so. Artists from John Lennon and Bob Dylan to Public Enemy and Pearl Jam have used their art as an outlet for their occasionally radical political philosophies. However, none of those artists have exploited the death of a fan in the way Hell on Earth intends to do. The intended victim is a willing participant, but that does not make the plan any less scary or out of place in a public environment. In this case, the tragic circumstances of the potential suicide trump the noble spirit of activism that supposedly fuels the plan.
