As reported by Metal Hammer, Baldwin Street Grille, a restaurant located in Madison, Wisconsin, has gone viral after a worker of the restaurant shared a photo regarding the business’ “music policy.” This policy lists a plethora of bands and musical artists that are not allowed to be played at work.
This policy includes several big metal acts, including the likes of: Pantera, Metallica, Five Finger Death Punch, Meshuggah, Gatecreeper, Cattle Decapitation, and much more. Oh and no Machine Gun Kelly (regardless of genre) is allowed.
Now full disclosure, this list is totally meant to be a playful joke. It has been enforced by the restaurant’s sous-chef Paul Wildhoney (who also happens to be a metalhead). In a conversation with Metal Hammer, Wildhoney shared the following:
“I didn’t know a lot of people who listened to metal when I was growing up, so the only place where I could talk about music with others was the internet. As internet communities are centred around memes and jokes, I was inspired by my peers to go over the top with my elitism.”
He continues, adding that he did not expect for the photo to blow up online the way it has.
“I woke up one morning to see my list get posted by a large number of meme pages and get shared in almost every metal Facebook group I’m in. But I only truly recognised how big it’s gotten when I went to see T-Pain and Lil Jon last week and a guy recognised me from the photo I took posing next to the list.”
Wildhoney also runs a metal label called Red Nebula, and this viral photo has helped him get some extra publicity.
“It’s pretty amazing to know that I made a lot of people around the world laugh. Honestly, the best part is the amount of exposure that the label I help run has gotten. The free publicity has been huge for giving us a bigger platform to spread our anti-racist and anti-NSBM message.”
What do you make of this “music policy”? We think it’s pretty comical for Wildhoney to throw playful jabs at everyone from Cattle Decapitation to Five Finger Death Punch and Chris Barnes. You can view the full list below:
