Hey metal maniacs, just an update here.
Recently I've got a Terms of Acceptable Use violation email from bandcamp and it said my account was restricted. It was flagged for "Exploitative Violence (Extreme Gore)" which is fucking bullshit. Streetstalker's image shows no gore. The lyrics are tame compared to most Grindcore & Death Metal bands using the platform. Extreme Gore is a huge stretch.
I don't think somebody reported the page. Even still, it is now barred from Bandcamp's search function and Bandcamp Discover. This all happened a couple days after I added the 'pornogrind' tag onto the album.
It seems that bandcamp has AI trawlers searching through genre tags, flagging random accounts. You can bet that tags like pornogrind, grindcore, hardcore, death metal, and others are being singled out at the moment. I have taken the tag off. BUT! For any form of extreme brutal music on bandcamp, using fewer tags will be better than using a lot.
Bandcamp is so clogged, not only with shitty demos but also with artists who are already successful enough to not need bandcamp. The latter are the artists Bandcamp wants to promote, not projects like Streetstalker, as they get a piece of the pie. I think they do this random flagging to hide pages that bring in little money, making it easier to find pages with a higher payout for bandcamp.
If they are doing this to death/extreme metal, I'm sure they will find some way to have a similar effect on other tags like indie rock or whatever, that may not be brutal enough to pass off a flagging.
Bandcamp's new ownership is flushing it down the toilet. As far as the Extreme Gore accusation... Bands on major labels such as Cattle Decapitation will not get pulled from Bandcamp, there's too much money flowing through their accounts to both Bandcamp and the band for Bandcamp to think that is a good idea. Things like this Streetstalker flagging are a slap in the face to all underground independent extreme metal artists!
If my Bandcamp becomes shut down or hidden, I will still have this page to use for the project. The metal must go on!
As always thanks for any support of my project and metal in general!
Cheerz -vinny, prince of dankness
