At this time last year, Stoned Meadow of Doom was one of the biggest influences in Stoner Rock. Headed by genre superfan Clint Beed, Stoned Meadow of Doom (sometimes written as SMoD) has promoted a wide variety of bands since 2013, amassing a YouTube following of more than 300,000 subscribers. Eventually, Beed even managed to spin off the successful YouTube channel to launch Stoned Meadow of Doom Fest, an annual celebration of Stoner Rock, Stoner Metal, Doom Metal, and Sludge Metal. For bands just starting out in these genres, SMoD has been an effective way to reach a larger audience.
Beed’s status as a promoter throughout the Rock/Metal industry has dwindled in recent months, however. After years of questionable behavior, one weekend in February 2020 changed the course of his career—and Stoned Meadow of Doom—forever.
The Warning Signs: The Foreshadowing of Stoned Meadow of Doom’s Decline
Almost from the start, Beed’s business practices have been questionable. Beed and his YouTube channel have received heaps of criticism for taking YouTube ad revenue without sharing the profits with the bands featured on the SMoD channel—despite the fact that the channel regularly shares entire albums. Many of these bands are unknown or up-and-coming musicians, so many have to accept simple exposure in exchange for appearing on Stoned Meadow of Doom.
The Stoned Meadow of Doom Fest has received equal amounts of criticism. Held every year from 2016 to 2018, the first festival was decried for its pay-to-play model of forcing lesser-known bands to pay for space on the stage. In many ways, this was even worse than the YouTube channel’s business model. Instead of bands handing over their record for exposure, they were now paying for exposure.
There was also Beed’s behavior behind the scenes. Beed gained a reputation for fighting with competing channels, often reporting similar YouTube music channels and attempting to get them shut down.
As unsavory as his business tactics may be, his behavior on a personal level has been equally alarming, especially on Facebook. The SMOD Nation Facebook group has amassed nearly 14,000 members as of this writing, but the group has long been controversial for its rampant racist and sexist posts. Much of this behavior has been spurred by the group’s “Shitpost Saturdays,” a window for members to post and comment disgusting opinions and jokes without consequence.
This history of unchecked behavior has led to a serious blow to the reputations of both Beed and Stoned Meadow of Doom.
February 2020: A Turning Point
In February of 2020, a series of vitriolic posts and comments came to light, partially from the SMOD Nation Facebook group and partially in other places on the internet.
As Metal Sucks reported earlier in the year, Beed took a series of hard-to-ignore turns, including supporting a hate speech from Pantera’s Phil Anselmo, attacking Acid Mammoth for uploading their music to another channel, suggesting that Jews secretly run the government, and stating that European settlers never stole land from Native Americans.
For a moment, Beed appeared to retract his statements, explaining that he’s not racist and that Shitpost Saturday is a place where jokes can get edgy and shouldn’t be taken literally. This post was quickly removed, and Beed went on to attack those who disagreed with him publicly.
As the music scene took notice, many bands moved to distance themselves from Beed and Stoned Meadow of Doom—even bands who had once been promoted by the YouTube channel.
Truckfighters may have found themselves in the most awkward position of all. Their popular Gravity X album cover is taken from a comic book series called Space:1999. Beed has stated in the past that Gravity X was influential on getting into Stoner Rock and similar genres—enough that the Stoned Meadow of Doom icon is the same image from Space:1999.
Truckfighters immediately moved to distance themselves from Beed and Stoned Meadow of Doom as quickly as possible to prevent any misconceptions about ties between the band and the YouTube channel.
Stoned Meadow of Doom Today
Six months removed from February 2020, Stoned Meadow of Doom seems to be doing fine overall. Fans still flock to the YouTube channel, and any sort of mass unsubscribes from the channel seem to have been replaced. As of today, Stoned Meadow of Doom has about 349,000 subscribers on YouTube.
Still, it’s probable that Beed’s reputation has been tarnished beyond repair. In today’s cancel culture with little tolerance for bigotry, it’s unlikely Beed will enjoy much more success beyond his Facebook page and YouTube channel.
Great incite to an unfortunate outcome. Wow we sure were not aware of the impact this has made. Shared your Post on Fuzz Fanatics for a open debate
You’re right—very unfortunate. Thanks for sharing it!
Wow, between this, the barren landscape that is his uploads section and an indirect jab comment I saw under a dead meadows album, this all makes sense now. Sucks hard that such a wealth of tasty jams had to gather under a numbskull like that. Granted, I wasn’t unlike him years back but live and learn, y’know?
The Metal community has a reputation for being a welcoming place. It always sucks to see people not live up to that standard of brotherly love.
I think the relationship between the artists and the subscribers on SMOD can still be something real despite any cancellation of the person responsible for the conduit. Also, I am sure there are a good pile of douchebags that work for youtube, but I still use it.
Having a conduit where bands and artists can connect is always important. It seems like many bands were quick to spur SMOD, though, as they realized there were plenty of other places to connect with new fans—Rob Hammer, Mr. Doom, Instagram (in general), etc. And other places have emerged to help fill the void. Part of the problem with SMOD, of course, is that Clint is a poor moderator because his own behavior has a history of being toxic. So his community is only as good as your tolerance for bigotry.
I bet if you took a woman off the street and showed her a synopsis of stoner rock imagery, she would explain to you why she thinks there is a massive dose of sexism represented(for example: women…I mean “witches” spread eagle ready to screw the hyper-macho stoner demon etc) . She might also attempt to make the case that some sort of systemic racism must exist since she can’t find very many non-white participants(even though my label has a couple). Also, the glorification of blood skulls, doom, and drugs might just put her over her subjective edge and require cancellation of the entire genre.
I just think it is funny that a genre that is so heavily immersed in the above realities is somehow embracing its inner Karen.
I also know that people can grow. I believe that engaging and helping people to see broader perspectives is better than cancelling them from interactions that can help them evolve. If we send all the people who revealed their inner confusion off to an island somewhere, I doubt that confusion will get enough daylight to move in a healthier direction. It will just stew on itself in an angry echo-chamber.
A real “community” is strong when it can evolve and also help its members evolve.
A lot of the creations I have been involved with are a matter of figuratively holding up a mirror to society and hoping it will recognize a few very dark tendencies. I lean towards creative engagement rather than isolation.
I guess I am a member of the SMoD community. Just one. One creator/subscriber.
Clint is one too….just one. One moderator.
SMoD is so big that I think it is lazy to isolate it. Isolation is easy. Helping it evolve into a beacon rather than a stain is tricky. It isn’t going anywhere, so in one way or another it will represent the genre for a long time.
You have a few good points here.
I do agree that the hypersexualization is overkill, redundant, and gross. It’s unfortunate that this isn’t discussed more and analyzed as closely as other issues.
Your discussion of growth is interesting. I don’t want to limit anybody’s potential for growing into a better person. It is interesting, though, that Beed had a long history of predatory behavior, modeling his shows like a predatory video game publisher, for example. And forbidding bands from promoting their music on other channels (and reporting those channels in turn) is problematic on numerous levels. Growing out of that is up to him. And so is his decision to promote Shitpost Saturdays and the discussions from it.
I think this behavior was just a long line of dominos waiting to topple—which is what we eventually saw happen.
As a leader of an organization, whether that be a company, YouTube channel, or some other entity, you are responsible for setting the tone and creating the culture within. For a long time, Beed allowed and promoted hostility and intolerance, so take that for what you will.
For the most part, the metal community is a welcoming one, and it’s long been a haven for rejects and outcasts. It’s a bummer when people hijack that for something else.
A friend of mine was heavily involved in the metal scene out in western PA for years, and there was one venue that was quite popular in his area. Every now and then, the venue/bands would draw a ton of neo-nazis who would use the mosh pit as an excuse to slip on brass knuckles and try to physically harm people.
That sort of behavior is disgusting and uncalled for.
Again, Beed made a long series of decisions and choices over the years. It eventually came back to bite him. Whether he learns and grows is up to him.