Reductio ad Hitlerum

Hey there, loyal DIJ reader! Have you, like us, been roundly disappointed by just about everything Apoptygma Berzerk has put out since 2000's "Welcome To Earth" (their Kim Wilde cover being a notable exception)? Would you say that yr disappoinment has been rooted not so much in the band's desire to explore new territory (believe me when I say that I want EBM bands to succeed when they branch out) but by the sheer mediocrity of the limp ballads and uninspired rockers that the outfit churned out on "You And Me Against The World"? Have you ever made those thoughts public? Are you getting tired of me shoving words in yr mouth?

If the answer to the above questions is "yes", then congratulations: Stephen Groth just called you a Nazi. Yep, that's right: in an interview with Side-Line, El Grotho tries to set the record straight on Apop's stylistic shifts, but ends up whinging about how harsh fans of Apop's earlier material have been in their critiques of the band's newer efforts, a hardship which Groth equates with Nazi censorship:

I get this kind of nazi war feeling when reading some of them. It's just like the Nazi's 'Berufsverbot', Jews, artists, thinkers and politicians were not allowed to do what they were doing because they had different opinions on things. The Nazi's decided what was good music, good books and good art, and then burned the rest. They burned everything that they didn't like, remember the Kristallnacht or the Night of Broken Glass in Nazi Germany. If you can not enjoy and accept that people think different and have other views, then thats really sad. Reading some of these comments does gives me that very bad taste in my mouth...

Y'know what leaves a bad taste in my mouth, Steve-o? Punks who wanna play Big Rock Star and then act as though they don't understand the plot of "Ziggy Stardust". I accept that people have different views: you think the last nine years of Apop material are great, I think they're trite pablum - no need to drag Hitler into the debate, dick. If your ego is so big that it can be wounded by a bunch of online rivetheads who call your bid for mainstream success as they see it to the point that you feel the need to not only violate Godwin's Law but compare yourself to victims of the Nazis, then you haven't just failed at Using The Internet 101, you've also failed at being a rock star. The pretty boy guitar hero that you've fancied yrself for some time should be above such petty grievances. Shit like this just goes to show those of us who've slagged you in the past that not only do you lack musical chops, Groth, but that you lack the promotional skills to succeed in the big league you've been striving in vain to make a mark in for nearly ten years now.

Oh yeah: Groth also goes on some weird tangents about how "some" media coverage of the moon landing may have been faked, that while he's not a 9/11 Truther, "the official explanation of 9/11 is bullshit", and may or may not favourably compared Apop to The Beatles. Draw yr own conclusions.