Fear Factory’s Dino Cazares hits out at “hypocritical, elitist” metal fans attacking ‘poser’ Kourtney Kardashian

Fear Factory guitarist Dino Cazares has defended Kourtney Kardashian after the reality TV star was labelled a ‘poser’ for wearing a Cannibal Corpse T-shirt.

In a series of tweets, Cazares hit out at metal fans for being “elitist”, “hypocritical” and “judgemental” in their reaction to Kardashian’s fashion choices, and stated “I can tell u that the K’s [Kardashians] have exposed more metal to the masses than the small metal media has.”

“I wish she was wearing one of my band’s tees,” the guitarist admitted.

The arguments over this latest spot of metal gatekeeping began when former Cannibal Corpse frontman Chris Barnes retweeted a paparazzi snap of Kardashian and her boyfriend, Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker, showing the pair wearing Cannibal Corpse (her) and Cramps (him) T-shirts. In a one-word tweet, Barnes labelled the duo ‘posers’, a fact which was picked up by a number of music sites, this one included. 

Kardashian’s stylist, Dani Michelle, revealed to Vogue that the T-shirt belonged to Barker, and that her client liked to borrow her boyfriend’s shirts simply because they are “the softest, coolest thing ever.”

In a Twitter conversation with his followers, Cazares spoke up in favour of Kardashian, leading to a bigger conversation about elitism and gatekeeping in metal.

"How do we truly know she's not a fan?” the guitarist wrote. “Or Maybe she's heard of death metal by now? The whole family has been wearing DM [Death Metal] shirts for years now. Yes they have a stylist but that doesn't mean they just can't have it hanging in there [sic] closet and just throw it on. Surly Travis is aware.”

“Females wear clothes if it’s fashionable, comfortable or looks great on them,” he wrote in another tweet. “The Kardashians have been wearing more death metal T-shirts than I have ever worn. Someone must be a fan maybe the stylist is a fan either way that’s great exposure for the genre.”

“The Kardashians have been wearing more death metal shirts than I ever wore in my 55 years of living on this earth,” Cazares added.

Noting “I’ve never understood DM elistism”, the guitarist added “What do u care what she wears? The kardashians have exposed more metal then [sic] u, they probably wore more metal shirts then [sic] u.”

“How judgemental metal fans are.”

“U don’t know her the media doesn’t know her u don’t know what she likes. But I can tell u that the K’s have exposed more metal to the masses then [sic] the small metal media has.”

“The point is its hypocritical for a metal head to judge a popular person for wearing a metal shirt when metal heads are the ones being judge [sic] by others for the way they look or dress?”

Kourtney Kardashian has yet to weigh in with her opinion as to who should replace Burton C Bell in Fear Factory, but we sincerely hope she does.