“You can’t kill punk, you can’t kill metal, and you sure as hell can’t kill Shell Shock,” Hoover declared, adding that the festival’s mission of supporting veterans and first responders would remain unchanged. “We don’t discriminate. Everyone is welcome.”

As the dust settles on this latest chapter of the metal community’s ongoing identity crisis, one thing remains clear: the genre is at a crossroads. Can metal continue to be the rebellious, anti-establishment force it once was, or has it become just another battleground for modern political debates?

For Kyle Rittenhouse, the answer seems obvious. “Metal was supposed to be the last place where you could be yourself, speak your mind, and not care what others thought,” he lamented. “But now it looks like even that’s gone. Guess I’ll have to find a new scene. Just sad.”

Whether Rittenhouse’s departure from the metal festival scene will mark the end of his foray into the music world remains to be seen. What’s certain is that the conversation around politics, freedom, and the limits of expression in music is far from over.

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