Up-and-coming death metal act Sanguisugabogg has released a bootleg-like mech design that has caused a bit of a stir. The Columbus, OH-based quartet, who are currently signed to Century Media Records, recently shared a pre-order link to a t-shirt available through Dead As Shirts.
The shirt depicts the Super Mario franchise characters Luigi and Bowser, engaged in behavior that the parent company Nintendo probably won't approve of.
Though the design can come across as jarring and offensive to some, it is important to note that in the genre of death metal, depictions of grotesque death and mutilation are rather par for the course. One can look at any album cover from death metal pioneering acts like Cannibal Corpse, Slayer, Deeds Of Flesh, and many more where the whole point is to shock and make you feel some kind of way about it.
The design is a clear tongue-in-cheek reference to the murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson and the alleged assassin Luigi Mangione. The event has caused a stir online, with parties siding with each victim and alleged killer. Some fans are hailing the design as "based" while others elsewhere are giving up their fandom for the band.
The band themselves have shown support for Mangione in a post that shows frontman Devin Swank next to someone, who has had Mangione's face photoshopped over it, claiming that Mangione was with them the morning of the murder, thus jokingly stating he had an alibi.
The post reads:
Just wanted to give a quick shout out to our friend Luigi who on December 4th around 6 AM helped us load our trailer and drive with us to play a secret set all the way to Point Arena, CA which is about 2800 miles from Manhattan and after staying at the show with us all night he bought merch from every band except for the hoodies and when we asked he just replied “2 things I hate most in this world are hoodies and 3D printed 9mm”.
Sorry to anyone that was upset our friend won murderball it wasn’t really fair but it was awesome he gave the ball to an underprivileged orphan who received free merch from us!
For those who are interested in pre-ordering the shirt, they can do so here, until Nintendo finds out at least.
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