I don't remember where, but I heard a podcast with someone who did music promotion for some of these artists. They would call the newspapers and feed them stories about the terrible musicians who do things like "eat bats live on stage", to get outraged parents to boycott these concerts. This was a very successful promotional effort for them.
Trust Me, I'm Lying by Ryan Holiday talks a bunch about how much of outrage about movies and music has actually been intentionally manufactured by guerilla marketers in order to promote the product to edgy teens wanting to purchase a controversial product that their stuffy conservative parents hate.
I wouldn't be completely shocked if some of the initial outrage about Jihad Rehab was triggered by a shrewd marketer, similarly how marketers would tip off the Tucker Max movie screenings to feminist organizations around campuses in the hopes that they would call for a cancellation.
Doubt we'll ever see the evidence for that though.
Is there any metal album that you can play backward and it says "Praise Jesus, my lord and savior!" I wonder what the Christian groups would do with that?
