In a bizarre series of events, Twelve Foot Ninja have released and then deleted a statement addressing fan backlash, which erupted after they posted a dodgily photoshopped version of the Download 2019 second lineup poster with themselves billed above Polaris and Thy Art Is Murder.
The Melbourne metal fusion kings posted the doctored image on their own Facebook page following the festival’s local-heavy second artist announcement last week, but because the internet is the internet, punters outside of the 12FN fandom soon cottoned on and the social media call-outs / cyber-bullying (whatever you want to call it) commenced:
Imagine being irrelevant ass Twelve Foot Ninja and poorly editing the Download flyer to make yourselves look bigger lmoa pic.twitter.com/ooB5TI6Hh0
— Патрик Кирни (@pxblohoney) November 19, 2018
In the wake of the drama, Ninja guitarist Stevic took to Facebook to explain the whole sitch, reporting that the band’s manager was the dodgy photoshop culprit and explaining that the whole thing was done with Download’s full blessing to benefit the 12FN fanbase, and not to assert any kind of dominance over Polaris or Thy Art.
“It wasn’t a bloody ‘leaderboard’ that we shuffled around to stooge people into thinking we won the Grand Final,” Stevic wrote in the since-deleted post. “And it’s even weirder that some view lineup announcements as some kind of empirical measurement of how big everyone’s dicks are?!”
“It’s idiotic to even make this post,” he added, concluding: “I felt the need to make this unequivocally clear and also announce that I’m really Thanos and here’s photo evidence.”
He then mic-dropped with a photoshopped animated image of himself looking super swole, Thanos-style.
Punters also got in on the fun, with some photoshopping the full Download 2019 lineup with Twelve Foot Ninja replacing Ozzy Osbourne in the headliner slot.
Check out some cheeky screengrabs below.
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