For years, black metal cult heroes Watain have been notorious for hurling pig blood and animal parts into the crowd while performing. Apparently, that’s the kind of thing you can get away with when you’re a bunch of Swedish Satanists with a huge underground fanbase. When you’re just some unknown Americans, you might learn that people are a little less into that particular stunt.

Last weekend, a band called Martyrdom played a multi-band bill at a Houston venue called the White Swan. One of the band members brought a pig’s head to the show and threw it into the crowd. Footage of the flying head made the Twitter rounds, and it does indeed look nasty. The head looks like it’s smiling?

Naturally, some people got performatively upset about the idea of a pig’s head at a show. A few days after the show, Martyrdom made a statement to Lambgoat, apologizing to “any vegans, Muslims, or other minority groups we may have offended, and to anyone who was harmed by our act.” They explained their action like this: “We are a black metal band, and as part of it, we try to add a little bit of imagery and shock value to our set. Unfortunately our acts has gotten carried away and way out of hand, offending many and even harming some.” They also singled out White Swan sound guy Harry for apology. I’m sure we can all feel for Harry right now. Here’s what they wrote:

Apology or no apology, the whole stunt has continued to make the rounds, reaching outlets far outside the underground-metal conversation. It was in the Houston Chronicle yesterday. It’s on TMZ today. Now, Martyrdom are way more famous then they would’ve been if they’d just played a regular set last weekend. If you’re going to be a scary, evil animal-carcass black metal band, maybe you should own it and not apologize? Or maybe you should just not bring the pig’s head in the first place. I don’t know. People are going to do wha they’re going to do.

Time to yank back the curtain here: I heard about the pig’s head thing a little while ago, and I didn’t even think about posting it. But now this thing is a news story, and we figured some of you might want to have fun with it in the comments section. Don’t say I never did anything for you.