Goth-rock band Dark Divine is currently facing severe online criticism regarding allegations of creating a “physically unsafe” touring environment for women and LGBTQ+ crew members.
The controversy, which originally surfaced in March, was recently reignited after Dark Divine was announced as a supporting act for Motionless In White‘s upcoming tour. Fans immediately began circulating the original allegations, pushing for the band to be removed from the bill, a situation similar to a past incident where Motionless In White fans successfully called for Crown The Empire to be dropped following abuse allegations.
The discourse stems from a March 26 post on X (formerly Twitter) by a Nashville-based photographer who worked with the band for ten days. In her initial statement, she detailed an environment of verbal abuse and alleged that the band’s management was dismissive of her concerns.
Her complete original statement reads:
“Last year, I toured with a band named Dark Divine. After much consideration I want to speak up about my experience.”
“While on tour, I was subjected to consistent verbal abuse and harassment from our FOH crew member, who drunkenly berated me every single day. It began significantly impacting my mental health and ability to do my job. Despite multiple attempts making them aware and the situation escalating to the point that I felt physically unsafe — the response from [Dark Divine] was dismissive and not handled with proper emphasis.”
“Instead of support, I faced a lot of blame for my reactivity to how I was treated and gaslit by being told I was too emotional. I was made out to be the unreasonable one when I vocalized what was going on. I was picked apart and made to feel it was my fault for not enduring this abusive behavior and making it easier on everyone.”
“I was also asked to be quiet and not publicly speak about this by [management] before I decided to leave tour early. I stayed silent for almost a year out of concern for my career, but I have had my name defamed behind my back and false rumors spread about what actually happened, as have others.”
“I’ve recently been made aware that my experience isn’t unique, and I am not the only crew member to deal with this level of unprofessionalism & abuse from them; some worse. I will not be sharing the other peoples’ stories as that is their decision to come forward if they feel comfortable in doing so.”
“I am not sharing this in attempt to cancel them, nor do I care who believes me. I have more than enough support behind me and have moved on. I just want to put emphasis on awareness and any women/LGBTQ+ people considering working with this band to just be mindful of their behavior. I am really tired of the lack of accountability [and] I do not want anyone else to be subjected to hostile work environments that we have – and if this helps at least one person, that’s all that matters.”
Adding weight to the allegations, leaked private messages from the crew member were recently shared by an anonymous source. The screenshots (via Metal Injection) reveal her correspondence regarding the hostile environment. While she noted that the management “was dope” and said “no harm or foul to them,” she explicitly stated that she spent “all of [her] energy avoiding one person.” You can see screenshots down below.
She further explained her fear of the situation worsening, writing: “I hope the sound guy gets the help he needs after all is said and done but I was definitely anxious it would’ve escalated especially since it was happening when nobody else was around to witness.”
After months of silence, the mounting pressure surrounding their addition to the Motionless In White tour prompted Dark Divine to issue an official response on June 3. The band acknowledged the issues with the sound engineer but firmly defended their stance on LGBTQ+ inclusivity.
The band’s full statement reads:
“Dark Divine has always and will always be a space for the LGBTQ+ community and for our crew to feel safe and respected. That is something that we stand by and always want to maintain. There are multiple narratives being formed from individual conflicts that existed in past years trying to portray us as a band who is not only harmful to members of the LGBTQ+ community, but also a band who abuses and doesn’t pay our crew.”
“Firstly, we always keep invoices and receipts for each crew member and commission. Payouts are determined by the rate they’ve set and are always paid in full. We always keep records so that we can reference them if ever a payment doesn’t go through. We have always made sure everyone gets what they’re owed for the work we have commissioned.”
“As far as any claims of abuse are concerned, we have always and will always want our crew to work in a safe environment that they want to return to. We currently have an incredible team we have built over the years that align with our beliefs and the ethical expectations of our band. There was a situation in 2024 where a now ex-sound engineer at the time was hired to run sound for not only us, but for every other opening band on the tour. He would become drunk often and verbally abusive members of our camp, including us in the band. There were constant conflicts that would arise that we do agree should’ve absolutely been handled with more care.”
“We had never dealt with a situation like that before and did our best to navigate a complicated situation. There was much learning to be done in real time and we wish we had handled it better. The individual who expressed that she didn’t feel safe around said sound engineer was eventually sent home in a way that seemed amicable and agreeable to her at the time. The only reason the sound engineer wasn’t sent home instead was because he had also been running sound for all other opening bands throughout that tour. He has never been hired since and we have never had a situation like that since.”
“As for the narrative that we are harmful to the LGBTQ+ community, you are speaking for a large portion of our fanbase for whom we care about deeply and proudly celebrate. Our fans have always existed within the LGBTQ+ community since the beginning and we were honestly shocked to see words like ‘homophobic’ and ‘unsafe for people in the LGBTQ+ community’ being used as this goes against the core values of acceptance that this band has always believed in. Discrimination and hate has never had a place in this band or fanbase.”
“We have always tried to be a haven for those who wished to find a sense of family and acceptance. We have taken action in the past to remove members of [Dark Divine] and crew who have not maintained our ethical standards. We love and respect our fans, our crew, and the artists that help to bring Dark Divine‘s vision to life. We are committed to always being in a constant state of learning, improving, and growing as individuals who always want to be doing better.”
Following the band’s public defense, the photographer issued a swift and heated retort that same day, criticizing Dark Divine for using the sound engineer as a scapegoat while ignoring systemic issues within their camp.
Her complete response reads:
“The problem was never just the drunk sound engineer and the fact that that’s still the only part of this story that gets acknowledged because it’s the easiest to reframe fault for you guys is exactly why people are still talking about it. You guys keep framing this like it was some unfortunate situation with one employee that you ‘handled the best you could.’ [Be for f**king real]. The sound engineer was ONE situation. It was not the only situation.”
“The issue was how the people who reported the behavior were treated, being brushed off when concerns were raised, and blame being shifted onto the people being affected by it. Threats, intimidation, being told to stay quiet, being portrayed as liars afterward and watching the story change every few months depending on who you were talking to. The issue was also the creative exploitation that people spoke up about. You had a trans creative continually be deadnamed and misgendered after being corrected several times.”
“People know the s**t you guys have said and done behind closed doors. There were legal threats, ongoing intimidation, and people being warned to stop speaking about their experiences or ‘it would be very bad for them.’ The issue was watching people try to speak up and then being met with hostility, damage control and attempts to discredit them instead of ACTUAL accountability. And let’s stop pretending nobody knew what was f**king happening. You knew people were uncomfortable, you knew people were reporting issues. Hell, I did from day 2. You knew people were being berated (including by your own band members!). You knew people were crying and talking about leaving. You knew people were saying they felt unsafe.”
“The whole ‘we didn’t know’ or ‘we were just trying our best’ angle is f**king ridiculous. At a certain point, if multiple people are coming to you saying they’re being mistreated and your response is to minimize it, question it, defend the person doing it, ask people to stay quiet, or threaten the people speaking up, that’s not protecting the people being harmed. That’s protecting the problem and that f**king bothers me.”
“Because now it’s being framed like nobody could have possibly known better. These things are not hard to f**king recognize when they’re happening right in front of you and you guys choose to address it when it’s convenient (aka now that fans are asking you guys to be removed from the tour). It’s clearly a performative PR move.”
“You wanna talk about safety? Let’s talk about it. Let’s talk about the fact that people who came forward were treated like the problem instead of behavior being corrected and addressed. The original purpose of speaking out was never to destroy anyone’s career – it was to warn other women and LGBTQ+ creatives/crew to approach with caution based on our experiences because it’s clear you guys don’t know how to safely foster an environment for them.”
“These parasocial f**king fans can say whatever they want but they truly have no idea what actually happens outside of the way you guys portray yourselves. There were actual consequences to all of this. I was pushed to the point of nearly taking my own life, some of us nearly ended our careers because of the way we were treated and the way it was handled afterward and STILL continues to be handled.”
“This isn’t some internet drama that got blown out of proportion, we were genuinely harmed by it. It severely pisses me off that it’s gotten reduced to ‘there was a difficult guy and we learned from it’ when it’s still ongoing and he’s out of the picture. The damage wasn’t caused by him. It was caused by the people who watched it happen, dismissed it, protected reputations, and then suddenly acted f**king shocked when people eventually started talking about it. The people who lived through it remember it JUST fine. You’re not victims.”
