Update (10:52 a.m. CT): Capcom has responded to our earlier inquiry with the following statement, confirming that their reason for pulling the trailer:
“The music was recorded for the game before the incident came to light and we were unaware of the incident until now. However, as we are now aware of the current situation, Capcom has decided that moving forward, we will not further highlight the Dante battle theme for promotional purposes at this time. We are also currently evaluating what options are possible for the full game at this point, which is dependent on various factors such as resources.”
Update (9:05 p.m. CT): Instead of a Dante trailer, Capcom released the same trailer as Gamescom with an extra few lines of dialogue. The Dante portion has been edited to simply loop Nero’s “Devil Trigger” again, which features vocalist Ali Edwards.
The original story is as follows:
Capcom has been hinting for a little while now that a trailer for Dante, the oft-protagonist of the Devil May Cry series, would appear at Tokyo Games Show this year. This video, much like Nero’s trailer at Gamescom, was likely to include his theme song from the new game, which Capcom released separately today. Dante’s theme was titled “Subhuman” and performed by American deathcore band Suicide Silence.
The song conjures images of an old man Dante riding his motorcycle around an arena while cranking his heavy metal at the highest volume it can go.
The video was put up today on the Devil May Cry YouTube account, but was eventually pulled after fans started doing research into the band. Before too long, links were being passed along on social media concerning the band’s vocalist having a relationship with, and sexually harassing, a 16-year-old fan for two years.
The vocalist, Eddie Hermida, was accused of beginning a relationship with an Austrian teenager, pressuring her for nude pictures after sending her sexually suggestive photos himself, and manipulating her. For his part, Hermida apologized for the behavior, but claims he waited until she turned 18 to ask for anything sexual and alleged she lied to him about her age. The story was originally reported in November last year.
Since this discovery, fans have been tweeting at Devil May Cry 5 producer Matt Walker to call attention to the subject. Walker has not been particularly active on social media since the typhoons started hammering Japan, but the video was taken down from the Devil May Cry account, so clearly someone noticed the messages.
We reached out to Capcom for comment but did not hear anything back by the time of writing. It is unclear if they plan to change the music for both the game and any trailer that uses it or if it would constitute a breach of contract with the band on their part. A somewhat likely result is that the presumed Tokyo Game Show trailer will either get hurriedly edited or delayed as a result.
Devil May Cry 5 as a whole, however, will release on March 8 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.
Source: Game Informer Update: Devil May Cry 5 Music Video Pulled Amid Stories About Vocalist's Sexual Harassment History