Turn that Devil Worshipping music down!
I want to delve into something completely different right now so-lets talk about Satan!
Well-more specifically black metal.
I had a friend that recently came up to me and said " You do know most metal is about Satanism. Your worshipping the Devil by listening to it". I thought this was a tad unfair to say number one because I don't really believe the devil exist. Two because there are soooo many different types of metal so its unfair to label all of it as devil worshipping. I mean-can you imagine the hair metal bands of the 80's spatting satanic rituals while wearing pink leopard print leotards? I didn't think so.
A lot of these same comments came from black folks and I think I said before that in terms of metal as a whole-many black people feel turned off from it just from the principal that they feel it to be sacrilegious of sorts.
I personally used to be absolutely terrified of metal in general-like I used to be scared to watch Marilyn Manson and NIN music videos on MTV late at night and I thought THAT was metal. It wasn't really up until my Freshman year that I finally formed my own opinion and really delved into different genres of music. Now I'm very comfortable watching music videos for bands like Gorgoroth or Carpathian Forest. Quite honestly-I think its amusing. But I can understand that for most black and white people-it looks and sounds disturbing.
MOST metal isn't even about religion/Satanism. I mean, people have to understand that there are sub genres such as power metal (the most fun kind to me), speed metal, NBSM (<-now that's National Socialist Black Metal which basically is metal that you don't want to listen to if your not racist-bands like Burzum, Infernum, or Graveland-this is only a very small percentage of the black metal community believe it or not), Hair metal, Death, Goth, Thrash, Symphonic, Progressive, Folk (another favorite of mine), Stoner, etc. And the only type that has themes of Satanism IS black metal. Now, I realize this is not everyones thing or type of music/metal they are interested in but I just wanted to get it out there that there are HUGE differences in all of the genres. I take most music with a grain of salt. Obviously, I won't support bands that are racist and crap but I like all kinds of different music and clean, pure, evil black metal is fine with me. I guess it doesn't really bother me or intimidate me.
...Yeah. I have alot of guy friends.
Now, I'm not saying black metal bands or music for that matter is for the faint of heart or the morally inclinded. Hell, some of these bands burned churches (luckily no one was inside I don't believe. Let me do a rain check on that) but I suppose this post was really about metal as a whole.
Anyways, this isn't all I wanted to cover on the subject but I hope that more and more people can explore metal as a whole genre rather than condemn it just as one stereotype. I may have to do another blog on the subject later. I guess the bottom line is you just gotta research and be smart about what your listening to and take it light heartily (clearly not if its NSBM or any other hate bands)-if not you might be missing out on music you'd never expect to fall in love with.
Black Metal sign by: Mefistoteles@deviantart.com
Comments
Girl me too! Now I'm a big fan of both especially Marilyn Manson! Heck you make want to go blast his CD now. XD I had to explain that to some people too that it's not all devil worshipping music.
http://www.anus.com/metal/
http://www.anus.com/metal/about/history/
http://www.anus.com/metal/bathory/
The naivety of a lot of non-headbangers is a little frustrating. Especially those times when someone tells me I'm going to hell because they see the inverted cross on my Death t-shirt. It becomes very awkward when I tell them that I'm Christian.
The thing with satanic themes in metal is that firstly, in a lot of situations they're not even espousing satanism. Black Sabbath by Black Sabbath and Number of the Beast by Maiden are two classics often trotted out by fundies as evidence of metals satanic nature which, in fact, are about the songs narrator filling his pants upon contact with the evil one. 95% of the songs that do revel in satanism do so for purely dramatic effect, and have little to do with wht you might loosely call actual satanism. Even a lot of the anti-christian content in Black Metal, especially after the mid-nineties, comes straight from a perspective of Norse Paganism (equally overblown, ridiculous and thatrical, it might be added, as the Vikings were never really particularly anti-christian. They thought Jesus was a bit of a pansy but the only reason they went round looting churches was because they were generally unfortified and stuffed full of gold and silver.) The few bands that are real pagans (like the excellent Skyclad) tend not to dwell on anti-christian themes much, if at all. When Satanism does appear it's normally all Mallesus Maleficarum stuff (Satanism as concieved by 14th century monks who, it is safe to say, didn't get out much) delivered via a hefty dose of Hammer Horror. I'm racking my brains to think of bands that actually espouse 'real' (as in Levayan or theistic) satanism, and all I can think of off the top of my head are Mercyful Fate/King Diamond (and despite this his lyrics are always pure camp: "I was born in the cemetary, under the sign of the MOOOOOON...raised from my grave...by the dead!") and Dissection, and Jon Nodtveidt was probably, in the balance of things, just completely batshit insane. There's a few other bands who use a lot of satanic seeming imagery but are actually something else out there in the occult fringe. Behemoth (Thelemites) and Therion (Dragon Rouge) spring to mind. I remember reading an interview with Tom Araya, of Slayer, who is actually a devout christian, asking him how, from that perspective he could write a song called "God Hates Us All". His reply was "It's a great title", and that's where it all comes from. Metal thrives on excess and there's nothing more excessive than pure evil.
Well, that comment went on longer than I'd intended. Back to work!
While googling for black metal, I came across your blog.
Thing is that the picture that you have used to illustrate the theme, is made by me (Mefistoteles@deviantart.com)
( http://mefistoteles.deviantart.com/art/Black-Metal-38415578 )
And I would like for you either to give me some credit in this post, or remove the picture!
I'm not trying to be mean or anything, and do understand that you didn't think about what the creator of the picture would have to say about using it.
Cheers
Mefistoteles
And certain death metal bands actually have satanistic themes in them such as deicide and morbid angel.
There is one thing i don't understand, if you are christian, why would you listen to black metal? And what's wrong with "worshipping the devil"?
As for worshipping the devil, who said it was wrong!? Worship away! I went to a Catholic school and was good friends with a self proclaimed Satanist who got married in the Church of Satan with her boyfriend and told me she wanted to have sex on the schools chuch alter. Thats her perrogative. Thats the beauty of free will and opinion.
It's all relative.
I had a Metallica album, 'Master of Puppets', and whenever I played the same-titled song, my mom swore it was about Satan worship. I was, like, damn, if you actually LISTENED, it's about cocaine abuse! Let's not EVEN talk about how she reacted to my Ozzy Osbourne 'No Rest For The Wicked' album! *SHEESH* I endured that kind of close-mindedness for the whole of my teen years! To this day, whenever others recall the glory of their teen years, I just cringe whenever I remember mine.
But, it's nice to know there are other black chickas out there like you who are carrying the torch now, who can be themselves without conforming to whatever anyone else's pre-conceived ideas as to how they should be. Life's too f*cking short to be pigeon-holed! Just keep on doing you, and chin the hell up 'cause unfortunately ignorance continues to abound. LOL
Take Care, and ALOHA!
hahaahahahahahahah