God, Lucifer, And Heavy Metal

It's no secret that religious groups have taken issue with metal music for decades now, but is metal truly nothing more in relation to religion than a hateful, destructive force as popular culture is lead to believe? As a member of the incredibly miniscule minority of Christians that can appreciate the works of Incantation, Sarcofago, or Profanatica, I would argue that religious (and anti-religious) sentiments in heavy metal have proved more beneficial than an overly-rigid society is willing to admit.

Given the dark nature of metal, both musically and lyrically, fans of metal are surely required to answer for their unorthodox interests more than any other musical fan-base. Although these fans are rarely able to adequately convey the meaningful nature of metal to uneducated inquisitors, these questions, along with the nature of metal itself, actually prove beneficial. Although concrete data on the topic is still scarce, the trend seems to be that metal fans are more prepared to hold individual stances on their musical interests, their religious and moral beliefs, and the links between the two. Thus, in addition to the independent thinking required to write such dissonant or offensive music, one could conclude that fans of this genre are actually more encouraged to embrace individualism. For instance, one need never explain in our modern-day society why one would listen to Mumford & Sons, but an avid Deicide fan often is required to defend his or her interests and thus to reflect on these interests as well as the associated beliefs and standards. Therefore, one might conclude that listeners of anti-religious music are more often pushed to develop their own thoughts on any given subject rather than to embrace an accepted societal standard.

Secondly, regardless of whether or not the fan base benefits from the grim nature of extreme metal, when the goal of music is to create a higher form of art, the music itself arguably benefits from various lyrical themes. While lyrics do not define musical content itself, lyrical themes often reflect an artist's beliefs, passions, and visions, and of course the passion in this case is not the Satanism it is often made out to be but rather a hatred of conformity and the corruption that has often been rooted deep in various sectors of organized religion. In actuality, metal's dark themes are not so different from punk music, merely focusing on a different establishment than punk's typical targets. Anyhow, the fact is that the extremity of metal supplies the genre with a passion and an artistic vision, qualities that are often more likely to yield sincere quality music than a group of guys mindlessly jamming in their garage. This is not to say that satanic lyrics yield quality, but that, like the christian hymns of old, they are often driven by a unique vision, giving the music deeper purpose and meaning.

In short, this post is not meant to encourage Satanism, rebellion, or anything of the sort. The goal is merely to convey that, given that these lyrical themes are not as rooted in evil as society might claim and that they are merely critiques backed by steadfast passion, the music world should stop viewing metal's lyrical themes as such a social taboo and begin to appreciate that such themes can actually augment the musical quality in question.