Metal ethos

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[Agis]

This subject appeared in other thread, and I think it's worth discussing.

Is there a thing such as metal ethics? If so, how could it be defined? Are they opposed to any other ethics? How?

[Sargon the Terrible]

I would say that the ethos of metal is, at it's base, an ethos of rebellion and a defiance of the established order.  Whether this is defined as the political protests of Thrash or Crossover bands, the lamentation of a lost golden age or state of grace of Doom, the nihilism of Death, the transformative rejection of modern values found in Black metal (whether satanic or pagan), or the escapist fantasy of Power and Trad metal.  The level of sophistication and depth of the rebellion varies from band to band.  You get simple "motorcycles and leather" adolescent rebellion, all the way to the dense philosophical argument of some Black Metal bands.  Metal is loud, metal is aggressive and active, it is about violence and destruction and getting in people's faces, it is about knocking down barriers and breaking rules, it is about offending people.  Thus a real metal band cannot express sentiments in line with any established order.  A band that espouses christian beliefs is not metal, because christianity is about meekness and forgiveness and humility - values which metal rejects.  Metal is about the opposite of 'love thy neighbor', 'to forgive is divine' and 'blessed are the peacemakers' - metal is about 'fuck off and die', 'only the strong survive' and 'that which does not kill me makes me stronger'.  Metal is the ethos of strength: the strength of rage, aggression, and the refusal to be a puppet, the refusal to be controlled or told what to do.  Christianity, like conservative politics, espouses the cause of submission and obedience.  Metal is about individual freedom, the denial of controls on behavior or thought, and the joys of revolt against the ordered rules of society.  Whether the advocacy is for a smaller political shift to right injustices or a complete denial of materialism and the current social/religious order, the root of it all is the same.

[Agis]

Metal is the ethos of strength: the strength of rage, aggression, and the refusal to be a puppet, the refusal to be controlled or told what to do.  Christianity, like conservative politics, espouses the cause of submission and obedience. 

I agree on most of that you have said. However, I would like to say something.

In my country, Spain, the establishment of democracy coincided in time with the rise of heavy metal (late 70s, early 80s). Therefore, most metal bands were associated with left wing politics. There were as many horns in the air as there were fists. Even today, some metal magazines still seem to endorse left wing mannierisms.

The thing is, they are wrong. Politics, liberal or conservative, depend on the dissapearance of the individual. In my country, socialists are in power more often than not and I can tell you that (at least in my experience) they enforce herd mentality as often and as hard as any other politicians.

Christianity, at least in theory, defends free will. The operative word is 'theory'. We all know that Christians have always tried to influence people, or else. However, are we metalheads any better? We also talk about freedom as one of the staples of metal, but the path of metal is narrow indeed. Any band that strays from the path becomes unmetal very quickly. To be precise, it seems that we are more interested in personal freedom than in musical freedom.

More thoughts later.   

[godzilla666]

I look at it from a different perspective. If at its base it's rebellion and defiance of the established order, then in some sense, bands that have Christian themed lyrics are rebelling against the established order of stereotypical anti-religious, anti-Christian metal (i.e. as seen and perceived by non metal listeners). Since metal is about in-your-face and crossing boundaries; then Christian themed metal bands are also in-your-face and crossing boundaries because they're breaking the rules as well, including shunned upon Christian themes, thus defying the established order of metal. I couldn't care for Christian themed bands except for the music, but I admire them for entering the metal world and producing something that is typically vilified by metalheads, and yet have them enjoy it.

The funniest part is that while metal is the freedom from the chains of submission and obedience, you always find "preacher" metalheads who keep telling us what "true" and "untrue" metal is, and what we should and shouldn't listen to; in effect, becoming what they so passionately fight against. What's worse is that many of us have done so at one point, assuming in our arrogance that we have better taste in music than everyone else (because we are "true" metalheads). So in conclusion, I believe metal is more profound than what people take it to be, though I can't put my finger on it because I haven't quite figured it out myself.

[Agis]

I am not a Christian, but I am able to listen to metal music based on Norse gods, on Paganism or Satanism. Why should I treat Christian metal any differently?

'Because Christianity teaches obedience', some might say. But Christianity was once an extremately aggressive religion. It preached rebellion against the 'Roman establishment'. Now it's mainstream and, therefore, it teaches mainstream values, i.e. conformity. However, as Godzilla666 has pointed out, in some places, it takes real balls to be a Christian.

[Phoenix]

But Christianity was once an extremately aggressive religion. It preached rebellion against the 'Roman establishment'. Now it's mainstream and, therefore, it teaches mainstream values, i.e. conformity.

And since metal has only been around for a few decades, it's natural that most Christian bands aren't exactly "rebelling against the Roman establishment" anymore, thus I can easily agree with what Sargon said about Christianity being the opposite of metal. I might not be as militant as he is about it, as I like some bands that fall under that umbrella, but there is certainly truth to it.

[Agis]

Yeah, Sargon has a good point. You only have to take a look of what has Christian metal and non-Christian metal done so far. Why? I don't know.

[darigaaz]

Let me just ask a question and see if you can answer it.

Which are the real christian metal bands and what have they done and what do they do different from other bands who might or might not use religion as a subject to their lyrics.

Metal i feel happens to be a very cultural field of music, which deals with ancient texts, poems, epics, legends, and history.

Now correct me if i'm wrong but isn't the bible such a book, and might i add an excellent reference especially if one looks at the apocalypse of st.john. Other great works of art such as Dante's divine comedy all benefit from the bible.

I am a baptized christian, although i never read the bible and don't practice Christianity in any way, but i do feel the bible is an excellent referential text for metal. If anything it has contributed to creating the antithesis of what we know as metal today.

while the roots of heavy metal lie firmly in rebellion, it is my opinion that the rebellion is not purely in the lyrics and mannerisms but mainly in the technicality and compositions of the songs, cos if we were to describe metal simply upon rebellion of the established order of government and religion than it would be no different from rap or hip hop (the underground stuff), but thankfully it isn't, its much more than that. Its about the music first and foremost IMO.

[Agis]

Which are the real christian metal bands and what have they done and what do they do different from other bands who might or might not use religion as a subject to their lyrics.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Christian_metal_bands

I didn't mean that they are better or worse because of their beliefs. I only point out that they are a minority and that I don't know of a single great Christian band. There are no Christian Iron Maiden, but again, it seems that the most successful bands are not religion-based.

Metal i feel happens to be a very cultural field of music, which deals with ancient texts, poems, epics, legends, and history.

I agree. I feel that there is a certain Romanticism in metal. Not 'candlelight romanticism', but an interest in the past, in extraordinary individuals, in freedom and so on.

Now correct me if i'm wrong but isn't the bible such a book, and might i add an excellent reference especially if one looks at the apocalypse of st.john.

It used to scare me when I was a child. It still does. A bit. Great metal material, yes.  

It's all about how you read the Bible, really. I can't remember the source of what I'm going to say (probably a chat with a priest), but when Christianity was spreading different peoples understood it in different ways. It is said that Germanic peoples thought of Jesus as a strong warrior, who took the Cross without crying. Some Mesoamerican peoples understood very well the notion of the sacrifice of a human being. Other American peoples had the figure of a Trickster, and they thought that Jesus was such a figure. He cheated death and he escaped. Perhaps if we looked at the Bible with metal eyes we would see the metal in it.

[Master Cthulhu]

No, a band's view on a subject does not make them "metal."

"Metal," itself, is a musical genre, and is devoid of any certain ethic.

It's the music that makes a band metal, not the image/theme/philosophy.

[Sargon the Terrible]

No, a band's view on a subject does not make them "metal."

"Metal," itself, is a musical genre, and is devoid of any certain ethic.

It's the music that makes a band metal, not the image/theme/philosophy.

But ethic and sound are, to a degree, inseparable.  Ethics are what inform a musicians art, because it is the way a person feels about things that attracts them to a given genre in the first place.  People are drawn to enjoy and ultimately create art that supports and expands their own worldview, so the ethic of a given artist or even an entire genre is part of what causes a musician to want to make the same kinds of art.  A musical genre may be defined by its sound, but the reason it has that sound is because of the feelings and beliefs of the people who make it.  The person that we call a 'poser' is very simply a person who wants to take part in a genre for other reasons: popularity, or the desire to be accepted, etc; while that person does not actually share the ethic that drives the genre.  Playing metal music while espousing christian beliefs is just as ridiculous as if you played folk-pop music with gangsta rap lyrics - the two ethics contradict each other, and thus could only possibly work as comedy.

And it is not the same as the enforcing of metal ethics within the underground.  Christian bands are not 'rebelling' against anything, because their religion is the established normative religion in the majority of the countries where metal is a popular form.  'Rebelling' against an underground ethic when your beliefs are in the socio-political mainstream and are, in fact, actively oppressive towards that underground ethic is not rebellion, it is an attempt to make that underground a part of the mainstream, to make the only available beliefs those of the norm by subverting even the opposition of art with an ethic of obedience and conformity as espoused by the dominant religion.  If, say Buddhists had their own underground musical genre and people started to pop up who played the same style but with christian lyrics, then that would not be 'rebelling' against the Buddhist norm, it would be religious subversion plain and simple.  Christian bands who try to say they are metal, no matter what they sound like, are trying to subvert metal and infect it with the ethic of their dominant religious beliefs.  Do not listen to them, they are not our friends.

[Master Cthulhu]

That may be true, yes, but just because your band has a certain theme doesn't make your band a completely different genre.

Temple of Blood is metal (I actually found them through this site), Trouble is metal, fuck, even Candlemass has Christian themed songs, and there's no denying that they aren't metal.

Metal isn't about "rebelling against the majority in every way because it's cool to be in a minority." It's about freedom of speech, expressing your thoughts through music, no matter what they are, whether they be Satanic, Christian, Buddhist, obsessive with gore, or even Left Wing Political.

Again, this is just genre classifying, nothing more nothing less, and a lot of bands that are considered "metal" aren't even metal (Ambient, Drone, etc).

[Sargon the Terrible]

Using elements of a mythology, and making your whole band about it, are different things.  I don't consider Trouble a metal band at all.

[HeathenMke]

Just throwing this out here, but what about all of these "satanic" lyrics in a lot of black and death bands.  Aren't these Christian lyrics, as they are about a subject primarily founded in Christianity, that being about the devil and all of these evil things.  In a way that is about Christianity, or is this so called "Christian metal" (not really a genre, same thing with "Pirate metal") only mean traditional metal/power metal bands writing lyrics about the positive things of the specific religion.

I don't really believe any one thing of this stuff (being discussed here), but just wanted to throw that out for discussion.  It is all really silly, this discussion I mean.

Also, what happened to that funny post about that Epicenter festival.  It was all shit bands, but the post was funny for its enthusiasm, especially on a metal site.

[Nosrac1691]

I'm just going to throw out there that I am a Christian and Satanic themes used by various metal bands do not bother me at all. I actually enjoy a little Satanism or Paganism every now and then. I don't sit around listening to Christian metal at all just because I am a Christian. A lot of those bands tend to approach the subject in a cheesy fashion. However, if a band has intelligent and though out lyrics that contain Christian themes, and if the music is good (of course), I have a much better chance of enjoying their material.