Do themes such as Satanism or Anti-Christianity Affect Your Metal Preferences?

[Thoth-Amon]

I was joking too, chode smoker

I feel so silly... I apologize.

 

[Cythraul]

What about reality should we be checking? That evolution is basically scientifically proven by the fossil record, or that quantum mechanics have pretty much proven the big bang theory?

A theist doesn't have to disagree with any of that.

 

[Under The Oak]

Well there's your problem right there. The fact that Christian metal seperates itself from secular metal so much that the only way to find good stuff is to go join a Christian metal forum, is ridiculous.

That's not the ONLY way, but it's the best way. Look at what most people have said in this thread - they learned about the bands they like from forums. Most non-Christian forums don't have many Christians on them who are knowledgeable of Christian metal enough to recommend the good bands.

Like I said before, I don't search for music by religion. Why does "Christian Metal" have to be an exclusive genre unto itself?

Because so few people are willing to let it be included among the rest of the industry. I don't search for music by religion either, but most people still have this stigma that all Christian music sucks or that all of it's preachy, and thus it gets labeled and separated from the thousands of other bands in those respective genres.

That is why many bands like Sympathy and Slechtvalk prefer to use metaphors more in their music and not be catergorized as Christian bands, so that people will focus more on the music and not just the lyrics. Unfortunately then all the ultra-devout Christians consider those bands to be "selling out" or ashamed of the faith or some crap, so it's not as easy as it may seem to bridge Christian and secular music. I'd love to see the religious labels drop on metal and just let it be what style it is, but idiots like The Greys think it should be kept separate or even say it's not "real metal" merely because it's not what they believe.

 

[PanzerKunt]

Fuck christian metal

 

[cookiecutter]

Religion doesn't restrict freedom in all cases though, just like a gun it can be misused and used to manipulate people when it's put into the wrong hands (or heads). If music and metal are to be about freedom then it should be tolerant of other beliefs/ideas, which is what I was saying makes no sense given the amount of hatred there is in metal, for religion and many other things.

In almost all cultures, religion is an element that mostly tries to stop social and scientific progression/freedom. Look at evolution 50 years ago (or today ), or the constant attempts to restrict gay and nonreligious peoples' rights. There is also the pressure to conform and to believe the same thing, which goes against individual freedom. Going against these values is supporting those freedoms. I'm not trying to say that all religions are like that or that all followers of religion support those things, because that would be as bad as your generalizations about atheists, but those are the things that I am against, as well as how I interpret many metal bands lyrics.

What the hell was illogical about that post? You quote an entire block of text with multiple subjects discussed in it and say "strawman alert" to all of it? Retard alert.

I said "strawman alert" because you started attacking some "people" you made up instead of the issue at hand.

I think atheists need to have a reality check.

Oh the irony.

 

[MetalBooger]

the coolest people in the past and present have never bothered caring for atheists.

If you think im wrong, prove it, name one atheist who has been loved by all.

 

[V.V.V.V.V.]

Name one person in general who has been loved by all.

Hint: if you guys don't get off the subject of religion soon, I'm going to start deleting shit at will and closing the thread if it gets too out there.

 

[MetalBooger]

santa, i dont know anyone who hates santa

 

[V.V.V.V.V.]

Do you want to be considered for a ban?

 

[MetalBooger]

Hint: if you guys don't get off the subject of religion soon, I'm going to start deleting shit at will and closing the thread if it gets too out there.

Name one person in general who has been loved by all.

-you asked the question, i answered, and luckily it wasnt related to religion.

Do you want to be considered for a ban?

go ahead, just added my 2 cents while im waiting for a ride at school. If you do it will be out of spite, not out of anything logical.

 

[cookiecutter]

I'm out. I enjoyed the debate

 

[Satanstoenail]

That's not the ONLY way, but it's the best way. Look at what most people have said in this thread - they learned about the bands they like from forums. Most non-Christian forums don't have many Christians on them who are knowledgeable of Christian metal enough to recommend the good bands.

Fair enough, but expecting your average metalhead to go searching for these 'great bands' on an exclusively Christian metal forum is a bit much to expect when things are the way they are.

Because so few people are willing to let it be included among the rest of the industry. I don't search for music by religion either, but most people still have this stigma that all Christian music sucks or that all of it's preachy, and thus it gets labeled and separated from the thousands of other bands in those respective genres.

That is why many bands like Sympathy and Slechtvalk prefer to use metaphors more in their music and not be catergorized as Christian bands, so that people will focus more on the music and not just the lyrics. Unfortunately then all the ultra-devout Christians consider those bands to be "selling out" or ashamed of the faith or some crap, so it's not as easy as it may seem to bridge Christian and secular music. I'd love to see the religious labels drop on metal and just let it be what style it is, but idiots like The Greys think it should be kept separate or even say it's not "real metal" merely because it's not what they believe.

So the problem lies on both sides of the fence really. Most regular metalheads think the Christian metal is a bunch of preachy wank, and the regular Christian metalheads think that Christian metal shouldn't merge with other metal because then they are selling out their Christian roots.

I don't think The Greys is an idiot because he said that "Music is about freedom which is something religion prevents." It's a fair statement really. You yourself have just said that the ultra-devout Christians are intolerant of any merging of Christian and secular metal. And with regards to Satanism in metal, like I said earlier in this thread most of it is just there as a 'fuck you' to society and organised religion. So any intolerance that regular metalheads have towards Christian metal is born of the intolerance of Christianity (or any religion really) towards any other faith.

 

[V.V.V.V.V.]

go ahead, just added my 2 cents while im waiting for a ride at school. If you do it will be out of spite, not out of anything logical.

Not really, it was just you avoiding a poorly asked question anyway.

 

[PAGAN ANGEL]

it dosent bother me about what religion the bands portray,,for me its all about the music and talent.....

 

[Under The Oak]

In almost all cultures, religion is an element that mostly tries to stop social and scientific progression/freedom. Look at evolution 50 years ago (or today ), or the constant attempts to restrict gay and nonreligious peoples' rights. There is also the pressure to conform and to believe the same thing, which goes against individual freedom. Going against these values is supporting those freedoms. I'm not trying to say that all religions are like that or that all followers of religion support those things, because that would be as bad as your generalizations about atheists, but those are the things that I am against, as well as how I interpret many metal bands lyrics.

There are fundamentalists and extremists in all walks of life though, not just religion. Don't mistake what a few nuts do in the name of God for a full representation of the entire belief system, because it's not. I have no problem with atheists or other religions, because I realize it's certain people who are destructive, and you can't generalize it to a broader group. All kinds of things restrict freedom, like politics and just about everything that requires human emotions be involved.

I don't know many Christians who fight science and social progress today, but their reasons for doing so are really not supported by Christianity, if they would take the time to read the Bible more and use common logic that God gave them instead of listening to what their 60+ yr old pastors tell them to blindly obey. But it's retarded to promote a "do as thou wilt" kind of freedom and then turn to any specific religion and say "except for you, you supress freedom in our eyes, so we hate you and want to remove your freedom to live as you wish". It's blatant hypocrisy without excuse.

Fair enough, but expecting your average metalhead to go searching for these 'great bands' on an exclusively Christian metal forum is a bit much to expect when things are the way they are.

I don't expect anyone to go searching for it, because there's lots of crap you have to dig through sometimes. I'm just saying thats why most atheists and non-Christians think Christian metal sucks. They never really bothered to give it a chance. The same thing is true of secular metal though. God knows the first metal bands I got into sucked compared to the really good stuff, but at least they were "gateway" bands.

So the problem lies on both sides of the fence really. Most regular metalheads think the Christian metal is a bunch of preachy wank, and the regular Christian metalheads think that Christian metal shouldn't merge with other metal because then they are selling out their Christian roots.

I don't think The Greys is an idiot because he said that "Music is about freedom which is something religion prevents." It's a fair statement really. You yourself have just said that the ultra-devout Christians are intolerant of any merging of Christian and secular metal. And with regards to Satanism in metal, like I said earlier in this thread most of it is just there as a 'fuck you' to society and organised religion. So any intolerance that regular metalheads have towards Christian metal is born of the intolerance of Christianity (or any religion really) towards any other faith.

I think if "regular metalheads" took the time to actually get to know some "Christian metalheads", they'd find out their intolerance of Christianity is quite pointless. Most Christian metalheads won't preach to you or try to convert you and they certainly won't condemn metal as the devil's music and claim all metalheads are Hell-bound. Disagreeing with the Christian ideology is one thing, being intolerant of it is another thing that will get you nowhere when you want to promote freedom and get most Christians to be more accepting of others.

 

[Evil?]

I think atheists need to have a reality check.

Oh, the irony indeed.

 

[Zhou Tai 04]

At least this thread hasn't degraded nearly as much as the one I made about Christian metal last year. It got up to about 10 pages of nearly all flaming and pointless off-topic discussion in not even a day.

 

[Matt]

It's gone all right so far.

 

[cookiecutter]

There are fundamentalists and extremists in all walks of life though, not just religion. Don't mistake what a few nuts do in the name of God for a full representation of the entire belief system, because it's not. I have no problem with atheists or other religions, because I realize it's certain people who are destructive, and you can't generalize it to a broader group. All kinds of things restrict freedom, like politics and just about everything that requires human emotions be involved.

This exactly what I meant when I said "I'm not trying to say that all religions are like that or that all followers of religion support those things". What I was trying to say is that these fundamentalist and extremists are more than just a small group and they are who metal is speaking out against. It seems we both share a strong dislike for this group

 

[Under The Oak]

Yeah, I see what you meant now.