This thread has sparked in me a desire to bring to life the seed of an idea that has for far too long now sat idly rather than been properly germinated. I'm going to lay out the ideological argument in black metal in article form that more thoroughly explores the issue than is practical in a forum post and attempts to tackle as many obstacles in the argument as possible. One thing in particular that hasn't been addressed enough in this thread is the evolutionary expansion of ideology and the fact that that expansion has obvious boundaries, by far the most obvious of which being Christianity. Christianity (the demagoguery, dogmatism, and zealotry by which Christian music seeks to go about converting and preaching more specifically) being so directly antithetical to anything and everything that has ever accounted for motivation in the genre, there truly is no means by which black metal can coexist with an ideology of Christian music. Most Christian music resembling the aesthetic attributes of any genre can be argued not to be of that genre, but rather a replication. This is because so much of the music is created as a secondary motivation, the first being to preach and to attempt to convert. It's like writing a speech and then setting it to music as an afterthought. In other words, this is not an issue specific to black metal or heavy metal at all, and it has been addressed in numerous scholarly articles by professional individuals of varying religious beliefs and musical preferences, many of whom reaching the conclusion that a large proportion of Christian music falls short of properly replicating any more than a facsimile of the genre that they mean to emulate.
Also, the "music is sound and nothing more" audience would do well to become better informed as to what exactly music entails. Lyric is an essential ingredient to all music that actually contains lyrics. Instrumental music actually had to be argued for to be regarded as art proper in aesthetic philosophy circles because it essentially possesses no meaning, so to suggest that lyrics are inconsequential in determining or evaluating music on any level is absurd. Whether or not you personally pay attention to them is irrelevant to their being as fundamental to any song that possesses lyrics as the notes that they convey, whether or not you can understand what the vocalist is saying. This is not even to mention a capella music that is purely lyrical.
Edit: Also, regarding unknown's Darkthrone mimicry example, the implication here rests on the listener's knowledge of the object. The problem with this is that the listener's knowledge of the object in no way alters the actual qualities of the object itself. Accordingly, not being aware of a band's Christian lyrics and thereby mistakenly assuming that they are black metal purely based on sound does not affect their status as not black metal. Discovering that a band that you thought was black metal has Christian lyrics and is therefore not black metal does not change the genre of the band itself but merely indicates that you were wrong because you were ignorant of a key feature of the band's music.
