The Philosophy of Heavy Metal

- i cop
Lyle said:
Anyone who regards Chris Blanc/evilmusic.com/S.R. Prozac/whatever with anything other than scorn or amusement (or both) is a stupid turd, imo~
Anyone who insults people without giving reasons is a stupid turd, imo.
Btw, I have written down my reasons for insulting you, they can be read somewhere above.
 
Broadly speaking, objections to the material at ANUS.com tend to come in two varieties:

1. Stylistic objections

2. Values based objections

The first, stems I suspect from a lack of general familiarity with the postmodern style in literature. While I don't see Prozak as a postmodernist ideologically speaking, it's pretty clear that he has been influenced as a writer by the disassociative style favored by Derrida, Lyotard etc., particularly in his reviews. It can be an off-putting style, and I can see why people might find it irritating and obtuse.

The second is a bit more of an unsolvable problem, Prozak's values either resonate with you or they don't, and a lot of people are simply unwilling to make any real effort to engage with ideas that challenge their own deeply held beliefs. Many of these folks seem unable to deal honestly with themselves or others on this score, so their natural response is demagougery and rumor mongering directed against those who hold views they see as heretical.
 
I think it all boils down to the fact that most people are put off by prozak presenting his opinions as fact, though these are more objectively based than other metal sites.
 
BikerMiceFromMars said:
I think it all boils down to the fact that most people are put off by prozak presenting his opinions as fact, though these are more objectively based than other metal sites.
Name any metal site (or musical site generally) that DOESN'T do this. Why should srp be held to a different standard than anyone else?
 
That was dumb. Everything the media or people affiliated with ANYTHING say about ANYTHING is opinion. There's nothing concrete about anything. Words describe words.

He shouldn't be held to a different standard, but he does manage to pretentiously present his opinion as fact rather than presenting adequate humility and just accepting that his is one out of many opinions.
 
V.V.V.V.V. said:
He shouldn't be held to a different standard, but he does manage to pretentiously present his opinion as fact rather than presenting adequate humility and just accepting that his is one out of many opinions.
The point is, if he is pretentious, then so is everyone else who has ever written about music. There's no reason for him to hedge his writing in with caveats about how it's only his opinion. No one does this, and it's with good reason; intelligent readers know without needing to be told that discussions of music exist in the realm of opinion.
 
MasterOLightning said:
^Your problem is 1.) You're sixteen; you lack the education to understand most of the words there. Not that there weren't parts that I didn't get, but your use of the word gay to describe it without further reasoning hints at a rather juvenile attitude. 2.) Look at the bands you list in your sig. Maybe your feelings were hurt when Pantera was torn to shreds in that article. 3.) You apparently don't value metal as a legitimate art form. I, for one, am glad to see a piece written about metal that doesn't mainly focus on leather, beer, and drug use. Metalheads don't have a good reputation and by being so ignorant to what was said, you do nothing to put an end to stereotypes.
:worship:

Metal should be about Beer and Leather, i dont do drugs, but fuck it...drugs too. You my friend took my opinion to seriously. I didnt even read to whole fucking article. You know why... the people on Anus are gay (thats right gay), Metal is an Artform, but I do not value any opinions of the guys at Anus. My feelings have nothing to do with that bullshit, ignorant website. Its just a place for idiots to rant off their period pains whilst waiting for the next big black guy to take them from behind. ANUS.com doesnt have the integrity to affect my feelings one Iota........you fag. hehe

PS. Why do you care about it so much? :err:
 
:lol:

I think VVVVV's judgment was more directed toward Prozak's elitist following than the guy himself. I recall Prozak was on here once, and we had this thread that was attempting to define progressive music. We were somewhere along the line where I had echoed Polarity on the concept of separating Prog-Rock from Progressive music due to the Dream Theater/ELP/Genesis style of the former and the open-ended-ness of the latter as genre tags. Prozak comes in and simply congratulates everyone on an excellent discussion, drops his $0.02, and leaves everyone feeling good. I particularly remember Opeth coming up...and Prozak says something like:

Prozak said:
I agree, however, both of you forgot to bash Opeth, but I guess I'll leave that as a matter of you expressing your opinion. ;)

Somehow I didn't feel bad at all about the fact that he was doing it from a 'pretentious' p.o.v. because of his way of wording it. Perhaps he figured out a little thing about opinions meaning something in the real world, unlike our resident Iniquitous Insurgent. His sarcasm wasn't heavy-handed. And I truly wonder how it's possible to be an elitist and not a total asshole. Hell, he came into a thread with the sole purpose of starting a board war against ANUS.com and calmly suggested we attack the Kerrang! forum instead.

:lol:
 
Metal should be about Beer and Leather, i dont do drugs, but fuck it...drugs too. You my friend took my opinion to seriously. I didnt even read to whole fucking article. You know why... the people on Anus are gay (thats right gay), Metal is an Artform, but I do not value any opinions of the guys at Anus. My feelings have nothing to do with that bullshit, ignorant website. Its just a place for idiots to rant off their period pains whilst waiting for the next big black guy to take them from behind. ANUS.com doesnt have the integrity to affect my feelings one Iota........you fag. hehe
ahahaha, fuck I'm funny. i mean. your funny, sorry. i just get so confused sometimes
 
Ok. Well this thread is dying partly because of me, so I'll try to add something on topic.

Somehow I didn't feel bad at all about the fact that he was doing it from a 'pretentious' p.o.v. because of his way of wording it. Perhaps he figured out a little thing about opinions meaning something in the real world, unlike our resident Iniquitous Insurgent. His sarcasm wasn't heavy-handed. And I truly wonder how it's possible to be an elitist and not a total asshole. Hell, he came into a thread with the sole purpose of starting a board war against ANUS.com and calmly suggested we attack the Kerrang! forum instead.

I think Prozak simply understands that nobody in the mainstream is likely to respect his words if he presents himself as an arrogant enemy, regardless of whether he believes himself that his opinion is fact. Part of his 'mission' is no doubt to get people in metal communities to heed his words.

Though it can't be disputed that he's got a sense of humour anyway. An odd one for sure, but it can be found fairly frequently, even on his own site.
 
Okay, I havent read through this thread since I knew it would be full of bigotry and ANUS bashing. However, I don't think I'm the only person who's getting fucking bored with this "us VS them" idealism within the metal world. Heavy fucking metal is meant to be "us VS the rest of the world".
 
^ Well, if we all agreed with Spinoza Ray Prozak then we'd all be one big happy family.
 
To be honest, Prozak isn't exactly trying to get everyone to understand what he's writing... His target group is the intelligent metal fans (which you would understand if you read some of what he's written) If I am not completely wrong, the reviews were all written a few years ago. I think there is a difference in style. His more recent work is easy to read IMO.

There have been quite a few interesting topic on the main forums as long as you are interested in the discussions on philosophy etc. The metal topics were moved to the main forum with a few exceptions.

On the original post: I have been meaning to read that article when I get the time. Looks interesting though from the few bits I have read of it.