Themed Mixtape Game

[Elric of Melniboné]

Just submitted mine. Before any whiny bitches complain about spite ratings, I'll say up-front that I'm going to try and be a little thematically strict on this one since it's so easy to pick songs that are tangentially about Christianity in some form, so I'll award full points only to songs that are explicitly about the Bible's contents, or Christianity's early history, philosophy, or introspection. Songs that are generically anti-religious (or pro-religious although that's not going to be as common) or more about the Crusades from a cultural POV or similar, will be downvoted a little or a lot depending on various factors.

You must be a Christian or something because you're taking this way too seriously.

 

[Krow]

Haven't submitted for a couple rounds. Looking to change that.

 

[Vilden]

Submitted! Too bad I've already used Lordian Guard. Hard to top that in the on theme departement.

 

[Vegard Pompey]

I'll just uprate anything that HBB downrates to cancel him out.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

You must be a Christian or something because you're taking this way too seriously.

This has the potential to be an interesting theme and it would be unfortunate if it's just a lot of the same old Venom/Midnight/Barbados/etc.

 

[Elric of Melniboné]

I'm mostly of the opinion that songs focusing the Crusades and other important parts of Christian history are as relevant as Bible stories, especially because the Crusades actually happened. I'd have to agree that average anti-Christian songs are a pretty easy pick and not one that is as specific to this theme.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

What does "actually happening" have to do with anything? Mythological beasts never actually happened, but I would think a song about them would be more relevant than a song about real animals that the beasts were based off of, in the context of the beasts theme we had earlier.

It would depend on the song about the Crusades for me. If it emphasizes the religious aspects foremost than I wouldn't downrate it, if it's just a song about a battle that happened to occur during the Crusades, with a token "Deus Vult!" or "Slay the infidels" thrown into a chorus somewhere, I'll probably downrate the shit out of it.

 

[Elric of Melniboné]

The continuing history of Christianity is largely dependent on real life efforts to propagate the religion such as the Crusades and other holy wars led by Europeans. The success of Europe in pursuing these types of endeavors is why Christianity is the most widely accepted language among Europeans of the western world today.

I don't think that there are many metal songs about holy wars written from the perspective that you just described, but I would have to agree with you that those particular songs wouldn't be as interesting as songs that detailed key historical figures and moments in Christian history in a way that explains the religious motivations behind them.

You've better explained what you were talking about than you had previously. Carry on.

 

[Elric of Melniboné]

Not to mention the huge number of historical figures and events from the middle ages that are now canonized as saints and miracles from the perspective of the church.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

The Crusades had little to do with the propagation of Christianity worldwide, it was primarily an effort to reclaim land previously lost to Muslims. If you're talking about the spread to Northern and Eastern European countries with pagan beliefs, even there it was a fairly gradual process, usually involving some kind of leader/king converting willfully, often to gain favor with the dominant political power of the Vatican, then followed by conversion of the greater population, often persecutory but generally not a matter of outright war. Worldwide, Christianization was a product of colonialism, and aside from missionaries, a secondary goal relative to expansion of an empire's power.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Not to mention the huge number of historical figures and events from the middle ages that are now canonized as saints and miracles from the perspective of the church.

What about them? I wouldn't consider a song about a military leader to be topical just because he happened to also be a saint. Some Anglicans believed that the fog during D-Day was a divine miracle; does that make a WW2 song thematic?

 

[EspaDa]

Go with this album if you want The Crusades

 

[Elric of Melniboné]

I also don't get your analogy about mythical beasts or whatever because you said it would be like me saying the real life versions would be more relevant, even though I said real life events in Christian history are equally relevant and not more relevant as you're implying.

What about them? I wouldn't consider a song about a military leader to be topical just because he happened to also be a saint. Some Anglicans believed that the fog during D-Day was a divine miracle; does that make a WW2 song thematic?

Most songs about the people that I'm talking about will have significant religious reference made in them.

If you failed to realize that I said that songs about these subjects that focus on the religious aspects would be ideal, that's your own problem. You are talking like you didn't notice that somehow.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

What do you think "especially" means?

 

[Elric of Melniboné]

What do you think "as relevant" means? There is only one correct answer. Saying that something is as relevant in light of a specific circumstance such as it being historically accurate doesn't mean that you feel it is more relevant.

I'm not sure why I'm having this conversation anyway since people who use "than" and "then" interchangeably probably don't have a good grasp of English and its subtleties.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

You're dodging, as usual. Here is what you said:

"I'm mostly of the opinion that songs focusing the Crusades and other important parts of Christian history are as relevant as Bible stories, especially because the Crusades actually happened."

That would imply that the reality of a subject has bearing in your mind on the relevance of a subject, even though you clearly acknowledge that you consider the subject fictitious to begin with, which would seemingly make it a moot point. The theme is Christianity, not Christian history. By emphasizing the actual-happening-ness of the Crusades as reason why it is as relevant as "Bible stories" (something I didn't explicitly mention btw; there's more to any religion than its mythos), you are saying that the Crusades are more topical BECAUSE they happened.

 

[Baroque]

Every theme all these rules lawyers come out and stake their claim on the most literal interpretation of the theme possible, downrating anything that is creatively on theme.

I mean if you want machine generated on theme songs why have humans play this game at all? Just do a search on metallum for the lyrical theme you want.

Let people interpret things creatively.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

I have no issue with creative picks, but if someone submits a song that is primarily about human war, hedonism, the occult, etc, but justifies it because it makes brief mention of something about Christianity or exists in a time during which Christianity was dominant (aka Western civilization for nearly two millennia), that's not creative. Similarly, when someone sees a theme about weather disasters and thinks "Hey, what's that one really popular song with 'Tornado' in its name?", that's not creative. If we ignore the theme component, it defeats the purpose of the game and we may as well change the rules to make the game about submitting good/interesting songs within a given musical style.

 

[no country for old wainds]

blood of christians on my sword 10/10

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Without remembering what Graveland sounds like off the top of my head, I'd probably give it a 0/10 on enjoyability grounds regardless.