Metallica? Megadeth? I thought this conversation was about death metal! Posers!
Well, I don't listen to death metal, myself.
I do enjoy a few variations of the metal sub-genre's, however. With me, as with most of the respondents (when they aren't trying to shock Rosehip, bad, bad respondents!) it boils down to the music. Now, as with just about every musical style one needs to be acquainted with said music in order to appreciate that there is actually music and not just some noise. To the uneducated even classical could sound a horrid cacophony. I mention classical because the metal I appreciate hits many of the same notes and variations of classical music, just does it at a faster tempo and with distorted guitars replacing violins, though I also enjoy the bluesier metal as well.
As regards Satanism in metal, in the late '60s and early '70s many rock bands realized that they could fairly easily spike record sales by injecting the odd reference to Satan or criticism of religion. This was because not only did the parental "shock factor" induce many rebellious teens to buy the album; but it also induced many of the more "fundamentalist Christian" variety to go out and buy as many copies of said albums as could be afforded, in order to throw said albums on big fires and "keep them from the hands of impressionable youth". Album sales are album sales, and as the '70s wore on it became increasingly necessary to "up the ante" on the objectionable content as parents became more and more immune to "shock". By the '80s, the only metal bands that weren't using satanic imagery were "Christian" metal bands (which had a "shock factor" all it's own).
During the mid-80s there was enough cross-pollination between the hardcore punk "thrash" bands and metal bands that the satanic imagery was somewhat diluted, and the metal scene further fragmented. Radio played "hair metal", college radio played "heavy metal", with death metal being seen as being too objectionable to be marketable, as the 80s were also the decade that many politicians decided to take aim at Ozzy Osbourne because a few suicidal teens owned his albums<----- the reason I did not vote for Al Gore in 2000.
During the 1990s the more satanic metal got a boost in popularity, again thanks to "Fundamentalist Christians". I remember a nearby church buying up all the tickets to a Marilyn Manson show in order to prevent children from hearing his "anti-Christian message". Mr Manson was so pleased at the sold-out ticket sales that he scheduled another show the following night (far more effective, IMO, was the other nearby church that bought pizza for all the kids waiting in line to get tickets. There were some VERY confused kids in the line that night). And rebellious teenagers for whom dressing in plaid shirts and ripped jeans wasn't rebellious enough, but who just couldn't get into that whole "Goth" thing, had a new Mecca for ticking off their parents.
At the end of the day, however, the lyrics really have little impact, and are more often cartoonish parodies of satanism than actual satanism itself.
That said, one thing I would love to hunt down, just for the curiosity value, would be the album by Kryst the Konqueror, the christian metal band started by Jerry Only of the Misfits in response to ex-Misfits Danzig's band Samhain.
Posted by: Rosehip
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Okay, I just listened to "Twilight of the Thunder God" by Amon Amarth. I can see how the Viking setting is appealing, romantic in a way. But the "singing" itself I found very neanderthalish. I couldn't understand a word of it, so I had to look up the lyrics. Haven't listened to the one about the pillaging of a Christian village yet though.
Very good, you deserve something nice for that punishment: do a google search for "Cats immigrant song"
