Music: Spiritual Effects of Rock/Metal Music

[Monica]

Being a musician, and having played in a number of metal bands, I can say that for myself I am turned off from a lot of "extreme" metal. Most black/death metal lost its appeal for me

That happens in every genre. It becomes formulaic and after awhile there are so many copycat bands that it's hard to tell them apart.

Azrael, since you are one of few in this community familiar with the genre, I'm curious what your opinion is of the harsh vocals used in black/death metal. There are many bands in the genre whose music I love, but I cannot handle the harsh vocals. So I am curious what you think of it, in terms of vibration/frequency.

I don't think any music is particularly "dark" or "negative" but I do think that music is heavily intertwined with emotion

I see music (real music anyway, as opposed to manufactured pop) as primarily expression of emotion. So music can be as dark as the emotions that inspired it. I don't see that as evil but as an expression, which can actually help transform the emotions.

and it is certainly possible to over-identify with the images some music presents.

This can be especially true for those who limit themselves to one genre and never venture beyond it.