Music: Spiritual Effects of Rock/Metal Music

[Ali Quadir]

Heavy metal music energizes me, for the most part. (As an aside, a good example is the new live Judas Priest, which I just bought a few days ago. It has a slightly negative-sounding title, but there's nothing negative about it at all, imo. Musically, it's exquisitely relentless! Great music, great vocals...definitely a mood elevator if you like that sort of thing.)

I agree. Besides. The mystical meaning of Judas is not as negative as the Christian meaning. Without Judas the message of Christ could have been lost in the shadows of time. Someone like him was maybe needed.

JP is a bit of the good old metal.

In my case, the exception is that newer genre with the throaty, harsh vocals - to me it sounds like they're trying to sound like demons, and it just creeps me out. Unfortunately, as I mentioned earlier, sometimes these bands have some really incredible music, with the harsh vocals only an occasional accompaniment. It is those cases that put me into a dilemma.

You stated earlier that lyrics are very important. I agree and think they're more important than the grunting. If a singer sings about burning churches I usually disconnect. Even if it's an opera singer.

I interpret most of the grunting as the angel/animal split rearing it's head. We're a mixture of the angelic and the animal. This is not a positive negative split. We're partly animals and unless we recognize it the beast will either slip away from us or we will sink into various psychological problems the first signal is repression of the animal. We're also partly angel and unless we recognize that there is no one to ride the beast.

This of course doesn't apply to all the metal out there, but some of the animal grunts certainly fall into this category.

I guess my point is I think we're both. When the primal rage of the animal is connected to the wisdom of the angel. A harmony comes out that is both, perhaps that's what it means to be human. The animal needs to be tempered by the angel, and the angel vitalized by the animal.

We shouldn't let our notions of good and bad split us in half. Usually when we think we're being bad we're actually somewhere in the middle. True humans aren't as good at being bad as they think. We're only really bad in ignorance blindness and when we can't find another way. In reality there's always a way of being bad that hurts no one and if we find these ways we don't have to resort to the destructive.

Polarisation towards the positive is making all your thoughts and actions a blessing to the whole universe. This blessing can be slightly beastly right?


Or to say it in music: (And at the same time add a bit of anthropology and entertainment)
Lordi gives a clear example of the animal versus angel split. Even hints at it's illusory nature

This next guy is on the edge you should know before watching that he's a devout christian and married father of two. Terribly normal in daily life, this is how he represents the warnings from the bible. In this particular frame he's using the european union flag as a warning against the biblical beast. Not a warning against europeans

And these guys, well they speak for themselves.