Arhive kategorije: Philosophy

heavy metal, Philosophy

DON´T WEAR THE SHIRT IF YOU DON´T LISTEN TO THE BAND

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You have probably already encountered the following phrase on the internet or in real life: “Don´t wear the shirt if you don´t listen to the band.”


  This phrase is very common inside the heavy metal community because you can see various people wearing Slayer shirts, Metallica shirts, Iron Maiden shirts, without any knowledge about them. They are not metalheads and do not support the genre, but they wear the shirts because they are “trendy” or have a “cool print”. The most popular that I have seen are Nirvana and Ramones shirts (although they are not heavy metal bands, people wear their shirts not because they support them, but because they are trendy and you can find their shirts in your local stores) in the stores. I have seen Slayer shirts for sale in “H&M” stores in my home city, which is one of the most popular stores here, and my first reaction was: “What the f*ck?!”.
I found that highly loathsome. I do agree that band merch should not be worn just because it is trendy. It makes the metalheads furious because wearing the metal merch is a sign of love and dedication towards the band and the genre. It is also a sign of support. You can imagine a scenario in which two guys walk towards each other. Both are wearing Iron Maiden shirts. One of them is a true fan of Iron Maiden and then proceeds to say: “Hey man, it is so cool to see another Maiden fan!! My favorite album is “Somewhere in Time”!! What is your favorite Maiden album?”.
The second guy then says: “ Oh, I just bought the shirt because I liked the print. Later!”

The fan was probably left furious and confused. I think that, for example, it would be infuriating, for an e.g. Manchester United fan, to see someone wearing the jersey of their club just because they like it and do not even support the club.
Anyway, as much as I agree there should be some “rules” about wearing shirts that promote a band, genre or a football club, I thought about the sentence “Don´t wear the shirt if you don’t listen to the band” and I will present the arguments that this sentence can not be universal in every case.

  ARGUMENT #1: BUYING AND WEARING A SHIRT AT THE CONCERT
Let us say there is a person called Max. Max is going to a heavy metal concert in his hometown and there will be five bands playing. He has not heard or listened to any of them before. He arrives at the concert, buys himself a beer and goes to the front row. The first band, called Inertia, starts playing first and they play for the first 45 minutes. Max was extremely impressed by how the band played. He was so impressed, he decided to immediately buy their t-shirt and wear it for the rest of the concert and on his way home. The thing here is, he does not listen to them, maybe in the future he will, but, the key here is that he wore and bought that shirt to support the band he discovered because they played brilliantly. Hence, you do not need to wear the shirt only if you listen to them, it could be a sign of genuine support for the band.

    ARGUMENT #2: FESTIVAL SHIRTS PROBLEM
Can we apply this main sentence to festival shirts? Think about it, it is stated in the sentence that you should not wear the shirt with a band on if you do not listen, but what will we do then with the festival shirts on which multiple bands are represented? The main sentence then fails to maintain itself if we talk only about having band names on the shirt. A counter-argument could follow:
It is not the same wearing a festival shirt and a band shirt. A festival shirt is a form of support for the festival and memorabilia that you have attended the festival in question. Could a counter-counter argument follow after? One could have attended a festival because of some bands that played and not all of them. One could have just bought the festival shirt and not go at all, but is material support also a sign of genuine support? I think not. I believe that bands would, on one hand, be devastated to see that no one came to support them by attending to them but just by buying the festival shirts.

  ARGUMENT #3: SURVIVAL ARGUMENT

Let us say there is a person called John who suddenly woke up in the middle of a meadow. John is also almost naked, he only has his underpants on. John proceeds to look for someone to help him and he is freezing to death. John suddenly hears music and proceeds to walk towards it. He discovers that an open metal festival is nearby and rushes towards the nearest person there is. He asks if could give him some clothes. The person gives him all the necessary clothes. The shirt he gave him is a Death shirt. John thanks him and decides to hang a bit at the festival. He encounters another person. The second person says: “Ahh, you´re a Death fan!! That‘s sweet (sweet as in awesome)!! What is your favorite song?”
John then answers back: Hey!! Some nice man gave me this shirt because I was freezing to death. He saved me!!”
The second person says: Damn, that is so cool! Thank goodness for that man!!

As you can see from this case, one can not really state the main sentence in all cases. In extreme cases such as this, it really does not matter if it is a shirt or a band shirt. It would not be appropriate to say that someone should not wear a band shirt in extreme cases just because he does not listen to the particular band.

  ARGUMENT #4: A GIFT FROM YOUR MOTHER

I consider this to be a weaker argument but I will present it nonetheless.
Let us say your birthday is coming up very soon. Your mother loves you very much and she wants you to buy a gift. She knows that you are a metalhead and that you love that genre with all your heart. She also wants to surprise you with the gift. She knows that metalheads love band shirts. She then proceeds to buy a Dark Funeral shirt although she does not know if you listen to the band or not. She gives you the gift impatiently and hopes that you will like it and wear it. You do not listen to Dark Funeral and you have the belief that one should not wear the shirt if you are not listening to the band, but on the other hand, you want to thank your mother that she made an effort to buy you a heavy metal shirt because obviously you like metal and the best way to thank her is to wear that shirt. The only thing she did not know is what bands do you listen to. Are you staying true to your belief or will you wear the gift? One could give it a try and start listening to Dark Funeral, then that would not be a problem, but what if that is not the case? I think that a gift is slightly different than wearing a shirt because it is trendy. Especially if it is a gift from your own mother. Perhaps only the most orthodox ones will be true to their belief.

                                                                                               The Mage

heavy metal, Philosophy

LOGICAL FALLACIES OF CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE ABOUT HEAVY METAL MUSIC AND BANDS (PART 5)

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FALLACY #24: STATING THAT A BAND IS NS, BUT NOT PROVING IT

For a band to be national-socialist or NS, the band has to have national-socialist lyrical content that promotes national-socialism (this is my opinion, if someone else has their definition, let me hear it). Now, I have seen a lot of people making a prejudice that a  band is NS because of the following reasons:

  1. A BAND IS NS BECAUSE IT HAS PAGAN LYRICAL CONTENT AND IMAGERY

This is a common fallacy. I believe it is common because NS and pagan content do mix often. There are bands that are NS and pagan, but one cannot judge that a band is NS if their lyrical content and imagery are pagan or promote paganism. Just because a band promotes their own pagan culture and the heritage of their own people, it does not mean they are necessarily NS. If that is the case, bands like Amon Amarth and Tyr would be categorized as NS.

  • PROMOTING YOUR OWN PEOPLE IS NOT NS

There is a misconception that if a band has lyrical content that promotes its own people racially, ethnically and culturally, then the band is surely NS. I might speculate why people connect these things together, but I can ask some questions. For instance, if a Mongolian metal band promotes their own racial, ethnic and cultural background, does that make them a national-socialist band? I would not agree with a positive answer. Maybe the band is proud of their Mongolian background, its heritage and the history of their own people.
Just a quick note, national-socialism is a political system which any state could implement it.

  • IF A BAND HAS 1 SONG THAT IS IN SOME WAY CONNECTED TO NATIONAL-SOCIALISM, THAT DOES NOT MAKE THEM NECESSARILY NS

Let us say there is a band whose new album just came out. Let us also suppose that they are a glam metal band. They have recorded ten songs and one of them is called “Meine Ehre Heißt Treue”. That is the motto of the SS which translated to English means “My Honor is Loyalty”.

Let us continue with the argument. Their song is called “Meine Ehre Heißt Treue”, but you have not yet seen the lyrics so you do not know if it promotes national-socialism. When you see the lyrics of the song, it is actually about the band´s loyalty and dedication to the glam metal scene. To conclude, if you have a song that is inspired by something that is connected to national-socialism, it does not necessarily mean that it promotes NS or that the band is NS. As I said it before, artists (in this case, musicians) have the freedom to express themselves however they want.

  FALLACY #25: MARDUK, A FALSE DEITY?

This is another case of Christianity vs other religion, or a fallacy of Christian perspective to understand what other religion is about (god, gods, stories, myths…). This fallacy concerns the Swedish metal band, Marduk. When writing about Marduk, the author stated the following:

“MARDUK is a Swedish black metal band. They took the name from some false Babylonian deity.”

Marduk is the “solar chief” in Babylonian mythology and paganism. Marduk is also probably a metaphor for the Sun itself and the problem is as it follows: In Christianity, there is only one God who is mystical, almighty, omnipotent, omnipresent and righteous. He is the ultimate good and cannot be otherwise, while in paganism you have many Gods that represent something within nature or man itself. There are no mystical Gods or Goddesses in paganism. That is why Christians cannot interpret pagan myths and legends. The interpretation that everything is a battle between the forces of good and evil is the primal disease of the mind.

On the other hand, I want to address the second problem here. Sure, the band named itself from the Babylonian solar deity, but what if there is a band from Japan that is also called Marduk. Picture this. A hardcore Christian has already heard for the Swedish band Marduk and he thinks that every deity is false except theirs. He suddenly discovers another band called Marduk and they are from Japan. He then says: “Ah, another band called after that false Babylonian deity…”
The catch here is that they did not name their band after the Babylonian deity but after the Tekken character Marduk. They never heard of the solar deity Marduk or even Babylonian mythology whatsoever.
It would be fun to see that hardcore Christian arguing against them how they should not have the name Marduk because he is a “false deity when they are just Tekken fanboys. Two perspectives = Two worlds colliding

  FALLACY #26: THE “ERIC HARRIS AND DYLAN KLEBOLD” CASE

I will include this one in the text because of the next fatal logical fallacy: If you listen to (Satanic) heavy metal music as a kid, you will become possessed by Satan and become a killer.
I will now proceed to write a quick story about the Columbine High school shooting. On the 20th April 1999., in Columbine High School in Colorado, USA, two young men, Eric Harris, and Dylan Klebold killed 12 other children and 1 teacher from that school, while 23 children have been wounded. Later, both culprits have committed suicide. During the investigation, it has been affirmed that both of them listened to Marilyn Manson´s music and they had a fan-club in the school.
The author also wrote about it and then said:

 “From this case, it is clear that the children, directly under the influence of Satan, have done this massive crime. This is actually the most serious warning to all parents to avert their children from listening to this kind of music and these people because it leads them to damnation.”

[1]

Now, I want to address the problem from this quote. The author states that the children committed the hideous murders because they listened to Marilyn Manson´s music and because they were possessed by Satan. If listening to heavy metal music would be the sole reason to commit crimes, then every metalhead in the world would be a criminal. If the music would be the sole reason for making crime, then there would be much more murders, church burnings and so forth. We can see that his statement is absolutely not compatible with logic and the reality of this world. The author should rather make a psychological analysis of the case than just concluding that they were possessed by Satan, whatever that means. I do not believe that someone will launch a crusade if they listen to Saxon´s “Crusader”.

  FALLACY #27: MONEY COMES FIRST

Apparently, there are opinions that if someone has morbid and grotesque cover art for their album to attract people, they do it just to make money. I agree that morbid and gruesome cover arts certainly will attract most eyes, but the first thing you see is the art. I believe it would be unusual to see a heavy metal album cover with a Hello Kitty style of art. Back to the argument, it is not logically true that they to it just to make money. The artist can make the cover that is corresponding to his music, to send some kind of message, whatever his soul desires to do with it. If everybody were to make music or cover arts just to make money, everything would be soulless, commercialized and mainstream, in my opinion.

  FALLACY #28: THE PROBABILITY ARGUMENT

“This means that there are more than 20 Satanic bands in France alone. From this, you can even conclude how many such bands are there in the world”[2]

This is what the author wrote after writing about Mutiilation, a black metal band from France and Les Legions Noires, a French underground group of black metal musicians and bands.
Now, for his argument to be true, he would need to make an analysis of how much bands there are in the world that actually are Satanic. In his second sentence, he is implying that there are much more Satanic bands in the world. Without an analysis, his implication means nothing and it is definitely not trustworthy.

  FALLACY #29: OZZY OSBOURNE IS A MADMAN

Ozzy Osbourne had problems with drugs and alcohol throughout his life and one can definitely say that he has not been always clean. In my opinion, Ozzy Osbourne is one of a kind person for whom people tend to think is a madman or a psychopath. Primarily they think so because of the acts where he bit off the heads of a bat and a pigeon. If you take this out of context, probably every person will be like: “What the fuck…???”
Shockingly (to some), this does not necessarily mean that the person is mad. I will again explain what shock value is.
Shock value is the potential of an image, text, action, or another form of communication, such as public execution, to provoke a reaction of sharp disgust, shock, anger, fear, or similar negative emotions.
Black Sabbath is one of the first bands that started using shock value as their tool of impression of stage. To conclude, these acts do not necessarily make you a madman.

  FALLACY #30: THE DENIAL OF LIFE

This is the last fallacy that I will write about. In his book, the author applied a quote by Saint Paul from “Romans” on metal bands that have anti-Christian imagery and lyrics that are, by his words, the worst insult for God, Virgin Mary, for The Church and for all Christians. I will now present the quote, only shortened:

“Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind so that they do what ought not to be done. 29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. 32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.”[3]

The whole text is about how men and women have gone into doing homosexual acts, how they embraced lie over the truth about God and how they rather worshiped humans and animals than the immortal God. This part is not of my interest, but the last one is. “That those who do such things deserve death.” Notice what I have written at the beginning of the text. He applied it to the metal bands who are anti-Christian. According to his quote, we are full of envy, arrogance, deceit, and malice. Hence, someone that is an anti-Christian or maybe is not in accordance with Christian teachings, automatically deserves death. They are not much of a talker, are they?
This is where I get to my second point. Christians praise themselves how they help the poor, do charity and so on. They want to present themselves how they accept life and propagate life. It seems to me they deny life and, for those not in agreement with their religion, the propagation of death.

This is the end for now with the logical fallacies. At least concerning the Christian perspective. I hope you enjoy it and find it helpful. Onwards hordes!- The Mage


[1] Žažar, page 75

[2] Žažar, page 80

[3] Romans 1:18-32 NIV

heavy metal, Philosophy

LOGICAL FALLACIES OF CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE ABOUT HEAVY METAL MUSIC AND BANDS (PART 4)

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FALLACY #17: FAITH IN GOD IS CRUCIAL FOR HAPPINESS

The author states that Behemoth´s (band) goal is to persuade people that faith is not crucial for achieving happiness. After this statement, his answer follows:
 

“It is sad that people think that they can achieve happiness by worshipping the One who is the founder of all evil, and the One is the Devil, Satan.”[1]

Now, Behemoth´s goal and author´s reply do not add up. If their goal is to persuade people that faith IS NOT crucial for happiness, then how can one assume that they worship Satan. Sure, Behemoth is a satanic metal band, but how can one assume that they actually believe in a mystical being Satan? Someone who has a Christian perspective over worship and gods will surely think that Satan is a mystical being which is the embodiment of all evil. In this case, if Behemoth band members think that faith is not crucial for happiness, then how can they have faith in some mystical being called Satan? I think anybody who has such perspective over religion in a way that everything is mystical should try looking outside the box and realize that not every religion is about almighty, mystical deities. Maybe they should understand some things differently, like Satanism in this case, that you cannot see everything from your own perspective. Maybe the author wants to say that if you do not have belief in God or belief at all, it is also Satan worship?

  FALLACY #18: BURZUM IS SATANIC

Burzum is a one-man project created by (in)famous Varg Vikernes. He wrote that in 1993. Album “Aske” there is an instrumental song called “Dominus Sathanas” or Lord Satan. He didn´t explicitly say that Burzum is Satanic, but, since his goal from the beginning was to show how all these bands have “bowed down to Satan”, I believe that he wanted to imply it.

Burzum´s mini-LP “Aske” from 1993.

Now, I will prove that Burzum is definitely not a Satanic metal band/project.

This is the front and back cover of the “Aske” mini-LP (taken from burzum.org). The back cover is excellent physical evidence that Burzum is not Satanic. You have the song “Dominus Sathanas”, but the interesting part here is that in the bottom right corner, there is a picture of Anton LaVey, the founder of the Church of Satan, crossed out. This is definite evidence that Burzum is not Satanic, and this can also be evidence that the second wave black metal was not Satanic and that Satan was indeed a codename for Odin.

  FALLACY #19: WAS JESUS A SAVIOUR OR A FANATIC?

When contacting the band Demoncy, they sent him a poster via e-mail where it says that Jesus is wanted for crimes against humanity and nature. Christ is wanted as an accomplice to the persecution and murder of countless millions. Christ is the founder of Christianity, a fanatical sect that promises eternal life but results in human slavery.

Now, I will not elaborate much about this, but the problem I see here is the battle of perspectives. One perspective can say that is the worst thing that ever happened, while the Christians will, of course, say that he is the ultimate idol.
Perspectives aside, I can also add that Christians should also see the history of their religion- inquisitions, persecutions, murders such as Hypatia´s murder, wars and so forth. The history of Christianity is not as “heavenly” as they think it is.

  FALLACY #20: THE MEANING OF LIFE

This fallacy concerns what the author stated in his book about Jon Nodtveit, former frontman of Dissection and his meaning of life. He stated (from Croatian to English):

  “He left a note on which was written that he fulfilled the meaning of his life by founding a true Satanic band. The truth is that he missed the meaning of his whole life and the band he left behind is actually doing evil things.”[2]

The statement that the band is “doing evil things” is not explained to the point, therefore I will not worry about it now. The main point here is about the meaning of life. This is probably one of the most common questions in philosophy. What is actually the meaning of life? Is that something universal and can be applied to every one of us or is it merely an individual thing, to fulfill your meaning of life? To judge someone that on the fact that he or she has missed the meaning of life, the “judge” first needs to know what is the meaning of life and then he can apply it to Jon Nodtveit.

NOTA BENE! I will also research if Jon actually said that (his meaning of life) because the author didn´t give us the source for it.

  FALLACY #21: THOSE WHO WORSHIP SATAN END UP COMMITTING SUICIDE

When writing about Enthroned, a Belgian black metal band, the author stated how Dan Vandenplas, a.k.a Cernunnos, made a suicide on the 19th of April 1997 by hanging himself, and then he said how those who worship Satan end up this way. I do not think I need to explain this fallacy much further. This is an another case of  “if you worship Satan, something bad will happen to you”. I think that there should be much more explanation why someone even commits suicide.

  FALLACY #22: KING´S MAIL

The author contacted the former bassist of Gorgoroth, King ov (or of) Hell, through e-mail where he warned the whole band about their concert in Krakow in 2004 and said that what they did is highly blasphemous, a massive sin and that God does not forget such things. He got a reply:

  “I don´t believe in a Christian God or Satan. I believe in elitism, freedom and personal growth. We won´t ever speak the same language, so there´s no point in sending me more emails. Thanks for your time.”- King[3]

Then the author starts asking questions in order to prove that King and the band are Satanic like, “If they don´t believe in a Christian god, why are they insulting Jesus in this way?” “If they don´t believe in Satan, why is one of their songs titled “Ad Majorem Sathanas Gloriam?”

Again, Satan does not necessarily need to be a mystical being in which someone has to believe as Christians interpret it. It can be a form of expression in many forms and in this case, it can be a form of expression of oneself´s anti-Christian perspective. If someone is a Satanist it does not mean that he is a theistic Satanist. And again, I repeat myself, if someone´s music and lyrical content is Satanic, it does not mean he or she or they are Satanists.

  FALLACY #23: MIKA LUTTINEN´S EXPLANATION OF THE BAND´S NAME “IMPALED NAZARENE”

When writing about Impaled Nazarene, the author stated how the band founder, Mika Luttinen, explained how they came up with the band´s name: “He said that the only way to kill a vampire is to impale him with a stake. I think you can, judging from this answer, understand what kind of blasphemies these people do.”

Now, in my opinion, the author misinterpreted Mika´s answer. Also, you cannot judge from his answer that they are doing some kind of “blasphemies”. I believe what Mika wanted to say is that Jesus is like a vampire. He sucks the blood of the people, meaning he brainwashes the people with his teachings, which sucks their life force and turns them into vampires (meaning his disciples). This can also be implied to The Church, priests, Christian philosophers and scholars who brainwash the people, so to speak. Note that this is my interpretation of the name and it does not need to be the actual interpretation of the name that was given to the band. I used it because one cannot judge that someone does bad things or blasphemies just because they have an anti-Christian band name. NOTA BENE! I will also get to the interpretation soon!

[1] Žažar, page 21

[2] Žažar, page 37

[3] Žažar, page 50

heavy metal, Philosophy

LOGICAL FALLACIES OF CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE ABOUT HEAVY METAL MUSIC AND BANDS (PART 3)

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FALLACY #12: ANGELCORPSE´S PETE HELMKAMP´S INTERVIEW (translated from Croatian to English)

Pete Helmkamp: “Ignorance is still strong and through ignorance comes faith. The declining influence of Judeo-Christianity opened a void and people are simply filling this void with materialism, they do not develop further. And some people have simply turned their crosses upside down and said hail to Satan instead of hail to Yahweh- these are the two sides of the same coin. Develop further!”[1]

  I wanted to put this up because the author says that from his answer from the interview, they clearly state that the faith in the one true God is ignorance while saying that worship of Satan is further human development.
Now, I believe that the author misunderstood Pete´s answer. He said that the people started praising Satan instead of Yahweh and that both of them are TWO SIDES OF THE SAME COIN. What he wanted to say here is that Satan worship was just a replacement for worshipping Yahweh and that people should develop further than that (and probably from materialism). Nothing more, nothing less.

   FALLACY #13: KILLINGS ARE SATAN´S DEEDS

“They´ve killed themselves, hence this is clearly the work of Satan.”

In the book, the author presents how Apostasy´s guitarist Henrik Johansson was killed by his girlfriend with a knife pierced through his heart. I can imagine how every crime would be solved if the Christians were leading the Crime Department. Every crime would definitely described as work of Satan. First of all, that would be logical nonsense which wouldn´t solve anything. Second of all, solving crimes requires both physical evidence and imagination. In this case with Henrik and his girlfriend, one should ask himself why did this happen? For what reason? Were they both psychologically ill and so forth. To point out the most important thing about all of this, I believe that he is using murders that happened within the scene and the bands just to justify his claims how murders were, are and will be mystical Satan´s deeds without any explanation whatsoever.

 FALLACY #14: CHRISTIANITY VS KABBALAH

Apparently, Kabbalah is an esoteric school of thought. The next problem concerns the band Averse Sefira and the separation of good spirits from the bad spirits. The band states that in the Kabbalah, there are 12 spirits that come from the left and the right hand of God. They are called Sefiroth. The word Sefira is the singular form of Sefiroth and Averse Sefira is a singular form for one such impure spirit.[2]

The thing here is as it follows. The author says that Kabbalah and the terms Sefiroth, Sefira, Averse Sefira, and others have no correlation with the truth whatsoever because the evil spirits are forever divided from God. Again I must say, such religions are world of their own and do not have to be compatible. In addition, the band Averse Sefira can use Kabbalah teachings and terms for their own artistic approach for their lyrics. One cannot judge that they practice Kabbalah just because their band name comes from Kabbalah.

  FALLACY #15: MISINTERPRETATION OF BATHORY´S SONG, “BORN FOR BURNING”

The author thinks that the song “Born for Burning” is about how a man is determined for life in hell or burning in hell. This is exactly how someone with a Christian perspective would interpret it. I will now put the lyrics of the song here:

Haunting the cloudless black sky

Braver at night

Hidden as the lips of her cnt

She is keeping out of sight

Dark as her closed eyelids

Her secret

She comes to you with a serpent’s kiss

She has the power to foresee

She don’t fear the flames

She smile at the fire

Whisper the words of spell

Without fear without fright

BORN FOR BURNING…

BORN FOR BURNING…

BORN FOR BURNING…

BORN…

She can’t feel the pain

She gaze at the sky

In the greedy flames

She will burn tonight

The beauty burning

Like the moon at harvest

Her seared flesh falling apart

And feed the hungry flames

Where the flame still bite her thigh

She is not afraid to die

She will burn again tonight

(she will always burn)

But her spirit shall survive…

She dont fear the flames…she has the power to forsee…she smile at the fire…she gaze the sky…in the greedy flames…she will burn tonight

I am certain that this song is about burning the witch, but, the main point of this song is not the act of burning the witch. I believe what Quorthon wanted to say with it is, BORN FOR BURNING=BORN FOR DEFYING CHRISTIANITY! I will try to find later if this song is actually dedicated to some mysterious witch.

  FALLACY #16: MISINTERPRETATION OF BATHORY´S SONG, “CALL FROM THE GRAVE”
The author states that a vast number of people (I believe he meant people who play heavy metal music) practice spiritism just because the song is called “Call from the Grave”. I will not even comment this one… It is clear to me that the author does not understand the point of this song. The mysterious character only wants an eternal sleep (death) granted by God and it doesn´t matter to him if he goes to heaven or hell.
Some of the lyrics of the song:

Death would greet with eternal sleep

My soul would come to peace

My life had ceased

The time was comed

Can no one hear my plead?

Lowered down in the moisty ground

Into the dark and cold

My heart’s beat the only sound

Pain tears my limbs and soul

I scream for mercy

Hear my cries

Oh, Lord don’t abandon me

I’m so tired

Grant me the eternal sleep

I will add that the author states that while calling the spirits, one cannot make contact with his ancestors. I find this extremely ironic because Christians destroyed cultures of every tribe and race on every continent. European cultures, Asian cultures, African cultures and American cultures alike. If something cannot make a connection with your ancestors, then the answer is Christianity.

[1] Žažar, page 14

[2] Žažar, page 18

heavy metal, Philosophy

LOGICAL FALLACIES OF CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE ABOUT HEAVY METAL MUSIC AND BANDS (PART 2)

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  FALLACY #5: YOUNG PEOPLE CHOOSE PLAYING HEAVY METAL MUSIC BECAUSE YOU CAN MAKE A GOOD LIVING OUT OF IT
  It is true that some bands live pretty well from playing heavy metal music but do people really choose to play such music just to earn a big amount of money? Of course not!! Almost every heavy metal band play their music because of passion towards their music and it gives them pleasure and all of them, or many of them,  started from an absolute zero. It is also well known that metal fans or metalheads are the most loyal fans to their respective genre.

FALLACY #6: YOUNG PEOPLE ATTEND SHOWS TO SEE SOMETHING SPECTACULAR AND THAT IS BECAUSE THEY ARE DECEIVED BY SATAN

  The author in his book states that Satan have put Jesus on the top of the Temple and said: “If you are the son of God, cast yourself down!”
  In other words, Satan wanted Jesus to do something spectacular but Jesus refused and didn´t let himself to be deceived by him. I believe he implicates that if people go to such concerts to see something spectacular, then they must be seduced by Satan. If this means having a blast at the concerts, having a burst of positive energy and emotions and having your mind elevated, then I love being seduced by this mystical Satan everyday!!
What about spectacles of opera music? Of dance? Natural spectacles like Aurora Borealis? Is it so bad wanting to see something spectacular and just admire it how glorious it is or can be?
I think that Christians who have this kind of perspective tend to think that everything that can be fun, spectacular, glorious, grand and overwhelmingly full of emotion is a Satan´s seducement. Maybe Satan is a synonym for these “occult” emotions.Or maybe music, dances and spectacles are Satanic and dangerous because they can develop thought.

FALLACY #7: METALHEADS HAVE CLEARLY BOWED DOWN TO SATAN JUDGING BY THEIR BEHAVIOUR

  The author wrote about how there were murders in the Norwegian black metal scene and elsewhere trying to prove that people who listen to heavy metal or make heavy metal music do vile things like murders. Just because a small number of people commited crime you cannot generalize it on the whole bunch. Then all of the metalheads would be murderers judging by his examples. On the other hand, you will always find good and bad people in every domain (metalheads, punks, religious groups, racially, ethnically…). And of course, it depends how you define good and bad.

FALLACY #8: METALHEADS HAVE CLEARLY BOWED DOWN TO SATAN JUDGING BY THEIR CLOTHING

  I believe he wanted to say either in the way how we wear all black clothing or that some metal merch have Satanic imagery on it. The first one is not so likely because nuns and priests also wear all black (of course not everyone). I think it is the second one. Should bowing down to Satan be defined as behaving badly? I don´t know but I know that you cannot ad hominem judge someone just by looking at what they wear and say something like: “Look! He has a Marduk shirt on. He probably behaves badly”. Now that is just plain nonsense.

FALLACY #9: A BAND IS SATANIC AND ITS MEMBERS ARE SATANISTS BECAUSE THEIR LYRICS ARE SATANIC

  This is of course false. Just because someone makes songs based on Satanism it does not necessarily mean they are Satanists. I will now show some examples:

  Example #1: THE PROGENITORS OF BLACK METAL- VENOM: Venom are widely known as a NWOBHM band from Newcastle which was a beginning point for extreme metal and black metal (therefore that is why it is called proto-black metal) because of their way of playing, distortion and use of Satanic lyrics and imagery. Are they Satanists because of that? No! They used Satanism as gimmick and an addition for their shock value on stage and on their albums. For those who don´t know shock value is the potential of an image, text, action, or other form of communication, such as a public  execution, to provoke a reaction of sharp disgust, shock, anger, fear, or similar negative emotions.

  Example #2: SECOND WAVE BLACK METAL: We have all probably read or heard about how the second wave was extremely Satanic because of the music they were playing, murders and church burnings. A large part of this was presented as Satanic by the media. The second wave of black metal (Mayhem, Darkthrone, Burzum…) used Satanic lyrics and imagery as an anti-christian resistance. They were not true Satanists so to speak. If I remember correctly, throughout the Medieval Ages, Christians depicted Odin as Satan and in the second wave scene they used Satan as a codename for Odin (correct me if I am wrong). I will later show physical evidence that they were not Satanists.

  Example 3: YOU CAN DO WHATEVER YOU WHAT AS AN ARTIST
  As an artist, you can do any interpretation and representation of Satan that you want! THERE ARE NO BOUNDARIES! Whether you are a musician, actor, painter, sculptor, etc., you can use Satanism or “Satan” as you seem fit for you piece of art. Your perspective, your imagination, your creation!


SUMMA SUMMARUM: IF THE LYRICAL CONTENT OR THE BAND´S APPEARANCE IS SATANIC, IT DOES NOT MEAN NECESSARILY THAT THE BAND IS SATANIC OR THE BAND MEMBERS ARE SATANISTS !!

 FALLACY #10: THE BAND IS SATANIC JUDGING FROM WHERE THEY COME FROM
  The author states in his book how the band Acheron, which was founded by Vincent Crowley and Peter H. Gilmore, members of The Church of Satan, originate from Tampa, Florida where there are a lot of similar metal bands like them and a lot of other Satanic sects. Now, it is true that Acheron is a Satanic metal band and that its members are Satanists, There is proof for it. Peter H. Gilmore is a high priest and Vincent Crowley was a reverend. But, you cannot judge if other bands from Tampa, Florida are Satanic just because they come from that place where there are allegedly a lot other Satanic sects. Just because one band is Satanic from that particular place, it does not mean others are.

FALLACY #11: BUYING HEAVY METAL ALBUMS IS A SIN

  A sin by the textbook definition is: “an immoral act considered to be a transgression against divine law”. As I said it before, Christianity is a world with its own laws and rules that are not compatible with logic. Best said, to them, buying such albums is wrongdoing. I cannot help myself but to notice how sins or wrongdoings make Christianity al pari with an Orwellian dystopia. Therefore, sin in this case is only compatible with the Christian understanding of it and it does not need to be in accordance with logic. Basically, people who have this kind of hard Christian perspective have their own kind of logic inside their mind.

heavy metal, Philosophy

LOGICAL FALLACIES OF CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE ABOUT HEAVY METAL MUSIC AND BANDS (PART 1)

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  Today, I will be talking about logical mistakes that Christians make when they make their ultimate judgement about our beloved heavy metal music. That it is satanic just by looking at its lyrical content and imagery. I will present the fallacies from the previous book that I reviewed, written by Krunoslav Žažar. His perspective can be generalized so it is most probable that you can encounter someone with a rock hard christian perspective about heavy metal (and most probably you already have in real life or the internet). Ultimately, I haven`t found any logical mistakes concerning NS bands like Grand Belial´s Key or Infernum. NOTA BENE!!- I will not write about Christian fallacies in general. Only if they are related to heavy metal.

  FALLACY #1: The author states in his book that his motivation for writing the book were disasters like wars, earthquakes and says that one should ask himself, do we live in the last of our times aka The Armageddon (found in The Book of Revelation). In the next part, immediately after the motivation statement, he writes about how there were a vast number of satanic heavy metal concerts in Zagreb in the past 10 years. Judging by his Christian perspective he is probably implying that these kind of concerts are a disaster and a sign of a oncoming Armageddon. Saying that satanic heavy metal concerts are a sign of endtimes and a disaster equal to those like war and earthquakes or floods is nonsense. Natural disasters happened in prehistoric times, our times and they will happen in the future and we cannot avoid it. Grand diseases like the black plague also occurred more than once in our history and wars are a product of greed for material or other gains. Judging by his statement, if it was true, then heavy metal bands would exist from the beginning of times (wouldn´t that be epic!!).

  FALLACY#2: SATANIC HEAVY METAL CONCERTS LEAVE FATAL CONSEQUENCES FOR ALL HUMAN LIFE.
  This statement could be understood in two ways. First one, “for all human life” one could understand that it leaves fatal consequences for all humanity. Second one, the other explanation for “for all human life” is the whole life of a one human being. Attending such concerts or listening to such music and having fatal consequences afterwords is again bunch of nonsense and it is not scientifically or empirically proven. Here I can speak from my own experience, that listening to satanic metal or generally heavy metal genres only improved my way of thought and also enhanced my imagination and seeing things from other perspectives. On the other hand when one speaks of satanism, not everyone thinks of “Satan” in the same way. In other words, Satan could be an expression only for death or only for the devil or only for an enemy. It doesn´t necessarily need to be only one way of Satan´s embodiment.

FALLACY #3: THOSE WHO CHOOSE JESUS CHRIST ARE ALREADY WINNERS

  This statement could imply that those who listen to heavy metal music or attend concerts that have satanic imagery are already losers. Just for the sake of this fallacy, the definition of loser follows: “A person that loses or has something to lose, especially a game or contest”. A concert or music isn´t something that you lose. It can only elevate you and your mind. Also, concerts and music or not contests (although they could be, between bands, but thats for another time). Basically what he is saying, Christianity is a two-way game in which you can choose rightly or wrongly. The mythic battle between ultimate good and ultimate evil which doesn´t actually exist in real world.

FALLACY #4: PEOPLE WHO PLAY HEAVY METAL MUSIC “GET THEIR BREAD WITHOUT ACTUALLY WORKING”
  He states in his book that one of The Devil´s seducements is getting food without actually working. He didn´t put his definition of work in the book but here is the textbook definition: “Activity involving mental or physical effort done in order to achieve a purpose or result”. Learning and playing instruments takes a lot of skill and training, especially on stage because you need to be extra concretated, fearless and skillful. It takes work, a lot of work for that, hence I disagree with him concerning this statement.