Metallica and The Bible?

[dokool]

Pastor: Metallica echoes biblical message

<i>Metallica's lyrics provide the perfect conduit to the Bible, which offers solutions, said Vanderwell, who paralleled lyrics, such as the band's 1991 "Follow the God that Failed," with Bible verses to make his point.</i>


Interesting guy. I tend to lean severely anti-Christian, but I certainly appriciate the effort to explore something this unorthodox.

[Kai Stromler]

I saw this story earlier on Blab, but I ddin't immediately notice the reference to "The God That Failed". If this song is being cited, there's definitely some misinterpretation going on somewhere, either by the original preacher or the reporter who wrote the article.

"The God That Failed" is about the death of James Hetfield's mother, a strict Christian Scientist who chose to die of cancer rather than seek medical attention over faith healing. The whole point of the song, one of the few relevant tracks on the Black Album, is that there are a lot of people out there who expect supernatural assistance in their lives that is just not forthcoming. It's Metallica's only real anti-Christian song (ok, maybe "Leper Messiah" counts as well), though it uses Christian imagery, and I can't see how anyone thinking critically can see it as a conduit to the Bible.

"Fade To Black", "Disposable Heroes", yes; you can start from the points of those lyrics and end with Christinsanity as an answer, but not "The God That Failed".

--K

[HeavyMetal]

Funny at no point does the Bible offer answers to anything really.

The Bible is more about events and suggested living. Moral lessons through story. It is the mistake (at least some people say) of many churches to seek the answer to everything in religion.

This is made even more interesting by the work ethic of Christianity, as being help others and yourself as opposed to letting someone else or something else do it for you.

My Thought:

First Load would have been a better album to reference than St. Anger.
It is about just say no, recovery, and such. Of course The House That Jack Built is a distortion of a quote from Ben Franklin.

This man knew nothing of Metallica and sought to drawn in the youth with Metallica. How about some Manson while he is at it.

I admire the man’s unconventional style, but truly good and evil, cosmology, philosophy, etc, are the thoughts of all not exclusive to religion.

I like the change from persecution of metal. Though I think most Metal bands know more about religion than religion knows of metal.

Many metalheads are created from the disillusionment from church life.

It’s the feeling of being manipulated I think. Even the architecture of church's begin to influence the followers before a word is spoken. Vaulted ceilings, bright indirect light, etc has psychological impact. Follow that with speech techniques and boom instant followers.

Norcallica apparently does not get the lyrics either and seek to justify both their favorite music and their attachment to religion.

Finally I know Choir boys that grow up far worse than Metallica. Comedian Denis Leary was a candle boy at the Catholic church and he is not entirely unlikely to piss on the Pope's grave.

Here is a thought. I am not religious but I like to think so I considered this upon occasion:

God would be a logical impossibility to comprehend as he/she is an infinite logical loop. If God is perfect and omnipotent then he/she lacks the ability to improve. An ability which humans have. If that is the case then God is imperfect and can improve by losing the ability to improve. Such action would then render God imperfect once more. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

If the preacher is seeking a loose quality to religion he should convert to Buddhism or Kami-no-michi. (think I spelled that right.)

Like I said many metalheads are created from the disillusionment from church life.

All religion seeks to answer the question Why? Why do bad things happen to good people? ( Or at least provide a temp solution to the question.)

It is a hard pill to swallow to simply say Shit Happens and deal with it.

Personaly if I want answers in life I think, as opposed to look to a book or man to tell what life is and how to live it.

To each his own...........heh heh.

[Flint the Dwarf]

Metallica, oddly, is what interested me in the Bible when I was young. Creeping Death and The Four Horsemen hooked me into Biblical themes, and I actually read the Bible independently to see what it was all about. I wasn't disappointed, but I'm not a Christian currently. I'm somewhere between Christianity and Agnosticism. I don't want to get into the debate here.

But Metallica will remain with me to the end of my days.

[Noverca1is]

sheer boredom:

B asic
I nstruction
B efore
L eaving
E arth

[kthulhu]

"Leper Messiah", as I recall, is about televangelism and the "business" of organized religion. It's not strictly anti-Christian in the usual sense; it's anti-Christian against things Christians should be against, too.

Metallica has never struck me as being a very satanic band.

[Utorak]

Funny, i never thought of MetallicA's songs to be associated with the bible. Yeah sure ive heard every single song, and know the titles of by heart, but i always thought the reason for the strange religously connected titles of songs was to do with just making the song an evil metal head song. Some of Dream Theater is exactly the same.

[HeavyMetal]

Most Metal bands have nothing to do with satan.

It actually began due to the lyrics of the first metal band.....Black Sabbath.

They were actually more of a 60s protest band against group think and the cult mentality of institutional thought.

In their points they mentioned witchcraft and black magic etc as comparable to following without question.

This combined with the badass sound created by the accidental loss of their guitarist's two finger tips on his left hand. The plastic replacements changed the sound a bit. (This gave rise to the idea of de-tuning the guitar.) Thus the metal sound.

Christian zealots took things the wrong way, as they often do with things they do not understand.

Thus metal became the devil's work.

Later KISS would be called Knights in Service of Satan as opposed to Keep It Simple Stupid (which is their style in writing simple easy to sing along songs)

Later Twisted Sister would battle the Midwestern Moms Against All Things Fun in the Parental Warning Label debate.

Oddly TS was joined by John Denver and Elton John if I remember right.
And Metal won for the most part and the one label that passed spiked sales. Because if Mom does not like it, it must be damn good metal.

Metal's anti-popularity ways just said to hell with it and ran with the evil theme just to get a rise out of their critics.

Religious in anyway, good or evil, is the last thing I would call metal in general.