Satanistic Music as a Christian

Chao-Z said:
I know (and most christian metal
fans will agree) that it is hard
too find good music that isn't
satanistic. The best musicians
in the big world of metal are
satanistic. Just take Slayer,
Lamb of God or Heaven shall burn.
There are much better examples, but
i just woke up and have no better
ideas at the moment.


They're not satanic.

Difficult subject. Here's what I came up with after I puzzled over it for two months.

No, its not. Pretty much the only truly "Satanic" band is Gorgoroth. Many of those band are Anti-Christian or use Anti-Christian Imagery, but they're NOT Satanic.

Well... This is an extremely hard subject, but not as real to me as it is to you, Philipp, as I'm not as much of a metal-fan.

Personally though, I must say that for instance Troll is a band I'll keep clear of in the nearest future, as their most played song is called Drep de kristne (Kill The Christians). For me as a Christian, that would be slightly strange lyrics to listen to. The same I think goes with other metal bands who have lyrics and/or titles like that. And so, I guess I'm somewhere between 1/2 and 3; maybe most #1, as I've got a few songs in my iTunes with quite a bit swearing and stuff... As I mensioned earlier, I'm not really experiencing the issues with satanic music.

Chao-Z said:
It doesn't matter if it's only imagery for this topic.

In fact, the problem is that this music and the ethnic
opinions of an christian have nothing in common.

But okay, if you don't want to talk about the problem
itself, continue talking about imagery -.-

Perhaps some of the imagery, but my point is that you're definitely using incorrect terminology. It would not be "Satanic" music, but rather, "Anti-Christian" or "Secular" which encompass FAR more than "Satanic". For example, if you were to say "Secular", that would include almost everything from Gorgoroth, to Troll, to Britney Spears and the Backstreet Boys. You would get a wide range of discussions, from all genres and types of people. If you were to say "Anti-Christian", that would include most Black and Death Metal. You would mostly get discussion from metalheads. And if you were to say "Satanic", that would pretty much only include Gorgoroth, and not provoke as much discussion amongst people who knew what they were talking about.

And for Kjersti, Troll is not a "Satanic" band either, its an "AntiChristian" band. ;)

However, I'm sure many of these terminology problems have been because English is a second language, so I am helping you with this. Don't take offense or think I'm being too petty or a vocabulary Nazi or something... There is a HUGE difference, though it all might seem the same to Christians... many AntiChristians do get sick of being called Satanists all the time. We're not. :P

But, you see the difference a few words makes?

I'll make a post later with opiniony stuff later, I'm helping my dad cook my Mom her Mother's Day Dinner.

RageofAnath said:
And for Kjersti, Troll is not a "Satanic" band either, its an "AntiChristian" band. ;)

Well I never said it was a satinic band, did I? :P In fact, the only thing I said was that "Kill the Christians" is not a very nice thing to say, and much less sing :).

No problem Anath :).

There are a lot of pro-christian neo-folk bands, playing wonderful music! Here are some of them:
Rose Rovine E Amanti
Our God Weeps
Von Thronstahl
Parzival
Kriegsfall-U
Thorn Agram
Lonsai Maikov
Oda Relicta
Kayno Yesno Slonce
The Green Man

Try them!

IronGuitar said:
To RageofAnath, by "not satanic", do you mean that they don't promote satanism (through their lyrics), but DO promote antichristianity? Or do you just mean they never make references to it? Because Altar of Sacrafice (sp?) by Slayer is quite clearly about Satanic rituals. But it doesn't promote them (unless you count the part where it goes "PRAISE HELL SATAN!") so I agree with you if you mean not many bands actually praise Satanism, but some DO talk about it.

I simply mean that there is a fine line between "Satanic" and "AntiChristian". Sometimes it is blurred and hard to see because there are references to Satanism, or appear to be, but many bands (black metal acts especially) are as against Satanism as they are against Christianity. You seem to already understand what I mean, with your example of the Slayer song. Despite the appearances of that song, Slayer is not "Satanic", but is Anti-Christian.

Here's an interesting example to look into: Lyrics to Deathspell Omega's Si Monvmentvm Circvmspice album
On first read you may see "Satan" and "Praise Satan", and stuff like that, and most people will immediately write this off as Satanic. Its NOT though. It is sort of a commentary on the true Christianity (to DsO). For example "Drink the Devil's Blood" -- Do you see a parallel to the Eucharist? Its not about a Satanic ritual, but IS about Christianity and the Eucharist. Its a literary technique called "Satire". :P (also see "Blessed are the Dead Whiche Dye In the Lorde") Many bands that are labeled as "Satanic" do something similar. The Christians who label them Satanic just can't read deep enough into the lyrics to see past the apparent imagery and into the true message, which is not Satanism.

And another good example: Typhus
I indirectly know the guy behind Typhus. This band advertised itself to be "Extreme Satanikkk blakk metull" and wrote song titles and lyrics that were excessively absurd on purpose. This project is not serious, it is a joke. Lord Typhus created it like this as an experiment to see how many cds he could sell with this image. He sold a LOT. This goes to prove that much of the imagery and lyrical content is also an intrinsic part of the "scene", and not necessarily followed or believed.

It doesn't matter that much though, just as long as we don't label anti-christian people as satanist people I don't think it matters.

I fully agree with this, as well. The problem lies in that those (Christians especially) who actually tell the difference between a False-Satanist, a True-Satanist, an Athiest, and an Antichristian are few and far between. People such as myself try to spread awareness of the differences, but not many catch on.

there's actually a lot of good christian metalbands out there, you just have to know where to look. take a look on www.nordicmission.no, they got a lot of good metal.

its the least i could do:)

To answer directly Chao-Z's question, I often listen to music just for the rhythm and the feeling behind the music (often quite agressive than I have the strong desire to mosh ;). When hear that the lyrics are more political and pointing to misere I go get the lyrics and read them and try to understand them. I try to see the big picture behind and to expose it to me. If I dont like the lyrics I dont listen to them anymore. I certainly listen to the song again just for the rhythm. But I dont have the problem of satanism. It's just that I'm not interested in this so called satanism. It was never an idea I thought I should follow. Besides anti-christians have some good ideas but still there is a god which I believe in. I quote (what I think Goethe said):

"Edel sei der Mensch, hilfreich und gut. Denn das allein unterscheidet ihn von allen Wesen, die wir kennen"
and the christian god I believe in is a good god (the one of which Jesus told us all).