By this I don't mean secret messages as I've read in previous posts. After considering the genres and certain artists, I was curious how people felt about this, that is, metal with a message. In fact, there are "messages" in most genres, country, pop, rap. Everything from love to praising the Lord to killing your neighbor. Some messages are positive and some artists have a rather negative message. Some people like Kvarforth (Shining) claim they are about manipulating young people in metal. However, there has been a lot of symbolism and new themes introduced to me personally through metal. For example, Gorath's "Misotheism" introduced some new Gnostic facts that I was unfamiliar with.

Do you think this is important or do you prefer metal without any certain "depth". There are a lot of bands bringing in the philosophical nature of life and others... just doing there thing. In relation, is this harmful or prosperous? I guess it's a bit of both, but I wanted to hear some opinions of other dudes.

That's enough acid for one day.

Essentially all metal (and music in general) has a message. I don't know if you can say it's good or bad, it's just the way it is.

I also think that there's always a message regardelss if it's good or bad. every song that has lyrics is talking about something, and imo instantly that's themessage of the song. it doesn't necessarily have to be something really deep or anything, but just the fact that it has lyrics it means that the song is saying something.
in terms o this being prosperous or harmful, i think that if it's a 'good' message, or at least if it's not something bad like killing your mom or neighbor, i think that it can be prosperous, or at least it can enrich the music. but if it does say like go out and kill someone,well... it's not good, specially if you do go ot and kill someone (although that would be incredbly stupid, imo)

I prefer music without a focused message. I like lyrics you can take your own ideas out of or reinforce the ones you already have. I general message is fine. I like to figure out what it might be as I get to know the album better. But, I still really like it when I can take something substantial from the lyrical content and change my veiws on a few things

When someone tells me the message beforehand on an album or just a bands sound in general. I really hate that. It takes away so much of its wonder...

OH, By the way. this would be my 1000th post! I feel so great. Maybe even a bit triumphant. I've learned so much from this site. I'm glad I'm a member

Well everybody cites lyrics as a message, but instrumentals can have a message too; creativity.

I like political messages. but when laveyan satanism is discussed like in Morbid Angel's music, i appreciate that also.

All metal has a message, but I have yet to see a song that espouses brushing your teeth and eating your vegetables.

Written by [user id=5630] on 13.03.2009 at 02:08

All metal has a message, but I have yet to see a song that espouses brushing your teeth and eating your vegetables.

What would be really brutal is if a cvlt BM band had that kinda message only in their lyrical content...

Written by [user id=2084] on 13.03.2009 at 02:24

Written by [user id=5630] on 13.03.2009 at 02:08

All metal has a message, but I have yet to see a song that espouses brushing your teeth and eating your vegetables.

What would be really brutal is if a cvlt BM band had that kinda message only in their lyrical content...

The Aryan teeth shall slay the cavities of Christ!

Written by [user id=2084] on 13.03.2009 at 02:24

Written by [user id=5630] on 13.03.2009 at 02:08

All metal has a message, but I have yet to see a song that espouses brushing your teeth and eating your vegetables.

What would be really brutal is if a cvlt BM band had that kinda message only in their lyrical content...

lol i bet there's some underground black metal band that recorded a demo with lyrics such as that with no booklet and with the production so bad you can't understand what the guy is saying.

every music has a message, hell, even Judas Priest's Rapid Fire has one, even though each verse is about completely random stuff. the message is: there is no need for a message in order for you to BANG YOUR HEAD lol, i could say the same about most of the Painkiller album too.

as for what i prefer, it depends: sometimes i just want to bang my head like a maniac and listen to Venom- Black Metal, sometimes i want to be all philosophical and shit and put on some Iron Maiden- Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner or Dream Theater's Learning to Live or sometimes i want to make little children weep and i put on Beyond the Realms of Death by Judas or Fiddler on the Green by D&W. though these phases rarely overlap at the same time

Metal is definitely music with the message.It carrys out not just the music but some form of culture,attitude,thinking.It shapes most of the Metalheads in a way that no other music does.So for me Metal is relevant as classic or any other music or art that is considered high.

Personally I love the lyrical content when it's not ignorant or arrogant, when it is true to the author's want for a message and lyrics that generally hold a lot of depth.

Like my own lyrics, people that can do that and rhyme or keep some pattern keep me interested in the music if the music doesn't have a lot to offer to it's genre.

The message in Metal is so important for me. The music is just as important as well. Still at the end of the day, I think I would much rather listen to a band with a message that inspires me and moves my spirit more than a band with really amazing music.

That might be one of the reasons I just can't seem to get into Black Metal. Sure, I can appreciate it. The raw nature of the music is actually very appealing, but the anti-Christian message just doesn't sit well with me. Call me a poser or fake Metalhead if you want, but I'll take Demon Hunter over Burzum and moment of the day.

I prefer messages that can be interpreted in more than one way. Even though I do consider a message to be important, in the end I don't pay as much attention to it as I do the music. I enjoy the feeling that I get listening to certain bands.

Written by Dane Train on 11.06.2009 at 00:35

The message in Metal is so important for me. The music is just as important as well. Still at the end of the day, I think I would much rather listen to a band with a message that inspires me and moves my spirit more than a band with really amazing music.

That might be one of the reasons I just can't seem to get into Black Metal. Sure, I can appreciate it. The raw nature of the music is actually very appealing, but the anti-Christian message just doesn't sit well with me. Call me a poser or fake Metalhead if you want, but I'll take Demon Hunter over Burzum and moment of the day.

I like your point about a "message sitting well with you" for me its the opposite in regard to black metal, its the main style of metal I listen to and of course a large part of the reason I listen to black metal is the message and that message does sit well with me, but obviously again I am just speaking for me. But yeah I agree Dane I think it helps when the message in the music does sit well and its something that you can agree with or relate too.

One of the key elements of enjoying rock music is narcissistic identification. In other words, we like to imagine that we are the ones performing the music, hence the air guitar, singing along etc. that we are all familiar with. The clothes we wear also have to do with this fact.

It is therefore not very surprising to me that to a lot of people music with a message that doesn't sit well with them is not as enjoyable as music with a message that they agree with or even endorse. I can certainly say that it is true for me: I have trouble enjoying NSBM for example. I can appreciate it from an intellectual point of view and acknowledge whatever innovative musical ideas these bands have. Nevertheless, I will never be able to enjoy this kind of music as much as music that has a message that is closer to my own views.

Well the closest you can get to metal and GUARANTEE a message is crust punk; hardcore punk with metal riffs. Much better than metalcore, though.

In terms of me personally, I don't like messages, because you might feel weird listening to something and completely disagreeing with / not caring what it's trying to say (unless it's satanic black metal; no-one cares anymore), but you like the music itself. Just like with crust punk. I'm not politically aware by any strch of the imagination, so I try not to get curious enough to look up the lyrics.

I'm fine with oblivion.

EDIT: I suppose I'm repeating jupitreas, but in different words. I read his post AFTER I posted.

Written by Dane Train on 11.06.2009 at 00:35

The message in Metal is so important for me. The music is just as important as well. Still at the end of the day, I think I would much rather listen to a band with a message that inspires me and moves my spirit more than a band with really amazing music.

That might be one of the reasons I just can't seem to get into Black Metal. Sure, I can appreciate it. The raw nature of the music is actually very appealing, but the anti-Christian message just doesn't sit well with me. Call me a poser or fake Metalhead if you want, but I'll take Demon Hunter over Burzum and moment of the day.

I understand your point, but is that message so disturbing that you don't like the whole genre? I for example really like BM, but I absolutely don't like the message of many of those bands, but I can ignore that and just listen to the music

Written by Diabolos on 11.06.2009 at 16:15

I understand your point, but is that message so disturbing that you don't like the whole genre? I for example really like BM, but I absolutely don't like the message of many of those bands, but I can ignore that and just listen to the music

Great question! I won't say I don't like Black Metal as a whole assuming you are calling Black Metal a genre based upon sound and not a world view. There are Christian Black Metal (unBlack, White, Anointed, or what ever you want to call them) that I really enjoy such as Antestor, Crimson Moonlight, Frost Like Ashes, and Kekal. Likewise there are other bands like Borknagar that I really love.

Written by Dane Train on 11.06.2009 at 20:33

Written by Diabolos on 11.06.2009 at 16:15

I understand your point, but is that message so disturbing that you don't like the whole genre? I for example really like BM, but I absolutely don't like the message of many of those bands, but I can ignore that and just listen to the music

Great question! I won't say I don't like Black Metal as a whole assuming you are calling Black Metal a genre based upon sound and not a world view. There are Christian Black Metal (unBlack, White, Anointed, or what ever you want to call them) that I really enjoy such as Antestor, Crimson Moonlight, Frost Like Ashes, and Kekal. Likewise there are other bands like Borknagar that I really love.

Somehow I don't know a single Christian Black Metal band, I guess I'll try one of them you listed here out . But I do know some bands that don't have any religious messages (Dornenreich comes to my mind right now because I listened to them half an hour ago . It's an Austrian band and their lyrics are somehow quite depressive and these two guys actually look totally normal), wouldn't that be an option for you too?

Written by Diabolos on 11.06.2009 at 20:48

Somehow I don't know a single Christian Black Metal band, I guess I'll try one of them you listed here out . But I do know some bands that don't have any religious messages (Dornenreich comes to my mind right now because I listened to them half an hour ago . It's an Austrian band and their lyrics are somehow quite depressive and these two guys actually look totally normal), wouldn't that be an option for you too?

Oh I wouldn't be apposed to it. I might actually enjoy them. I'm really digging on Agalloch right now.

Yeah, Agalloch is great, although I need a certain mood to listen to them because I'm more the happy type of guy

Dane Train I'm not sure if you will like them but I heard a band call For Today when I was at the new England metal festival. They are very much into sending a positive religious message in their music. Lyrically it's not my kind of stuff but some of the music is very good.

Written by Dane Train on 11.06.2009 at 00:35

The message in Metal is so important for me. The music is just as important as well. Still at the end of the day, I think I would much rather listen to a band with a message that inspires me and moves my spirit more than a band with really amazing music.

That might be one of the reasons I just can't seem to get into Black Metal. Sure, I can appreciate it. The raw nature of the music is actually very appealing, but the anti-Christian message just doesn't sit well with me. Call me a poser or fake Metalhead if you want, but I'll take Demon Hunter over Burzum and moment of the day.

I see what you mean. I can stand Black Metal with a lot of satanic and anti-Christian stuff. But I don't like that kind of Black. But I guess we both know that there are a lot of BM that sings about other kinds of stuff.

Written by totaliteraliter on 12.03.2009 at 20:04

Essentially all metal (and music in general) has a message. I don't know if you can say it's good or bad, it's just the way it is.

I don't know why I didn't get to this before, but it's really not all about a message. When you compare Behemoth to Cradle of Filth, who really has a message in it's true sense?

Nergal is very knowledgable in terms of the occult and he is able to spread his message with things that actually have a meaning to him.

There is a Dimmu Borgir T-Shirt with the phrase ''Religion Sickens Me'' on the back (which is in itself a message), but under it is this:



There is just something wrong with that picture. I think those guys aren't certain of what they really want to represent.

Written by TheBigRossowski on 07.09.2009 at 18:51



There is just something wrong with that picture.

what do you mean exactly?

Written by Ellrohir on 08.09.2009 at 10:53

Written by TheBigRossowski on 07.09.2009 at 18:51



There is just something wrong with that picture.

what do you mean exactly?

The symbol is sometimes used by devil worshipers. It comes from a book that seems to be a forgery (has a fraudulent publishing date) though so there's really no valid reason why anyone should care if it's "misused".

Written by [user id=23267] on 08.09.2009 at 11:12

Written by Ellrohir on 08.09.2009 at 10:53

Written by TheBigRossowski on 07.09.2009 at 18:51



There is just something wrong with that picture.

what do you mean exactly?

The symbol is sometimes used by devil worshipers. It comes from a book that seems to be a forgery (has a fraudulent publishing date) though so there's really no valid reason why anyone should care if it's "misused".

Sure there is, it's still the sigil of Lucifer. The books origins aren't of much importance, it's what the symbol means to people today. I mean, it doesn't offend me or anything that they use a symbol for Lucifer... but why in Satan's name would they add ''Religion Sickens Me''. I'm not the only guy that thinks Satanism as a philosophy is retarded.

The swastika had a pure meaning and was turned into something that make people today think of hatred and racism. And for what purpose? None, really. The swastika has a better meaning, but the Nazis completely ruined that, didn't they.

Written by TheBigRossowski on 08.09.2009 at 18:51

Sure there is, it's still the sigil of Lucifer. The books origins aren't of much importance, it's what the symbol means to people today. I mean, it doesn't offend me or anything that they use a symbol for Lucifer... but why in Satan's name would they add ''Religion Sickens Me''. I'm not the only guy that thinks Satanism as a philosophy is retarded.

The swastika had a pure meaning and was turned into something that make people today think of hatred and racism. And for what purpose? None, really. The swastika has a better meaning, but the Nazis completely ruined that, didn't they.

Given that we're discussing Dimmu Borgir at the moment, I guess they use it just for image reasons.
I was about to write that I don't really see the difference between bands that are not religious or spiritual using the normal inverted pentagram or the sigil, but come to think of it I guess it is somewhat odd, since (as far as I know, I have to say though that I am not particularly well-versed in these matters) sigils seem to be more often used for ritual/magical purposes. Guess they just wanted to use a more obscure symbol instead of the common pentagram.

Also, I do not think that using satanic imagery as a symbol of rebellion against religion and society's norms and morals like La Vey or old metal bands did, is retarded. Seems way less stupid to me than Euronymous' viewpoint that "people should be Satan's slaves".

Written by [user id=23267] on 08.09.2009 at 20:23

Written by TheBigRossowski on 08.09.2009 at 18:51

Sure there is, it's still the sigil of Lucifer. The books origins aren't of much importance, it's what the symbol means to people today. I mean, it doesn't offend me or anything that they use a symbol for Lucifer... but why in Satan's name would they add ''Religion Sickens Me''. I'm not the only guy that thinks Satanism as a philosophy is retarded.

The swastika had a pure meaning and was turned into something that make people today think of hatred and racism. And for what purpose? None, really. The swastika has a better meaning, but the Nazis completely ruined that, didn't they.

Given that we're discussing Dimmu Borgir at the moment, I guess they use it just for image reasons.
I was about to write that I don't really see the difference between bands that are not religious or spiritual using the normal inverted pentagram or the sigil, but come to think of it I guess it is somewhat odd, since (as far as I know, I have to say though that I am not particularly well-versed in these matters) sigils seem to be more often used for ritual/magical purposes. Guess they just wanted to use a more obscure symbol instead of the common pentagram.

Also, I do not think that using satanic imagery as a symbol of rebellion against religion and society's norms and morals like La Vey or old metal bands did, is retarded. Seems way less stupid to me than Euronymous' viewpoint that "people should be Satan's slaves".

lol, that's true. We might have to take this to the Satanism thread soon! When you think of Satan and the bible in a mythical sense, then I don't think it's wrong to use the symbols as gimmicks because it's theatrical. However, truly believing in Satanism (not theistically) as a means of rebellion is ridiculous. It's much more rebellious (and blasphemous) to be an atheist or an agnostic.

That is my point. Too many bands are using these things to provoke people merely for the sake of provocation and not for anything else.

Why couldn't Dimmu Borgir simply write ''Religion Sickens Me'' and instead have this symbol. It would have made much more sense. Hell, they could have even used the Thunderbold from Harry Potter, now that IS rebellious...