Report: Black Metal Not Linked To Satanism, Say It's Fans
Malaysia's The Star Online has issued the following report:
Black metal, like any other type of music, is only a genre, said Joseph Prabagar, founder and director of record label Demonzend.
"As far as I know, there is no satanism or cults involved with black metal. I think the authorities should really define what 'black metal' means,” he said.
His reaction came after the National Fatwa Council said that black metal was a deviation from Islamic teachings and those found practising it could be penalised under syariah law.
Prabagar said many bands these days played not only black metal, but also thrash metal, death metal and heavy metal.
"There is a lot of overlapping. It can be very difficult to define what black metal really is.”
He explained that black metal usually had a very fast beat and darker lyrics.
"The term itself was actually taken from the band VENOM's album called 'Black Metal' in the 1980s. And in it, they actually poked fun at satanism. To link satanism and black metal, to me, is just absurd," said Prabagar.
Student Mohd Khairul Idzham, 25, who plays in a band said: "Music is like a knife. It's up to the person holding it to decide what he wants to do with it.
"It really depends on how you use it, but black metal music is just another genre of music."
Source: Blabbermouth
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20 Comments on "Black Metal Not Linked To Satanism, Say Fans"
Former Contributor
2. writes:
Black metal does not NEED to be Satan worshipping, nor should music that idolizes Satan be deemed Blackmetal if it is clearly something else.
...Really this is a common sense/logic thing....Some people live their whole life by being self righteous and judgemental.....
The Beatles, Kiss, Ozzy/Sabbath, Metallica, NIN, Rammstein, Marilyn Manson, Korn.....these are all acts that in one community or another have been labeled "EVIL" in no uncertain terms....and these are just some of the big names....When actually these acts are pretty tame compared to Deicide, Kreator or even Dimmu Borgir.....
Point is snap judgements are rarely accurate and wherever this law is being enacted it's going to be a pitiful circus act even trying to enforce it.
Member
Member
4. writes:
My question is we have freedom of religion right? Why can't satanism be considered a religion? Who is it to pick who we can worship? The whole thing is it is just like when they compared Tupac's music to violence and the killing of that police officer. It is up to each individual how they want to portray what they hear from the lyrics and how they react. I listen to brutal death metal but I do it for the riffs and because I like the lyrics but that doesn't make me a murder or a sick person for it. leave it up to the majority of people to try and censor what they don't like. That is the problem and has been for a million years if you aren't part of the majority your opinion doesn't matter.
5. writes:
My response to the article - Some is related to Satanism, and some isn't. I don't know if it gets any easier (or more complex) than that.
RememberMetal? - you've got some good points, particularly about major acts being used as scapegoats for the atrocities that people perform. In your list you should have also included Elvis, 'cause god-forbid there be pelvic gyrations!
WhylordWhy - Unfortunately the majority here is a religious body, they're often very hard to contend with, as there are fundamentalists of the practice, militants, closed-minded, dogma stricken, and highly intolerant of anything that doesn't fit the mold of the cultural norm.
... see, I dare speculate that Muslims hate us (the ones who do) not only for our very own culture, not because we're spreading our goods like a disease, not because we're free and arrogant, but because we're doing all of these things which culminates in an erasure of culture - particularly theirs. Certainly religious bodies still exist and stand firmly here in the states, but we have so many denominations, and tolerance for other religions that it often seems we don't care if you're one or the other, or none at all. Malaysia has a few different religions in occupance, but they're pretty well segregated, even the 2 branches of Islam are segregated. That being said though, they're not immune to the influences of the world, and I think many fear that the culture (which is a creation of man, not the other way around...) is being erased, slowly by world influence.
I'm not sure mass culture would be a good term for the happenings in progress, but I can't think of a better one right now. Either way we're getting to a point where there's nothing that doesn't effect us, and at the same time - paradoxically - there's nothing we really care about....
8. writes:
post 7 - being an american site, most of us are going to speak english - so type in english or dont post at all.
post 6 - clearly YOU dont know what YOU are talking about - or aboot, either. killingtime made some good points, and satanism has more to do with death metal than black, but no, not even death is definably satanistic. i think the ONE band i have come across that is TRULY satan-worshipping would be Acheron. other than that, they'r either posers, or completely and entirely mis-understood.
Former Contributor
11. writes:
actually, that's more often than not true. ie eminem is banned in australia, if i remember correctly, but the guy's a ponce. honestly, that lad couldnt nick a handbag from a jumping castle if one were to have a handbag, and if marshall were poor enough to need to be snatching it anyways.
12. writes:
well it about time the only music affiliated with satanism is some death metal (ie. "Deicide"). VENOM's album called 'Black Metal' in the 1980s is the one that made the name up and it cleary is'nt satanism's cliche if you might call it that?
ps. it's only music!!!!!
13. writes:
Using the word "retard" is a reflection of ingnorance. If society can create a double standard that is one. It's not "ok" to use racial slurs. But it's ok to demean someone's I.Q. How smart is that? I don't think you've ever met someone with Autism, Downs Syndrome or Cerbral Palsy. People think the MLK's fight is over. But they are wrong. I've seen people with Autism get kicked out of public school systems, for screaming. When so-called normal people can bully, hurass, and torment others with out gettting removed! It takes a single second for the world to change. A person who is "normal" can get in a car accident, have a brain cancer and have to have a "lobe" removed. So when I see someone use the word "retard" I am offened! Watch out, somday you could end up in a "group home" with people who are more "gifted" than society gives them due.
Member
Member
16. writes:
No matter what they'll will always be someone, somewhere with some notion that doesn't have the guts to say they don't like particular genre (or whatever else) without honestly being able they have observed or witnessed something that would deem their little theory as fact.
17. writes:
i go to a catholic school every friday and get abuse from them calling me a satanist just because i listen black metal meh and im a christian and i get loads of abuse from ppl sayin u cant be christian and listen to tht sh** its up to me what i listen to at the end of the day meh :(
18. writes:
tobsky... you fail to fit their morality, you become the target. What you like / why you like it becomes you....
The last conversation I had w/ my father about religion ended like this:
Me: "Dad, I don't need your preaching. As far as I can see your God's done nothing for me. Doesn't look like he's doing sh** for you either."
Dad: "I'll pray for you."
Me: "I won't hold my breath for responses to them."
"Bye" - "Bye"
So many wars have been started because of this garbage. It's nothing but mere scholasticism - "I accept because a) a book told me to do so, and b) you also know what you're talking about so I accept again.
I'd love to point out a logical fallicy based on "b" - the fallicy of appealing to an unqualified authority... but when you think about it - religion is a man-made concept to fill some void in his pathetic life, a justification for all the good and bad sh** that happens to you. Now, to actually be considered an "unqualified authority" God would have to a) exist, and b) have passed down his knowledge to men (the 2nd would necessitate the first), BUT since a God doesn't objectively exist, then man is the next best thing to pass on his creations... thus my desire to point out Mr. Preachers error is lacking grounds to do so, because man is a qualified authority to pass down bigotry and disdain for any other fellow man based simply on a dissimilarity of style, taste or belief.
If I were going to allow myself to refer to any God, or any specific inclination towards God it'd be Deism, as the natural order is fairly astounding, and when searching for a first cause I think God is probably the most commonly refered to.
Pantheism is also an option. God residing in everything - basically equalling nature. To the Satanist you are God, your own. Everyone is their own... and the highest law is to preserve the self. Save your God. Which is what fundamentalists and fanatics attempt to do, only their God is some external figment of their imagination which without the influence of culture and history might not even be there in the first place, so they kill themselves for the external visage of greatness......
Screw that. I'll die for my own beliefs rather than those I adopt from a "Holy" book.
Nietzche and the "herd morality" really nails my point. All religions lead you to the same place (he focused on Christianity), to a place where the "blessed", those suffering in this life are promised something better in the next. The "blessed" are generally the weak, those who need a cornerstone for the hope they have. Their success is derived through their numbers, and their sheer naivity.
I'll be the first to say - I know not whether a God exists. But I'm quite certain that it's not the one that's been portrayed in scripture, or the anthropomorphisation of God which prevades our minds.
#6 How can you say that you're not evil?
Mankind is by nature a bunch of foul beasts. Psychoanalytic theory posits that the structures we learn are for social adaptation, the complexes we have are masked by defense mechanisms, because of our cognitive awareness of the inappropriatness of our actions we hide them or sublimate them into something more acceptable..... I think psychoanalysis would fail w/ tribalism.
Also consider the great behaviorist Albert Bandura, who developed the Social Learning Theory. He placed groups of kids in rooms showing them 3 types of videos 1) non-peers rewarded for violent behavior, 2) non-peers neither punished nor rewarded and 3) non-peers punished for violent behavior. (I think that's how it went). The kids were later released into a play room in which there was an inflated punching doll - kids in groups 1 and 2, and some in 3 kicked the crap out of it....
Being that we're all desensitized by various things through out life, I have no clue how you can say you're not evil, unless you're focusing on the word in a much larger, more violent context. Or possibly you're a pre-adolescent who hasn't been socially exposed enough yet to realize just how foul you and damn near everyone else is...... So a) your vision is narrower than my own, or b) you lack experience.
20. writes:
man, black metal's the bomb.
it's all about satan and killing christians,
f*** that's the way I interpreted and that's the way it should be
i hate christians and everything they stand for...i came outta a catholic school for fuks sake
can't stand the f***ers. second to prozac, bm has saved the most lives to date. otherwise i would've gone on a christian shooting spree ages ago
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1. skribb writes:
Awesome! It only took them 10 years to figure it out.