That’s Metal

Angela | They/Them

[carnivore-voyeur]

👋🏻 I’m Angela and I love metal. I’m agender, aroace, and I prefer they/them pronouns. Header art is by me. Please do not repost.

I follow from @oneshortdamnfuse. I won’t follow anyone under 18, and I don’t encourage minors to follow me. If you are under 18 reblogging adult content from my blog and I find out about it, I’ll block you. Please don’t take personal offense. I post content of my favorite artists here. If you don’t like that, you’re not obligated to follow.

You don’t have to follow me to enjoy my content or to message me. It usually takes me a long time to follow someone back. I have to build a relationship with a person first before committing to following.

You can check out some of my favorite metal and “metal adjacent” songs/artists on Spotify -> Favorite Metal. I update it regularly, and I try not to let any one artist dominate the playlist. So, there’s a lot of variety. Not a fan of gatekeeping or “metal elitism.” Metal is a genre for everyone.

I grew up around musicians, but I only started going to shows in the past ten years. Here’s a post of all the artists I’ve seen - not all of them are (exclusively) metal. A lot of them aren’t! Having a great metal band come to town is like finding a rare gem. I hope to go to more shows in the future and document my time at them here.

If you can guess where my username comes from, you get a goat. 🐐

Enjoy your stay 🤘🏻

[carnivore-voyeur]

You can literally post those two gay hockey players fucking in HD on tumblr dot com but you can’t post Per Eriksson’s pierced nipples without it getting flagged MILLISECONDS after posting. The nipple ban is a PLAGUE.

[carnivore-voyeur]

My hidden talent is being able to transcribe everything Per says with expert precision for example he says 'Get. OWWt. uv Here' whenever something is in his way annoying him. Also I originated the Dammet transcription.

[karmicbias]

A very important skill which I shall celebrate by posting lemonade o'clock!

[carnivore-voyeur]

I like how he sticks his tongue out to find his straw while trying to maintain eye contact. What a loser. He's my favorite guitarist ever.

[karmicbias]

It's giving parrot

[carnivore-voyeur]

There's an uncanny resemblance!

[carnivore-voyeur]

My hidden talent is being able to transcribe everything Per says with expert precision for example he says 'Get. OWWt. uv Here' whenever something is in his way annoying him. Also I originated the Dammet transcription.

[karmicbias]

A very important skill which I shall celebrate by posting lemonade o'clock!

[carnivore-voyeur]

I like how he sticks his tongue out to find his straw while trying to maintain eye contact. What a loser. He's my favorite guitarist ever.

[carnivore-voyeur]

My hidden talent is being able to transcribe everything Per says with expert precision for example he says 'Get. OWWt. uv Here' whenever something is in his way annoying him. Also I originated the Dammet transcription.

[1232322]

YES SON

[carnivore-voyeur]

Can’t even call Dewdrop touch-starved because he’s always being touched by his fellow ghouls, but he is touch-hungry. Instead of waking in the middle of the night for a midnight snack, he crawls into the beds of whoever will indulge him and purrs from the ensuing cuddles. He lays flat on top of Mountain, who sleeps like a fallen tree on the forest floor, arms wrapped lazily around his torso. He allows Aether to spoon him, squeezing him tight against his chest and he allows Swiss to lay on top of him, belly pressed to his back. He paws the fluffy pillows on Cumulus and Cirrus’s shared bed before balling himself up in between them. He lays chest to chest in Rain’s embrace, a tangle of limbs, and back to back with Phantom. He passes out in Ifrit’s lap with his head buried in the warmth of his neck while Ifrit radiates a soft glow to read in bed. He lays side by side with Aurora on perfumed silk sheets, staring up at her twinkling bedroom ceiling while she sing-snores a tune, a frilly eye mask on her face. Dewdrop is touch-hungry, and he gets fed.

[theduchesssf]

Ghost source @theduchesssf

[carnivore-voyeur]

Dewdrop Ghoul loves to snuggle all of his friends

[verypurplepenguins]

Caught this soft snuggly moment during Year Zero at the Sioux Falls ritual

[tisthenightofthewitch]

[jesterghoulz]

mountain ghoul dot png 

[carnivore-voyeur]

The “people think metal is satanic, but it’s actually [insert palatable thing]” commentary in music discourse does way more harm than good to the metal community as a whole, imo. Metal has always been counter culture to Christian norms. Satan has always been a symbolic figure for those outcast by the holier-than-thou’s. Metal has always used satanic imagery for shock and awe.

Fear of Satan’s influence on the souls of “good Christians” drove those same people to label metal as a corrupting force with active political campaigns to censor metal completely. If you’re trying to make metal palatable, you’re giving in to this narrative that metal has to fundamentally change in order to justify its continued existence.

You can have sub-genre preferences and sure, there are “Christian” Metal bands out there subverting religious expectations. None of that changes the fact that Satan has always been and always will be an inextricable part of the metal scene. The very spirit of metal is satanic because of its positioning as an antithesis just as Satan is an antithesis.

Palatability was never the goal.

[alephskoteinos]

I want to agree with this but then you remember that if you go back, "Satan has always been part of the metal scene" is true, it's just that for Black Sabbath that meant Satan was something to be scared of because they were pretty much mostly Christians. That's the point of the title track.

[carnivore-voyeur]

The metal scene didn’t just start with Black Sabbath, and multiple bands using distortion to get a heavier sound rose up alongside them like Led Zeppelin and Judas Priest. Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven infamously triggered a Satanic Panic as people believed playing the song backwards produced secret Satanic hidden lyrics. These bands were also heavily influenced by the blues, and the blues as a whole was historically considered “the devil’s music” because it went against conservative, Christian norms.

Satan is a symbol in music of depravity and of freedom, not just a biblical figure. The blues focused in on “sin,” not just as a taboo to avoid but one to sing openly about engaging in. The blues literally has Satanic mythology woven into its history with Robert Johnson and the crossroads. Rock music, let alone heavy metal, would not exist without people turning away from hymns worshiping “God” to indulge in wicked lamentations about sex and drugs and hate and hardship and fate and doom and war and violence. Etc.

These are all things considered to be Satanic by conservative Christians and many sects of Christianity still do not allow their congregations to indulge in the most mild rock music for fear of corruption. Satan has always played a part in counter culture, regardless of what individual people believe about Satan as a biblical figure. Metal has always been considered Satanic, and metalheads have always been considered folk devils corrupting the youth. It does the genre a disservice to erase rather than acknowledge that history.

[alephskoteinos]

Not only is that history not erased, it's acknowledged to death. Everyone knows that metal has always been treated as satanic, even when the bands and musicians aren't (even in black metal you can only be so sure), and everyone knows that Satan is to some extent "part of metal" because every other band was writing songs about Satan and hell and whatnot, sometimes in a transgressive way and other times really not. That's the point here: evenin the 80s this is only somewhat true: you'd have bands revelling in the image of evil in a rebellious way, fairly consciously sometimes, you'd have bands who just do it because it's scary and cool, and bands whose songs contain lyrics that flat out say stuff like "stay away from Satan" even if they don't advertise as Christian. And hell, Black Sabbath made "After Forever". Have you listened to that one? Even War Pigs was called War Pigs because Tony Iommi thought warmongers were "the real Satanists". You can say "the metal scene" didn't start with Sabbath, but Priest came afterwards and I think putting Led Zeppelin in there is kinda questionable (not to say they weren't heavy at all). I don't even think it matters that Black Sabbath weren't Satanists or anything, just that their place historically makes this whole point very simplistic, to the point of being a trope that takes hold mostly because nobody remembers differently.

[carnivore-voyeur]

I don’t think you’re truly understanding the point of this post because you’re too caught up in pedantry. You’re trying to make a point that I’m not talking about nor do I care about. I don’t care if a band is lyrically spelling out the importance of staying away from Satan as a biblical miscreant. Much of the blues musicians who sang about Satan and sin also went to church. That is beside the point that these genres are antithetical to the conservative Christian values dominating culture at the time of their origins.

Satan is and always will be a symbol of antithesis and of counter culture in the way that conservative Christians weaponize the biblical figure to justify the marginalization and abuse of anyone who does not fall in line with their beliefs. Of course you will have artists flip or subvert that language to call out conservative Christians who engage in acts of war and violence because that language has meaning to conservative Christians. They wouldn’t use it if it held no importance to that specific group of people.

That is not my point, though. My point concerns the sanitization of metal in the effort of making it more palatable. This involves stripping Satan, Satanism, and Satanic imagery and themes away from it as a whole genre. Doing so ignores the entire reason why the genre was labeled as Satanic in the first place. I don’t give a single shit if a band considers themselves Satanists. Most don’t. Satan is still inextricable from the genre as a symbol of antithesis to conservative Christian norms and a symbol of counter culture.

Side Note - Led Zeppelin’s inclusion in this list isn’t questionable at all. They’re historically noted as a foundational band in heavy metal. This isn’t a debate. It’s a fact. Judging classics based on what’s new and modern doesn’t change the fact that Led Zeppelin was and still is considered heavy metal. This is how this band was and is perceived, rather than simply based on what the band set out to do. They, too, were heavily influenced by the blues but as I’ve established the blues were foundational to metal.

And the blues is still “the devil’s music.”

[alephskoteinos]

You are in a circle. Your point is that the genres are antithetical to Christian values (you can just say Christian, you don't need the caveat), and my point is that this is by itself kind of just half true. You're looking at metal from the standpoint of how people who were never going to listen to it see it. That's why you don't care about bands, because your point is not to talk about what they are by themselves, on their own terms. Because if you do your point just gets complicated.

[carnivore-voyeur]

"You're looking at metal from the standpoint of how people who were never going to listen to it see it"

Yes, that's why I said what I said. You're talking about something else entirely that has nothing to do with what I'm talking about. Glad we cleared that up 👍🏻

[alephskoteinos]

OK, but at that point this entire time you talk about metal in ways that only have small things to do with the bands that make and made it, or the people who listen to them. I'm not entirely sure what the source of the original argument was.

[carnivore-voyeur]

Right, so you didn't understand the source of my argument and thus you interpreted it as something else. Not every post is made for you to understand, and that's okay. I've already explained the context of my argument, though, and made what points I wanted to make. I don't feel the need to explain it any further.

[alephskoteinos]

As I understand it your contention is with people trying to make metal palatable by denying that Satan has anything to do with metal. At this point this is the source that I have no idea about, I don't really see anything like that, and the last decade would be the right time to see it. You know, if you know you've explained yourself and you don't assume other people are following along, I think that's your problem.

[carnivore-voyeur]

Plenty of people reblogging this post understood my point perfectly fine. So, I'm pretty sure it's your problem actually.

I'm satisfied with my explanations. If your only response to my point is just, "well I don't see it" then I don't really care. It changes nothing for me.

If you don't have the context or the experience to understand something, that's fine, but then you don't need to comment on it.

[carnivore-voyeur]

The “people think metal is satanic, but it’s actually [insert palatable thing]” commentary in music discourse does way more harm than good to the metal community as a whole, imo. Metal has always been counter culture to Christian norms. Satan has always been a symbolic figure for those outcast by the holier-than-thou’s. Metal has always used satanic imagery for shock and awe.

Fear of Satan’s influence on the souls of “good Christians” drove those same people to label metal as a corrupting force with active political campaigns to censor metal completely. If you’re trying to make metal palatable, you’re giving in to this narrative that metal has to fundamentally change in order to justify its continued existence.

You can have sub-genre preferences and sure, there are “Christian” Metal bands out there subverting religious expectations. None of that changes the fact that Satan has always been and always will be an inextricable part of the metal scene. The very spirit of metal is satanic because of its positioning as an antithesis just as Satan is an antithesis.

Palatability was never the goal.

[alephskoteinos]

I want to agree with this but then you remember that if you go back, "Satan has always been part of the metal scene" is true, it's just that for Black Sabbath that meant Satan was something to be scared of because they were pretty much mostly Christians. That's the point of the title track.

[carnivore-voyeur]

The metal scene didn’t just start with Black Sabbath, and multiple bands using distortion to get a heavier sound rose up alongside them like Led Zeppelin and Judas Priest. Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven infamously triggered a Satanic Panic as people believed playing the song backwards produced secret Satanic hidden lyrics. These bands were also heavily influenced by the blues, and the blues as a whole was historically considered “the devil’s music” because it went against conservative, Christian norms.

Satan is a symbol in music of depravity and of freedom, not just a biblical figure. The blues focused in on “sin,” not just as a taboo to avoid but one to sing openly about engaging in. The blues literally has Satanic mythology woven into its history with Robert Johnson and the crossroads. Rock music, let alone heavy metal, would not exist without people turning away from hymns worshiping “God” to indulge in wicked lamentations about sex and drugs and hate and hardship and fate and doom and war and violence. Etc.

These are all things considered to be Satanic by conservative Christians and many sects of Christianity still do not allow their congregations to indulge in the most mild rock music for fear of corruption. Satan has always played a part in counter culture, regardless of what individual people believe about Satan as a biblical figure. Metal has always been considered Satanic, and metalheads have always been considered folk devils corrupting the youth. It does the genre a disservice to erase rather than acknowledge that history.

[alephskoteinos]

Not only is that history not erased, it's acknowledged to death. Everyone knows that metal has always been treated as satanic, even when the bands and musicians aren't (even in black metal you can only be so sure), and everyone knows that Satan is to some extent "part of metal" because every other band was writing songs about Satan and hell and whatnot, sometimes in a transgressive way and other times really not. That's the point here: evenin the 80s this is only somewhat true: you'd have bands revelling in the image of evil in a rebellious way, fairly consciously sometimes, you'd have bands who just do it because it's scary and cool, and bands whose songs contain lyrics that flat out say stuff like "stay away from Satan" even if they don't advertise as Christian. And hell, Black Sabbath made "After Forever". Have you listened to that one? Even War Pigs was called War Pigs because Tony Iommi thought warmongers were "the real Satanists". You can say "the metal scene" didn't start with Sabbath, but Priest came afterwards and I think putting Led Zeppelin in there is kinda questionable (not to say they weren't heavy at all). I don't even think it matters that Black Sabbath weren't Satanists or anything, just that their place historically makes this whole point very simplistic, to the point of being a trope that takes hold mostly because nobody remembers differently.

[carnivore-voyeur]

I don’t think you’re truly understanding the point of this post because you’re too caught up in pedantry. You’re trying to make a point that I’m not talking about nor do I care about. I don’t care if a band is lyrically spelling out the importance of staying away from Satan as a biblical miscreant. Much of the blues musicians who sang about Satan and sin also went to church. That is beside the point that these genres are antithetical to the conservative Christian values dominating culture at the time of their origins.

Satan is and always will be a symbol of antithesis and of counter culture in the way that conservative Christians weaponize the biblical figure to justify the marginalization and abuse of anyone who does not fall in line with their beliefs. Of course you will have artists flip or subvert that language to call out conservative Christians who engage in acts of war and violence because that language has meaning to conservative Christians. They wouldn’t use it if it held no importance to that specific group of people.

That is not my point, though. My point concerns the sanitization of metal in the effort of making it more palatable. This involves stripping Satan, Satanism, and Satanic imagery and themes away from it as a whole genre. Doing so ignores the entire reason why the genre was labeled as Satanic in the first place. I don’t give a single shit if a band considers themselves Satanists. Most don’t. Satan is still inextricable from the genre as a symbol of antithesis to conservative Christian norms and a symbol of counter culture.

Side Note - Led Zeppelin’s inclusion in this list isn’t questionable at all. They’re historically noted as a foundational band in heavy metal. This isn’t a debate. It’s a fact. Judging classics based on what’s new and modern doesn’t change the fact that Led Zeppelin was and still is considered heavy metal. This is how this band was and is perceived, rather than simply based on what the band set out to do. They, too, were heavily influenced by the blues but as I’ve established the blues were foundational to metal.

And the blues is still “the devil’s music.”

[alephskoteinos]

You are in a circle. Your point is that the genres are antithetical to Christian values (you can just say Christian, you don't need the caveat), and my point is that this is by itself kind of just half true. You're looking at metal from the standpoint of how people who were never going to listen to it see it. That's why you don't care about bands, because your point is not to talk about what they are by themselves, on their own terms. Because if you do your point just gets complicated.

[carnivore-voyeur]

"You're looking at metal from the standpoint of how people who were never going to listen to it see it"

Yes, that's why I said what I said. You're talking about something else entirely that has nothing to do with what I'm talking about. Glad we cleared that up 👍🏻

[alephskoteinos]

OK, but at that point this entire time you talk about metal in ways that only have small things to do with the bands that make and made it, or the people who listen to them. I'm not entirely sure what the source of the original argument was.

[carnivore-voyeur]

Right, so you didn't understand the source of my argument and thus you interpreted it as something else. Not every post is made for you to understand, and that's okay. I've already explained the context of my argument, though, and made what points I wanted to make. I don't feel the need to explain it any further.

[carnivore-voyeur]

The “people think metal is satanic, but it’s actually [insert palatable thing]” commentary in music discourse does way more harm than good to the metal community as a whole, imo. Metal has always been counter culture to Christian norms. Satan has always been a symbolic figure for those outcast by the holier-than-thou’s. Metal has always used satanic imagery for shock and awe.

Fear of Satan’s influence on the souls of “good Christians” drove those same people to label metal as a corrupting force with active political campaigns to censor metal completely. If you’re trying to make metal palatable, you’re giving in to this narrative that metal has to fundamentally change in order to justify its continued existence.

You can have sub-genre preferences and sure, there are “Christian” Metal bands out there subverting religious expectations. None of that changes the fact that Satan has always been and always will be an inextricable part of the metal scene. The very spirit of metal is satanic because of its positioning as an antithesis just as Satan is an antithesis.

Palatability was never the goal.

[alephskoteinos]

I want to agree with this but then you remember that if you go back, "Satan has always been part of the metal scene" is true, it's just that for Black Sabbath that meant Satan was something to be scared of because they were pretty much mostly Christians. That's the point of the title track.

[carnivore-voyeur]

The metal scene didn’t just start with Black Sabbath, and multiple bands using distortion to get a heavier sound rose up alongside them like Led Zeppelin and Judas Priest. Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven infamously triggered a Satanic Panic as people believed playing the song backwards produced secret Satanic hidden lyrics. These bands were also heavily influenced by the blues, and the blues as a whole was historically considered “the devil’s music” because it went against conservative, Christian norms.

Satan is a symbol in music of depravity and of freedom, not just a biblical figure. The blues focused in on “sin,” not just as a taboo to avoid but one to sing openly about engaging in. The blues literally has Satanic mythology woven into its history with Robert Johnson and the crossroads. Rock music, let alone heavy metal, would not exist without people turning away from hymns worshiping “God” to indulge in wicked lamentations about sex and drugs and hate and hardship and fate and doom and war and violence. Etc.

These are all things considered to be Satanic by conservative Christians and many sects of Christianity still do not allow their congregations to indulge in the most mild rock music for fear of corruption. Satan has always played a part in counter culture, regardless of what individual people believe about Satan as a biblical figure. Metal has always been considered Satanic, and metalheads have always been considered folk devils corrupting the youth. It does the genre a disservice to erase rather than acknowledge that history.

[alephskoteinos]

Not only is that history not erased, it's acknowledged to death. Everyone knows that metal has always been treated as satanic, even when the bands and musicians aren't (even in black metal you can only be so sure), and everyone knows that Satan is to some extent "part of metal" because every other band was writing songs about Satan and hell and whatnot, sometimes in a transgressive way and other times really not. That's the point here: evenin the 80s this is only somewhat true: you'd have bands revelling in the image of evil in a rebellious way, fairly consciously sometimes, you'd have bands who just do it because it's scary and cool, and bands whose songs contain lyrics that flat out say stuff like "stay away from Satan" even if they don't advertise as Christian. And hell, Black Sabbath made "After Forever". Have you listened to that one? Even War Pigs was called War Pigs because Tony Iommi thought warmongers were "the real Satanists". You can say "the metal scene" didn't start with Sabbath, but Priest came afterwards and I think putting Led Zeppelin in there is kinda questionable (not to say they weren't heavy at all). I don't even think it matters that Black Sabbath weren't Satanists or anything, just that their place historically makes this whole point very simplistic, to the point of being a trope that takes hold mostly because nobody remembers differently.

[carnivore-voyeur]

I don’t think you’re truly understanding the point of this post because you’re too caught up in pedantry. You’re trying to make a point that I’m not talking about nor do I care about. I don’t care if a band is lyrically spelling out the importance of staying away from Satan as a biblical miscreant. Much of the blues musicians who sang about Satan and sin also went to church. That is beside the point that these genres are antithetical to the conservative Christian values dominating culture at the time of their origins.

Satan is and always will be a symbol of antithesis and of counter culture in the way that conservative Christians weaponize the biblical figure to justify the marginalization and abuse of anyone who does not fall in line with their beliefs. Of course you will have artists flip or subvert that language to call out conservative Christians who engage in acts of war and violence because that language has meaning to conservative Christians. They wouldn’t use it if it held no importance to that specific group of people.

That is not my point, though. My point concerns the sanitization of metal in the effort of making it more palatable. This involves stripping Satan, Satanism, and Satanic imagery and themes away from it as a whole genre. Doing so ignores the entire reason why the genre was labeled as Satanic in the first place. I don’t give a single shit if a band considers themselves Satanists. Most don’t. Satan is still inextricable from the genre as a symbol of antithesis to conservative Christian norms and a symbol of counter culture.

Side Note - Led Zeppelin’s inclusion in this list isn’t questionable at all. They’re historically noted as a foundational band in heavy metal. This isn’t a debate. It’s a fact. Judging classics based on what’s new and modern doesn’t change the fact that Led Zeppelin was and still is considered heavy metal. This is how this band was and is perceived, rather than simply based on what the band set out to do. They, too, were heavily influenced by the blues but as I’ve established the blues were foundational to metal.

And the blues is still “the devil’s music.”

[alephskoteinos]

You are in a circle. Your point is that the genres are antithetical to Christian values (you can just say Christian, you don't need the caveat), and my point is that this is by itself kind of just half true. You're looking at metal from the standpoint of how people who were never going to listen to it see it. That's why you don't care about bands, because your point is not to talk about what they are by themselves, on their own terms. Because if you do your point just gets complicated.

[carnivore-voyeur]

"You're looking at metal from the standpoint of how people who were never going to listen to it see it"

Yes, that's why I said what I said. You're talking about something else entirely that has nothing to do with what I'm talking about. Glad we cleared that up 👍🏻

[carnivore-voyeur]

The “people think metal is satanic, but it’s actually [insert palatable thing]” commentary in music discourse does way more harm than good to the metal community as a whole, imo. Metal has always been counter culture to Christian norms. Satan has always been a symbolic figure for those outcast by the holier-than-thou’s. Metal has always used satanic imagery for shock and awe.

Fear of Satan’s influence on the souls of “good Christians” drove those same people to label metal as a corrupting force with active political campaigns to censor metal completely. If you’re trying to make metal palatable, you’re giving in to this narrative that metal has to fundamentally change in order to justify its continued existence.

You can have sub-genre preferences and sure, there are “Christian” Metal bands out there subverting religious expectations. None of that changes the fact that Satan has always been and always will be an inextricable part of the metal scene. The very spirit of metal is satanic because of its positioning as an antithesis just as Satan is an antithesis.

Palatability was never the goal.

[alephskoteinos]

I want to agree with this but then you remember that if you go back, "Satan has always been part of the metal scene" is true, it's just that for Black Sabbath that meant Satan was something to be scared of because they were pretty much mostly Christians. That's the point of the title track.

[carnivore-voyeur]

The metal scene didn’t just start with Black Sabbath, and multiple bands using distortion to get a heavier sound rose up alongside them like Led Zeppelin and Judas Priest. Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven infamously triggered a Satanic Panic as people believed playing the song backwards produced secret Satanic hidden lyrics. These bands were also heavily influenced by the blues, and the blues as a whole was historically considered “the devil’s music” because it went against conservative, Christian norms.

Satan is a symbol in music of depravity and of freedom, not just a biblical figure. The blues focused in on “sin,” not just as a taboo to avoid but one to sing openly about engaging in. The blues literally has Satanic mythology woven into its history with Robert Johnson and the crossroads. Rock music, let alone heavy metal, would not exist without people turning away from hymns worshiping “God” to indulge in wicked lamentations about sex and drugs and hate and hardship and fate and doom and war and violence. Etc.

These are all things considered to be Satanic by conservative Christians and many sects of Christianity still do not allow their congregations to indulge in the most mild rock music for fear of corruption. Satan has always played a part in counter culture, regardless of what individual people believe about Satan as a biblical figure. Metal has always been considered Satanic, and metalheads have always been considered folk devils corrupting the youth. It does the genre a disservice to erase rather than acknowledge that history.

[alephskoteinos]

Not only is that history not erased, it's acknowledged to death. Everyone knows that metal has always been treated as satanic, even when the bands and musicians aren't (even in black metal you can only be so sure), and everyone knows that Satan is to some extent "part of metal" because every other band was writing songs about Satan and hell and whatnot, sometimes in a transgressive way and other times really not. That's the point here: evenin the 80s this is only somewhat true: you'd have bands revelling in the image of evil in a rebellious way, fairly consciously sometimes, you'd have bands who just do it because it's scary and cool, and bands whose songs contain lyrics that flat out say stuff like "stay away from Satan" even if they don't advertise as Christian. And hell, Black Sabbath made "After Forever". Have you listened to that one? Even War Pigs was called War Pigs because Tony Iommi thought warmongers were "the real Satanists". You can say "the metal scene" didn't start with Sabbath, but Priest came afterwards and I think putting Led Zeppelin in there is kinda questionable (not to say they weren't heavy at all). I don't even think it matters that Black Sabbath weren't Satanists or anything, just that their place historically makes this whole point very simplistic, to the point of being a trope that takes hold mostly because nobody remembers differently.

[carnivore-voyeur]

I don’t think you’re truly understanding the point of this post because you’re too caught up in pedantry. You’re trying to make a point that I’m not talking about nor do I care about. I don’t care if a band is lyrically spelling out the importance of staying away from Satan as a biblical miscreant. Much of the blues musicians who sang about Satan and sin also went to church. That is beside the point that these genres are antithetical to the conservative Christian values dominating culture at the time of their origins.

Satan is and always will be a symbol of antithesis and of counter culture in the way that conservative Christians weaponize the biblical figure to justify the marginalization and abuse of anyone who does not fall in line with their beliefs. Of course you will have artists flip or subvert that language to call out conservative Christians who engage in acts of war and violence because that language has meaning to conservative Christians. They wouldn’t use it if it held no importance to that specific group of people.

That is not my point, though. My point concerns the sanitization of metal in the effort of making it more palatable. This involves stripping Satan, Satanism, and Satanic imagery and themes away from it as a whole genre. Doing so ignores the entire reason why the genre was labeled as Satanic in the first place. I don’t give a single shit if a band considers themselves Satanists. Most don’t. Satan is still inextricable from the genre as a symbol of antithesis to conservative Christian norms and a symbol of counter culture.

Side Note - Led Zeppelin’s inclusion in this list isn’t questionable at all. They’re historically noted as a foundational band in heavy metal. This isn’t a debate. It’s a fact. Judging classics based on what’s new and modern doesn’t change the fact that Led Zeppelin was and still is considered heavy metal. This is how this band was and is perceived, rather than simply based on what the band set out to do. They, too, were heavily influenced by the blues but as I’ve established the blues were foundational to metal.

And the blues is still “the devil’s music.”

[carnivore-voyeur]

The “people think metal is satanic, but it’s actually [insert palatable thing]” commentary in music discourse does way more harm than good to the metal community as a whole, imo. Metal has always been counter culture to Christian norms. Satan has always been a symbolic figure for those outcast by the holier-than-thou’s. Metal has always used satanic imagery for shock and awe.

Fear of Satan’s influence on the souls of “good Christians” drove those same people to label metal as a corrupting force with active political campaigns to censor metal completely. If you’re trying to make metal palatable, you’re giving in to this narrative that metal has to fundamentally change in order to justify its continued existence.

You can have sub-genre preferences and sure, there are “Christian” Metal bands out there subverting religious expectations. None of that changes the fact that Satan has always been and always will be an inextricable part of the metal scene. The very spirit of metal is satanic because of its positioning as an antithesis just as Satan is an antithesis.

Palatability was never the goal.

[alephskoteinos]

I want to agree with this but then you remember that if you go back, "Satan has always been part of the metal scene" is true, it's just that for Black Sabbath that meant Satan was something to be scared of because they were pretty much mostly Christians. That's the point of the title track.

[carnivore-voyeur]

The metal scene didn’t just start with Black Sabbath, and multiple bands using distortion to get a heavier sound rose up alongside them like Led Zeppelin and Judas Priest. Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven infamously triggered a Satanic Panic as people believed playing the song backwards produced secret Satanic hidden lyrics. These bands were also heavily influenced by the blues, and the blues as a whole was historically considered “the devil’s music” because it went against conservative, Christian norms.

Satan is a symbol in music of depravity and of freedom, not just a biblical figure. The blues focused in on “sin,” not just as a taboo to avoid but one to sing openly about engaging in. The blues literally has Satanic mythology woven into its history with Robert Johnson and the crossroads. Rock music, let alone heavy metal, would not exist without people turning away from hymns worshiping “God” to indulge in wicked lamentations about sex and drugs and hate and hardship and fate and doom and war and violence. Etc.

These are all things considered to be Satanic by conservative Christians and many sects of Christianity still do not allow their congregations to indulge in the most mild rock music for fear of corruption. Satan has always played a part in counter culture, regardless of what individual people believe about Satan as a biblical figure. Metal has always been considered Satanic, and metalheads have always been considered folk devils corrupting the youth. It does the genre a disservice to erase rather than acknowledge that history.