Death Metal

 

Concerning the lyrics debate in Death metal there are lots of Death metal bands who concentrate on other topics. Mostly dark, bizarre and taboo filled topics ( take a listen to Club Mondo Bizarre by Pungent Stench) but also really interesting/ serious topics like politics ( Napalm Death, Nasum) or more spiritual subjects ( Atheist, Cynic, Pestilence). There´s a primal urge/ need in every human to explore the dark sides of life and it´s just a matter of personal belief and interest how far you take it. Some only dip their toes and others like myself take a long, long swim. The important thing to remember is that it´s a personal choice. You can still be a normal human being with family and kids and listen to acts like Carcass and Cannibal Corpse. It´s not like I show the original LP covers from Carcass Reek of Putrefaction and Symphonies of Sickness ( the meat collages), Autopsy´s Acts of the Unspeakable or Butchered at Birth by Cannibal Corpse to my kids, but I won´t deny them access to my record collection ( and the many, many extreme lyrics and covers that are present in that collection)when I feel that they are old/ mature enough to understand the difference between fiction and reality. Dialogue and education is the way forward, not censorship and closeminded bigotry. There will always be a small percentage of kids/ young people who can´t handle being exposed to some of the things that I mention above, but should the rest of us be denied access because of this? As I mentioned above dialogue and education will in most cases build strong kids who understand the difference between fiction and reality. I have a large amount of friends who have been listening to extreme metal for years and none have turned out violent. They are not in any way different from the friends I have who haven´t listened to extreme metal.

 

I´ve attended many metal concerts through the years as well and been part of many mosh-pits and never have I seen REAL violence at any of those concerts ( Good Friendly Violent Fun to quote the Exodus classic Toxic Waltz, but not real violence). In fact I think extreme metal is healthy for most people. We as humans are aggressive by nature ( even the sweetest and most likable human being has this side) and especially the male part of the population deal with those emotions. Listening to Metal music is a great way to release aggressions in a positive way IMO.

Agree with everything you said, except that music is only an art and it has no moralistic compulsions to fulfil. I don't buy the premise that music can make a person become violent, it only exhibits a lack of self control on the part of the person.  For me, "violent" music is a stressbuster in the same way disco/dance music is for a lot of people; I don't like disco/dance music, so I found my own disco music.