Death metal lives up to its name

[Monkey]

I found this on the RateYourMusic forum.

Investigating the 'death metal' murders

These are the comments I left in the original thread they made there:

Everyone remembers the secret messages that were supposed to be contained in Ozzy Osbourne's lyrics and the controversy over his track Suicide Solution.

Yes, secret messages about Bon Scott drinking too much.

It seems to me that it has everything to do with a person's emotional maturity. If you like the extreme metal sound, more power to you, but when music starts to influence your philosophies, you're losing control. I'm really intrigued by people like Maynard James Keenan, but I don't follow him and his religious views blindly. I think some people just don't have discretion or caution.

My biggest problem with articles like this is, they plant ideas in the heads of parents that all metal is Satanic. The article utterly fails to make it clear that the bands mentioned in the article are only the very most extreme bands.

"No one can contradict me when I say that heavy metal and satanism are closely linked. They're inseparable." (Michele Tollis quote)

"Heavy metal" is a very broad, generic term. If he's discussing black metal, yes, he's probably right; from what I know, it often has some kind of religious agenda. But just using the term "Heavy metal," when the term is often applied to bands as light Led Zeppelin, is very narrow-minded.

Michele Tollis probably understands the difference between the metal his son was into and the more mainstream metal acts like Metallica or Black Sabbath, but the average parent most likely doesn't. The BBC has a responsibility to explain it, and bias or no, they failed.

Articles like this are a part of the cause for a much wider controversy. They make people (parents, more specifically) judge musical artists based on the genre the band is identified as being a part of, or the name of the band and the songs, and what they hear from other uninformed people, as opposed to actually learning something about the band, their lyrics, and their musical style. People are just too lazy to actually give metal a chance, and brand it "evil."

The whole "Suicide Solution" thing with Ozzy is a great example. The parent, say my mom, for instance, hears the "details" of the case, that the song caused a kid to commit suicide. Why is it so hard to believe? The song has the word "Suicide" in it. Oh gosh!! It must be TEH EVIL!! No, if you actually bother to look into the details, listen to the song, read the lyrics, read Ozzy's statements about the song, and actually bother to learn something about Ozzy himself, it becomes clear that the song's meaning is far less sinister than the "concerned parents" seem to think.

[discostu]

But academics who have studied adolescents and music have expressed concerns about the possible effects on children who already have psychological problems.

this all goes back to people and parents not wanting to take responsibility for their own actions. this guy seems to forget that his son wasnt just thrown into a room with death metal and forced to listen to it until he turned into a satanist...he chose to listen to it. they fail to realize that death metal isnt the reason they go and kill things, its pre-existing problems that cause them to do it.....listening to death metal is just something that is associated with satanism, so some kid wrapped up in satanism is going to go listen to death metal since it has to do with satan. i dont think someone listens to death metal and becomes a satanist, but rather they are/want to be a satanist so they listen to death metal.

[Barry]

i really don't see why there would be any controversy over the article. at not point does the article say explicitly that death metal was responsible for the deaths.

i really don't see why there would be a problem with the article, personally.

[ImmortallyInsane]

this all goes back to people and parents not wanting to take responsibility for their own actions.

I find it funny that the parent's never do anything wrong. It's always the music that drives their kid to the most extreme thing.

[avadakedavra]

this all goes back to people and parents not wanting to take responsibility for their own actions.

I find it funny that the parent's never do anything wrong. It's always the music that drives their kid to the most extreme thing.

That's exactly what I was thinking too. During the Columbine 'incident', they went after Marilyn Manson and other musical artists that the boys listened to. Yet it wasn't those bands who totally ignored the fact that their kids had guns and ammo all over their bedrooms.

And in regards to other comments, the "hidden messages" in music thing has been around forever. I believe it's the White Album (though I'd have to go back and check) that if you play it backwards it says "Paul is dead". I think people have way too much time on their hands.

[ImmortallyInsane]

That's exactly what I was thinking too. During the Columbine 'incident', they went after Marilyn Manson and other musical artists that the boys listened to. Yet it wasn't those bands who totally ignored the fact that their kids had guns and ammo all over their bedrooms.

Those kids were definately messed up. The parents should've seen it if they weren't so self-absorbed.