Christianity involved in metal.

[RampinUp46]

Originally Posted by mankvill

faggotgrapple

[illuminatus917]

Originally Posted by smearCampaign

In my opinion, outside of music Christianity is a vicious cycle of glorified ignorance whose negative consequences far outweigh it's positive impact.

Christianity does a lot of good in the world, and I only say this because I've taken part in things in the past and continue to take part in things that I couldn't otherwise take part in without Christian based organizations. Simply because there's no other accessible medium through which to do these things, unfortunately. But I agree, overall it's a negative influence in the world and a force that negates progression, and eventually it needs to dissolve.

Overall I fall in the "if the music is good, it doesn't matter" crowd, but I'm generally quick to be apologetic and post-modernistic when it comes to this, while simultaneously feeling some sense of cognitive dissonance. It's not at all surprising that Christianity is so involved in metal, given it has a long history of colonizing pre-established forms to suit evangelicalizing/proselytizing needs. This is just a contemporary example of it. 
 What is irksome to the non-xian metal subculture is that, as a form, it developed as a means (whether or not explicitly remains arguable) to criticize the greater project of the Abrahamic religions' co-opting and super-cession of pre-xian pagan and atheist metaphysics. So when xians start coming around again and claiming that space for themselves, it's going to start pissing people off and causing them to react. (Adverse reactions usually prove the opinion is not without foundation). Xians run/own/dominate enough public space as it is, yet they continue to act out whatever persecution complex they see fit.

This is why no matter how good the music is, how talented the artist, or how intrusive or non-intrusive the artist is to the extent to which they project beliefs, there will always be an attitude among the metal community (at least as a subcurrent) that if you are a Christian, you have no business listening to metal, being involved in metal, or making metal. You are not welcome. And you will always know and feel that.

[energymetal14]

When bands say homophobic shit like this For Today asshole, that's when Christianity needs to be kept out. I guess I support people having their own views, but I just really can't stand hateful stuff. I'm not sure if it's in their lyrics, but I don't care to find out. Metal should be about acceptance to me, especially metalcore, since hardcore is huge on that. Sorry for my rant, but acceptance and anti-hatred are super important to me, and it just pains me to see people saying stuff like this.

[RampinUp46]

Originally Posted by energymetal14

When bands say homophobic shit like this For Today asshole, that's when Christianity needs to be kept out. I guess I support people having their own views, but I just really can't stand hateful stuff. I'm not sure if it's in their lyrics, but I don't care to find out. Metal should be about acceptance to me, especially metalcore, since hardcore is huge on that. Sorry for my rant, but acceptance and anti-hatred are super important to me, and it just pains me to see people saying stuff like this.

[Epidemic Reign]

Figured I'd post here since I am currently listening to a Christian metal band of my own free will for the first time ever, to my knowledge.

The album that I'm listening to is "Infinite Journey of Soul" by Rivera/Bomma from New Jersey. I'm listening to it because it was released today and I'm trying to keep up with my 2013 releases.

Now I have some pretty negative views on religion and particularly Christianity in general. I'm not going to get into that, because I don't like to "promote" my beliefs or push them on others. But it's worth noting.

The lyrics on this album aren't really "preachy" in my opion, but they are very openly Christian in theme most of the time, even quoting the bible at one point.

The music itself is pretty badass, old school heavy metal with some seriously killer riffs and nice melodies. The vocals don't always seem to match up with the music perfectly but they're pretty good. So in the end, I listened to Christian metal and I liked it because the music was good.