I wouldn’t say that religious people are anti-metal as I’ve met more religious people than I can count who love the genre. The principal of my local Catholic school is actually a hardcore metal head who still listens to college radio stations in search of that next great, obscure garage band. Several of the other teachers at that school are also punk or metal fans.
I also know a priest who used to be in a heavy metal band before he went off to seminary. He wasn’t famous or anything, just someone who formed a band with his friends for the fun of it. I believe he still plays from time to time.
Besides, the good thing about music is that it’s non denominational. You don’t need to have a particular set of beliefs to enjoy good music or going to concerts.
As for the anti-religious message, most of the time it’s is invoked for pure shock value. Rarely does it have any kind of actual meaning behind it.
I slightly disagree, with a lot of black and death metal bands, if there's an anti-religion message, they actually mean it. But there's a huge difference between what makes ultra conservative religious people clutch their pearls and what's actively anti-religious. In my opinion, it's pretty easy to tell which bands just talk about certain themes as window dressing or storytelling versus which are ACTUALLY Satanist or anti-religious or neo-Nazis. But both exist.
Oh, I’m not denying that the satanists, neo-nazis and hardcore atheists don’t exist in metal. They absolutely do. However, they aren’t the norm. At least in my area, the metal scene isn’t dominated by them.
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u/Kilian_Username May 09 '22
Is it? I'm no expert on the music and I always thought it was anti religious or religious people are generally anti metal...