Satanic Symbolisim In Metal: Reflection

There are many things I have learned in my search. But it is a tricky subject and I had a bit of difficulty fully answering my essential question, which was "Do bands in metal really worship the devil?". You can't call it a failed experience, but I did. Not to worry, I tried my best.

Now what I learned was that metal bands do sing about the devil. But that doesn't
automatically make them devil worshipers. Songs about the devil mostly are from
experiences the band (or someone in the band) might have gone through. Be it a bad dream, or just simply coming off a bad trip when using drugs.

If I may use an example, the song "The Number Of The Beast" by the British heavy metal band IRON MAIDEN, the actual number of the "BEAST" is 666. If you follow the bible you might very well know that, but the song is simply about "a man who is wandering alone and happens upon a portion of hell on earth, people were performing satanic rituals and sacrifices, the man was disgusted at it but then became entranced." To be honest i didn't come up with that explanation, i just paraphrased from the wikipedia site. But you can hear that it's not them worshiping the devil.

Something that really i knew when coming into this search was that in the song "Black Sabbath" by Black Sabbath was that it was about one night when one of the guys from the band had a real bad night after reading the book on witch craft that Ozzy Osbourne brought him in which he (Geezer) got fascinated with. So when Geezer saw the big black figure he thought it was the devil. That's all that the song was about.

I found out that people who sing metal songs are mostly of the catholic religious background, not a Satan worshiper. Ozzy Osbourne grew up in a catholic home, the only thing that makes it seem like he's a devil worshiper is the fact that he does crazy action. For instance, he bit off the bat at a concert. That was because he thought that it was a fake bat. He once was drunk at a contract signing and bit the head off a dove. Talks about Satan, but not a devil worshiper.

Even the most devout catholic group will mention the devil in their songs, does that make them devil worshipers? No, that just means that they have a topic to sing about.

Now there is a difference between the actions of rap and the actions of metal. If a rapper sings about having money, doing drugs and having guns, the truth is they probably have it (and it shows in their music videos). But just because a few dozen of a metal groups songs talk about the devil, it doesn't hold any water. The videos just depict the lyrics in the song. They all tell the story of the song. If they say that a man sees the eyes of Satan, they can't just show a teddy bear and make it look all cuddly.

When teenagers, well when anybody listens to metal music, devil worshiping and letting it all come off their chest by screaming, moshing, causing mischief and mayhem when at a concert, throwing up the devil horns doesn't make them devil worshipers. It's just an outlet for aggression. Now for the metal singers they just tell stories that just pop into their head, I mean if you are crammed into a room, going in with nothing as some bands do (Metallica for the album "St. Anger"). They just go in their studio and just jammed out. It's just the things that they come up with the stuff that they go through with their life. They just have to write about something, and sometimes it's just what they learned while going to church.

But if you go over seas to places such as Norway or any European countries, they will actually worship the devil. They set churches ablaze and they actually admitted to it. Now that is crazy, they are anarchists, they don't really care about religion, they believe that god is bad. It's Craziness to believe that kind of B.S. I may be a agnostic but I do believe in something.

So what I'm trying to say is that depending on where in the world you are, there will be people who worship the devil. All that matters is that you take the time to figure out what you believe. For all those FUGAZI [comes from the Italian slang meaning fake](Wiktionay, Fugazi) people out their who think that everybody who listens to or makes metal music worship the devil, well they are mistaken. At least those in America.

So to answer the BIG question, well it's really a little question Not All People Of Metal Worship The Devil. It's really not a definitive answer but it does the job.

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"Fugazi." Wiktionary. 20 May 2008 .