Religion and Metal - Inside and Beyond the Hate-Hate Relationship

Most major religions and the heavy metal movement have never had what anyone would call a friendly relationship. The most vocal (though by no means the only) religious opponent of metal was and still is the Christian population of North America. Denounced universally from its 1970s fledgling days as being the music of the Devil, metal was turned away immediately from most mainstream markets because of the considerable influence of the religious population, and not just in the United States. Contrary to the intentions of metal's detractors, it thrived in the underground and obscure world of little-known magazines, record stores and the timeless word-of-mouth.

At first glance, the criticisms leveled at metal seem reasonable from a religious standpoint. The music is loud, aggressive, dark, often "evil-sounding" (fun fact - the riff of Black Sabbath's "Black Sabbath" actually makes use of what medieval society termed "the Devil's tritone", so the term "music of the Devil" actually does have some basis in fact, if not in the way religious people would have us see it). The lyrics are even worse, and that's when you can understand them. Filled with death, pain, violence, morbidity, anger and sometimes seeming to promote callous and opposing attitudes towards that which religion holds sacred  (things such as sex, drugs, faithlessness or "wrong" beliefs, etc.), it doesn't take a religious extremist, or even a religious person, to see that the moral teachings that come with most religions are not compatible with metal.

The controversial album cover for Cannibal Corpse's "Butchered At Birth".

The original proposed title for Metallica's first album, later called "Kill 'Em All".

But is that really the case?

First, let's examine the long-standing allegations and views that metal's most well-known heroes are Satanists or promote anti-Christian messages in one way or another. Ozzy Osbourne, the "Prince of Darkness", infamous for his drug addiction - a member of the Church of England. Tony Iommi, creator of the legendary first heavy metal riff - to this day has never gone on stage without wearing a cross necklace. Dave Mustaine, who used to dabble in black magic in his youth and incorporated it into Megadeth's song "The Conjuring" - now a born-again Christian. Tom Araya, bassist and vocalist for the anti-religion giant, Slayer, a band that also regularly references Nazis - a practicing Catholic and devoted family man. Among other things, this reveals the fact that there are few cases of genuine Satanism among those creating metal music. The reasons for these religious individuals partaking in a music genre so readily identified with non-Christian notions are many and varied. In Ozzy's case, he may self-identify as belonging to the Church of England, but it's clear that religion takes a backseat in the man's life. In Iommi's case, there is no conflict with his religious views seeing as most of Black Sabbath's songs actually warn of the dangers of sin and even include a plea to God in the lyrics to their eponymous song ("Oh please God help me!"). In Dave Mustaine's case, he has actually renounced his past in black magic and refuses to play the songs that included allusions to it from his set lists. In Tom Araya's case, he has no problems setting aside his personal beliefs to make his music, which he claims, as a form of art that mirrors society, is simply picking up the darker reflections.

Maybe Ozzy wasn't the best choice to demonstrate that there are religious metal musicians...

Good guy Tom Araya.

And what about metal's opinion of religion? One authoritative figure, now deceased (may he R.I.P.), was Ronnie James Dio, who had a stint with Black Sabbath, performed in Rainbow, Elf, his own band Dio and in his last years, Heaven & Hell. Ronnie's opinion of religion is reflected by the lyrics to the Black Sabbath song "Heaven and Hell" - his view is that heaven and hell, and similarly God and the Devil, are inherent inside every human being, and that instead of a literal place in the clouds or under the Earth where people go to be saved or to be punished, heaven and hell are rather choices that we make inside each of us - a path to good and a path to evil. Kerry King, Tom Araya's bandmate in Slayer, has revealed that he likes to "take potshots at religion" because he thinks "it's the biggest brainwashing thing that is totally acceptable in America and probably everyplace else in the world". This seems to indicate some antipathy towards religion, low levels of religiosity and some indifference. As with the gender and race issues, religion is secondary to the music in the self-contained world of metal.

The extreme fringes of metal are where some bands and musicians are truly anti-Christian, though there are few that are outright anti-religion. In the previously esoteric black metal movement in Norway, setting fire to churches and murder, as committed by Varg Vikernes (creator of the one-man black metal project Burzum), were two of the crimes that made the obscure subgenre latterly well-known. The gist of the ideas behind the black metal proponents of anti-Christianity in the Scandinavian countries was a belated, but in their view justified retaliation for the unwanted and unasked-for Christianization of Europe. At the same time, there are other extreme bands and movements, most notably the national socialist black metal phenomenon, that advocate for pro-white supremacy and pro-Christian ideas as they perceive it. Black metal is also where you'll find most of the few metal musicians that actually make serious claims of adhering to any form of Satanism, such as Daniel Rostén and Régis Lant.

The album cover for Burzum's "Aske" (Norwegian for "ashes"), showing a church that was suspected to have been burned by Vikernes.

Inevitably, as a counter to the black metal movement, there emerged an "unblack" or "white" metal movement where the style of black metal (shrieked or rasped vocals, tremolo picking on the guitar, rapid blast beats on the drums) was emulated but the lyrics were turned from topics such as misanthropy, Satanism, despair and hate to Christian ideas. However, unblack metal is considered a subgenre of black metal rather than a subset of the larger Christian metal scene that exists as a separate entity. The latter consists of bands that permeate other styles of metal but also write Christian lyrics.

The literature on Christianity and metal goes on forever, almost like Christianity's presence in actual western literature. But an often neglected portion of the discourse that has grown too big to ignore is the relationship between metal and other religions. In particular, in the past two decades, metal has been gradually building in the Middle-East. Arguably the biggest band from that region right now is Orphaned Land, an Israeli band that promotes religious peace with its use of quotes from the Quran, Torah and the Bible as lyrics. No doubt much of what they express through their music can be interpreted as sociopolitical simply because religion is so deeply entwined with the politics of that particular geographical region, but they don't stop at advocating for peace between the Abrahamic religions. The smooth, seamless and beautiful blending of traditional Middle-Eastern and religious hymn-like melodies with undeniably metal instruments also signifies the possibility of peaceful coexistence between metal and religion.

The album cover for Orphaned Land's album "All Is One", depicting the crescent moon of Islam, the star of David and the cross superimposed on each other as one entity without it being clear which is "on top" - adding to their message.

The ancient pagan religions like Ásatrú also enjoy a reasonably large presence in metal, mostly due to the desire of bands to be unique or to stand apart from topical themes such as heaven, hell, God the Devil and all things springing from the Judeo-Christian roots. However, it is rare for pagan or non-Abrahamic religious references in metal to originate from songwriters who actually believe in the relevant deities or entities. In such cases, religion is inserted into the music as promoting a certain philosophy or attitude, such as the warlike culture of ancient Ásatrú or the serenity-seeking teachings of Buddha.

In the end, metal and religion usually tend to walk different avenues, and in different directions, but as demonstrated by some religious metal bands, it's not always a complete car wreck when they do meet.

When speaking of religion and metal, it's important not to lose sight of this very important fact...