Music

[TristanCross]

Hello,

I’m a big fan of heavy metal. I play guitar, and that’s the music of my choice.

My questions: Is heavy metal bad? Is secular music bad? Am I allowed to listen to secular music or use heavy metal as my genre of worship?

Also, I listen to nonCatholic Don Francisco. Should I not?

Thank you.

 

[excelsus]

It’s okay as long as it’s not anti-Christian, I think. You can listen to whomever you want, following the same previous rule.

However, I don’t understand why you would want to use secular music for worship; I don’t know of any secular Gregorian chant (lol shameless traditionalist plug)

 

[Luke65]

“use heavy metal as my genre of worship”

Exsqueeze me? Do you mean writing (or playing) heavy metal songs that glorify God? Well, that’s good. But heavy metal at Mass would be a different story! I’ll assume you mean the former. If you’re a young guy you might want to check out an older band called Triumph. They had songs like “Fight the Good Fight” (on Allied Forces), and Rik Emmett is a great guitarist/singer/songwriter. I don’t know about Don Francisco - except that with a name like that he should be Catholic! Let’s get him back!

 

[dashso40]

Heavy metal is only bad if it makes you do bad things…If it makes you live the stereotypical lifestyle of a rocker, like drinking and drugs and sleeping around, than it’s bad…if the lyrics of a particular song glorify the devil or something evil, than it’s bad…but if you just like listening to “decent” heavy metal, that’s fine…there are some hard rock christian bands, try those…I wish I could tell you some names, but I don’t listen to hard rock or heavy metal…

 

[Bluegoat]

Popular music has two components, usually, the lyrics and the actual music.

It’s pretty easy to see if the lyrics are in line with your beliefs.

But music also has meaning. It varies somewhat in different musical traditions, but it is there. Metal is a sub-genre of rock music, a western form. What does that form mean? Where did it come from, and has the meaning changed substantially since then? Why does it sound the way it does and what is that saying?

People seem to forget that music is not just pretty sounds - or loud sounds. Anyway, those are the questions I would ask myself.

As for the other question - anything you do should be done to the greater glory of God, as a form of worship. Of course that does’t mean that is the only form of worship you need. I don’t think etal would be appropriate for the mass, for many reasons.

 

[firemadeflesh]

Antestor is one of the greatest Christian Metal bands out there. Everything they have created is amazing, same with Extol. It is good to know there are other metal heads out there on these threads.