Um, is there a Slayer album that ISN'T blasphemous?

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For the question in the title, no there isn’t.

As to the topic of evil themes in music, this is something I struggled with. I still do to an extent. I asked two different priests I know and respect what they thought and they both said it’s wrong to listen to such music. One said it a bit more forcefully than the other.

It is difficult because I do legitimately love heavy guitar music. But I’ve found when I stay away from the more evil themed stuff I feel better overall. Just me though.

If you like that kind of music, I would suggest checking out Neurosis, Swans, Crimson Moonlight, Pantokrator, the Melvins, Crowbar, Extol, Nomad Son, Trouble, Reverorum ib malacht, Nile, Veni Domine, Dream Theater. Alcest if you like shoegazey metal.
 
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I stay away from Slayer. Jesus on the cross on their album cover? “God Hates Us All?” “Christ Illusion”?

Run
 
Sadly, I prefer their candor and honesty to the insidious and subtle, yet equally sinister themes of today’s pop culture trends.
 
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I struggle with this too. I so love metal, hard rock and all the like. But most of it (the lyrics) is filth. Generally it’s tailored to the sexual themes but for me I am never listen to the lyrics because I couldn’t care less about the words… It’s the music I love. But I have stopped listening to stuff that is so outright against my faith… but it wasn’t easy, nor have I quit all music that has underlying tones of bad stuff.

I just find these “clean” bands are just not as good in my opinion.
 
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Do you really need help discerning this, or is this just a random topic?
 
DeniseNY said:
Do you really need help discerning this, or is this just a random topic?
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It is not a random topic, DeniseNY. I’d be interested in hearing at least relatively hard-edged music, but I don’t want to go to Hell after I die.
 
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Have you been to metal-archives.com? They have every band you can think of. They list lyrical topics by band, they usually include the lyrics. Very good resource.
 
I think if you have to ask, you probably shouldn’t listen to it. Or better yet, ask your pastor.
 
Well God bless you for that. Here’s a few harder edged songs you should look up. I think you’ll dig them.

To Crawl Under One’s Skin by Neurosis
No Words No Thoughts by Swans
The Bit by the Melvins
The Mercy Seat by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

None of these band are ‘Christian’ bands. And none of them are satanic. Here’s one I’ll link to for you. It’s by a band that call themselves Roman Catholic Black Metal.

 
Maxirad said:
I’d be interested in hearing at least relatively hard-edged music, but I don’t want to go to Hell after I die.
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I doubt you’d go to hell over listening to Slayer. It may not be the best thing to listen to for spiritual development, but I doubt it’s a grave matter.

But I guess if you want some metal bands that are less objectionable, you do have Dream Theater, Opeth, Carach Angren, Kamelot, Metallica, Megadeth, Iron Maiden, Helloween, Blind Guardian, Avantasia, Sabaton, Darkspace, Antestor, Fen, Vials of Wrath, Theocracy, Amon Amarth, Children of Bodom, Slipknot, etc. Sure, you might find questionable songs (and even albums) across those bands, but their image isn’t wrapped up in anything a Catholic might find objectionable.
 
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Remember, you are what you consume.
If you consume negative media eventually your mind will conform to the negativity.
If you consume positive media your mind will conform to the positivity.

If you feel like said media is bad for your mental and spiritual health, it probably is.
 
Well, I was never a fan of Slayer but used to listen to a lot of Classic Rock, Alternative, Grunge, Rap and Hip Hop. Can’t listen to it anymore. Can’t dance anymore.

Slayer and Black Sabbath are Blatant about what they believe and there is no subtlety to what they write. The Beatles are geniuses but there stuff is far more evil in a subtle way than Black Sabbath and Slayer. Listen to Helier Skelter and In My Life for example, far more evil. Same with the Doors, Eagles, and Rolling Stones among others.

Instead, now I listen to Jazz and Classical. I’m learning to play piano and now greatly appreciate the music. Since I will never dance again I’m planning on learning drums.

Again, when it comes to these bands that are genius I feel like a hypocrite listening to them. I’m a Catholic devout and in good standing, but I can’t consume music from someone who although a genius is facing damnation. Does that make sense? Feel the ramifications, their soul by their life choices is at risk of hell. All I can do is turn away from them and out of respect for them not listen to their music. I can’t be a hypocrite aspire for Heaven and consume their music knowing I left them behind.
 
No thanks. I like music that is welcoming and draws me into it. This is like much rap that is overtly aggressive and hostile. There is nothing reedeming or uplifting about it. Also at my age I think it would be ridiculous to still listen to this type of music. But that’s only me. Everyone is different. I can’t answer the thread question because I was too turned off by the music to pay any attention to the lyrics.
 
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Elias said:
If you consume negative media eventually your mind will conform to the negativity.
If you consume positive media your mind will conform to the positivity.

If you feel like said media is bad for your mental and spiritual health, it probably is.
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Bear in mind that there’s a pretty long history in Catholic art of using morbid imagery and telling haunting tales, and this goes all the way back to Scripture. There’s clearly nothing inherently wrong with such content, and most people who listen to metal are more than capable of processing it healthily.

The problem is that at least since the “Satanic panic”, there’s been so much written about how “Satanic” metal is that Christians who may have never had a problem and are more than capable of processing it may have doubts. To quote Joseph Goebbels: “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.”

Personally, I’ve found a much better test is that if the song starts clearly leading you astray, generating ill-will towards the sacred, distracting from times of prayer, etc., then it might be best to cut it off. Most cases, though, I’d say recognize that you might just be internalizing the lies that are often told of the genre and many bands in it.

But at the end of the day, plenty of Christians have been able to listen to Slayer and similar bands for years without it leading them astray. Heck, Tom Araya has had to sing that stuff for years, and he’s remained a practicing Catholic last I heard.
RepetantCatholic said:
Slayer and Black Sabbath are Blatant about what they believe
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Tom Araya (Slayer) is Catholic, has stated multiple times that Slayer isn’t Satanic, and said that the imagery was always meant to scare people and separate themselves from other metal subcultures of the time. It’s never been a matter of Satanic belief. The same would go for other “Satanic” bands like Judas Priest, Black Sabbath, and (most laughably) Iron Maiden.

In fact, I’d wager that most metal bands that have such an image don’t actually believe in any of it. There are some exceptions, but unless the band is open about trying to be blasphemous (e.g. Ghost) or Satanic (e.g. Watain), it’s always best to default to it being at most an act. When you consider that a lot of metal lyrics are based on fantasy (including dark fantasy and horror) or shining a light on darker aspects of humanity, it recontextualizes a lot.
 
I got into death/black metal when I was an adolescent back in the early/mid 90s and I listened to it for a lot of years. In all honesty most of it isn’t very good, but in fairness some of those bands have some outstanding musicians. Still, don’t waste your time with stuff like Slayer (really boring band, maybe 2 albums worth of good material over their career) and most death/black metal. Classic metal is far and away superior to all of it. This is a really good insight into the mentality behind most of it:

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That music is trash.

I was a connoisseur of punk and metal, it’s hard to give it up but the right thing to do.

As for picking acceptable songs or albums, whether that’s Neurosis, Slayer, or whatever, here’s how I look at it - I’m sure there are writings of Anton LaVey that are good and make sense, but I’m not buying collections of his essays for the excerpts that aren’t contrary to what the Church teaches. Neurosis are promoting paganism and anarchism, and Slayer is promoting blasphemy.
 
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my hubby loves metal and he stays away from Slayer. says they are satanic.
 
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