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Text File | 1990-11-29 | 10.8 KB | 213 lines

BLKBANDS -1- BANDS Anthrax Danzing DIO Exodus Grim Reaper Helloween Eternal Death Iron Maiden King Diamond Megadeath Metal Church Metallica Slayer MISCELLANEOUS BANDS Celtc Frost Sam Hain Sodom Possessed Satan Although the above list is somewhat numerous, it is by no means exhaustive. The background for each of the above bands is listed below. ANTHRAX: Anthrax named itself after a deadly disease, admitting they don't like things that are "safe and pretty." Youngsters yearning for profanity listen to songs like, "I'M THE MAN." During concerts, lead singer Joey Bellandonna shouts obscenities to the audience, who scream them back. On their album, "STATE of EUPHORIA", Anthrax also seems to metaphorically mandate vengeful murder in a spiteful song called, "MISERY LOVES COMPANY," which ends with the line "I'LL KILL YOU". DANZING: Glenn Danzing, formerly with the Misfits, is a heavy metal hero of the eighties. He collects Japanese monster toys and sings about Satan. The cover of his latest LP, entitled, "DANZING", depicts a goat's skull, the symbol of satanic allegiance. Grisly songs on the album applaud a god of deceit and darkness. The lyrics to, "TWIST OF CAIN" relate how Satan fathered Cain, enabling him to commit the first murder. In another song,"EVIL THING," Danzing describes how anger keeps him alive in his private hell as a demon-man. During a recent MTV interview, Glenn Danzing commented that it was acceptable because it represents human nature. Man, he said, should acknowledge his good and evil aspects and not be upset at his failures. Danzing's own ethical dichotomy is apparent in such songs as "AM I DEMON," in which he askes, "AM I BEAST OR HUMAN?" DIO: Ronnie James Dio claims to have originated the so-called two-fingered salute so popular at rock concerts. His imagry ratifies his claim. The cover of his album "DREAM EVIL" depicts a child asleep on a bed. Satan peers through a window above her, flashing the satanic salute. From under the bed crawl creepy slithering snakes. In "ALL THE FOOLS SAILED AWAY", he sings, "WE ARE DAMNED...WE ARE CAUGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE LION AND THE LAMB...WE TEACH YOU TO SIN." Dio's album "HOLY DIVER" depicts a helpless, drowning minister, overcome by a horned and cloven- footed devil. BLKBANDS -2- EXODUS: Their album "FABULOUS DISASTER" is named after film character Malcolm McLaren's assessment of the Sex Pistol's Sid Vicious in the movie "Sid and Nancy". Vocalist Steve Souza says FABULOUS DISASTER intends to emphasize rawness and violence, epitomized by songs such as "BONDED by BLOOD," and, "PLEASURES of the FLESH". FABULOUS DISASTER includes an ode to a bloody three- day New Mexico prison riot in 1980. Souza calls "OPEN SEASON" a song about a psychopathic stalker who butchers a baby-faced foe, "friendly, violent fun." Exodus accommodates fans who crave ferocity and a headbanging beat with songs like "THE TOXIC WALTZ". The song advocates slam dance brutality, which Exodus enthusiasts take to heart. Vocalist Steve Souza says one of his most memorable Exodus gigs was in Tampa, Florida when stage-diving fanaticism left one fan with a broken leg. The lyrics of Exodus celebrate relentless rage in such songs as "CAJUN HELL", which tells the story of murderous slaughter in the South. The embittered Exodus offers for social disintegration is to pitch people in the slam dance pit and slash each other with "Verbal Razor Blades", the title to another Exodus song. HELLOWEEN: They spurn authority and recommend rebellion. Their songs inform fans there're stuck in a hopeless age of desperation. Headbanging Helloween's album, "KEEPER of the SEVEN KEYS, Part II", describes one man's destruction of the devil through divination and his god-like power. Helloween depicts the devil accurately as possessing the keys to fear, greed, disease, and death. Helloween also advocates libidious behavior in a song about a perverted professor named "DR. SATAN", who clones his well- formed assistant and has a hedonistic hay day. Blatant blasphemy marks a song called "SAVE US." The lyrics advocate the New Age creed that all forms of life are manifestations of spirit. IRON MAIDEN: Iron Maiden's favorite subjects to sing about are sorcery and savagery. Their fascination with the occult is evident on albums like "POWER SLAVE", which delves in Egyptian mysticism and magic. On their album, "SEVENTH SON OF THE SEVENTH SON", lead singer and lyricist Bruce Dickinson belts out songs about demons and creatures of insanity. The album cover depicts Eddie, the goulish Iron Maiden mascot symbolizing death, hovering above a gloomy civilization. In his hand he holds a ripped-out heart, which is also chained to his rib cage. On the other side of the LP, Eddie writes in a journal by the light of monstrous candles with a crystal ball before him. Iron Maiden celebrates the number seven which astrologists credit as the number of the moon, in the SEVENTH SON OF A SEVENTH SON". In a song called, "THE CLAIRVOYANT", Dickinson relates the struggle between God and the devil for a telepathic child's soul. The boy falls in love with the devil's daughter and eventually kills himself in the song, "ONLY THE GOOD DIE YOUNG". Their first claim to fame was the album, "NUMBER OF THE BEAST", which featured a song dedicated tot he Antichrist. BLKBANDS -3- MEGADETH: In 1983, after being expelled from Metallica for anti- social behavior, Dave Mustaine took command of his own group. The son of Jehovah's Witness mother, Mustaine vocally attacks Tipper Gore and the Parent's Music Resource Center (P.M.R.C.), an organization Gore founded to censor raunchy rock lyrics. In a song called, "HOOKED in MOUTH", Mustaine growls about Gore's actions and accuses her of infringing on his constitutional right to freedom of speech. Anyone who has heard his songs may question what right he has to offend the public. In his remake of the Sex Pistol's song, "ANARCHY in the UK", Mustaine sings, "I am an Anti- Christ, and I am AntiChrist." Megadeth cranks out songs about spilling blood and stomping guts out with venomous anger. Megadeth's album, "SO FAR, SO GOOD...SO WHAT", depicts a shell-studded, combat-clad soldier whose melted face leers menacingly from beneath a crude helmet. Admist the ruins of a nuclear holocaust, he stands poised with a powerful weapon, ready to blast all living things. (The name Megadeth refers to a hypothetical body count of one million deaths from a nuclear war.) Though Mustaine and band members claim to inform listeners on important issues and deny allegiance to Satan, their first album was entitled, "KILLING IS MY BUSINESS...AND BUSINESS IS GOOD." "BLACK FRIDAY", a song from their album, "PEACE SELLS...BUT WHOSE BUYING", exalts sadistic slaughter. Lyrics declare, "I LURK IN THE ALLEYS, WAIT FOR THE KILL. I HAVE NO REMORSE FOR THE BLOOD THAT I SPILL." "THE CONJURING", also from that album, seemingly simulates a satanic ceremony. The singer says, "I AM THE DEVIL'S ADVOCATE" and concludes "I'VE GOT YOUR SOUL." Another album, Megadeth muses over the fate of a young witch buried alive by her father in a song called "MARY JANE." Despite such occult collusion, Mustaine says, "We're aware of the subject we write about--witchcraft, satanic sacrifices, and the like, but we are not condoning them." METAL CHURCH: The Metal Church song, "TON OF BRICKS" describes someone ripping and kicking until "blood begins to flow." Another tune on the album simply says, "I LIVE TO EAT YOUR BONES." METALLICA: They play songs about "CREEPING DEATH as concert fans chant, "DIE! DIE! DIE!" Clad in blue jeans, jeering members of Metallica bellow lyrics lambasting war, drugs, and authority. James Hetfield, Metallica's lead singer and lyricist, was heavily influenced as a teenager by Black Sabbath. Now his band bewitches a new heavy metal generation of kids for whom Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath are outdated. Hetfield, the son of strict Christian Scientists, wrote, "DYER"S EVE", a dismal song about rage directed at parents. Spiteful lyrics accuse his mother and father of putting him through hell with their parenting. These harvesters of heavy metal sorrow foster defiance among their growing ranks of raunch-relishing, headbanger listeners. Metallica's popular first LP, not-so,subtly titled, "KILL' EM ALL", sold 350,000 copies. Although they profess no interest in satanism, Metallica explored the works of occult writer H.P. BLKBANDS -4- Lovecraft while composing "THE THING THAT SHOULD NOT BE", a song that tells of an immortal sanity-stealing stalker of the shadows. Though some Metallica songs boarder on social commentary ("MASTER OF PUPPETS", "DISPOSABLE HEROES", "LEPER MESSIAH"), most of their tunes celebrate suicide, hatred, and hopelessness. In many Metallica songs, death is the only escape in a world of "blackened *banality". Songs like "FADE TO BLACK" from their "RIDE THE LIGHTNING" album, and "ONE" from the album, "JUSTICE FOR ALL" laud death as a welcome friend in a world of frustration, pain and failure. SLAYER: This group sings about *necrophilia and lyrically declares, "PRAISE SATAN" - "WELCOME TO HELL" - "HELL AWAITS" "CRUCIFY THE SO-CALLED LORD, JESUS KNOWS YOUR SOUL CANNOT BE SAVED". In their song, "BLACK MAGIC", they sing, "CAPTIVE OF A FORCE OF SATAN'S MIGHT-DEATH TAKES MY HAND AND CAPTURES MY SOUL." In the song, "EVIL HAS NO BOUNDARIES", they expose who their master is, "SATAN IS OUR MASTER IN EVIL MAYHEM GUIDES US WITH EVERY FIRST STEP." In their song, "SPILL THE BLOOD", they song, "SPILL YOUR BLOOD, LET IT RUN ON TO ME. TAKE MY HAND AND LET YOUR LIFE GO...YOU'VE SPILT THE BLOOD. I HAVE YOUR SOUL." Their song, "ALTER OF SACRIFICE" describes the human sacrifice of a virgin with lyrics like, "SATAN'S SLAUGHTER, CEREMONIAL DEATH. ANSWER HIS EVERY COMMAND. ENTER INTO THE REALM OF SATAN...LEARN THE SACRED WORDS OF 'HAIL SATAN'". Their song, "ANGEL OF DEATH", praises the Auschwitch butcher, Joseph Mengle with the word, "SADIST SURGEON OF DEMISE, SADIST OF THE NOBLIST BLOOD...MONARCH TO THE KINGDOM OF THE DEAD." In "NECROPHILIAC", the lyrics go, "I FEEL THE URGE, THE GROWING NEED TO F*%$# THIS SINFUL CORPSE. MY TASK COMPLETE, THE BITCH'S SOUL LIES RAPED IN DEMON LUST." *Banality - without flavor - tasteless- dull - lifeless *Necrophilia - abnormal fascination with the dead - erotic attraction to corpses.