Satanic music or not (Opeth) - boundaries of JW listening material

by Frantic 19 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Frantic

  As you may or may not know, some JW elders may resent some of their music thier children may listen to.

  Put simply, a 'death growl' is often viewed as a warped version of Satan. The band Opeth use such Death grow, however, are not Satanic, with one reference to 'Demon of the Fall' (one of their songs). They also combine death vocals with beautiful vocals, possibly the best in the business, alongside Maynard James Kennan (A Perfect Circle).

  Here is the problem, should JW be able to listen to death growls and not be influenced by satan, just because it sounds evil?. Furthermore, most of you would be familiar with M Manson and his satanic stunts. Jeordie white (bassist for Manson) now plays in A perfect Circle, and as a result of this, my friend (JW) has stopped listening to A Perfect Circle.

  I could go on forever describing, but it would help if anyone is familiar with the music I am talking about, thus saving a lot of time. Please discuss, your musical boundaries. What should be allowed/disallowed. Is Opeth, A Perfect Circle have satanic qualities like my friend claims?
• 

  Aztec

  Opeth, is a very good band! If you like them you may like System of a Down. I don't think the deep growls are at all Satanic sounding although not all bands that try it sound very good. I'm not a big fan of Slipknot although, they are kind of funny. The JW's just try to make anything that sounds dark out to be Satanic but then, they did the same damn thing with Smurfs. It's all about control in my opinion.

  ~Aztec
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  Frantic

  I just sold my System of a Down cds. I was in to them in 1997/8, then everyone hopped on the chop suey bandwagon. Got sick of them after that. Not a huge fan of nu-metal, although Slipknots song "Gently" is probably the best nu-metal song going around along with Mudvaynes "World so Cold"
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  Sassy

  I remember when some elder brought over this tape we had to listen to that talked about all the back masking of Satan worship. We threw out a ton of good music.. no more Kansas, FleetwoodMac, Eagles, Led Zepplin, Rolling Stones.. I loved Stevie Nicks and was sick to throw out either her stuff or Fleetwoods, but because they were pushing it on the witchcraft issue that she supposedly practiced I was told they all had to go..

  I've replaced in recent yrs some of the music thrown out back then.

  (I remember the thing about the smurfs back then too.. out went the Hardies Soda glasses in the cupboard with the Smurfs on them with the record albums)

  I also remember one year my mom got freaked out about (get this... -->) an Osmond album I had called The Plan. They had some of their Mormon beliefs in a few songs on the album. One night my brother had this reel to reel tape player (yes I know I am aging myself) that my bother had taped the sound from my album on. After one of our bible studies, my brother went to play back the tape but something weird happened and it played everything backwards so at first we didn't know what it was. you could tell it was music but not understand any of the words. But I recognized the voices and said it was the Osmonds. My mom freaked out when she looked at it and threw the album (record (out of the cover) into our field saying there were demons with it. Then she had the elders come over the next day. I wasn't allowed to buy Osmond albums for close to a year after that. I know it is pretty funny.. imaging the sqeaky clean Osmonds as demonic record creators but my mom was freaked and the elders didn't think I should have that album any way because of the Mormon beliefs on it.
• 

  Nosferatu

  There was a Watchtower magazine that mentioned some of the music that Christians shouldn't listen to (forgive me, I don't have my WT cd rom on me). One of the bands mentioned was Poison. In my opinion, Poison is as tame as the Beatles. They made reference to the song "Flesh & Blood", but obviously didn't listen to the lyrics,

  "Flesh & Blood, Sacrifice, Melts the heart like fire & ice"

  As for Opeth, I've never heard of them, but I am a fan of Marilyn Manson. He's a little twisted, but that just makes him interesting. As far as JW boundaries go, I don't really have a comment on that one because JWs are f***ed in the head from all the brainwashing. Personally, I don't think there should be any boundaries set.
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  Frantic

  Thankyou for your replies and keep em coming. Nosferatu I would like to get my hands on that issue of Watchtower you speak off. SNS, I found your story hilarious, especially when you said

  My mom freaked out when she looked at it and threw the album (record (out of the cover) into our field saying there were demons with it.

  What Mormon beliefs were contained in their lyrics?
  
  To continue my story, Opeth have an Album called My Arms Your Hearse, and on that album is a track called "Demon of the Fall". My JW friend bought all the albums, and in turn, was given his dose of demons when he dreamed later that night - someone came into his room and repeated "Hate Jehovah Hate Jehovah".
  When he woke up that morning he went into the computer room with the cd My Arms Your Hearse. He CLAIMS, the cd voluntarily moved accross his computer table and shot against the wall. This freaked him out. He then burnt a copy of the cd, erasing the "Demon of the Fall" track, then going to lengths of ripping out the lyrics contained in the booklet.
  Is he imagining this? Or does he want this to happen, just as an excuse to get rid of it?
• 

  Jourles

  Opeth? Now you're talkin! I went to their show a couple months ago. Porcupine Tree opened for them.(non-death metal band) Mikael Åkerfeldt is definitely a gifted vocalist. Being able to go from the 'death' growl to a purely melodic voice in a matter of a second is quite unreal. Some of my fav's are Death Whispered a Lullaby, Deliverance, and Master's Apprentices, to name a few. Quite a few of their songs tend to be long(over 10 minutes easily), but with ones such as Deliverance, it just keeps me drawn in all the way through it. Mikael changes his voice constantly and that is what makes their sound so unique. Their old stuff is a little too harsh for me as the growl is ever more present. If Mikael would use his 'soft' vocals in all of their future albums, I have a feeling that their music would become a little more accepted by the mainstream hard rock crowd. And no, I haven't found any satanic homages yet in their albums...

  Here are a couple of my favorites that you can download and listen to: (both are good examples of where this band is heading)

  1. Death Whispered a Lullaby (7.99MB, 192k) You'll listen to this and think, "This is a death metal band?!? No way!"

  2. Deliverance (18.6MB 192k) Nice mix of death growls and soft vocals with a great track.

  Now if we could just get them and Type O Negative to tour together...
• 

  shamus

  No,

  You like Marylin Manson? When you go see him next time, give him a big hug for me... he sure tries to be scary, doesn't he? Oh, also tell him that he doesn't scare me one bit. I find him comical.

  Remember when "Beautiful People" first came out? All the clubs were playing it... LOL! Oh, he is soooo evil, isn't he? Yep, I'd give him a big hug, and tell him he doesn't scare me.
• 

  Jourles

  Oh, I forgot to mention - I am still a witness, listen to Opeth regularly, and have never had a demon visit me, ever.
• 

  Frantic

  Hey Jourles,
  
  Those tracks you recommended are very good tracks. I tend to agree Deliverance and Damnation are better albums when comapared to their earlier material. Im quite an Opeth fan, and have doubles of all the albums because my JW sold them to me (demon influences). Hailing from Australia, I seen Opeth in April earlier this year, and unfortunately, they have postponed their Damnation tour to Late March as it is not economically viable.
  
  At the moment, my favourite track is Face of Melinda (usually the Damnation setlist closer). I got into Opeth through the release of Blackwater Park, as did the majority of most Opeth Fans. Get this! My friend got Rid of Deliverance because of the front cover (in the mirror a disturbing face). Master's Apprentice is the best track of the album, however, the track Deliverance (near the end) includes the most oustanding part on any of their albums. Martin Lopez great drumming on Deliverance, wouldnt you agree?

  Ive been meaning to get my hands on "In absentia" for a while now but record stores dont have it. Thats good you listen to Opeth, and dont think of Satan, you're the first. My friend who threw out Deliverance still has Damnation, Blackwater Park and Morningrise.