Can it JUST be about the music? And not all this “religion” bullshit? Does anyone actually give a flying fuck about making metal a religion? No.
We as the metal community are just that, a community. Not a religion, cult or sect or whatever. We all like the same music, and all get along fine. This is not the basis for a religion..

Duh!

Can’t remember who said it, but I can’t claim it for myself:
“If Satan up to meet half of the bands claiming to be satanists, they’d shit themselves”

Of course most of it is just fantasy! Even Kerry King has gone on record saying he doesn’t believe half the things he writes about (Angel of Death isn’t in praise of the Nazi’s, it’s just about them)

@Jingee

Ditto!

I can understand your point, but i will be honest; I support the idea of forming a Religion based on the ideals which the Heavy Metal community has at its foundations.
I would hate to see the Entire community labelled the same if a religion is formed and as such I believe it would be imperitive that we have as much of the media on our side as possible; So that those who are opposed to the idea of a heavy metal religion will not be labelled the same. Metal was formed on the basis of freedom and defiance of the typical, and if we are to continue this then we must take steps forward to make metal be seen as more then just music, to make people realise how strongly some of us believe in the ideals apon which metal was founded. Yet again; I would hate to see the Heavy Metal community divided by different extremes of “belief”

I agree with Jingee…what the hell happen Metal just being metal to ones wanting it to be an organized religeon. Seriously get a life

@ Jingee

And that’s the problem with metallers today. Thinking it’s just music. You need to listen a bit harder.

I thought “After Forever” by Sabbath was actually a saracstic savaging of the god squad… meh, it’s the Grauniad, why care?

I really find it hard to take the telegraph article seriouslybecause of the plainly rubbish research and the lazy stereotyping.
First, Black Sabbath didn’t put the inverted cross on the album sleeve, it was the record label executives. The band didn’t see it until after all after the first pressing.
Secondly; “Varg Vikernes, aka Burzum” – Fail. Every emo scene kid and his dog knows that is the name of the band, not the man.

Krasherr is right. The messages coming from the lyrics of Machine f Head and Lamb of God alone means you can’t sit on the fence and say its just about the music. They are screaming for everyone.

Agreed, i’m not exactly suggesting an uprising or anything that extreme haha, but we can no longer think of metal as just being about the metal.
Look around your local town, village or city and you will see just how different we are from everyone else, you can instantly pick out a metal head from a crowd and to this day there are still those that make fun of us and condemn us as a whole because we are not the same as them. While they are picking out handbags for the 15th time this week we are out there trying to change things for the better; whether we realise it or not.
I know a lot of you are probably wondering what the hell i’m talking about now but it doesn’t really matter.
I will simply conclude with this, We cannot remain as we are, we have to take steps forward. As it stands Heavy Metal music is being banned in some areas of the world and it is legal because metal is ONLY music. I don’t knnow if it was for one year only but glastonbury festival banned heavy metal and hard rock bands from performing, a state in Malaysia has banned black metal and associated genres of music and i seem to remember there even being talks of banning heavy metal in a music hall in or near Disneyland Paris (don’t know if it went ahead or not). Enough is enough! If heavy metal became a religion then this sort of thing would be less likely to happpen.

I’m an athiest who likes rock and heavy metal. There’s nothing religious about the music I listen to. I don’t see Knebworth or Donington as literal holy ground, I don’t see Dio as God, I don’t see metal as the one true light.

I have the upmost respect for the music and the majority of the people involved, but a religion? Fuck off.

i’m opposed to organised religion in any form, therefore making metal a ‘religion’ is pointless to me. yes its more than music, it defines much of my lifestyle, but i refuse to use the word ‘religion’ to describe it. believe what u want to believe! my philosophy has always been live life how u want as long as u can deal with the consequences. why must we label and define everything?

Truth be told, if metal has caused many songs to be given birth which are about standing up, being different and in some cases having metal as a faith then how can we not. Metal will never been taken seriously so long as it is just music. Can’t remember where I heard it but there was some saying me and my mate used to say: “It is better to have a leader who acts and never speaks, then one who speaks and never acts”

Metal a religion?

Let’s not lower ourselves to that level please.

anyone who thinks that metal should become a religion is a fucking idiot in my eyes.

if something like this were to happen i would have to distance myself as far as i could from the metal community.

im very thankful to my parents for not bringing religion into my life when i was born when almost all of my family are catholic. its given me a choice that i wouldnt really of otherwise had.

i dont want something like this essentially forced on me. im my own person and i shouldnt have to abide by any set of rules decided by someone who doesnt give a fuck about me.

another thing that i think is pathetic about this is how alot of people seem to be saying things along the lines of ‘you can instantly pick out a metal head from a crowd and to this day there are still those that make fun of us and condemn us ‘ (Alteous).

first of all you cant. if you saw me walking around you wouldnt know because i dress and look how i want, not how someone tells me i should (people are always surprised when i tell them what i listen to). second of all the metal community is just as guilty of making fun of other groups as they are, we arent special (i heard someone at bloodstock seriously mocking someone for wearing a white shirt… i actually couldnt believe how big of a fucking idiot this person was).

regarding the last point theres something i learned a while back and that is that the assholes of our societies are the ones that shout the loudest. this essentially gives people the illusion that any group that isnt their own has a higher concentration of these people when really its the same. ive had what i see as the benefit of being part of multiple groups and cultures throughout my life and i know that the deeper you are into it the more good people you will meet. in case what i said didnt make sense the point im trying to make is…

the reason that you see entire groups as the ones who persecute you is because the assholes are the only ones you will tend to have interaction with because they speak the loudest, and they are always a minority.

i think this religion thing is also a bad idea because this will just segregate us further from society. i dont think we should be seeking to be accepted by society as such, we just need them to understand, if this happens then acceptance shouldnt be too far behind.

lol this feels like its going on too long but i have something else i want to say.

making metal into a religion is just going to split us apart further, we already have this stupid thing with different genres of metal splitting us apart, this is in fact the last thing we need if we are to stay united.

well that was bit longer then i intended it to be but at least i got it out

On one hand, metal being a religon may show people that the metal community arent a bunch of hairy, shouting drunks but we’re people that have ideals, morals and a concept of brotherhood amoungst our selfs. But on the other hand, if metal were a reglion, there probably would be alot of thou shalt this and thou shall not that and folks may see it as a ku klux clan or Westboro Baptist church sort of cult. Im on the fence in this argument.