Should Catholics Listen to Heavy Metal?

Comments · 1.1K

• FR

  @freddyj5845 · 11 months ago

  I’ll die a metal head. I love Gregorian and polyphony and metal. It’s music that helped me get through rough and dark times.

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• FJ

  @fj1975zds · 11 months ago

  Proudly Catholic, Croatian, and love my metal..... 🙏🇭🇷

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• TR

  @tradcathp.r.4342 · 11 months ago

  There are a whole scene of Christian Metal in ALL subgenres.

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• WE

  @wealththinkers · 11 months ago

  It depends on the lyrics.

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• TH

  @Theteacrusader1357 · 11 months ago

  Vivaldi was a metal head. You can’t convince me otherwise when his nickname was "The Red Priest" 🎻🔥

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• CF

  @cfban · 11 months ago

  Sabaton has a song on the Templars, on the Swiss Guard, on the Winged Hussars, and there will be one about St Joan of Arc in their upcoming album.<br><br>On the Spanish side of things, Tierra Santa has a few songs that positively depict the Crusades and the Reconquista.

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• NA

  @nathanieln.1732 · 11 months ago

  Church bells are a form of heavy metal...

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• RO

  @rogerioferreirademelo · 11 months ago

  See Sabaton. Their music is most of historical battles of Good vs Evil style

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• DI

  @diegoborges3716 · 11 months ago

  Honestly, I&apos;m still a huge heavy metal fan, I just shun the satanic stuff. But I know that this culture has it&apos;s problems. Sex, drug and the hedonistic life, that many bands sell as a lifestyle are a way to be lost.

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• AD

  @adamlampman3529 · 11 months ago (edited)

  I usually agree with Brian&apos;s well-considered takes, but I have to somewhat disagree with this one. I love Hildegard Von Bingen&apos;s music - I think it is absolutely beautiful. But it has no dissonances in it - no real tension. It can feel uplifting for a while and then it can start to all sound the same. My favourite piece of religious music of all time &nbsp;by Krzystof Penderecki, &quot;Song of Cheribum&quot; is full of ominous dissonances interspersed with spiralling, ascending melodies. More than any other piece I&apos;ve heard it conveys the mystery and terror of the divine. Many of its tonalities would have been condemned in the middle ages, but it activates every religious instinct I have and raises goosebumps every time I hear it. The emotions it raises in me are strong and profound.<br><br>I used to get frustrated with people who would use Philippians 4:8 to condemn any art that was difficult. I actually still do. If you take &quot;One&quot; by Metallica, it is achingly beautiful and deeply tragic, but speaks to the human experience in a powerful way. You could also point to Flannery O&apos;Connor&apos;s fiction as being macabre and grotesque (and some people have). But she is considered one of the most powerful Catholic writers because she spoke to life as it is in this fallen world (and also showed that encounters with grace are sometimes not pleasant!). <br><br>Part of what I love about Christianity is it&apos;s acknowledgment of darkness, its violence of the cross, its clear-eyed unsentimentally. I worry that a simplistic Philippians 4:8 approach may lead to boring and toothless Christian art. &nbsp;I&apos;m not saying that Brian is advocating for such a milquetoast expression, but I strongly disagree that noble feelings arise from just one type of aesthetic approach.

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• JO

  @JohnMac-pf6js · 11 months ago (edited)

  <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWI8CYExxOM&amp;t=597">9:57</a> I always thought the dark sound wasn’t necessarily a collapse-into or celebration-of darkness, but an <b>expression</b> of the wrestling with the realities of being alive in a fallen world.<br><br>I think of the line in the rosary - “to thee we cry poor banished children of eve, to thee we send up our sighs mourning and weeping in this valley of tears”.<br>There’s a real existential struggle in being alive, and faith isn’t always easy, sometimes we wrestle with it - I feel like metal captures and expresses the anguish and reality of being down here, in a fallen world. As a therapist once said to me “your faith can be big enough to include your doubt”.<br><br>That being said there’s definitely some bold blatant evil mixed in there too, and it can be difficult to separate the wheat from the chaffe. <br>But I’ve also wondered is it metals potential, that attracts demonic intrusion, infiltration, appropriation and contamination - in the same way that these forces target those with spiritual gifts more, not less.<br>Then again maybe I’m just trying to justify my enjoyment of metal, idk

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• AC

  @ActPono · 11 months ago (edited)

  There is REALLY good Christian metal/ hardcore punk out there: HolyName, Light Unseen, Those Who Fear, Cultist, Glae, Swinery, to name a small few. I was a big extreme metal and punk head my whole life, then I turned to Christ and joined the Catholic Church, and was worried I’d never be able to listen to the kinds of music I love. Went on a couple year long deep dive into underground heavy Christian music, I hope someone sees this post that was like me and can find some worship in these bands like I did

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