By Vishwa Shah, Youth contributor
It’s vile, sick, gory, and brutal. To an untrained ear, it’s just noise. Then again, music ahead of its time is generally misunderstood.
Death is a metal band, a pioneer of the death metal genre, and proof that music is more than a four by four rhythm with catchy lyrics and high production value. It’s art.
Heavy metal, better known as ‘that horrid noise young kids listen to these days’, is a musical genre that often worries parents. After years of teaching children to ‘never judge a book by its cover’ the irony is most parents make this fatal mistake themselves.
There are several reasons people listen to such extreme forms of music, myself included. The vocals are deep and guttural; the lyrics are dark, evil and wicked. The guitar work is fast and technical, and the drumming is physically straining and complex. But there is more to it than the desolate appearance.
Death metal isn’t noise rotting your child’s head—it’s a very complex form that is the musical equivalent of jazz, regarded as the most complicated form of music.
It is the complexity of the music that is of great interest: each guitar riff, the drumming, and the slapping of the bass. I don’t merely listen to the music; I understand it—the time signature, the notes, the polyrhythmic compositions, and the melodies (yes, they do exist if you give your ears time to adapt to the low sound).
The point of the lyrics isn’t to inspire satanic worship or to burn Jesus. It’s a lyrical theme. Why does Chris Martin sing about love? Why does Jay-Z sing about poverty or rags to riches? Why does Britney Spears sing about sex?
It’s about relevant themes. The brutal lyrics are meant to be vile. They’re intended to separate the entire world from loving the music purely on a superficial level.
Just like something difficult to understand, it separates the posers from those who truly appreciate it on an artistic level. Every form of music is different, and invokes different emotions and reactions. The deep vocals, low-tuned guitars and blasting drums all play a part in this catharsis.
As told by Aristotle, the purgation of emotions is a very important thing, especially in a world like ours that corrupts and rots as time tends to infinity.
Violent children will always be violent. A sociopath before listening to death metal or black metal or doom metal has as many chances of butchering his family as he does after listening to it.
Stated by child psychologists across the world, it’s the lack of an understanding by parents that causes children to act out. Not the fact that music ‘controls’ them. This music is an outlet, an acceptance of the fact that the world isn’t all chocolates and rainbows. There are times of anger, hatred, depression, and solitude. And the expression of these emotions rids us of them.
Music is over-interpreted as a direct connection to a person’s actions. This is a false claim. When someone hears “Toxic” by Britney Spears, you don’t see them turn into nymphomaniacs.
Music is an art. Don’t ruin it. Don’t censor it. Don’t cover your child’s ears as it plays, in the hopes that you are preserving his innocence or saving him from a violent life, because by sheltering him, you are giving rise to his upcoming rebellion. Children are rebellious, because believe it or not, like it or not, we do have a mind and opinion of our own. Instead of doubting our choices, have faith in the fact that you taught your child well. Don’t blame the music.
