Metal as religion

Apparently, Saxon vocalist Biff and Metal Hammer are starting a campaign for people to list 'heavy metal' as their religion in the next census. This should be the sort of pank that appeals to me but I have to admit that it leaves me cold. The reason is probably that it is a bit too close to Manowar-style ultra-serious metal-as-sacrament bollocks for my liking. I'd be  happy if everyone put metal down on the census as a prank but I fear that some would do so at least semi-seriously. Why shouldn't metal be a serious religion? Well, the concept of religion makes me squirm - as a Jew I resist the concept as a Christian invention that articifically corralls a whole breadth of activities into a God-shaped box. I love Judaism but I hate the religion term. I love metal and I don't like it being seen as religious, even if not entirely seriously...

Comments

[Picard]

To quote the Joker: "Not sure if serious". Metal Hammer had created a Facebook group which already has 4000 members and the Guardian had a post about this story on their blog.
If this "campaign" is a prank, it won't wait long before getting more serious.
After all, there's already a Church of John Coltrane...

On the other hand, maybe this campaign could force people to examine their relation to the whole concept of religion?

[James]

Did you see Howard Jacobsen on the Bible (C4, Sunday)? He bent over backwards to find a reading of the creation story that would save it from both science and religion. What he ended up with was a sort of postmodern sleight of hand, with metaphor as just another variety of truth and 'God' as some sort of hollowed-out, Romantic projection of the human imagination. He seemed quite pleased with it, though.

I saw this metal-as-religion thing in the Guardian. If it's a joke, then it's not a very witty one; if it's even semi-serious, then it's a category error, although, as you say, that won't stop lots of people from taking it seriously. Where does it leave black metallers, I wonder? Does Satanism become a sect of Metallism?!

[Keith Kahn-Harris]

I didn't see the Jacobson programme but I read an interview with him in the Jewish Chronicle that explained his point of view. Sorry to dissapoint you but I quite liked what he has to say! That's pretty much how I see Judaism - I don't care whether there is a God or not, but I find religion to be a sometimes useful discipline....

[James]

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that the Bible has to be either religion or (bad) science: it's neither; it's mythic literature. What I found interesting was the way in which Jacobson was able to argue that the creation story was the product of a highly specific historical situation, and then completely forget this insight when it came time for him to craft his own epiphany. Basically, his conclusion was: the creation story is 'true' (for him) because it says that our lives are a gift, that we are made from the 'pure joy of an artist', and this makes him feel good. Of course it makes him feel good. What else would a bourgeois artist living in a post-Romantic age want to think but that 'God' is a bit like the artist imagination, making everything meaningful, even in the midst of pain, etc, etc...?

The beauty of Judaism, of course, is that you can choose to see yourself as a 'cultural' Jew, keep all the warming communitarian stuff, and put the God thing to one side!

[Keith Kahn-Harris]

Smart point: he's as historically bound as the bible is. Jacobson often makes sensible points and then undermines himself with obnoxious polemic.