Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past. (NIV)
Everything is breaking,
No mistaking,
It’s all changing,
Tear it down,
Watch it all start burningAll that’s done is done just
Let it lieIt’s a revelation,
Celebration,
Graduation,
Times collide,
Watch the world awakenAll the past regrets from days gone by,
Let it go,
Let it die
I used to be a huge Metallica fan. (Doesn’t Kirk have lovely hair? I used to have hair like that.)
Over the summer of 1986/87 I played Ride the Lightning and Master of Puppets back-to-back, non-stop.
I wore out the vinyl.
I cried when Metallica’s bass player Cliff Burton died in a bus accident in September 1986.
But Burton’s death was nothing compared to the tragedy that Metallica were to bring upon themselves five years later, in 1991.
Metallica were the Gods of thrash metal. They defined the genre. And they used to sing about wholesome things like mass murder (Kill ‘Em All, 1983), dying in the electric chair (Ride the Lightning, 1984), cocaine addiction (Master of Puppets, 1986) and governmental corruption (… And Justice for All, 1988).
But then … they sold out. Big time.
The second definition of selling out refers to putting aside musical quality or original intentions in favor of commercial success, where a distinction is made for those who achieve success without changing their original sound. The difference between the two is often subjective. Whilst artists may change their musical direction for commercial reasons, such as pressure from major labels who require songs to appeal to mass markets a change in sound may also be part of a natural progression of creative maturity.
An example of an artist being accused of selling out is the band Metallica, whose 1991 eponymous album has been considered as the turning point in the band’s musical direction, and have been called the “poster boys for musical un-integrity” after the band’s attempt to sue fans downloading their music through Napster. The album, known as The Black Album, saw critics and Bob Rock, the album’s producer, acknowledge that there was a move away from the band’s previous sound. Rock claimed that the change stemmed from the band’s desire to “make the leap to the big, big leagues”, whilst some fans blamed Rock himself, going as far to eventually create an internet petition demanding the band cut their ties with him. However, other fans did not consider the change in sound to be significant enough to be considered selling out and others accepted the change as part of a natural evolution of the band’s style. Ultimately The Black Album became the band’s most commercially successful, going 16x platinum, but the differing reaction by fans to the album is an example of the difficulty in labelling an artist as a sellout objectively.
Was the release of the Black Album “part of a natural progression of creative maturity”? No. There is no difficulty whatsoever in labelling Metallica, circa 1991, as a sellout objectively. They sacrificed their musical integrity on the alter of commercial success. And what unparalleled commercial performance! The love of money is the root of all evil.
I used to joke that the members of Metallica had been abducted by aliens and replaced by Bieber-like body snatchers for who-knows-what nefarious alien purposes. One similarly aggrieved fan wrote an entire comic strip premised upon the abduction of the real band members and their replacement by simulacra. (I wish I could now find it.)
True Metallica fans don’t mince words.
I remember driving one morning just after I had received my drivers license. I was 16, it was summer in Minnesota, and the local radio station was about to debut the new Metallica song, Enter Sandman. Life was great. I was so pumped and nervous as I’d been a fan since before Justice was released. The song came on…and so began one of the worst days of my adolescent life, and I’m not sure I’ve ever recovered. Serious life-bummer. I was more let down than the first time I got dumped by a girl. To my credit, I kept it together and didn’t plow my car at high speed into a huge tree to spare myself the pain I was feeling.
The biggest piece of shit ever written by Metallica! I dont know if it is because they enlisted Bob Rock (WANKER) to ptoduce this album or if it is because they got lazy. Real dissappointment. I Know many people like this album and defend it but it is a pice of shit. Sorry all u Metallica die hards out there. I’d rather listen to myself take a shit than have to listen to this garbage.
I was an atheist in those days. It’s only now that I realise that Metallica did far more than sacrifice their musical integrity on the alter of commercial success. They sold their very souls to Satan. This fact is hidden in plain sight. Let’s take a closer look at the Black Album.
The first thing to notice about the Black album is … it’s very black. Metallica’s logo can just about be made out in the darkness of the top-left-hand corner. Black is the devil’s colour. (Sure, it’s also New Zealand’s national colour, but Metallica sure weren’t thinking of the All Blacks when they squeezed this one out.)
Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. (NIV)
In the bottom-right-hand corner is a stylised, coiled serpent, that bears an intentional likeness to the rattlesnake on the Gadsden flag.
Notwithstanding that “Don’t tread on me” is a libertarian slogan and the Gadsden flag rattlesnake is a libertarian icon (I have no idea what happened to the missing apostrophe in ‘dont’) let’s see what happens when we take the snake, flip it horizontally and tip it on its side.
Now we see the true nature of Metallica’s mascot. It’s a serpent, its coils spelling out 666—the Number of the Beast of Revelation—and shaped into a slide to take you down on a one-way trip to never never land. This is snakes and ladders but with no ladders. Snake, rattle ‘n’ roll!
That’s the album art, it’s pretty clear.
What about the lyrical content?
Well, the very first track is Enter Satan. (Or, rather, Enter Sandman, but we all know who Sandman is.)
Say your prayers little one
Don’t forget, my son
To include everyoneTuck you in, warm within
Keep you free from sin
Till the Sandman, he comesExit light
Enter night
Take my hand
We’re off to never never land
Nek minnit, you belong to Satan.
Sad But True.
Hey
I’m your life
I’m the one who took you there
Hey
I’m your life
And I no longer careI’m your truth, telling lies
I’m your reasoned alibis
I’m inside open your eyes
I’m you
Holier Than Thou
Little whispers circle around your head
Why don’t you worry about yourself instead?Who are you? Where ya been? Where ya from?
Gossip is burning on the tip of your tongue
You lie so much you believe yourself
The Unforgiven
Never free.
Never me.
So I dub thee unforgiven.You labelled me,
I’ll label you.
So I dub thee unforgiven.
Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us? Nope. I dub thee unforgiven.
Wherever I May Roam.
And I’ll redefine anywhere
Anywhere I may roam
Where I lay my head is home…and the earth becomes my throne
It’d pretty clear who this song is about.
The Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?”
Satan answered the Lord, “From roaming throughout the earth, going back and forth on it.”
Don’t Tread On Me
Liberty or death, what we so proudly hail
Once you provoke her, rattling of her tail
Never begins it, never, but once engaged…
Never surrenders, showing the fangs of rageDon’t tread on me!
OK, so I can’t really knock this one. 🙂
The exception that proves the rule? It’s a half-decent song, great lyrics! (But it still plods like no speed metal I ever heard.)
Through The Never is a trip through never never land with your new friend, the Sandman.
Twisting
Turning
Through the never Never
Nothing Else Matters is hardly an improvement on nihilism, the doctrine that nothing matters.
Forever trusting who we are
And nothing else matters
In God we Trust? No, apparently it’s in man we trust and God doesn’t matter.
Of Wolf And Man
I hunt
Therefore I am
Harvest the land
Taking of the fallen lambOff through the new day’s mist I run
Off from the new day’s mist I have come
We shift
Pulsing with the earth
Company we keep
Roaming the land while you sleep.
More roaming the land, going back and forth on it. While you sleep. (Never mind that noise you heard. It’s just the beast under your bed, in your closet, in your head.)
The God That Failed
Pride you took
Pride you feel
Pride that you felt when you’d kneelTrust you gave
A child to save
Left you cold and him in graveI see faith in your eyes
Never you hear the discouraging lies
I hear faith in your cries
Broken is the promise, betrayal
The healing hand held back by deepened nailFollow the god that failed
There are two further tracks but I can’t go on. It’s a desperate, dire, demonic album.
And, quite apart from that, it’s a steaming pile of the proverbial. So watch your step.
“People that are Christians now, but were satanists, recognized President Clinton’s signal at his inauguration as a sign of Satan. That seems fairly cut and dried, and it is. Clinton communicated what he wanted to the people to whom he wanted to communicate. The whole affair with him flashing the satanic hand signal took only a couple of seconds.”
– Fritz Springmeier, Blood of the Illuminati
This is the first of four (maybe more) blog posts.
Manuela’s mother says she was, however, increasingly disturbed over her daughter’s lifestyle. Especially when Manuela had two teeth removed and had metal vampire fangs implanted. She was also taken aback by her daughter’s tattoo—an upside down cross on her scalp.
But the hand sign? “Well,” she said, “I thought it was like the sign the deaf give, meaning, I love you.”
“I often heard Manuela say she was not of this world and was a satanic vampire,” recounted her mother, “but I figured it was just so much silly talk. Just another way of living. After all, not every Goth vampire ends up sacrificing victims to Satan.”
My hypothesis is that Satan leaves his calling card hidden in plain sight.
Keep it metal! \m/
This post concerns the sign of the horns. Apparently, it was popularised by the late Ronnie James Dio.
Ronnie James Dio was known for popularizing the sign of the horns in heavy metal. He claimed his Italian grandmother used it to ward off the evil eye (which is known in the Italian culture as malocchio). Dio began using the sign soon after joining the metal band Black Sabbath in 1979. The previous singer in the band, Ozzy Osbourne, was rather well known at using the “peace” sign at concerts, raising the index and middle finger in the form of a V. Dio, in an attempt to connect with the fans, wanted to similarly use a hand gesture. However, not wanting to copy Osbourne, he chose to use the sign his grandmother always made. The horns became famous in metal concerts very soon after Black Sabbath’s first tour with Dio. The sign would later be appropriated by heavy metal fans under the name “maloik”, a corruption of the original malocchio.
Terry “Geezer” Butler of Black Sabbath can be seen “raising the horns” in a photograph taken in 1971. This would indicate that the “horns” and their association with metal occurred much earlier than Ronnie James Dio suggests. The photograph is included in the CD booklet of the Symptom of the Universe: The Original Black Sabbath 1970–1978 compilation album.
I can’t find the photo.
The “El Diablo” hand sign often is confused with the deaf’s signing of the phrase, “I love you.” While at first this appears an odd resemblance, we register an “ahh, I get it!” emotion when we discover that the person who invented, or created, the hand sign system for the deaf, Helen Keller, was herself an occultist and Theosophist. Did Keller purposely design the deaf’s “I love you” sign to be such a remarkable imitation of the classic sign of Satan? Was Keller saying, basically, “I love you, Devil?”
Frato Metallo uses it. (The sign language version.) But is it metal? Is it of God?
Even Pastor Bob defends the use of the “devil horns”.
Personally, I don’t feel comfortable with the use of the devil’s horns symbol.
I think the devil’s horns symbol symbolises the devils’s horns. Call me old-fashioned.
If I’m at a metal concert – or anywhere else that I mean business – what’s wrong with a fist thrown in the air?
Come near, you nations, and listen;
pay attention, you peoples!
Let the earth hear, and all that is in it,
the world, and all that comes out of it!
The Lord is angry with all nations;
his wrath is on all their armies.
He will totally destroy them,
he will give them over to slaughter.
Their slain will be thrown out,
their dead bodies will stink;
the mountains will be soaked with their blood.
All the stars in the sky will be dissolved
and the heavens rolled up like a scroll;
all the starry host will fall
like withered leaves from the vine,
like shriveled figs from the fig tree.My sword has drunk its fill in the heavens;
see, it descends in judgment on Edom,
the people I have totally destroyed.
The sword of the Lord is bathed in blood,
it is covered with fat—
the blood of lambs and goats,
fat from the kidneys of rams.
For the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah
and a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
And the wild oxen will fall with them,
the bull calves and the great bulls.
Their land will be drenched with blood,
and the dust will be soaked with fat.For the Lord has a day of vengeance,
a year of retribution, to uphold Zion’s cause.
Edom’s streams will be turned into pitch,
her dust into burning sulfur;
her land will become blazing pitch!
It will not be quenched night or day;
its smoke will rise forever.
From generation to generation it will lie desolate;
no one will ever pass through it again.
The desert owl and screech owl will possess it;
the great owl and the raven will nest there.
God will stretch out over Edom
the measuring line of chaos
and the plumb line of desolation.
Her nobles will have nothing there to be called a kingdom,
all her princes will vanish away.
Thorns will overrun her citadels,
nettles and brambles her strongholds.
She will become a haunt for jackals,
a home for owls.
Desert creatures will meet with hyenas,
and wild goats will bleat to each other;
there the night creatures will also lie down
and find for themselves places of rest.
The owl will nest there and lay eggs,
she will hatch them, and care for her young
under the shadow of her wings;
there also the falcons will gather,
each with its mate.Look in the scroll of the Lord and read:
None of these will be missing,
not one will lack her mate.
For it is his mouth that has given the order,
and his Spirit will gather them together.
He allots their portions;
his hand distributes them by measure.
They will possess it forever
and dwell there from generation to generation. (NIV)
Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.
“Everything they do is done for people to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long; they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; they love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to be called ‘Rabbi’ by others. (NIV)
Ayn Rand did not believe her own philosophy. She was smarter than that.
Ayn Rand tied up a heavy, cumbersome load of bollocks and put it on her disciples’ shoulders.
She called it Atlas Shrugged. How’s that for a sense of humour? Wicked. I was wrong.
Some people mistake my own wit and wisdom for cryptic smart-assery. The same people mistake Rand’s cryptic smart-assery for good philosophy. I mistook Rand’s cryptic smart-assery for bad philosophy. But it is neither.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. (NIV)
God so loved the world that He gave us the gift of Life. The gift that keeps on giving.
Ayn Rand so loved herself that she gave the world the gift of Objectivism. The gift that keeps on taking.
Men have a weapon against you. Reason. So you must be very sure to take it away from them. Cut the props from under it. But be careful. Don’t deny outright, you give your hand away. Don’t say reason is evil – though some have gone that far with astonishing success. Just say that reason is limited. That there’s something above it. What? You don’t have to be too clear about it either. The field is inexhaustible. “Instinct’ – ‘Feeling’ – ‘Revelation’ – ‘Divine Intuition’ – ‘Dialectic Materialism’. If you get caught at some crucial point and somebody tells you that your doctrine doesn’t make sense – you’re ready for him. You tell him there’s something above sense. That here he must not try to think, but to feel He must believe. Suspend reason and you play it deuces wild. Anything goes in any manner you wish whenever you need it. You’ve got him. Can you rule a thinking man? We don’t want any thinking men.
Rand didn’t want any thinking men. Philosophy. Who needs it? Rand didn’t want her disciples needing it or reading it, which is why, on the one hand, she disparaged philosophy and philosphers, especially modern ones, and on the other hand, she exalted herself to the heights of Aristotle and Aquinas. As predicted by the Law of Intended Consequences, Rand’s debased disciples don’t think, they proclaim.
Rand didn’t want any thinking men. She just wanted to be called ‘Rabbi’ by dumbfounded dipshits. She got what she wanted. Good and hard.
Objectivism is a Trojan Horse. Woe to those who allow it through the gates of their tiny minds. For Rand was, indeed, packing a snake. A talking one.
Objectivism. Who needs it? There is another gift. A gift beyond human reach. Ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find a hidden treasure, a pearl of great price. Why settle for the baubles of Ayn Rand’s orifice?
It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age and who have fallen[a] away, to be brought back to repentance. To their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace. Land that drinks in the rain often falling on it and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is farmed receives the blessing of God. But land that produces thorns and thistles is worthless and is in danger of being cursed. In the end it will be burned. (NIV)
If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? (NIV)
I used to think the unforgiveable sin was Metallica’s Black Album. It’s not.
Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men.
And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come. (KJV)
It’s unforgiveable sins. Exit Sandman? Satan laughing spreads his wings.
Angie Schuller Wyatt (pictured above) is the author of God and Boobs: Balancing Faith and Sexuality. GODandBoobs.com is Angie Schuller Wyatt’s website and also a Faceboob page.
Angie Schuller Wyatt is the granddaughter of celebrated televangelist Dr. Robert H Schuller.
Did we go from Hour of Power to breasts like towers in just two generations? I think we did.
What does the Bible say about breasts? What does my co-blogger Tim (pictured above) say about breasts? More than the Bible. His cups runneth over. Breasts have long been one of Tim’s good keen manly interests, but Standing up for Justice more important than Personal Ambitions.
AC/DC is not a cup size. They’re ballbreaking Aussie rock legends! AC/DC wrote the song Big Balls which was the musical accompaniment to my other post I’ve got big balls. So I think big boobs should be the musical accompaniment to this one. (This is the breast cover of an AC/DC song I’ve ever seen.)
[Reprised from beNZylpiperazine, April 2006.]
What do Niki Lauda, Hot Lips Houlihan and, now, a growing number of clandestine lab technicians have in common?
Drug cooks with acute burns from P lab explosions are bumping other patients off surgery waiting lists and costing taxpayers millions of dollars, says the Sunday Star Times.
“A 70 per cent burn takes five months of treatment and will cost $700,000 to treat,” says Waikato Hospital clinical director of plastic surgery and burns, Chris McEwan. “Its impact on our ability to manage the rest of our patient load is absolutely significant. It may delay the treatment of other patients by a considerable length of time.”
The public health system is in enough financial trouble already, without this. So what’s the government to do? We need go no further than the government’s National Drug Policy to find the obvious answer.
The National Drug Policy aims to improve the health and wellbeing of New Zealanders by encouraging the development of strategies and programmes which prevent and reduce drug-related harm.
Harm minimisation is where it’s at. How can we reduce the number of scorched P cooks presenting at A & E departments around the country? The approach that’s been tried, and has manifestly failed, is to criminalise the manufacture of methamphetamine and to provide harsh penalties for offenders. But does a threat of a long jail sentence really provide a deterrent to those who are otherwise prepared to risk lifelong disfigurement? Nope. The retail price of methamphetamine, massively inflated under prohibition, promises huge profits to the uncaught and unscathed. And does cramming our overcrowded prisons full of amateur chemists do anything to reduce the availability of P? Nope. The retail price of methamphetamine, massively inflated under prohibition, promises huge profits to the uncaught and unscathed, and the removal of one manufacturer from the market merely provides a business opportunity for another.
So what is the answer? I suggest something along the lines of needle exchanges for opiate users, like this one in Invercargill. Better still, we could follow the “shooting gallery” model adopted in New South Wales.
At a minimum, the government should provide free protective clothing and safety apparatus (and, of course, immunity from prosecution) to those who can prove their clandestine intent and P cooking credentials. This simple measure would, I’m sure, significantly reduce the burden on the public health system of victims of P lab explosions. Of course, to be effective, such safety gear must be used properly. I envisage that the government would also fund some training in proper laboratory procedure.
Although it would certainly cost a great deal more, ideally the government should set up centres in all P-ravaged communities where P cooks can take their dangerous chemicals and drug precursors and go about their business of manufacturing methamphetamine under the watchful supervision of qualified professionals.
