A reply to Dr. Azly Rahman's article "To Malaysian music fans -- is Black Metal a threat to our mental security?"

My friends wouldn't expect any less from my reaction to Dr. Azly Rahman's article in his column at Malaysia today, A Republic of Virtue, entitled To Malaysian music fans -- is Black Metal a threat to our mental security

Yes it is true about Aarseth from the band Mayhem took a picture of Dead's blown up corpse as a picture for their album Dawn of the Black Hearts. In fact , what also happened was, Euronymous, another band member, was said to eat some of the fragments of Dead's brain (Dead killed himself by shooting a shotgun to his head). I don't know how far that's true, but either ways, its pretty sick of them to even make up a story like that and be glorified for doing such a thing. Nonetheless, Mayhem's fans do not listen to Mayhem because of what they did when Dead died...sheesh. That way, we should say that all Eric Clapton's fans (before the awful death of his son) liked his music because he was always high on cocaine. Or, Queen's fans enjoyed their music because Freddy Mercury was swinging on the other side of the team. To those fans of Mayhem's who like Mayhem cuz of what Aarseth and Euronymous did, they are what metalheads like to call "posers". They don't like the music, they just like the fact that black metal is all bad-ass and etc. In fact i would agree that many poser "black metal"-heads out there think they are so cool because they are grim and necro but its not the music they are truly enjoying, just the "attitude" they think people who enjoy such music have.

It is heartbreaking when i get remarks that " ooo metal is unsophisticated and noisy so it is bad...and yeah it has evil messages in its music too, so its evil...". Music doesn't need to be all complex and sophisticated, like Dream Theater(who are by the way my favourite), to be nice. It is a matter of individual opinion. Popular music is utterly unsophisticated, so does it mean that it sucks? Well, of course if one asks me if pop sucks i would say yes. But that's me. I used to be that person who thinks that just because a piece of music doesn't have weird time signatures and complex solo's, it is shitty music. Thank God i've finally matured out of that nonsense and realized that music is something where, truly, its beauty is in the eye of its beholder. That's the reason not EVERYONE appreciates the same style of music. We listen to whatever music that ignites our senses whether it is jazz, classical, pop, rnb, world, traditional, trance and yes...metal. An individual who really likes certain kind of music listens to it because he or she likes the music and not necessarily the conduct or personality of the musician. I have a friend who really enjoys hip hop but he looks nothing like those "brothers from the West-side" with the huge pants and over-sized shirts, talking like he's from the "hood". I am a metalhead but i don't have locks running down my back or chains around my waist. I listen to death metal but i don't have the desire to burn anybody or start a massacre to glorify "Almighty Satan". NO! Once again, my point is, its not the music that makes the character but its the character who finds him or herself akin to the music. And if the only reason he or she listens to the music is to because its all violent and brutal, then that is just sheer bullocks and its not the music he or she truly enjoys. Say a violent person listens to death metal because its brutal and "grraaawww" then maybe in another life, that same person would be listening to gangster rap instead..who knows.


Threat to mental security?- Indeed the titles and lyrics of metal bands might raise a few eyebrows especially in an extremely conventional society like ours. If we were to analyze other works of art the same way, then works like David and Creation of Adam by Micheangello Bvonarotti should be considered pornographic and blasphemous to God. Music like any other form of art is a form of expression. Now metal bands are just really blunt and frank when it comes it to their music. (I'm reiterating)Metalheads listen to metal because they like the music not just because its demonic or kvlt(cult). In fact, if one wanted occult music, metal isn't the only genre which plays such music, but so does the nursery rhyme "Hot Cross Buns". In witchcraft, the covens give out hot buns to everyone after the Great Rite which has a cross on it which is the symbol of Thamuz the Babylonian god who was the son of Baal(weird huh..). Metalheads listen to metal because we like the style of music. Art isn't suppose to be about the matter being expressed but the expression itself. Thus one can't blame music for a society being plagued by decadence. It is the decadence itself which gives rise to decadent individuals and if they turn out to be metal musicians, they would be expressing their decadence. In short, it is the man who makes the art and not art the man.

Besides, most metal bands have very poetic lyrics and beautiful(as i said, beauty is in the eye of the beholder) music to accompany them. Take lyrics from bands like Opeth, Kalmah, and Dark Tranquility for example(if you're really interested, go to Dark Lyrics). Yes their music may be dark and lyrics quite disturbing, but once again, it is not about the matter being expressed but the expression itself that makes an artwork.


A Culture of Thrash- Metal is not an effective way to invade the minds of the masses....not anymore. It would be a much more profitable and effective to use a form of music that appeals to a bigger portion of the young population. Metal is now labeled as alternative and underground especially in Malaysia reason being most young Malaysians do not listen to metal. Hip hop and RnB are even bigger in Malaysia and everywhere around the world. Pop is called pop for a reason. The reason is because, well , its popular. Hence if anyone wanted to poison the minds of the youth, it would be through these channels. And for argument's sake, 'mainstream' music is no different than metal when it comes to its message and etc. Its just that mainstream is much much more subtle. Its all about the presentation and packaging. Like a capitalist would say, "Its half sold when it has a good packaging". So why all the fuss about metal....isn't mainstream, in that sense, a bigger threat to the minds of our youths?

All this stereotype about metal is just a result of a lack of understanding metal or, as a matter of fact, art in general. Enough said...i'm hungry after all this typing...and i can't think now when i'm hungry.

A subliminal invasion of our ethics..

I was in the LRT about 3 weeks back carrying out my usual commute back home after college. Like most times i was accompanied by Kabin and Chins(my classmates) up to KL Sentral. On the opposite side of where we were sitting, there was this lady with her daughter(who was around her early 20's i suppose) overhearing my conversation with Kabin and Chins and of course like always, we were talking about local politics.

After KL Sentral, the lady, after saying some very nice things about my conversation with Kabin, commented that to be fair, people shouldn't be constantly bringing the government down and that we should also put the private sector under the same scrutiny that we put the government in. I didn't really understand her point so she clarified by saying that even the private sectors have biasness when employing, for eg. many local graduates don't get a job although they're well qualified for it. So i replied by saying that a job doesn't only require one to have the paper qualifications but communication skills (most prominently the mastery of certain languages especially English) is also a much sought after criteria and many graduates, sadly, lack to fulfill that criteria. She then rebutted by saying "But those people employed by the private sector can hardly speak English when there are many graduates from the local universities who have proper command of the language being rejected the job" and she went on giving more examples corroborating her point. However as our conversation(which soon turned out to be a debate) carried on, i found that she was actually expressing her dissatisfaction against private organizations which are mostly owned and managed by non-Bumi's being unfair to those Bumi's who, although are very well qualified(yes who also speak English perfectly), are rejected jobs and etc offered by the private organizations. Instead, those jobs are handed over to the non-Bumi who are hardly qualified. Of course the lady didn't deny that the government sectors plays the same game just that instead of favoring the non-Bumi, they favor the Bumi but her point was to prove that the private sector does the same thing hence to be fair, private sectors shouldn't be left out of the bashing when we get mad at the government for giving Bumi's special treatment.

I totally agree with her but looking deeper into the situation, we should ask "what caused such a frame of mind in all Malaysians, both in the private sector or the government sector?". This brings me back to one of my earlier entries entitled R-A-C-I-S-M is not how we spell cronyism .
Most, if not all, Malaysians face the racial marginalization demon not necessarily because we are naturally that way but because of the conditions and the factors that shape our lifestyle which can ultimately dictate our attitudes towards a certain subject. What i mean is the policies, not forgetting the other factors which usually go unnoticed, have caused us to behave this way. As sad as it sounds, its true. Those in authority have ingeniously devised plots to cloud our minds so that we remain divided and they in turn sustain control over us. Hence the only way to break out of these shackles is to enter an age of "Renaissance".Before we can break this vicious cycle of biasness and etc we need to be aware of the factors which allows the cycle to go on. In my opinion it all starts with the attitudes and mind frames we have in us.

The problem though was that the lady just wouldn't let me convey my argument. She kept cutting me off when i was trying to prove my point almost as if she felt like i was disagreeing with her because i didn't really understand her, when that's not the situation. I did understand what she was saying and yes i did agree with her but i was merely trying to express how i look at it and what i feel is the reason behind such unfairness. Hahaha...it was a classic case of misunderstanding but no hard feelings taken. I enjoyed the debate nonetheless.