The Music Exchange

I’ve had a change of heart on what to write about this month. The article I had written can wait for a bit, because I’ve just been struck by something I found on the internet.

I do a certain amount of work among Christian professional musicians in London, some of whom are in bands. The internet is very useful to them, because you can create a platform for your music for free without having to hire in agents and managers. As soon as your blog page comes up, your music plays automatically, and anyone from all over the world can listen and comment. Those listeners can then piggy-back on your page by saying how great they think your music is, thereby attracting others to listen to their music too. These people are then known as your ‘friends’.

Hatred of God

I was looking at a page which commended a Christian drummer (for his drumming, not for being a Christian). I then looked down the list of friends, to find out the sort of people this drummer will be hoping to share the gospel with.

It only took me two sets of friends before I entered the godless world of ‘metal’. ‘Death metal’ has always been clearly and proudly set against the Lord Jesus, but recently it has descended even lower into depravity, and I’m sure there are more depths to discover. Newer mutations of the genre are ‘Demon/Doom metal’. The thing that struck me about all the bands I checked out is how vehemently God is hated. I’ve never understood why there is a quasi-religious aura about these bands. When most of the population is apathetic about Jesus, why be so aggressively opposed to something no one believes in? Surely, if you’re an atheist, then you couldn’t care less about God. Why don’t they rant against things that really affect them, like politics or war?

The truth is that these bands are not atheists. They do have a god who they believe in, and who gives them their common language and symbols. These people believe in God, but they choose to worship Satan. There is no clearer illustration of Romans 1.21-23 than on these web pages. Look at some of the names of these bands. ‘Demonic Sanatorium’, ‘Sadistic Rite’ and, more (in)famously, ‘Deicide’. An encouragement from a friend of one of these bands was, ‘May Satan bless you’. There is even a death metal ballet company who claim, ‘We are the first ballet company that strictly utilises death, doom and grind metal as part of our permanent repertoire.’

And here’s me, tripping along nicely, praying with musicians for opportunities to share the good news of Jesus.

Real spiritual battle

How do we respond to this? In my heart I was disturbed and felt a bit sick, but then I remembered that I’ve been a Christian for 30 years, and have worked in a Bible-teaching church for 13 of those. It’s easy to forget when we’re surrounded by Christians that this world is in the grip of a god who will do anything to deny men and women the hope of knowing Jesus.

We (I, in particular) need to remember that there is a real spiritual battle against a real spiritual enemy, who is worshipped by deceptively unspiritual people. As Christians, we often apologise for the lack of response of non-Christians to the gospel. We report back to prayer groups, ‘They’re just not interested’, ‘She doesn’t want to make the necessary changes in her life’, ‘He still thinks he can be good enough for God.’ I have never reported back to a prayer group, ‘He loves Satan’ or, ‘She is a child of the devil.’ But this is the language that Jesus uses for those who reject the truth about him in John 8.44. And this is what these metal websites boast.

Measured perspective

At the same time, just in case the pendulum swings too far, Scripture reminds us that Satan is already defeated and a laughing-stock to our omnipotent God. He is disarmed, openly shamed, and Jesus has triumphed over him (Colossians 2.15). Sam Smith, a Christian composer from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (and a great encourager to me), needed to remind me of this in my despondency.

As usual then, it is the gospel that gives us the measured perspective. We must be realistic, but at the same time confident, that Jesus is powerful over all evil. It would be worth saying, too, that there are small groups of faithful musicians who are trying to get the message of Christ into the metal scene. Their music is just as dire, but do pray that ears (and more specifically ear drums) would be able to hear.

Christ and the metal scene

Hatred of God

Real spiritual battle

Measured perspective

Richard Simpkin

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