READER RESPONSE: Black Metal Music

From heavy metal to keroncong
Billy Ong
Feb 8, 06 4:39pm



I refer to the article Is Black Metal a threat?
Back in the 60s when I listened to artistes such as Elvis Presley, The Beatles and Deep Purple to name a few, my father was already getting worried that I may be badly influenced by the music which is called rock 'n' roll. To my father, the music was already very ‘extreme’ as it represented something very unruly and unearthly. He would have preferred me to listen to Pat Boone, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, etc. But somehow or other, towards the late 70s, I suddenly developed a love for keroncong music (although I was and still am a rock guitarist) and finally managed to obtain a vinyl record by the late Dato' Hamzah Dolmat. One of the tracks I particularly love was ‘Sapu Tangan’, a tune my father used to hum to me when I was very small. I still have this record in my collection and is one of my prized items. When I was in my band, I played quite a bit of heavy metal music but it was a fantastic change for me when I gradually developed a love for local music.

Tarring all metal followers black
Orang Biasa
Feb 9, 06 4:10pm


Azly Rahman has written some bizarre articles in his time, some of which need a dictionary just to plough through just to figure out that he's masking his lack of an argument with long words, but this time he's really gone off the rails. Azly, have you spoken to any of these so-called 'black metal followers'? I suspect you've done no more than check the Internet for the most extreme examples of what's happening elsewhere in the world rather than taking a look on your own doorstep. And, forgive me, no serious researcher quotes Wikipedia - anyone can have their two sen’s worth on Wikipedia and it's edited by readers.

Azly, go talk to rock fans in Malaysia. Malaysian teenagers are absolute angels compared with their Western counterparts. They're quiet, respectful, most of them are surprisingly pious. They simply like to find ways of letting off steam in a society that spends a lot of its time telling young people to shut up and do as they're told lest they wind in jail and/or hell. That means, among other things, listening to music, some of it rock or punk. And some of it may sound awful to an elderly person but rock and roll was never about making your parents happy - and winding them up by listening to strange music is a long way away from being a genuine Satanic follower.

The bands who played at Paul's Place on New Year's Eve may not be your taste in music and they're not particularly mine either. Some of them sound like a soundtrack for a movie about neutering cats, but Satanists they ain't. Read the lyrics Azly. Nothing about the devil. Nothing about chopping Siti Nurhaliza into small pieces either (though if anyone writes that song please let me know). Nor did the police check. Nor will the esteemed Shariah judges who will sit on cases where teenagers are accused of listening to black metal know what on earth they're listening to. What are they going to do?

Call expert testimony from journalists from Kerrang or Rolling Stone magazine? Like heck. They're either going to be honest and admit it's outside their expertise or they're going to listen to some crank who fancies they see Satan everywhere. And what a recipe for injustice that would be. No Azly, stop going off half-cocked. Do your research properly. Find some evidence of Satanic black metal cults in Malaysia and then kick up a fuss if you do. Metal bands sound loud Azly but I'll be blunt - empty vessels sound louder.

Black Metal not relatively harmless
Charles F Moreira
Feb 10, 06 2:07pm


With reference to Billy Ong's letter and Dr Azly Rahman's commentary, I don't think that asking whether Black Metal is a threat misses a pertinent point about the music and associated sub-culture.

Heavy metal music of the 1970s was hard, loud and harsh but it was more in the vein of protest and rebellion against authority or plain indulgence and sex. Compared to others, Deep Purple was all about fun, protest and cheeky jibes at certain figures like Mary Long but otherwise they were relatively harmless.

Black Metal, on the other hand, has this morbid fascination with death, satanic symbology, evil, nihilism, etc, which I believe reflects personality problems, inferiority complex and lack of self-esteem in its fans irrespective of one's religious beliefs, so it can't be something healthy or good, or even neutral.