In this article, Ton Ringenier – admin of Christian Metal Horde – writes about the nature of worship in Extreme Metal.
If I’m honest, I’m writing this article with a bit of a heavy heart, because I believe that most people have the best of intentions. It is also a bit of a continuation of my previous article, that life does not only have hallelujah moments, and that there should be room in music for anger, sadness, grief, comfort, forgiveness, and many other issues.
In a lot of contemporary worship music today, the emphasis is very much on appealing to the emotions, creating a good feeling, or getting into some kind of ecstasy. Performers and attendees are not so much interested in the lyrics as they are in getting a good feeling, and this can also have a kind of addictive effect, and before you know it, songs are being sung that no longer even have a biblical basis and are sometimes taken completely out of context. I don’t think this needs to be illustrated with examples. The essence of worship could be much more meaningful.
What I would like to suggest is that you check out the album Praise of the Lord God Almighty by Renascent, one of my all time favorite metal albums. Reneascent is a symphonic melodic death metal band from Finland that has released two full length albums and an EP.
What strikes me is that many of the lyrics are taken from the Old Testament, especially the Psalms. For example, take a look at the lyrics (find them here) and the video of the song Praise of the Lord God Almighty below.
The text calls us to fear God and to have reverence and awe for Him. The lyrics also teach us that God is righteousness and justice is the foundation of His throne. He will judge the world with righteousness and the nations in His faithfulness. And it also contains warnings about how things can turn out if, for example, you make false images of God or worship false gods.
These are lyrics from just one song on the album. Of course I will not use every song on the album to make a point, but the Bible has enough material to sing and shout about, right?
Making music for the glory of God is not just to create a good feeling, but it is much more than that as I mentioned before. I also believe that more hearts will be filled with the Holy Spirit and the gospel if we use the Bible as a guide and lyrics for worship or praise music.
Other metal artists who have very biblical lyrics in their songs are Ritual Servant, Roots of Tragedy, Grave Declaration, Shadows of Paragon, Jernlov and A Secret Ending, and fortunately there are many more.
I want to end with two verses from the song Day by Roots of Tragedy, this song is about God’s judgment of justice:
We seek the day when we can say
No more pain, no more decay
In His Service / Ton
About the author: My name is Ton Ringenier, I live in the Netherlands and I am the admin of Christian Metal Horde.
I started Christian Metal Horde to promote Underground Christian Metal, to meet and greet other Christian metal heads and to share the light in the darkness through heavy music.
