Esoteric Allusions of Metal Music - A Humble Offering to Genna East!
There is no monster other than your fear of facing your truth!
— Sean DragonPrejudice
We, humans, have a significant flaw that deprives us of many of the opportunities that the Universe offers us to acquire Knowledge and Happiness. Prejudice.
We are prejudiced against almost everything "different" that we will encounter. Everything that lies outside what we identify as the world we live in and does not immediately fit into the system of beliefs and ideas we have created during our lives. This also has to do with the fact that most of the times we approach in a very superficial way our environment (interior and exterior) and the new challenges that life will bring in our path. Denial, you see, is easy and does not require any sacrifice, while acceptance and understanding entail devoting time, practicing patience and tearing down many of the walls of our selfishness.
Acting this way, though, we lose many of the gifts the Universe has prepared for us because we are not trying to see what we can learn from the new situations and what new potentials they can offer us. We forget that God has placed at least one gift or opportunity in everything we interact with to enable us to rise up through this interaction. This has a negative effect, we are staying stagnant, and we are denying ourselves the happiness of evolving.
Metal music is one of the "victims" of prejudice. With its intensity and aggressive musical character as well as the extreme or even terrifying appearance of several musicians who serve it, it gives all the reasons someone needs to reject it easily and quickly without a second thought, calling it "satanic"! In fact, however, what scares most people in this music is that it operates as a mirror, pointing out the ugliness that we have allowed distorting our Souls. This is, in fact, the purpose of Metal music, to break the false image of "prudishness" and to show us that we live in the darkness of ignorance and selfishness. To reveal us that we are the "monsters" we are afraid to face.
Clearly, as in every part of this world, there are great and less well-functioning members in each covey. That's how this relative world works, there are light and darkness everywhere. So some people in this music scene have written great songs with references to the search of the inner path that leads us to the Supreme Self, our Divine Core. Songs that try to awaken our conscience and urge us to break the restraints of slavery of fear, hatred and material wealth. In this article, I will deal with some of these songs, hoping to help you see the beauty that can be hidden behind the masks. Follow me if you wish…
Trivium - The Heart From Your Hate:
...You always walk away, soon you'll have to face it
Your distance from reality won't bury or erase it
I tried to do the same, living so complacent
But the problems wouldn't go away, so I turned around to face them
Tell me
What will it take to rip the heart from your hate?
What will it take? What will it take?
To rip the heart from your hate...
What will it take to rip the heart from your hate? An astoundingly powerful and precise verse! Watch the inversion: not to uproot the hatred from your heart, but the heart from your hate!
The way the modern machine-man lives has transformed him into an automaton of hate. We do not live with hatred in the heart, no, we have allowed hatred to become a master living in our body and using it. No matter how much we'll try to ignore this truth and live in an illusion of happiness, the power of this tough master intensifies. The only solution is to stand and face it, to rip the heart from our hate. This, of course, means that we will die with it, but this death is the only way to the Resurrection of the New Man to live free from hatred and create space for Love! So what it will take? Whatever it takes is worth the cost!
Three Days Grace - I Am Machine:
... I am machine
A part of me
Wishes I could just feel something
It wasn't supposed to be this way
We were meant to feel the pain
I don't like what I am becoming
Wish I could just feel something...
This is what the Fall really is, the Exodus from Paradise! We were created as God's children and ended up being machines without feelings. We have drifted so far from what we have been created for, that is to experience Love in every expression, that we have ceased to suffer for Her loss. Because the pain was the final protection, the ultimate gift of God to help us understand that the path we are walking on is wrong.
Nickelback - Feed The Machine:
… Why must the blind always lead the blind?
Why do I feel like the fault is mine?
Why must the weakest be sacrificed?
No more questions, get back in line!
Pay with your life, the duller the knife, the longer it takes.
But now it's your turn, the ashes will burn, and wither away.
Leaving your bones, out on the stones, picking them clean.
Carving the truth, while harvesting you, to feed the machine.
To feed the machine…
But when we forget that Love is life, we begin to look for ways to stop the pain. What else are the addictions that steal our life? Then we live fake lives and become machines, puppets that cannot really enjoy anything. So stop wishing to be able to feel love. Give love to "short" the machine. Do not be afraid of the pain that you will feel when you'll start caring again. The pain will wake you up from the lethargy. Every new birth has pain!
Thousand Foot Krutch - We Are:
... My heart is racing, just like a rocket
Victory looks like a distant dream
Cause what we're fighting is not gonna stopped
But we can beat it if we just believe
But I can't just sit here and watch it
If we don't stop it no one will
We are the ones, we are the guns
And we will ride, we are the voice of a song unsung
We are the change, we are the chains that hold us
We are the choice, we are the strong
We are one ...
We are the chains which don't let us fly up to where we belong, but we are also the strength to break them. We are the choice to live the life we dream of, to become a new beautiful song that has not been sung before. We have the power to change everything does not fit to what our lives we want to be. But we have to do it, no one else can do it for us. We cannot expect any external help because our strength simply exists in the awareness of our inner truth, in the realization that we are one with all and everything, one with Him who has created everything. We are One, this is our Truth and our salvation.
Skillet - The Resistance:
I am a nation, I am a million faces
Formed together, made for elevation
I am a soldier, I won't surrender
Faith is like a fire that never burns to embers
The voice of the unheard
(Who's gonna break these chains and lies?)
Love is the answer...
... Walk through the fire, walk on the water
Used to be a slave, but now you are a conqueror...
... This is how we rise up
It's our resistance, you can't resist us
We're rising up
The voice of the unheard
Love is the answer...
Faith is a fire that never fades, confidence in this Inner Voice that gives us the power to break the chains and the cycle of lies. The Voice which tells us that only Love is the answer to fear and hate, only Love can transform us from slaves into conquerors. Not conquerors of our fellow beings, but conquerors of the inferior self who is trying to convince us that we must remain buried in the darkness. Love is our resistance, and in Her arms, we rise high, where we belong. Love is the answer and the one that will bring the Resurrection of our Inner Self! If we follow Her, nothing can defeat us! Let us rise again to the Light we belong to! Let's make the Revolution of Love!
To be continued...
Be receptive without prejudice. The Spirit, sometimes, sends you messages in the most intriguing ways.
— Sean DragonAbout Genna East
This Hub is a response to Genna East's "Sharing the Music" invitation. The truth is that my article may not be what she had in mind, but I think that music has no limits of expression.
I know Genna only through her beautiful work, but I can see that she is a noble Heart who always try to offer to anyone she meets. It's easy to understand this by reading her comments on other people's work. I copy from her profile here on HubPages:
"There are wonderfully talented writers, here, on Hubpages. When reading through the comments, please click the avatars to view their work. Whether they write poetry, short stories or articles, I think you'll find much of the writing interesting, if not remarkable and inspiring."
My dear Genna, I am grateful for having the opportunity to read your beautiful work and learning from your luminous Heart. I wish my offer to be worthy of it. Gratitude!
© 2019 Ioannis Arvanitis