Music and Lyrics

Is it possible to unify thrashing guitars, thundering drums, and growled/screamed vocals into a Christian message? I believe not only that it is possible, but that it is absolutely necessary to do so. It seems to me that 'mainstream Christianity' is shying away from what the human heart is crying out for, opting instead for what it considers best.

People are hungry for music that stirs their emotions. I believe that God is the originator of both emotion and music, and that He had a purpose in mind when He tied them together.

Music is a language. It speaks to us in ways that words cannot. It can often find entrance to the heart and mind when a person's defenses would ordinarily block out the intended message. It is completely possible to pair music that can speak to a persons heart with words that they would not normally be receptive to.

Point in case: Christians who listen to Metallica, Slipknot, Static-X, Cradle of Filth, et cetera. They find something in the music that resonates within them, but are (perhaps unknowingly) getting some pretty twisted lyrical content in a sort of package deal. A musical Trojan Horse, if you will.

Consider this, though: The same aggressive musical stylings, but with Christian content... Music that resonates in the soul of a generation and the message paired with it is actually life-giving! This is what I am endeavoring to create. To take what the world has twisted from God's original plan, and set it right again. I want to reach out to my generation with a message of hope and truth based on these facts:
- God has given us life: The sacrifice of His Son washed away all our sin.
- God has saved us from an eternity of separation: He is as close to us as we allow Him to be.
- God has given us authority: we are only as weak as we choose to be.
- God has given us power: everything we need to accomplish our destiny is already inside us.

I think a big reason that screaming/growling is so misunderstood in the church is because people think that secular music did it first. I disagree. I think the David we read about in the Bible was the original metal pioneer. When he and other people in the Bible are described to be crying out to God, or "pouring out [their] soul before the Lord" (1 Samuel 1:15), I don't see this as being a composed or dignified ritual. Yet that has become our culture's perception of prayer and to a sad extent, even worship. Solemn. Reverent to a fault. Devoid of passion.

I think David screamed. If there had been electric guitars in his Tabernacle, he'd have been lining up the meatiest gnarliest chords he could find. I think they would have moshed (or rather, that they did, but predating the activity's current name). I've gotten pretty goofy while dancing, but I know I haven't danced "with all [my] might." (2 Samuel 6:14) That's a kind of focused surrender that just isn't practiced in 'proper culture'.

While some bands clearly take the theme of heavy guitars, fast drums, and deep 'gurgling' vocals to a dark place, I don't believe that any instrument or style of music is evil at its core. It is exclusively where you take it that it resides. When I worship God in my personal time, sometimes I am singing softly, sometimes loudly; sometimes screaming at the top of my lungs, at others (the best description I've heard so far:) screaming from the bottom of my lungs. It is the only way I know to release the emotional energy that I feel in His presence.