The University of Idaho Argonaut

Depending on who you ask, everything is a sign that the world is about to end. A Mormon getting as close to being president as Mitt Romney was before he quit is enough to scare some people.
Personally, I think it is scarier knowing that Slayer won a Grammy. Sure, they relegated the metal awards to the pre-broadcast section, but a Grammy is a Grammy. It’s the kind of thing that can ruin underground cred.

Bringing on Armageddon has often been seen as the duty of heavy metal. Upside down crosses, pentagrams, fake Satanic masses — you know, just a kick ass party — are all trappings of this so-called music of the devil.
Guess what, America? Heavy metal will not be the end of the world. A Mormon — or black or female — president will not be the end of the world.

Music has been blamed for so many problems it’s almost ridiculous. Do you think the songs in the hymnal drove Romney to become a candidate? It’s something one must consider, especially if you blame Ozzy Osbourne or Judas Priest for teen suicides. I couldn’t find anyone blaming opera for violence, but a certain German was a huge fan of composer Richard Wagner.
Then again, if you listen closely, you might notice that a lot of heavy metal has roots in classical music. There’s a reason Metallica fit so well with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra.

The best thing that ever happened to heavy metal was rap. Once those urban poets brought their rhymes out of the hood, metal wasn’t the most dangerous music around. Metal asked kids to dress in black, participate in ritualized sacrifice, defy authority and drink a lot of cheap beer.
Rap asked kids to shoot police officers, pimp out their girlfriends, acquire bling and drink a 40 or three.
If you were offended by the generalization of rap music you just read, but assume that what I said about metal is true, you need to think again.

I have a lot of respect for rap artists, I just happen to prefer metal. Both have been maligned in the public mind. I will leave defending rap to someone else, however.
Not that metal needs to be defended. If you don’t like it, don’t listen. If you do like it, listen to as much of it as you can.

Shameless self-promotion warning: Check out KUOI for three different shows focusing on metal, from New Wave of British Heavy Metal, thrash, hair, black, death and every permutation in between. Yes, one of those shows is mine.
Just give it a chance. It might make you smarter.

It won’t, however, be the end of the world. Metal artists only chronicle the push to total destruction. Actually ending will be left to the politicians.