Educate your parents in metal

[Conservationist]

Everyone watches. Sit them down to these, in this order, back to back:

• Metal: A Headbanger's Journey
  
• Until the Light Takes Us
  
  The first introduces the culture; the second, the ideas behind it. Black Metal and Black Sabbath are remarkably consistent: by evading reality, and going into the weird world of socialization, we run away from "evil" but introduce lies and then corruption, making a great evil.

[kontinual]

Coincidentally, my first thought after starting my second viewing of Until the Light Takes Us two weeks back was that I would like to know my dad's reaction to the music and ideas after all these years.  I'm going to sit him down to watch the DVD release.

[Cargést]

My Dad listens to Emperor and Burzum - am I exempt from this?

[we hope you die]

I don't really think my parents need to be educated in metal, they have enough respect for me to realise that there is more in the music I listen to than what they see in it, otherwise I would not give it so much attention. To be honest thats more than I could ask.

[Cargést]

At least on "Until the Light Takes Us" we got to see the musicians say their piece without it being commented on or judged.

http://www.anus.com/metal/hall/index.php/topic,4919.0.html

If you believe, as many do, that there is an absolute lack of properly representative material on Metal, be the form Documentary, Book, Essay, Magazine, or whatever, then you should take some time to help, if you don't already.  Given a couple of months, I intend to make a start on something of this kind (probably a "documentary", if I can get a friend of mine to help out) - the more people contributing (even ideas are helpful), the better.

[radiant]

Until the Light Takes Us would a great introduction for anyone towards metal. I think it really cut to the heart of what the bands were striving for, and is pretty entertaining as well. If I actually cared about what my parents thought of the subject besides "rah rah satan", I'd make it a family night viewing. That said, I really don't. My parents know metal sparked my interest in Romantic poetry, and I think that impressed them enough.

My Dad listens to Emperor and Burzum - am I exempt from this?

Your dad is the man -- my dad listens to country music and sports radio.

[Cargést]

My Dad listens to Emperor and Burzum - am I exempt from this?

Your dad is the man -- my dad listens to country music and sports radio.

Does he like anything like the Doors, or any Hendrix, Tubes, Dire Straits..?

[radiant]

My Dad listens to Emperor and Burzum - am I exempt from this?

Your dad is the man -- my dad listens to country music and sports radio.

Does he like anything like the Doors, or any Hendrix, Tubes, Dire Straits..?

He has a pretty extensive collection of vinyl from when he was a long-haired rebel in the seventies with the Doors, Hendrix, a lot of prog and fusion stuff, but he's mellowed in his old age. Became a card-carrying patriot, country and Glen Beck all day....

[Cargést]

See if you can't get him back into the Doors, the Tubes, Dire Straits, and (hell) even Hendrix.  That's the path to appreciation of Metal.  From those and similar bands (the Doors especially, as well as Tubes tracks like "White Punks on Dope"), true Heaviness was born (with the possibly exclusion of Hendrix).

[N0thing]

I enjoyed "Until the Light Takes Us".

I do find it a bit silly that Varg said "Christianity is the root to all problems in the modern world". Sounds like some silly atheist.

[cet30048]

I enjoyed "Until the Light Takes Us".

I do find it a bit silly that Varg said "Christianity is the root to all problems in the modern world". Sounds like some silly atheist.

I don't know, unfortunately it seems as if they edited most of what he said. Varg, in prison, giving what seemed proper insight, with a certain convicted tone... was much more intriguing than Fenriz walking around, although his commentary was worth it.. but Frost of Satyricon's gr1m couch killing, emo-cutting antics toward the end. Scary shit.  

My folks are too into American Idol and crab netting shows to pay mind to anything like Until the Light Takes Us, however.. I do believe they saw A Headbangers Journey, which wasn't too bad of a documentary, the guy seemed pretty well composed.. wished they would have had more coverage of death/black/thrash metal.. VH1 likely wouldn't have supported it though.

[Sammaellofi]

I always thought that "Metal: A Headbanger's Journey" was a pretty misunderstood take on the genre. Sure, it dug much deeper than your typical VH1 documentary and actually named most of the formative bands correctly in their respective subgenres, but it still viewed metal as basically a different form of rock 'n roll. It was especially annoying to see the director go in search of "who are the real satanist bands" as if that is the point in and of itself, and then after talking to Gaahl and a few others (questionable choice!) claim that "most metalheads including myself don't agree with the views of these bands", as if trying to convince the average joe to accept the metalheads as one of themselves.

Yeah that movie really was just an attempt to water down metal and make it enjoyable for the masses, rather than an attempt to help people see what it really had to offer.  It was as if they were trying to get everyone in the world to say "Ok, ok, metal isn't evil, it's just for dorks."

[Arctic Sun]

My parents seem to understand most underlying social problems, and they apparently recognize how heavy metal addresses them (albeit through indirect discourse).

That said, I think it's a case of understandable denial, and I'm not sure how recent documentaries will stand up to intelligent but unreceptive crowds.  Stockholm Syndrome comes to mind, strange as it is in some senses.