London, Aug 31 (ANI): Many devout Christians might think of heavy metal music as crass and even satanic at times, but according to a Church of England cleric, they could learn a lot about life from the genre of music.
The Rev Rachel Mann claims that heavy metal allows its tattooed and pierced fans to be more "relaxed and fun" by acknowledging the worst in human nature, reports The Telegraph.
"Since Black Sabbath effectively created it in 1969 by using the dissonant sound of the medieval 'Devil's chord', heavy metal has been cast as dumb, crass, and on, occasions satanic; music hardly fit for intelligent debate, led alone theological reflection," said Mann.
"And yet, as both priest and metal musician and fan, it strikes me that the Church, especially at this agonized time, has a serious gospel lesson to learn from this darkest and heaviest music," she added.
Mann believes that heavy metal rockers are "unafraid to deal with death, violence and destruction".
"The music's willingness to deal with nihilistic and, on occasion, extremely unpleasant subjects seems to offer its fans a space to accept others in a way that shames many Christians," Mann said.
"Metal's refusal to repress the bleak and violent truths of human nature liberates its fans to be more relaxed and fun people," she added.
On the other hand, Anglicans have made their faith "too reasonable and ordered" rather than passionate, she said.
Mann believes that metal's fascination with Satan or evil is play-acting, driven by a desire to shock.
"I am not suggesting that as Christians we have all had a humour bypass, but we are inclined to take ourselves too seriously even when we are having fun," said the cleric. (ANI)
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