Metal’s not on trial in Lambesis hitman case

This week, metal fans were shocked to learn that As I Lay Dying frontman Tim Lambesis was arrested for allegedly trying to hire someone to kill his wife, Meggan. The couple was in the process of getting a divorce — and apparently, Meggan raised questions in the divorce papers about Tim’s recent behavior, which she worried was putting their three adopted children in danger.

According to police, Tim was arrested last week after soliciting a man to kill Meggan — and that man turned out to be an undercover detective.

At this point, very little has been revealed, and that’s normal, considering that this is an active criminal prosecution. If the case goes to trial, much more will be revealed at that time. But the shroud of protection that surrounds the prosecution of criminal cases leaves much to the imagination — and people love to speculate when they don’t know the details.

But it’s important to remember a few things: Tim is innocent until proven guilty. Just because the police and attorneys (especially attorneys!) say something doesn’t make it true. And metal had nothing to do with this.

The FBI doesn’t keep statistics on how many people hire (or attempt to hire) hitmen each year. It’s not none, but it’s probably not many. The people who do the hiring come from all walks of life. Heavy metal happens to be one of them — but when was the last time you remember a metal musician hiring someone to commit murder?

(It would be easy to joke that “real metal musicians do the deed themselves,” but that’s exceedingly rare, too. And, again, unrelated to metal.)

Crimes of all stripes have everything to do with the person who commits them, and the circumstances they’re in, but loving or even performing a kind of music isn’t a “circumstance,” per se. Divorce is a circumstance. Mood issues create circumstance. Losing custody of one’s kids is definitely a circumstance. But metal? Not so much.

There have been attempts to compare Tim Lambesis’ situation to that of Lamb of God singer Randy Blythe, who was accused of contributing to the death of a Czech fan who jumped onstage during a concert, and who was acquitted after a trial earlier this year. But that was a totally different scenario — an unfortunate accident that could have happened at any public concert where people stage-dive. Did metal have something to do with it? Kind of. In the same way that skateboarding, sky-diving, or boat racing is risky, so is stage diving. Enter at your own risk.

Fans and critics of metal must be patient, and wait to see what the evidence reveals — or doesn’t — about Tim Lambesis’ circumstances. Until then, let’s leave metal out of it.

“This guy got really mad, and he didn’t know how to control himself. People think I helped him.” “Did you?”

Kat Chandler’s short film, “Black Metal,” is getting its big break at the Sundance Film Festival this month. In just a few minutes, the film explores a gruesome murder loosely tied to the music of a heavy-metal band. Only this time, it looks at the situation from the perspective of the musician whose work is linked to the killing. It’s a sensitive, emotional take on the topic, and doesn’t answer very many questions, leaving the viewer to reflect on whether this common scapegoat is really part of the problem.

Given my perspective on the topic, I have mixed feelings about Chandler’s film. On the one hand, I like the suggestion that this musician is baffled and upset by the blame, and the fact that the film mostly makes that blame appear misplaced. I also like the fact that it doesn’t overtly preach an answer; being too heavy-handed would be less effective. But I wonder whether this film is going to change the mind of someone who is already convinced that extreme music directly encourages its listeners to commit violence. I hope so, but part of me doubts it.

Corey Mitchell, a true-crime writer and metalhead who consulted on the film, said this on Invisible Oranges:

Just to be clear, I would not have taken the gig if Kat’s intention was to declare metal responsible for violent crimes.

What do you think the film says? And what do you think of the way in which it says it?

Top 10 backward messages of 2012

James Holmes: Six months later, do we know why he did it?

We’re coming to the end of Backward Messages’ second year, and what a year it was. We had some immense tragedies, including mass shootings in Aurora, Colorado; Madison, Wisconsin; and Newtown, Connecticut. Goths around the world also took a major hit, with attacks in Iraq and Britain, but a goth singer in the United States surprised everyone. The word “Satan” was tossed around, as it always is, describing everything from Lady Gaga to the Hunger Games.

Last year we looked back at the blog’s top 5 posts, but I wanted to go a little broader. Here’s what drew people most in 2012:

1. Let’s play “imagine the Aurora killer’s motivations!” After James Holmes killed a dozen people in a movie theater, the press had a field day trying to answer one deceptively small question: why?

2. Young opera singer proves goth culture can nurture: Although he didn’t last long on “America’s Got Talent,” Andrew De Leon surprised his audience by (gasp!) not sounding like a monster. Go figure.

3. New Yorker cartoon: the pagan version of blackface: Why are Wiccans still depicted like ugly old hags?

4. Are “The Hunger Games” sacrifices Satanic? I can’t believe I even had to ask that question.

5. Goth, metalhead beaten in separate UK attacks: In the UK, being different remains an unfortunate liability.

6. It’s time to listen to the moms of violent young men: After Newtown, how long will it be before we help young men struggling with violent thoughts — and support their families?

7. Bloody bath lands Lady Gaga in hot water: This wasn’t the first or last time Gaga was called “Satanic” this year, but it was one of the more creative. She was also banned from several countries, on the grounds that her stage show is Satanic.

8. “The New Satanism” in heavy metal: Speaking of Satanic, heavy metal persists in not being as Satanic as its reputation makes it out to be, but there are a handful of musicians keeping the faith.

9. Ohio shooting: What’s “goth” got to do with it? After Columbine, the press has found ways to link almost every youth-committed mass shooting with goth culture. And every time, reporters have been wrong.

10. Iraqi youth stoned to death after leaders link emo culture to Satanism, homosexuality: One of the most heartbreaking stories of the year.

Happy new year, everyone. See you in 2013!

It’s official: heavy metal is a religion in the UK

At least 6,000 people in the UK feel this way. Photo by Flickr user Iain Purdie.

Some of you may recall that last year, amid the 2011 UK census, there was a campaign to get heavy metal listed as a religion. Well, the results are in, and heavy metal definitely made its mark.

According to the Guardian, 6,242 people listed heavy metal as their religion (65 of them were in Norwich, giving it the highest per-capita concentration in the country). That’s more than said they were Satanists (1,893), New Age (650), Baha’i (5,021), Druids (4,189), or Scientologists (2,418) — and only slightly fewer than the number who said they were Rastafarians (7,906). Jedis still have metalheads beat, with some 176,632 adherents (though that number fell significantly from 300,000 in 2001).

Honestly, I’m surprised the number for heavy metal isn’t higher — certainly there are many more fans than that in the UK — but these, presumably, are either those who take the music and culture seriously enough to consider it a faith, or who liked the amusement value of the idea and went with it.

However, if you’re wondering why your teen, or your friend, is so wrapped up in heavy metal — here’s your answer. It’s potent stuff, and it, like any intense music, can make you feel pretty special when you listen to it.

“Fur Elise” is for the dogs; metal, not so much

Is heavy metal music bad for dogs? Photo by Flickr user Diamond Geyser.

Apparently, Colorado State University professor Lori Kogan felt it was time to find out what kind of music dogs prefer.

Sex Pistols or Debbie Harry? Elvis or the Beatles? Bo Diddley or Miles Davis? Actually, they didn’t listen to any of these — but they did listen to classical and heavy metal.

And, after four months and lots of listens, it’s hard to say whether this was the predictable outcome or not, but it seems the 117 shelter dogs in the study reacted more positively to classical than to metal:

Classical songs ultimately won out, proving so powerful in reducing stress that they even trumped the effect of “psychoacoustic” music designed especially to soothe animals.

Heavy metal, by contrast, appeared to amplify dogs’ anxiety, and was linked with less sleep, more barking and increased shaking.

On the classical side, the dogs listened to Beethoven’s “Fur Elise” and “Moonlight Sonata,” Strauss’ “Blue Danube Waltz,” and Bach’s “Air on a G String.” On the metal side, they heard Motorhead’s “Ace of Spades,” Slayer’s “Angel of Death,” and Judas Priest’s “Turbo Lover.”

Kogan measured three variables: how much time the dogs spent sleeping while the music was playing, how much time they spent shaking and how much time they were silent.

Dogs slept slightly more during the classical music — 3.7 to 6 percent of the time, compared with .8 to 1.2 percent during heavy metal songs. And they were slightly quieter while listening to classical — silent 88.4 to 95.1 percent of the time, compared with 88.6 to 93.5 while the metal was playing. But the differences in shaking were striking: dogs shook 0.8 to 2.3 percent of the time during the classical songs, but 37.8 percent of the time during “Ace of Spades,” 49.9 percent of the time during “Turbo Lover,” and 71.2 percent of the time during “Angel of Death.” Yikes. I’m guessing they weren’t just headbanging.

This isn’t wholly unlike last year’s informal study on heavy metal’s effect on sharks (spoiler: the sharks liked it). The good thing about the dog study is that Kogan doesn’t try to take her results and extrapolate them to other species. On the downside, while it’s clear that the dogs in her study were made more anxious by the heavy metal they heard, it’s not entirely clear why.

I wonder whether there are sounds native to heavy metal (and to these three songs in particular) that are, to dogs, alert/alarm sounds that would make them more anxious, just because of what their DNA tells them might signal danger. Or, I wonder whether these sounds do cause mammals to become more keyed up, but for some humans that has the counterintuitive effect of relaxing them (just as some are relaxed by stimulants).

In any case, Kogan’s takeaway is that shelter dogs — who already lead stressful lives — could benefit from hearing classical music, and probably shouldn’t be played much or any metal.

What do you think? What kinds of music do your dogs like most? Do any of them like a little Sabbath and Slayer?

Polish metaller faces jail over Bible-tearing

Behemoth frontman Nergal, AKA Adam Darski, has been found guilty in Poland’s Supreme Court of “offending religious sentiment” over a Bible-tearing performance. He could go to jail for 2 years.

In 2007, Polish blackened death-metal band Behemoth took the stage in Gdynia, Poland, and did the exact same stage show they’d done everywhere else on tour. But that show included a moment in which frontman Nergal, also known as Adam Darski, tore up a Bible and called the Catholic Church “the most murderous cult on the planet.” As he tore up the Bible, he said, “they call it the Holy Book. I call this the book of lies. Fuck the shit, fuck the hypocrisy.”

Ryszard Nowak, head of the All-Polish Committee for Defence against Sects, took him to court. The crime? “Offending religious sentiment,” a law that remains on the books in Poland although some legislators would like to see it repealed. Darski prevailed when the judge found that his Bible-destruction was a form of artistic expression consistent with Behemoth’s style. But it didn’t end there; Catholics saw him booted from his role as a judge on The Voice of Poland, due to his “provocative behaviour, showing a lack of respect not only for religious beliefs, but also for illnesses and the disabled” in another performance in which he pretended to heal someone in a wheelchair.

The case against Darski went all the way to Poland’s Supreme Court where, late last month, a judge found him guilty of “offending religious sentiment,” a crime that can carry up to two years in jail:

The Supreme Court was asked to rule on legal arguments
thrown up by the musician’s trial in a lower court on charges of
offending religious feelings.

It said a crime was committed even if the accused, who uses
the stage name Nergal, did not act with the “direct intention”
of offending those feelings, a court spokeswoman said.

That interpretation closed off an argument used by lawyers
for Darski, who said he had not committed a crime because he did
not intend to offend anyone.

Both sides held their ground: “(The decision) is negative and restricts the freedom of speech,” Jacek Potulski, a lawyer for Darski, told Reuters. He said he was not giving up. “We are still arguing that we were dealing with art, which allows more critical and radical statements,” the lawyer said.

“The Supreme Court said clearly that there are limits for artists which cannot be crossed,” Nowak told Polish television.

Here’s Darski’s own take:

After emerging from court, Darski himself said that on the one hand “one should respect the court’s verdict.” However, he also claimed that his country’s mentality “is immature, trying to gag people,” and that he was in court for “the good cause”, namely the right to “freedom of speech.”

What do you think? In a country where laws against blasphemy rub shoulders with freedom of speech, which should prevail? Should people go to jail for these kinds of performances? Or should religious groups just look the other way?

In Ridgeway death, “goth” is scapegoated again

Sensationalist media have had a field day with Austin Reed Sigg, Jessica Ridgeway’s alleged 17-year-old killer.

Is Austin Reed Sigg a goth who was infatuated with death? Did he hang out in the “goth corner” with the “metal heads” at school? Was he a Nazi wizard (whatever that is)? Did he play World of Warcraft and Call of Duty?

Over the past week, plenty of news has come out about the demise of 10-year-old Colorado girl Jessica Ridgeway and the 17-year-old boy who led police to human remains, which were underneath his house. He has allegedly confessed to killing her, and a prosecuting attorney has said there is DNA evidence against him.

It’s almost funny how many different tropes the media have tried to pin on Sigg: goth culture, heavy metal, violent video games.

Did Sigg do it?

If so, what would his choice of clothing, school hang-out spot, video games, music, or even speculation about a cross found at a crime scene have to do with it?

Whether or not Sigg committed this horrible crime is for the court to decide, and let’s hope that he has a fair trial, with competent people working both sides of the case and a jury that is capable of setting aside its biases. And let’s also hope that, if Sigg did kill Ridgeway, that he gets more than locked in a hole for life, because a 17-year-old (or anyone) who commits such a crime needs help, not isolation and abuse.

I say that because while I was away, I was lucky enough to see a press screening of West of Memphis, Amy Berg’s new documentary about the West Memphis Three. It is such a stark, vivid reminder of what happened to Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Miskelley, who were jailed for 18 years on charges of killing three 8-year-old boys in Arkansas. Their case has some of the same hallmarks as Sigg’s: a gruesome crime against a child, a community hungry for justice, a teenage boy whose interests are less-than-socially-acceptable; a confession. Yes, there are differences, particularly the fact that Sigg turned himself in, had body parts under his house, and the DNA evidence (if the prosecuting attorney can be trusted); there was no such thing as DNA evidence when the WM3 were convicted, and there’s now ample DNA evidence that they were not involved.

Still, my point is that mistakes can be made this early in the game — mistakes that can send the wrong person to jail for a long time, while the killer may walk free.

My point is that a community starved for a scapegoat will sometimes land on whoever’s most convenient, particularly if he looks different or just never fit in. If something seemed “off” about him. There’s a big difference between someone who makes you uneasy and someone who’s guilty of murdering a child. One is a personal feeling. The other is for a judge and jury to decide.

My point is that calling this kid a goth doesn’t make him any more guilty than he may already be. Calling him a “Nazi wizard” doesn’t, either. All it does is imply that somehow the simple act of being a goth, or even a neo-Nazi, means you might as well be a murderer. And that’s an awful thing to say about a group of people, no matter how you feel about their beliefs.

Goths, understandably, are concerned. In that forum, “CallaWolf” said, “This, to me, almost felt like scapegoating. I wear all black on almost a daily basis (and as I’m writing this, I’m actually wearing a Slayer shirt), and while I do not know any fellow goths outside of this site, I still kinda consider myself a part of it in one way or another, but the very idea of doing these things is apalling to me.”

“Nephele” said, “This happens periodically: The news media confusing sociopaths with goths.”

And CanCanKant said:

Even if the perpetrator does consider themselves a goth, I don’t necessarily think that it was his “gothic” tendencies that caused him to commit heinous crimes. The overwhelming majority of people I’ve met that are goth are very cerebral, calm, introspective types. Hardly the kind to do anything harmful to another human being, especially on this scale.

It’s the tendency of the general public to equate dark, or especially black, clothing, band paraphenalia, tattoos and piercings with the word “goth” that causes this confusion. So many music and art related subcultures use these things, but not all of them would be considered goth. You notice how it’s used to shock. It’s quite sad.

Kids keep telling us that heavy metal is good for them. So why don’t we listen?

Heavy metal: it’s good for your kid. Photo by Flickr user rolle-.

Lately, there’s been a spate of commentaries on heavy-metal music, particularly from young fans who want to sing its praises. On this, my 200th post for Backward Messages, I wanted to share some of those perspectives. After all, it’s not like, in 2012, America is suddenly celebrating metal music as a teen passion.

The first comes from Ivan Maheca, writing for MyHighSchoolJournalism.org:

It is time for people to see and appreciate the beauty of this music because it does have it. Metal musicians, according to people who have studied music appreciation and who know about music, have more talent and are capable of playing almost any other genre and style of music there is. Musically Metal has been underestimated as merely “noise” but in reality it is harmony and melody that simply defies the logic and laws of music, therefore under-seen as just noise by those who close their mind to a whole new world of expression.

When I researched my book, many of the kids and adults I talked to said one of the top misconceptions about metal is that it’s just noise, or that it takes zero skill to play. On the contrary, its virtuosity appeals to many young fans — and inspires some of them to take up instruments, and even form bands.

Another common misconception is that metal makes kids depressed or angry. Actually, many find that it brings them out of such moods, to a place of calm. It gives them what they need to feel like they can tackle the world again. Here’s Claire Martens, talking about how that happened for her:

I clung to music in my deepest moments. It was a constant in my life, something I depended on when nothing seemed certain or predictable. Even today, when I really don’t want to do something, I put on a good hard-kicking, air-punching album, very loudly, and allow it to invigorate me or cradle me, or be whatever it is I need it to be.

(Full disclosure: Claire links to Backward Messages in her post.)

Claire suggests that parents introduce young kids to metal, in order to broaden their budding musical palates: “Not only will your kids develop discerning musical tastes and an ear to make any music producer proud, but will live to be well-adjusted creatures.”

Amen.

With so many articulate teens and former teens singing heavy metal’s praises, why don’t more people listen to them?

Could Egypt’s heavy metal days be numbered?

A band performs at the Heavy Tune Metal Festival at Nile Country Club in Cairo, Egypt, in July 2011. Photo by Flickr user lokha/Lorenz Khazaleh.

In January of 1997, roughly 100 Egyptian heavy-metal fans were rounded up, arrested, and accused of Satanism. Now, almost 16 years later, it looks like it could happen again.

Over the weekend, Ismail El-Weshahy, a lawyer for the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), filed a complaint to the Egyptian interior ministry against El-Sawy Culturewheel. He claims that the venue, a regular home for rock and metal shows, was hosting “Satanic” rock bands and events. El-Weshahy even claimed that his clients, members of an independent anti-corruption group called “We’re Watching You,” filmed “satanic rituals” at Culturewheel.

The news comes just as the Muslim Brotherhood is gaining power and legitimacy in Egypt. After the 1997 arrests, most were freed because the charges against them were unprovable. However, the metal scene in Egypt was essentially silenced; too many bands were afraid to play, and clubs were afraid to host them. But slowly the scene re-emerged. Today, it’s a healthy scene, but it remains underground for the most part — it hasn’t achieved pop-culture status. Most Egyptian metal bands aren’t known outside the country. That leaves them relatively to these kinds of political and cultural attacks.

Some metal musicians in the scene saw this latest move coming.

Wael Osama, founder and manager of heavy metal band Enraged, said:

“I was expecting that something like this could happen in the future, but I did not think it would be this soon. No matter how absurd the accusations are, the fact they are brought by a well known lawyer from the FJP will generate a big amount of bad publicity with possible serious repercussions.”

What those repercussions could be remains to be seen. Metal musicians in the country are gathering this week to discuss what to do and how to respond to the attacks.

Heba Ahmed, who works at Culturewheel, said the venue will continue hosting events, including heavy metal shows. In addition, a statement on its Web site denies the allegations: “In our ten years of activity, the Culturewheel has not hosted any kind of practice that could be called Satanic,” the statement asserted, going on to express doubt that Satanism in Egypt existed at all.

Certainly, heavy metal is not Satanism.

Don’t Blame Heavy Metal For Alleged Baltimore Shooter Bobby Gladden

I have a new piece up at SF Weekly’s All Shook Down blog today: Don’t Blame Heavy Metal For Alleged Baltimore Shooter Bobby Gladden.