Growing up a Catholic on Long Island, occasionally I would attend the youth outreach sessions held at the local church. One in particular I remember was the Monsignor playing Heavy Metal songs for all of us in order to analyze the demonic messages in the lyrics. It makes me think of this literal belief in the power of the word you suggest so nicely above.

The event was kind of wild (an as is often the case more appealing that frightening) for he had an accompanying slide show that captured the demonic imagery of Iron Maiden’s Eddie, all things Ozzie, as well as bands like Slayer (check out this image). I had already been exposed to these bands by that time thanks to my brother, and the fact that the church was talking about them (even if in terms of fear and terror) made that establishment feel somehow more relevant in my mind. Strange that I found the choice not to go to church as I got older associated with my affinity towards something like Heavy metal or punk music. I guess the movie Footloose does have a powerful moral at its core.

I’d be willing to bet that metalheads are more likely to come from Christian families than, say, punkers… and it metal is certainly huge in the Bible Belt.

The documentary Dream Deceivers (about those kids who attempted suicide allegedly due to backward masking on a Judas Priest record) is very much worth watching — the relationships between metal and fundamentalism are pretty explicit:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5636910946432086857

Even the myth of backward masking implies some form of literal belief in the power of The Word.