Mar 28, 2010

our so called god free youth...


this has been pissing me off quite a while, and i'm saying this being an atheist myself. and i'm saying this as somoeone who appreciates bands leveling thought-out criticism against organized religion, as long as it is at least slightly intelligent.

positive mental attitude in hardcore / punk music seemed to be a dying whore after a couple of really hyped up years. that brings ceremony's first european tour with bane and have heart in 2007 to my mind. barely anyone seemed to care about ceremony, because every single kid out there was waaay into shit like have heart (which sucked really bad live) and didn't seem to care about ceremony's angry and raw non-melodic and non-sing-a-long sound. but in the meantime a new wave of more gloomy, pissed and negative hardcore punk spread over from the usa and as always, the european scene was waiting for something new to suck all life and originality out of, haha. so guess what: next time ceremony came over everyone was all pumped to see them and all hell was breaking loose as soon as they were hitting the first chord up on stage. note: i don't really know how things are right now, but i think ceremony is one of those bands people declared as sellouts after not caring about them at first and singing along at their shows just a blink of an eye later.

anyways...through the last two years a shitload of bands were following into this "new" direction, musically and apparently idealistic, too. this new idealism brought atheism in hardcore punk back to the table again and kids were picking up on that. so basically most of the younger positive hardcore bands just disappeared or turned into something different, spreading their made up beliefs against the world, that surprisingly became a very bad and cruel place in the meantime, and especially against god and religion now.

this one band from germany especially caught my attention through their "god free youth"-patches. i still remember listening to the songs and reading through the lyrics of their early 2008 demo on myspace, which i didn't care for too much, since it exactly was that positive type of hardcore sound and spirit i barely cared about in general. not too mention that it has been a little too late for just another hardcore band with that certrain sound and message. anyways...that god free youth-slogan this band was promoting oh so forceful made me check out their myspace again. there was a new ep release up for streaming. their progress from a positive and melodic to a more emotionally raw and gloomy sound was no surprise to me and just the prototype of where hardcore bands were going lately. but they even had a song called "god free youth", so i was eager to read the lyrics. and i couldn't believe what i was reading, so...as sharing is caring - enjoy the full lyrics for the whole song:

"speak to me! where's your fucking god? listen well: there's no loving lord!...."

WHAT THE FUCK??? was that all they had to say? is that their criticism against religion? is that the foundation for the slogan they are spreading every chance they seem to get, even on the merch they sell? come on?! oh, and not too mention the band's very own slogan:

"
save yourself /// see /// think /// act"

so...based on all that i am asking myself: is this song and its lyrics the act after seeing and thinking about a topic that turned into something that's important enough to them to spread it like fucking herpes in a teen summer camp? if so...all i'm gonna say is: wow, that sucks!

of course i heard more and more bands chanting similiar stupid and empty phrases of the same fashion in the meantime. and i'm sure that reading through their lyrics would make me hate most of them, if not all. if being anti-religious is the new cool thing to do i am fine with that. i wouldn't care or in some cases even appreciate it. but why the fuck are bands acting like fucking intellectuals while they're only slightly scratching the surface of a topic, that is so goddamn rich of content? the only answer to this seems to be that this is what it's all about: slogans and images. acting - yes - but even trying to see things clearly and thinking them through carefully and from more than a fucking rebellious teenager point of view? i don't think so.

most of these lyrics don't even seem to touch the point, that spirituality is not the fucking problem. there actually are a lot of people out there who believe in a god or what ever, without agreeing on a certrain religion, their rules and their claim to be the only true form of faith. most of these lyrics don't seem to touch anything but: your god sucks and doesn't exist, your beliefs are stupid. and still most of these bands see themselves as an intellectual group of people, full of awareness about the shit they write lyrics about. and this seriously pisses me off.

footnote: this topic is just too huge to talk it all over in just a post on a blog. but what i am trying to say in general is, that this fact alone makes it impossible to even act like you know shit. there are a lot of things to bring up against organized religion and as mentioned, i appreciate that if it's done in a thought-out way. i do not think that spirituality is something that should be damned without any further examnination with its cultural backgrounds and so on aaand sooo on [...]. i can only try to level criticism on organized religion in a little more thought-out way myself when getting into the topic - and i'm sure i fail at times. but what i won't do is shooting out stupid phrases and slogans. i hate bands that are building and blowing up an image, which isn't worth shit as long as there is nothing else behind that. if you label yourself, you better have something more to say about your label. otherwise...please just stop that shit!

2 comments:

alex dissonance said...

ich find es echt hoch interresant wie die grade bei uns in dortmund total gehypt werden. ich kann mich noch gut erinnern das deren schlagzeuger vor 3 jahren in nem job for a cowboy klon gespielt hat auf den natürlich auch jeder steil gegangen ist. aber kritik an orgainiserter religion sieht anders aus.

I am Motherfucker said...

Yeah, hardcore and punk since its very beginning (yes i'm pretty sure the early 80's hardcore scene was full of pretentious fucks too, more than we like to think) has been a playground for people who think are smarter than anyone else, just because they belong to a little countercultural niche. That happens to every scene though, be it the indie scene or even to movements that don't really share anything with music (i'm thinking modern art).
I also remember that 2007 tour, boy I wish ceremony would have gotten more praise, they eventually did one year later but I remember not knowing shit about have heart or bane and being so excited about ceremony playing, but all i got was a big letdown because of the crowd's response. The cool thing about this is that among a sea of just poser shit you can find some real gems, and i think ceremony has to be that gem because i can truly see these guys don't give a fuck about anyone's opinion, starting with them signing to bridge 9. They are constantly evolving and have released a modern hardcore classic which has completely drifted from their original formula and we can only praise that. About hardcore band not caring about spirituality, there are a lot of bands which are based on that very theme, i'm thinking integrity and fucked up.