Thursday, October 23, 2008

Slayer's "Disciple"

The tone in which someone is speaking is just as important as the actual words they are saying. Tone conveys emotion and with it it's easy to tell if someone is angry, morose, or euphoric. Without it speech would be monotone and colorless. Slayer is a heavy metal band with a very distinct tone. Songs like "Disciple" push their anti-religion views and their harsh, angry tone.
"Disciple" is very critical of the constricting, blind following that religion commands. Slayer conveys their opinion on the followers of religion, "Drones since the dawn of time/compelled to live your sheltered lives." People have been blindly following an ideal based off nothing since time began. There is no proof, yet humanity is content to sit back and believe what religious leaders tell them. The song goes on to say, "I'll instigate I'll free your mind/I'll show you what I've known all this time/God Hates us all, God Hates us all." The singer knows what most people think, but are too afraid to voice. Perhaps God is not real, for if he is he surely hates us to allow so many terrible things to happen. This adds to the constant tone of anger throughout, the singer finds humanity ignorant and they have no one to blame but themselves. The song gets more angry as it goes on, "I have no faith distracting me/Sounds a lot like hell is spreading all the time/I never said I wanted to be God's disciple." Without faith based on nothing the singer can see the truth. Wouldn't God put an end to hell spreading on earth between all the drugs and violence? He never volunteered to blindly follow an old, tired ideal and neither should the rest of humanity.
The tone used throughout is one of anger and blame. Ultimately it's humanity's fault for what they follow and the consequences that come with it. The singer blames humanity as a whole and hopes that one day they will see through the charade that is religion and correct their mistakes.

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