Posted on 05/14/2005 11:06:04 PM PDT by freedom44
Dave Mustaine was reportedly willing to cancel Megadeth's Greek dates (to be more specific: wherever Rotting Christ are set to appear as support) due to his known dislike for black/death metal bands that depict religious issues in a negative light. Here's what a member of Megadeth's official forums posted concerning this issue and what Dave Mustaine posted in response (as found on the band's forums):
# April3rd: Well, Megadeth will be playing Greece this summer. Both Athens and Thessaloniki. Although it is not yet on the Killing Road the company that organizes the concert announced that the support act for the gig in Athens will be the Greek black metal band Rotting Christ. We all know Dave's beliefs and his opinion about black metal. Rotting Christ, as you can easily understand, don't actually go to church every Sunday, instead they had taken part in the "F--k Christ Tour" along with Mayhem and other Satanic bands a few years ago. Hey, Dave, do you mind them opening for you?
# Dave Mustaine: Well, if they are on it, I certainly don't want to kick them off. We will just have to pass and play Greece another time or place. I have informed my management and they know what I feel.
Lately, Megadeth mainman Dave Mustaine posted the following message in the "Forums" section of the band's official web site: "It has come to my attention that there was a show in Greece where an allegedly 'full-on' Satanic band [Rotting Christ] was going to be playing, as well as one in Israel too [Dissection]. No one knows for sure what their intent or content is, so I am not going to say they are.
"Yes, I said that I was not really interested in playing with Satanic [bands], and that is because I changed my outlook on life and my spritual beliefs over three years ago. I became a Christian, yes, and I have made even more mistakes now that I have, because there are things I do that I know I should not do, and things I do not do that I know I should.
"Plus I have helpful people like the guy in this thread who is quick to point out my failings, and volunteering as my self-appointed judge to remind me of everything that I am doing wrong.
"Yes, I did say I would prefer not to play on concerts with Satanic bands. That doesn't mean I won't, it doesn't mean I would not talk with the bands either, (sometimes it is just for fun anyway with these bands). But to make a life-altering change and then not have some kind of affect would not have been a change at all, would it? It's not much different from staying away from booze if you have made a decision to be sober.
"The concerts that I headline or I put together is usually my choice who I want to play with; festivals are different. If I don't feel it is right for me to do something, then like I said in this post here I would just respectfully decline. I would not ask that anyone be taken off if they were already confirmed.
"I have to draw the line and stand for my beliefs or they aren't beliefs at all, are they? I don't expect anyone to fully understand this, but I know many of you do, and I thank you for your support.
"To the Droogie that is set on insulting me about my beliefs, I understand. It is easy for a person with no beliefs to mock someone who does. I don't know if you do (I hope so), but it appears not. Because if you did, you would say, 'Well, those are Dave's beliefs, they are not like mine, but if mine are to be respected, than so should his.'
"I doubt you will think things through like this before you come on here and attack me for my beliefs again, but here's to hoping. And ya might want to check the guidelines of this site too; we are pretty friendly here, but personal attacks don't sit well here.
"And if not, I imagine someone will prolly buy your ticket and I will dedicate a song to your abscence at the concert.
"The moral to the story is this ... I don't like certain bands and that will never change that in me."
And here's what frontman Sakis Tolis of the Rotting Christ has said in response (exclusively via Metal Temple magazine), concerning the issue that has arisen due to Mustaine's comments:
"Unfortunately, we find ourselves in the difficult position to have to announce to our fans that we feel like canceling our upcoming participation in two big festivals (something that we have done several times before, too), with the reason being our band's name. A name that expresses our opposition to any kind of religion, a name that opposes to any fake visions of an eternal calmness and peace, a name that is a punch at the conservative basis of the hypocritical and religious so-called democratic societies.
"Unfortunately the middle ages still find their way into the new millennium and metal must support the freedom of the mind, something that it has been doing since its foundation."
Props to Dave Mustaine.
If peace sells, who's buying?
I loved that album.
Amazing how so many heavy metal bands are Christian and voting Republican now a days.
So, does that mean that "Symphony of Destruction" is really, like, about Armageddon or something? Just joking.
Whatever, Mustaine. Christian metal; Black metal. Doesn't matter to me where a band kneels and who it prays to: If the music's good, I bang my head!
NOTE: And I'm a Metallica man, Mustie. Go cry on that.
I'm a huge Megadeth fan. A MD concert remains to this day the only rock concert I've ever attended (I got free tickets from being a college radio DJ--I was supposed to give them away in a contest, but of course kept them for myself). Apart from the superb musical quality of Mustaine's music, I appreciate the thoughtfulness that goes into the lyrics. I don't always agree, but they are always thought-provoking. The most relevant Megadeth song is, I think, Holy Wars: The Punishment is Due. Also know that Megadeth put out its valedictory album in late 2004 (The System Has Failed), and is a great disc that musically travels from thrash-metal (Kick the Chair), to political work (Blackmail the Universe), to historical (Truth Be Told) and finally religiious (My Kingdom).
I guess the smart ones grow up eventually. I was more of a punk in my younger days, but I really liked Megadeth's sarcastic attacks on phonies.
If I were ever to run for the presidency, I would use "Peace Sells" as my campaign music.
What do you mean I couldn't be the President of the United States of America?
Tell me somethin'--It's still We the People, right?
Peace sells, The conjuror, and Wake up Dead play great together. The rest of the album is pretty lame.
That's funny, your post made me think of a Christian rock singer in a Heavy/Rock Christian band that I know who votes Republican and will be playing at a HUGE Christian Heavy Metal Concert this summer...my husband - singer of Demize!
DEMIZE opens the show on Aug 28th at Beyond the Mountain Music Festival
www.beyondthemountain.com
www.demizerocks.com
RE: "If peace sells, who's buying?
I loved that album."
Yeah, "Peace" was pretty good thrash...but the crowning achievement is still the legendary Metalli-opus Master of Puppets, with the none-more-evil bile of Slayer's Reign in Blood coming in a close second.
Three good songs on an album is a lot more than most of the records I've heard in the last 20 years.
Why not call yourself "Rotting Mohammed" and see how it flies? People like this douchebag mock Christianity because Christians don't saw heads. Chicken-$#!+
Well, this guy gets it. Sounds a lot like Paul, saying, "those things I don't want to do, I do, and the things I want to do, I do not."
Hey, many of us were there once. My band opened for Steppenwolf and the James Gang, and I did a flaming drum solo long before Great White brought such tactics to shame :)
sounds like you also remember the MC 5....rock on man...rock on...Ludlow Garage days...?
More the Hendrix era. The Who sat through our set at the Troubadeaur, drunk as skunks.
Uncommon common sense.
Tell Jane Fonda.
OK, her and a few million other professing "evangelicals."
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