Theme Park at its Darkest

You posted a very interesting article about Jason Everman, a former guitar player for both Nirvana and Soundgarden who, after his tenure concluded with both those bands, joined the special-forces and served in a number of theatres of war. He described war as being a ‘theatre of schooling for the heart.’ What do you think about that?

I had an old ‘Soundgarden Live’ [concert] on VHS with Jason playing back in the day. And an old tour poster with him on it. I never really cared for Nirvana that much, but Soundgarden ranks ultra-high on my favorite band list. I’d always wondered what happened to Everman.

Why did he get the boot? I was literally taken aback by his story, once that article brought it to light. I’m not super into the military like some, but I admire those Special Forces guys. Whether it schools the heart, I can’t say. I’ll take his word for it. I mean, I could only imagine the weight of that job. I’m grateful.

How do you straddle the line between extreme music – Slayer, Sabbath, etc – with your political and religious beliefs? I mean, those bands are pretty, shall we say, straight-forward in their anti-attitudes.

Slayer is absolutely one of my favourites. I’ve seen them more than almost every other band, but to be honest, I’m not very familiar with anything beyond Seasons in the Abyss. They were just the coolest thing when I was a teenager. And the funny part about what drew me in was their production. I thought they sounded so raw and ragged.

SABBATH is – and shall always be – my favourite band, but only the first six records. Oddly enough, it was ‘After Forever’ that started bending me back toward Christian faith. I love how an unexpected message like that can feel like true rebellion.

‘After Forever’ is one of the greatest Christian apologetic songs ever composed, in my opinion. ‘Will you still sneer when death is near and say you might as well worship the sun?’

High On Fire is another example of this. They were just the raddest band to emerge from the late 90’s. I was a huge fan of Sleep since the beginning. I saw Sleep in 93 and that still goes down as one of life’s most epic experiences.

So HOF comes out and I totally fell in love. And then I read the lyrics, how Christian they were on Art of Self Defence, and my notions were broken about how ‘cool’ evil was and how ‘square’ and moronic I felt religion was.

Suddenly the script flipped and I started seeing how all the satanic imagery in heavy music seemed to conform so heavily… too scared to stand up among it’s own peers and profess belief. On top of being stupid, it seemed a cowardly and safe bet for acceptance. I started relating to the attitude of the warrior priest.

Then I studied and learned and made CHOICES to live in a world where God exists and I began to find truth. A slow and encumbered journey nonetheless, but when I see where I am now compared to where and who I was… I count my blessings, let’s just say. But going back full circle, you couldn’t have Slayer without the imagery, tone and inspiration of the Bible.

I met the original line-up of Sabbath, by the way, while [I was] tripping. I yelled at Ozzy.

This entry was posted on November 7, 2015 at 11:51 am and is filed under Music, Real Men with tags Art of Self-Defense, Black Sabbath, High on Fire, Jason Everman, Nirvana, Ozzy, Seasons in the Abyss, Slayer, Soundgarden. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.