Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Sing a Song to Satan?

one of my favorite bands, Oh, Sleeper has a new album coming out this August titled Son of the Morning. For those of you who are unsure, Son of the Morning is a reference to Satan. I definitely don't have a problem with a band singing about Satan, especially when its a "Christian" hardcore band, on a Christian label (Solid State). according to their myspace page:

Oh, Sleeper has crafted a concept album detailing the final battle between the devil (with Micah Kinard screaming in character on the title track) and God (with Kinard answering on "The Finisher," which closes the record) from start to finish

I'm all about concept albums so i have no problem there either. my question comes from the live shows. I'm seeing Oh Sleeper twice next week, and i plan on being up front screaming along with the words, but what happens when they play the title track from the new album? according to their twitter account they are playing Son of the Morning on their current tour. the song is set up as the thought process between Satan and God, with the verses apparently reflecting what Satan would say, and the choruses reflecting God's response. Here are some of the words:

VERSE
Every night I start my rise, climbing high into the morning sky,
but soon after I lose your bride and I damn your son for stealing my light.
This world is mine...
They call me the son of the morning.
I can mound all your fallen past the clouds as they roll in,
and when I do I will claim your throne through all these cowards you call your sons. CHORUS
"If you could see like me you'd see you haven't won anything.
If you could see like me you'd see, it's by my grace that you're breathing."
If you could see like me you'd see you haven't won anything.
If you could see like me you'd see.

So when i'm up front screaming "they call me the Son of the Morning" is that weird?


Before you cast this off as a problem that only screamo/hardcore bands have, "but not my reliable Christian worship bands" i found the same issue with both David Crowder and Third Day.

David Crowder's song We Win is apparently directed/sung right to Satan, with the following words:

"Because we’ve already won
And You don’t have a chance
Yeah we’ve already won
No you don’t have a chance"

and Third Day's popular song I've Always Loved You is song from the perspective of God, so when everyone is singing along they're not actually singing to God, they're singing along with what God might be saying.

I'm not saying any of this is wrong or right, i'm just wondering what people think about these songs.




1 comment:

Aaron said...

yeah, I have a problem singing as satan, or as God, or to Satan.

I guess an exception would be if you were quoting scripture. Like if someone was singing "get thee behind me satan" or something. But, then you're singing as Jesus, so hmmm. . . .

A mighty Fortress is our God is an old hymn that talks alot about
Satan, but never talks to Satan.

I think you need to keep it to scripture. Of course, once you're talking about performance and not the worship service, all bets are off, but that's my view. . . .

Aaron