never listen to pillar, or any hard rock album beyond 11:00, or 1 hr before whenever you plan on sleeping. christian or not, you won't be able to fall asleep for a bit. that's the truth. lesson learned... the good thing is that today is not the 1st day of class for me.

now, i dunno exactly how i'm gonna say this next, so bear with me...
i wonder how much(if any) of what is holy/evil can be decided superficially? it's more or less established that christians are to test everything, then hold onto the good, right? and more or less, most of the cases are determined by what the "internal" mindset is. that's why we're smart enough to know everything with a devil+horns on it doesn't automatically make it evil, like how everything with feathery wings and a halo on the head is not always considered good. the fact that satan himself tries to tempt us by changing into an angel of light is hardcore evidence on that part.
so... what about music? is everything based upon the lyrics? does a song with the words "praise god" in it already make it holy? i think they're been research on classical music aimed at plants vs hard rock, and they found that the plants failed to grow a bit more when exposed to the heavy metal. however, we can't just brush a song with the words "praise god" in it away... (on the other hand, it's like saying "praise god" while killing innocent ppl, or stealing, or something like that... is THAT right?) so it's this weird debate, if you can call it that, that i've been recently mulling over for a bit. is there such thing as an "evil melody/harmony/rhythm?" i mean, in all honesty, hard rock can often sound quite in a word, "evil" at times. but isn't that just a superficial view?
or do we classify such music as neutral, like water; hurts or harms depending on the user, and the way it's used? i mean, there's a lotta things in life that are, "neutral." even during paul's time, eating meat was a problem, because we all knew how some of the jews were having a hard time adjusting from this idea of a kosher lifestyle to a "free-for-all-unless-it-causes-you-to-sin." i have a verse that i personally linked at the top of my journal here(forgot which one, but it's there), which addresses that; if anyone eats meat and falls into sin, i shall never eat meat again.

i dunno... i don't think i'll be able to arrive at a conclusion w/this debate. how can we say that music does NOT induce a person to do harm? it's sorta like the whole debate against video game violence; yeah, i don't believe that it in general causes a kid to want to kill a person on the spot, but it's not like it's making them holier either. in the same way, yeah, hard rock probably won't ever induce me to kill anybody or the like, but there'll be times when it rears its ugly head inside of me.

that said, hard rock does have one good purpose; pumping yourself up. the beauty of music is that while ppl like it to soothe you down, it can also be used to amp you up. i get truly annoyed everytime ppl try to shut hard rock down by saying it's too loud, too hard, doesn't make me feel relaxed. to be honest, i never truly thought hard rock was MEANT to soothe you. go listen to jazz or classical if you want to feel relaxed. go listen to hip hop or hard rock or something equivalent if you want to pump yourself up for a game or something.

which probably brings me to the very last thought for today on music; as a songwriter; does this mean that if i want to pump others up, i have to bring a hard rock feel to a piece? does this mean that when i want to soothe, i go for a slow, not-distorted, quiet feel? probably. so MAYBE the conclusion on music is this: match the lyrics with the melodies/harmonies/rhythms... don't be singing about god's love and not worrying when you're overloading the amp with some power chords and distortion... bring some lyrics about a spiritual war and staying hard and on the path like it's a war or something... that's the way to go.

so yes... pillar - frontline, fits quite well...