European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - October 26, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Magazine Joey Belladonna Lead Singer of the ipod a Tal group anthrax Tompte Tarn into of Breakneck Tempo.  byjoe Pareles new York times r Ock is on trial again. A few weeks ago in Nevada supreme court decided thai a Sui could proceed against the British heavy Metal band Judas priest due to the alleged Coleel of its music. Late last year Aller listening to the band s 1978 Alburn. Stained class for is hours straight Raymond Belnap 18, and James Vance 21, shot themselves in a Reno churchyard Belnap fatally. Tho suit a fought by their parents and estates Lor unspecified damages alleges that Judas priest mesmerized the pair and the band s lyrics brought on the suicide attempts. Washoe District judge Jerry Whitehead. However has delayed the trial giving lbs records 30 Days As of. Oct. 1d to turn Over the master tape of the album. The Reno judge said the Lape would be a key piece of evidence in separating sounds among the music and lyrics to determine whether any subliminal messages exist. Lbs told the Plain Milfs in the lawsuit earlier hat it cannot find the 24-Lrack master tape. Without evidence of subliminal messages while head said the Case would not go to trial since music and lyrics Are protected by the first amendment right to tree speech. This is the second such lawsuit o receive wide publicity. The first which tied a suicide to Ozzy Osbourne s suicide solution which in weighs against Bell destruction through drug and alcohol abuse was thrown out of los Angeles Superior court in 1986 because the judge ruled the song was entitled to Fri St amendment Protection experts usually cite depression drug or alcohol abuse family problems and the availability of firearms As causes contributing to teen age suicide but in is Clear that some parents and their lawyers believe songs can Hill such litigation raises the question of the her Art and speech should be regulated on the basis of its Poto Lial elect on the most unstable personality. Even if 11 were possible to gauge those effects using that criterion would Likely mean throwing out most prime time television and certainly soap opera plenty of movies and novels most operas a goodly proportion of documentary photography lieu rave painting and jus about every newspaper since some studies have shown that news reports of suicides tend to trigger copycat suicides but Rock gets singled out because it reaches teenagers and seems to exclude parents. The larget More often than not. Is some of the most extremist Rock music heavy Metal. Current heavy Metal has a thriving subgenre oven More extreme than most heavy Metal that is obsessed by death and destruction. The heirs of Judas priest Osbourne s Black Sabbath and other apocalypse mongering heavy Metal bands Cross bred with inc momentum and anti pop Tern cily of Punk Rock Ere the Speed Metal or thrash bands of the 1980s. They bring portents of doom personal and global in words barked Between Jackhammer jolts of guitar and they have become too popular to shrug Oil. Metallica Speed Metal s prime mover has sold a million copies of its new album. And Justice for an in less than a month anthrax s new Sale at euphoria and Slayer s soum of heaven Aro also Selling Well. Speed Metal has established its own musical and verbal conventions. More often than not. It pounds along at Breakneck tempos stopping and starting at irregular intervals like a Libri plating heart. 11 is anything but droning and hypnotic its rhythms Are Choppy and memory defying calling for High powered virtuosity and delivering new Impact with every lunch. Yet for All the Tricky slops and starts the harmonies Are utterly simple. Most songs sputter along in every guitarists Lisl chord e minor and melodies Are changed or barked in a narrow Range. So the music is both explosive and sons tricked just the Way a teenager can Lee much of the Lime. Wednesday october 26,1993 it is what Speed Metal bands Aro saying though thai gains them attention and notoriety. They want their messages to gel through lyrics May be spat at top Speed in the music but albums Are almost invariably packaged Wilh Lyric sheets that spell everything out. At concerts Speed Metal s overwhelmingly male fans some of the most devoted enthusiastic audiences i have been in lately shout along verse and chorus easily joining in on those constrict cd melodies they portray a Diro universe a typical album includes songs about nuclear incineration dying in combat Captivity turning into an automaton going mad about losing control and going on a rampage tales of destruction compulsion Power turned to evil ends often envisioned in gory detail. There Are also Likely to be songs about outcasts and victims the casualties of authority and Power along with denunciations of hypocrisy and assertions of Independence. Some songs address suicidal feeling like Metallica s fade to Black or its new dyers eve which hurls evil curses at parents and then cries i m in hell without you cannot Cope without you two shocked at the world that i see innocent victim Rescue me. Some things Are missing Loo. Among them Are love Romance and sexuality Speed Metal bands Don l sex Alize  there Are accusations and pronouncements there is Little moralizing a Speed Metal lyricist May Well cast himself As someone in the grip of evil impulses. But there is no Lun expressed or implied no Lutri ing other people s suffering into show business As some television news does. And there is no Promise of belter times Speed Metal bands can make fire and brims one preachers sound like cockeyed optimists. Some people would prefer that Speed Metal s concerns stay unspoken. The parents music resource Center in its widely distributed video facing the Challenge stirs fears among parents by quoting inflammatory half verses of songs and muddling or ignoring contents. As Ozzy Osbourne found merely using the word suicide can land a lyricist in court Judas priest does i even use tha word on stained class. Bui in their own raucous Way. The Speed Metal bands join a big artistic tradition of examining and exaggerating disco fiting feelings and Bleak realities. In the centuries before Metallica. Hamlet was wondering whether Loba or not to be and Goethe s Young werther was deciding to end his own life. Stephen Crane in the red badge of courage and Goya in his series called the horrors of War wrote and painted Irig Lening images of death on the Battlefield every bit As bloody As a Speed Metal Lyric. Homicidal maniacs Leer nightly on prime time television in the United Stales. Part of adolescence is accepting and making sense of the reality of death of adult fallibility of burgeoning Power and the limits and responsibilities of that Power. Mainstream pop and Rock for teen agers address new sexual feelings and occasional higher aspirations while steering Clear of bad news. Vet the bad news is out there and Speed Metal bands blurt out teen age fears and anger in the face of adult disillusionment. As they do that the Speed Metal bands add the Defiance and anti authoritarian sentiments that have always been a part of Rock n Roll. Their messages Are nol demagogic commands to follow the Leader or logo on destructive binges. They urge listeners to i Hank for themselves to insist on Independence and truth to question authority and Battle coercion an All american Altitude. Entertainment and Art thai address lightening events and extreme emotions Are probably As old As Art itself and Rock that tells teen agers that they lace a dangerous irrational brutal world cells them the a sanitized truth. It is not the Job of any performer to to a Babysitter or a peer Counselor or a role Model but Speed Metal bands strike a a Ford with millions of teen agers because they reflect what s on their minds and the songs Lell them they Are not alone. Suicide prevention Counselor Tell parents to listen to their unhappy teens without condemning them before condemning their music parents might read a Lyric Sheel of two listen and find out Why such desperate music holds their attention the stars and stripes Page 13