The American Spectator

Reader Mail

p> BAGHDAD'S BEST br> Re: Shawn Macomber's Metal Militia, Eastern Divison : /p>

A little musical outfit from Liverpool once sang, "You say you want a revolution/ Well, you know/ We all want to change the world." Great rock 'n' roll (and, yes, I am of the generation that called music from the heart and soul rock 'n' roll and not rock) has always been about revolution and catharsis. The quality of the catharsis is based largely on the strength and fierceness of the forces against which one is rebelling.

American and British youth once had a great deal against which they could throw themselves in their struggles to define themselves: society was rigid and social roles were clearly laid out, but the great social experiment of the Sixties destroyed, or greatly realigned, the standing mores. The youth that grew up in the Post Punk America and Brittan grew up in a more stable and affluent world than did those who came of age between the mid Sixties to the mid Seventies.

Their rebellion, still a necessity of modern youth, was of a more flaccid nature because many, if not most, social barriers had been overturned. Making a revolution from the comfort of your parents' upscale house is not easy; the enemies are often phantasms and delusions. Acrassicauda has real agents of opposition and antagonism against which they are rebelling. Their sound is loud and powerful because the energy released in their struggle against the man (i.e., state sponsored censorship and staid imams) is powerful and real.

p>To them and those like them, Viva la Revolution and Long Live Rock and Roll. br> -- Ira M. Kessel br> Rochester, New York /p>

Thank you, Mr. Macomber, for your review of this documentary and pointing out the problems with Western "hard" artists such as Metallica and Radiohead. There are a few heavy metal songs I enjoy, and I'm not ashamed to admit that. But it does seem that the more successful these bands become, the worse they become.

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