Buried in news reports earlier this month was a story about an interview in Esquire with the U.S. Navy Seal who killed Osama bin Laden in 2011. According to the anonymous shooter, early in the Iraq war, they developed the practice of using music from Metallica to break people down during interrogations. Here’s the priceless quote: “Metallica got wind of this and they said ‘Hey, please don’t use our music because we don’t want to promote violence.’ I thought, ‘Dude, you have an album called ‘Kill ‘Em All.’”
But they respected Metallica’s request and stopped using the band’s music. In stepped the Christian metalcore band Demon Hunter. The shooter continued: “[They} got in touch and said, ‘We’re all about promoting what you do.’ They sent us CDs and patches. I wore my Demon Hunter patch on every mission. I wore it when I blasted bin Laden.”
I’m still trying to figure out how to feel about this. I get that these kinds of missions are critical to our national interests and so forth, but for a band (an overtly Christian band, no less) to sanction a team of elite killers causes me some discomfort. Yet there is something apropos about a band called Demon Hunter sponsoring a team of assassins as they track down members of the most-wanted terrorists’ list. And clearly, whether they intended this or not, whoever it was from Demon Hunter who mailed those patches and CDs is a marketing genius.
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I would just like to state that Metallica has posted on its facebook page that it explicitly has never said anything about its music being used for torture one way or the other. Just thought that should be made clear. I love both bands so regardless of what Metallica’s actual actions were I’m happy that Demon Hunter so overtly supports our troops as they try to rein in terrorism overseas.
Metallica put out a statement on their Facebook saying they never said anything like this.
Demon Hunter also put out a statement in regards to the article on 2/12 (also on their Facebook http://www.facebook.com/demonhunter):
“As you can imagine, our inboxes and phones (and those of our representatives) have been flooded with messages asking us how we feel about the Esquire article on the raid that brought Osama Bin Laden to justice that began circulating yesterday. Specifically, the person identified in the story as “The Shooter” said that Seal Team 6 wore the Demon Hunter emblem on their uniforms and “I wore it when I blasted Bin Laden.”
Over the years, we have been overwhelmed by the personal (and unofficial) emails and letters we’ve received from members of the US military. We have been humbled and honored by the troops who’ve told us our music has offered them some comfort while overseas, while missing loved ones, while doing what they do best in order to keep America safe and protect the freedoms we enjoy. We’ve met many servicemen and women at our shows and they’ve shared their stories with us in person, as well. We wrote “The Soldier’s Song” back in 2005 to pay tribute to these folks who’ve reached out to us. We included one such veteran among the Demon Hunter fans we profiled in our documentary film, 45 Days.
We have seen our symbol, a demon skull with a bullet hole in its forehead, tattooed on fans around the world. We’ve seen it made into sculptures, painted onto motorcycles, even spray-painted onto tanks and military planes. We often post these pictures on our Facebook page when we receive them. One such email, a few years ago, came from a special operations team who had crafted homemade Demon Hunter patches and put them on their uniforms. They asked us if it was OK if they did this and we of course told them “YES” because we are unapologetic supporters of our troops. In the last 24 hours, we have come to believe this team who contacted us a few years ago must have been Seal Team 6.
As for the talk about enhanced interrogation techniques that has sprung up in the media in the last 24 hours surrounding this story, we feel that it is an unnecessary distraction. It’s been widely reported for years that heavy metal music has sometimes been used in these situations. We have no specific knowledge of our music being used for this, nor have we ever volunteered it to be used as such, nor are we commenting on it beyond that. The debate about enhanced interrogation techniques is for politicians, military intelligence, pundits and others of the like to have.
The members of Seal Team 6 and The Shooter are American heroes who deserve our support. We were among the Americans and people around the world abroad who supported the bringing to justice of one of the biggest mass murderers in history, who planned and executed some of the most horrific acts imaginable. All of the military who risk their lives to protect our freedoms earn our respect each and every single day. We are honored, humbled and blessed that Demon Hunter was of any support or comfort to Seal Team 6 or anyone in the US military at any time.
– DEMON HUNTER
Favourite.song.EVER: ‘Beheaded’ by Demon Hunter. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDMG82MSXhU (Note: you may want to turn your volume down, as this ‘is’ loud, but, like mentioned in this article, they ‘are’ a Christian band, so you don’t have to worry about profuse cursing [even if you can't understand the words])
Must admit, I’m also ambivalent over this Christian (AWESOME!!) band promoting the military in such acts of violence, but … they’re still an AWESOME band, so I’m gonna’ focus on that, instead.
Thanks for sharing!
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