Buddhism / Nonduality Influenced Metal Bands

[asunthatneversets]

Saw Astus post that he was interested in other Buddhist influenced metal bands in a thread a few pages back... thought I'd share some..

Decrepit Birth from Santa Cruz California... technical melodic-death metal

DECREPIT BIRTH - METATRON


Born into this world
Under an early sun
A mortal man of the ancient kingdom...earth
Walking in the dream of the vine
The lucid path of vision
I see a garden of shadows with no way out
Within the worlds of my dream
I seek the essence of my being
I transcend the realms...unknown before
Dimensions open before me
Absorbed/dissolved into the light of
Universal understanding
Cursed to live forever...burning from inside
My flesh is turned to fire...my eyes to blinding light
Awakened in my dream to the sound of my own scream
Metamorphosis...transformation...mutation
Who am I...what am I
Reaching out with my mind
Seeing the mysteries
Touch the origin
My mind transcends mortality
Displaced behind the prism of light
Falling into the eye of the paradox
I become the center of time
I am the balance...I am the eye
I am reborn...beyond the body
Beyond the pattern...beyond horizons
Beyond the light...divinity
Knowing the secret of creation
The universe within the flower of life
Five patterns of existence
Vibration of eternity
Past futures...emerge from the present
Lost forever inside my mind
I am eternal
Foundation of time and space
One becomes one inside the circle
Bearing the ancient scrolls of existence
I am destiny


DECREPIT BIRTH - POLARITY


Parallels exist within
Reflection of time and space
Inside of dimension
Dualities evolving from a
Single-cell universe within the molecule
Within this dimension
Of my creation
In the blinding light of darkness
I remain one/we become one
Constant fluctuation
Two suns born
Born of the atom
Symbiotic opposition
Recreation of life changing
Individual...sovereignty
Absorb the other...fusion
Conception of time's vibration collapses within
Ancient forces of opposition
Eternal balances of existence
Aeons...futures...past...evolution
Internal axis of resistance
Pre-embryonic magnetic core
Creation of all worlds inside
Existence of thought
Reaches beyond...forever
Harmony achieved through unity
Within the spectral fields of light...called time

DECREPIT BIRTH - SYMBOSIS


Eternally connected to the energies of existence
Subconscious link of consciousness
The golden light that makes us all one soul
One thought
One beginning
One center of focus
Pasts, present, futures
Existing in the moment
Sequences of existence inner-twine
Feel my light touch thee
The dreams of life awaken inside
Transcend the lies
Live for your dream
Open your mind and see
One soul, one thought, one mind
Evolution of understanding
Attain the wisdoms
Knowledge eternal
I reach out and touch your mind
I reveal the secrets before your eyes
Look into my eyes and you see yourself
I look into you and I see god
We hold the keys to the wisdoms
To the secrets and mysteries within
Witness the light of the new worlds
Evolution of consciousness
Converging the ancient forces
Behold the thought universal
Eternal unity of energies...

[asunthatneversets]

Meshuggah from Umeå, Sweden

Metal with technical off-time signatures

MESHUGGAH - RATIONAL GAZE


Squint your eyes to see clearly. Blur reality to make
it real
Let focus go from your deceiving eyes to know what's
been concealed
We've all been blinded - Subjects to visual
misinformation
A systematic denial of the crystalline

To see the fine grain, to read the hidden words
The context of parallel truth - Devoid of
fragmentation

Our light-induced image of truth - Filtered blank of
its substance
As our eyes won't adhere to intuitive lines
Everything examined, Separated, one thing at a time
The harder we stare the more complete the
disintegration. -Dissolution

Eyes re-opened, Reasoning focalized, Receptors
activated

Perspectives distorted
The ladder beyond our grasp
The twin-headed serpent forever hidden
Where's the true knowledge -
Where engines of the sane & insanity merge
The clarity. The unity

Reality untouchable, transparent, invisible
to our fixed, restricted fields of vision
Existence taken for granted. -Absolute

Possessed, owned, controlled
By the common sense-infected rational gaze
Onward forever we walk among the ignorant
Never stray from the common lines

MESHUGGAH - OBZEN


A state of perfection, immersed in filth
Equilibrium obtained
Pure in devotion to all things unwell
This sweet zen of our ill condition sustained

A new belief-system
Salvation found in vomit and blood
Where deprivation, lies
Corruption, war and pain is god

Balance
Harmony found in the sickly, the vile
Unflinching eyes, joyous and gleeming
Intense in their need to watch things die

A new belief-system
Salvation found in vomit and blood
Where deprivation, lies
Corruption, war and pain is god

Decay, disgrace, disgust - our state of zen

The grime of contempt and degeneration,
Sticky, foul and pungent
- The sediment of our creation
We flourish in this bloodred soil

MESHUGGAH - PINEAL GLAND OPTICS


How come I shiver, hurt and bleed,
If in dreams i cannot truly feel
Who would dare say, who would claim
This hallucination isn't real

Synaptical glitch looking glass
So enticing, real and free of lies
Prodigious, omnifarious
It nourishes, it feeds my starving eyes

Artificial the catalyst, organic its progeny
Voracious spectral offspring - so sweet in its hunger
Unbound this new vision, optical regenesis
Threatening, so complete in beautiful deformity

These authorative visions order my collective senses,
My questioning, doubtful, rigid self to kneel
A Judas syndrome in effect - former self the deceiver
Its denial the wretched kiss that kept this in disguise

Cast off - the conceiling veil, the rational cloak of doubt
Torn off - the restraints, the blinded's shackles
Burned away - the agony, the fear, the grief
A new set of eyes cleansed by a new belief


MESHUGGAH - DEHUMANIZATION / SUM


A new level reached, where the absence of air lets me breathe
I'm inverted electrical impulses. A malfunctioning death-code incomplete
All things before me, at first unliving glimpse undeciphered
Its semantics rid of logic. Nothing is all. All is contradiction

Grinding, churning - the sweetest ever noises
Decode me into their non-communication
A soundtrack to my failure, one syllable, one vowel

A stagnant flow of endings. Un-time unbound. Merging to form the multi-none
A sickly dance of matter, malignantly benign. Greeting the chasm - unbearable, sublime

Vision will blind. Severance ties. Median am I. True are all lies

[asunthatneversets]

Neuraxis from Montreal Quebec

Technical death metal

NEURAXIS - AXIOMS


The Universal, the Ultimate, the Absolute
The wholehearted desire, in progressive conformity
By the body, by the mental, by the spirit
The logical devotion
Experience of the divine ideals
Spherical application of the incarnation
Infinite progression in three phases
Definite by the splendor of compassion

NEURAXIS - A THIN LINE BETWEEN


Enigma of a world untamed
To explore the boundaries of what is known to man
Searching for the balance, a road to a fate uncertain

Fragile equilibrium - Hidden in a subtle disguise
Perfectly crafted to appear solid - A divine mask of conformity

Rules applied in the past, centuries of deceit and masquerade
Has rendered humanity thoughtless, forbidden to evolve

Tormented by the question
A conscience trapped in a maze

The abyss lies before
A mystical vortex of infinite depth
At the edge of unreason
A knowledge blurred
Through a mysterious horizon

Face the obvious, the acceptance of the fact
This universe...devoid of answers
Face the obvious, the acceptance of the fact
The puzzle within, impossible to resolve

This fear of the unknown
Is common for every mortal
An ocean of contradictions
With every waves, darkens
Frozen at the bottom

Thirst for knowledge
Insatiable desire to comprehend
This quest for truth leads a path unsecure
Dangerously stands at the border of chaos

Paradox at the end of the equation
...The unbreakable wall
Paralysis after a lifetime of reflection
...An endless cycle
Inevitably returns to where it all begins

To stand in the middle
At the origin of the struggle
Where fiction surpasses reality
Enlighted by a dream
The idea that spawns the beast
The thin line between
Genius and maniacal

Enigma of a world untamed
To explore the boundaries of what is known to man
Searching for the balance, a road to a fate uncertain

Fragile equilibrium - Hidden in a subtle disguise
Perfectly crafted illusion to appear solid - A divine mask of conformity

Rules applied in the past, centuries of deceit and masquerade
Has rendered humanity thoughtless, forbidden to evolve

The abyss lies before
A mystical vortex of infinite depth
At the edge of unreason
A knowledge blurred
Through a mysterious horizon

Face the obvious...the acceptance of the fact
This universe, devoid of answers
The puzzle within, impossible to resolve

No words to explain...the splendor of eternity
No images to describe...the horror of infinity

This fear of the unknown
Is common for every soul
Afflicted by solitude
Desperate in the absence of certitude

Thirst for knowledge
Insatiable desire to comprehend
This quest for truth leads a path unsecure
Dangerously stands at the border of chaos

Paradox at the end of the equation
...The unbreakable wall
Paralysis after a lifetime of reflection
...An endless cycle
Inevitably returns to where it all begins

To stand in the middle
At the origin of the struggle
Where fiction surpasses reality
Enlightenment through a dream
The idea that spawns the beast
The thin line between


NEURAXIS - THOUGHT ADJUSTER


Actuality of the primal source incarnate amongst the souls
The true promise of eternal career imprisoned within the mortal mind
The general developmental stages of being
Designated as thought changers, called thought adjusters, referred to as thought controllers
Disconnected with the stages of progress in mind duplication
Widespreadly known as the pilot
That lights every soul which comes into the world
The Adjuster is eternity: man is personality
Will never know tranquility from the time of their bestowal
Until the day of their release to start upon the natural death of their subjects
Those who do not pass through the portals of natural death do not even experience this temporary rest
To represent, to be, the energy of the highest order of time and space
Fundamental works of the transfer
Elevating the mortal minds
Translating the souls up to the spiritual heights of achievement
Capacity and potential
Will wisdom have an opportunity to function?
Indwell minds of whose intimate natures, fully apprised
Indwell minds of whose intimate natures, fully apprised
Exhibit the worship outreach
Spiritual perception
Prospects of reverential development
Combined intellectual and spiritual powers
Associated to produce the strength of human character

NEURAXIS - MONITORING THE MIND


Center of all things and beings
As a creator, as a controller
Lastly as an infinite upholder
Dawns upon mankind
Once supreme ambition, just one consuming desire that is to become
As they are in their spheres of supremacy
This attainment is the certain way of all progress
Achieve this destiny in all that pertains
Replete in their sphere of infinity and eternity
Refuse to coerce or compel (the submission of the free wills)
Once becoming truly conscious, discover the majestic and indwelling presence of the controller
Accordance with enlightenment, accordance with the method
Infinitely more than reality idealized
Merely a concept, potential of righteousness
Not a synonym for nature
Natural laws personified
A transcendent reality...
Concept of supreme values
Not a focalization of spiritual meanings
Reasonable to logic, plausible to philosophy
Essential to beliefs, indispensable to any hope for survival

[asunthatneversets]

Psycroptic from Hobart Australia

Technical death metal.

PSYCROPTIC - REMOVING THE COMMON BOND


Manipulation of evolution
Against all that is natural
A course uncharted
Creating that which was once revered by all
Becoming the one to oppose what has always been
The Pinnacle

Reconstructing the elemental nature of Life
A transcendence with no recourse
Time, no longer the restrictive force
Time, no longer the constant
The pendulum has stopped.

By removing the balancing factor
I rise about the homogeneous
We are equals no more
With the common bond of death removed

I stand alone.
Alone in Power.
Alone in Stature.
Alone.

Time is now irrelevant
The invisible structure long ago destroyed
I cannot undo what has been done
A selfish dream that has turned
Into an unwanted reality
Waiting for that which will never come
Without an end, how can "Life" exist?

Now I Just Am
I Am Eternal
I am Nothing

PSYCROPTIC - INITIATE


Stripped of all that is unique, it is redundant
You have joined us, Welcome...
Embrace the new freedom of which you have never felt
Embrace the Nothingness
The sinister burden of individuality lifted
Embrace Us

You need struggle no longer
We offer what you have long yearned for
You will become complete
Now part of our family
Revel without our created monotheistic system
All else is false

You have chosen what is right
You have chosen what is true
You have accepted the inevitable
Adorned with the sacred cloth
You are now our brothers and sisters
Forget your past, repent
We forgive you

For you knew nothing else
Pure savages now tamed
We will guide your future
Together we move toward
All outsiders must fear us

Icons of dissent must fall, the great unclean herded
Those suitable, welcomed... Failures, discarded
Our invitation needs no reply
Vengeance awaits the chosen who doubt, refuse or mock.
We insure this, you will insure this
We cannot be faulted, we are immaculate
Values bond us closer than blood
Our family is ever growing
We will continue to do what is right:
Cleansing the Profane

PSYCROPTIC - (OB)SERVANT


Waking each dawn if it was the first
Sleep eroding all trace of a past
With only vivid dreams intact
I foresee all that will become
A prophet unaware... A reluctant oracle
I remain naive and innocent
Tainted only by the knowledge of a sinister future.
Memories: For me they are Non-Existent
The concept is alien

Carrying clouded prophecies for the future
I see time moving in the opposite direction
Visions becoming clearer as they move toward fruition
Each second sees another vision fulfilled

A mind overwhelmed
All knowledge I possess dissolves as time passes
A mind purged
The future cannot be changed
With mine or your actions,
Every act has already occurred
The future is complete, all outcomes final

You cannot choose.
Unchangeable.
Unbiased.
Exact.

So without a past,
How can I be defined?
I do not possess a 'life', I only exist
My mind a window I wish I could shatter
Not free to choose a path to travel
As I already see its end.
With a perpetual view into the void that will become
I am the Observer to the Future,
Watching the crumbling timeline unfold in reverse.

PSYCROPTIC - EPOCH OF THE GODS


Using universal time theories to ratify their religion.
These elite toil, to advance comprehension - Of space and time.
Although; out for the benefit of 'outsiders'.
Only their sanctuary shall profit as they understand, the true purpose of life:
To become a god, to become omnipotent -
This is life's work, yet completion will be fatal.
Psychologically unbalanced leaders in knowledge,
Unwittingly preparing the termination of 'reality'.
Yet with no malevolence towards others of their kindred...
Simply focusing on the will of the sermon.
Time movement is their goal such dedication rarely witnessed!
The only motivation in their myopic minds an individual craving for a subconscious need,
Allows philosophical faults to be unseen thus far created revolutionary scientific:
And technical advancements that that would be the awe of all.
Their concealment from society however, masks such glory,
Playing fundamentalist cult like spiritual insanity.
The word of their messiah eludes to their intentions yet she is no more than,
A charismatic jester of the modern world.
Emittfihs her synonym -
The name of true insanity time must be unbalanced to reach true enlightenment
For it is a cage that enslaves us all.
Restricted in thought we are not.
For we seek what others only dream,
Try as they might, those un-enlightened will not understand
The secrets and power that await in the shifting of time we must strive against ill-informed resistance
To acquire the chalice of a higher spiritual awakening!
Time must be stopped to achieve their purpose; A crazed thought.
Impossible of course?
Yet their methods could be plausible if their timeline theories are correct,
This 'cult' could succeed in reversing reality itself,
Cataclysmic events beyond mental, comprehension.
Reversing the evolution of that universe itself!
Using, advanced quantum physics and light frequency radiation to achieve the task.
Accidentally covering the mysteries of time, but believing it to be true celestial intervention.
Theories, when, exercised, will follow a destructive path.
Transgressing timelines and interfering in matters of dimensional construct...
The Objective: To find the dawn of time itself and prevent it from commencing!
Only then will they reach.
Their goal...
Omnipotence!
A fascinating presumption, that only time will reveal...

[Norwegian]

Well I don't know much about Buddhist/nondual in terms of metal - but I think this one is interesting:



Zyklon - Worm World (Norwegian metal band, now defunct - started out as black/death hybrid then turned death - members of various bands like Norwegian black metal group Emperor etc.):

Planetary sickness, the state of the world.
Time, Death, God;
inbreed overkill altered through decayed moral causing global infection.
Compulsion of matter,
the remaining part of dreariness and obsolete dejection.
Man breeds ignorance and fatality.
Empty eyes and a soul forsaken, an intellect like zero,
reasons for pandemic genocide.
Human trash, wasted flesh, is that what you wanna be?
Practise what you preach.

In despite of development from chaos humanity has degenerated
in relation to the primordial state.
Misconception and misinterpretation of values,
surrounds you like a mental drape.

You stink - that`s how you are.
You reek - that`s what you`re at.
You are mentally dead - that`s what you`ve become.
You are matter without content - that`s what you`re all about.
And you thought you were the highlight of the ladder of evolution?

No matter if you do your best,
it`s still a worm world with you in the middle of the viper`s nest.

[justsit]

This must be a guy thing...

[Stewart]

This must be a guy thing...

It's not....I'm a guy, and I think It's dire!

[asunthatneversets]

This must be a guy thing...

It's not....I'm a guy, and I think It's dire!

Certainly an acquired taste... but to each their own! I love all genres of music, and can see the similarities in composition and progression between songs like these posted above and classical piano works (for example). I enjoy the creative energy and passion that any piece of music is product of. Also refreshing to see lyrical subject matter which is of substance in my opinion, it's quite evident that these individuals are very in touch with themselves. I'm glad they express their spiritual and metaphysical passions by writing about them lyrically to music they enjoy, it's truly amazing that sound can be arranged, composed, ordered and manipulated to create melody. The math that is involved in some of the time signatures these bands use is also undoubtably impressive. But in the end whether or not it's considered dire or incredible is truly a matter of opinion... and luckily for us, coming from our separate but unified backgrounds in the dharma, this fact is made even more apparent due to our infallible knowledge that beyond imputed notions everything is already flawless and perfect.

[padma norbu]

The only thing metal seems to work well with is a fighting spirit. Hard to really make anything else work with that sound.

[Malcolm]

This is completely Buddist in sentiment:

[asunthatneversets]

This is completely Buddist in sentiment:

Haha whenever I think of Motorhead I just think of Lemmys giant wart on his face... also funny that if you google image search "Lemmy" you only get photos of him.

[Malcolm]

[Virgo]

From the related vids:




And here I am all these years thinking that 'motor head' meant gear heads, ie. a band of guys who were always fixing and working on cars.

Kevin

[tobes]

Can I claim this as a winner? More stoner rock than metal....but still...

[Jikan]

So much metal/prog stuff is hopelessly humorless. Robert Fripp, even with the good work he's done with Guitar Craft, has to take it sitting down it's so damned serious. It's a bit like an animal realm in that sense. No one's laughing and irony is impossible.

I appreciate this approach for that reason: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyhau0B28P0

sometimes the ones you hold so close can make you cry
but it's a pain in the ass to let 'em go...

that's samsara for you

[Jikan]

Mascis is an Ammachi follower, but the themes are familiar enough if 1) you've had enough and 2) you have a measure of devotion to your teacher

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1FJ_ChQh9s

[ghost01]

I don't know if this group is Buddhism inspired, but close enough.


This too!

[padma norbu]

I think Swans is great proof someone can be influenced by Buddhism and yet still be thoroughly non-Buddhist and downright discouraging to listen to. Love 'em, but so depressing after not too long.





David Tibet, too. That's not his real last name and he may be influenced by Tibetan Buddhism, but he's more of a Crowley/Spare kinda guy. He fronts Current 93, after all, not Current Mani or something.

I think anything truly Buddhist-influenced is going to be more in the vein of something most kids would hate because it's too "lame"... something like... Kevin Eubanks' "Zen Food," which I actually like, by the way. http://www.amazon.com/Zen-Food-Kevin-Eu ... B0043SS250 Most of the stuff you find in the rock realm are about as Buddhist as Venom is Satanist.

[Malcolm]

David Tibet, too. That's not his real last name and he may be influenced by Tibetan Buddhism, but he's more of a Crowley/Spare kinda guy. He fronts Current 93

Yes, yes, yes, and yes.

[catmoon]

Swans hm. Looks like the beginning of a great group. All they need now is some singers, a few musicians and a competent sound engineer.