Looking for God in a godless world - Avenged Sevenfold's City of Evil

I've been doing something drastically different this Lent. Most people I know generally punt things that they find to be "perverse", "banal", or "crude". Or they focus on "more spiritual reading". Or something else. But then Lent is over and they go back to their usual every day lives. But Lent should be about refocusing our spiritual perspective to focus on the Holy even beyond the season of Lent. So instead of giving things up, I've been doing something that many would find, on surface value, counter-productive to the focus of Lent. But in the long-run, probably more beneficial. Let's face it, we give up things like video games for Lent but then we'll come back to playing them right when Lent is over. Why? It's just going through the motions. Maybe it's the sacrifice of pleasure that justifies it? But that pleasure sacrifice is going to be substituted ultimately by something else. Sure, I miss meat, but that can be substituted with another pleasure. And then I'm going through motions.

This Lent, I wanted to do something that I'm ordinarily confronted with on a daily basis. That is seeming godlessness. We all feel like we live in a world that is subjected to Satan. It's a spiritual reality. Our Lord refers to the Devil as the "ruler of this world" (John 12:31). While we know his time is temporary and Our Lord's reign will be eternal, we see godlessness everywhere. But if God is omnipresent, even He is present in the godlessness. In 2005, the hardcore rock band Avenged Sevenfold released an album called City of Evil. I know many people who would look at the Death-Bat on the album cover, look at the genre of music, and the parental advisory label, as well as the title of the album, and state that there is no way this is of God. Yet many of the tracks on the album, listened to carefully, reveal quite the opposite.

What is the City of Evil that is described in the album? The album starts off with the song, "The Beast and the Harlot". "This shining city of built of gold / a far cry from innocence ... a City of Evil". The song is about the Great Harlot of Revelation and her destruction. She "makes us drink the poisoned wine to fornicating with our kings". This sets the tone for the entirety of the album. There is an oppressive condition to this City of Evil that detracts us from reality, leads us to drunkenness, advertises things as an escape. "Bat Country" explores the destructiveness of drug addiction and how things that are ugly are made to look attractive in this delusion to the point that we explore giving up our humanity, making a beast out of ourselves to get rid of the pain of being a man. "Burn it Down" is a metaphorical reference to burning down bridges after someone has betrayed you severely, forcing your own self to wonder if you can even put trust in anyone ever again. "Bat Country" and "Burn it Down" are the two tracks where God may be hardest to find, yet even in here, we see the basic human need to find connection, to be able to trust in something or someone, to escape from the Hell of pleasures that the City of Evil leads us to believe are good.

One of the most prophetic songs on the album is "Blinded in Chains". Though it is severely harsh, the overall message is how our politicians brainwash us and convince us to believe that their side is the truly right side, even manipulating religiosity to swing followers over to them. "As they thank the Lord the blind can't see! / Like a plague fed to the brain deadly disease!" It starts off lamenting that another war has already begun. Looking for the source of the problem, he points to the radical leaders first and foremost. But "as clowns you follow suit, behind the blood between the red and white and blue / ... 'cause it's in sight you take the left, I'll take the right / I feel the hate you've built for me". While the radical leaders are divisive, it's our fault for following them to begin with! The entire political manipulation of both extremes and "if they had it their way I'd burn in Hell / and your future's a f***ing disaster!" Why can't we escape? "I'd run away tonight with my mind still intact / I'm gonna make it alright / Easier said than done!" It's a "scared, seductive system" that we're absorbed into. But here's the most impressive part of the song:

Please help us, please save us
Of course they have control, we're all the same
Up on the cross
Crucified their problem, drove the nail and let Him rot
Family and friends
It won't matter in the end, I'm sure they'll understand

The political discord and manipulation of religion by our political parties is re-crucifying Christ. Though there are profanities in the song, it's hard not to see the presence of God directly in it. The City of Evil subjects us to mental blasphemies and brain-rot in thinking in terms of us vs. them or guarding our sacred institutions which are the exact opposite of sacred.

"The Wicked End" is another powerful track on the album about the extent of sin and depravity in the world. "Man's becoming more corrupt now, godless, wicked, and cruel / The soulless man stood silence, Mary's words rang so true". People are pointing to Christ's coming, people are falling into wickedness, there's deception, deceit, false Messiahs, etc. "The Wicked End" starts with the current state, goes back to the beginning, and shows the cycle that we are headed in as a society. With the overtly religious and Christian content of the lyrics, it is impossible not to see God in that song.

While there are a dozen songs on the album, the last one I want to touch on is "M.I.A." That one's really deep. The entire song is about the experiences of a soldier in war, doing nothing but carrying out duty, going through motions, and now questioning what he's done. "I shot a mother right in front of her son (Change this from my consciousness and please erase my dreams)". In all of this, he begins to wonder if he's truly on the right side or if he's just a tool for his country, being used as a weapon. "Fight for honor, fight for your life / pray to God that our side is right" - all he can do is pray that his side is the right one at this point as his patriotic duty has corroded his sight from right and wrong. He takes other soldiers' lives just so they don't take his. In all the carnage in war, he realizes that the battle between flesh and blood is not the battle that is most significant.

I walk the city lonely
Memories that haunt are passing by
A murderer walks your street tonight
Forgive me for my crimes, don't forget that I was so young
Fought so scared in the name of God and country

I think it's important to remember in the current state of our own seeming godlessness to remember that God is ever-present with us. We are constantly caught in a spiritual battle. That we reflect on our own inner actions isn't what makes us monsters, but what helps us to become more humane. The sacrament of confession is about our own inward reflection on ourselves. I find a lot of "Christian" music to be corny at times. I much prefer it when a secular band like Avenged Sevenfold can put together songs that derive meaning from their own individual experiences which allows us to see the Image of God in such artists.