By: Michael Francisco

29 July 2003 Chevelle At Ozzfest: Confused and Muffled Christianity.

This summer, the highly popular Ozzfest again features a Christian band on the coveted main stage. With this invitation to perform, Chevelle follows in the footsteps of P.O.D. and their Summer 2000 Ozzfest tour. This event raises questions about Christian involvement in secular culture. Just how much should Christians involve themselves in mainstream culture? Many Christian commentators have praised Chevelle for their musical accomplishments and their Ozzfest invitation in particular. Others, however, are wary of the venue.

For the unfamiliar, Ozzfest is a highly successful "heavy metal summer camp" that has played in front of 3.5 million fans over the past seven years. Ozzfest features heavy, innovative and dark music, with bands such as The Village of the Damned, Marilyn Manson, Cradle of Filth, KoRn and Disturbed performing. By touring with these bands, Chevelle has caused many Christians to question the wisdom of supporting Christian groups involved with strongly anti-Christian bands.

What positive outcomes could Chevelle's tour bring? For one, Chevelle could provide a Christian witness to the thousands of eager fans who will attend the concerts. As one of the headlineing acts, some fans may look up to Chevelle, as one of the headlining acts. In the past when P.O.D. toured with Ozzfest they increased their popularity in the mainstream music world, empowering their opportunities to wittness in the future. Ozzfest could likewise propel Chevelle to even greater success on places like MTV. Additionally, Chevelle could demonstrate Christian love towards several of the secular bands, showing them that Christians are not filled with hate and isolationism.

However, many potential problems plague Chevelle's Ozzfest tour. A Christian band should avoid three pitfalls in ministering to the secular culture: tacitly endorsing anti-Christian bands, distorting the Christian message, and crafting their lyrics to satisfy secular audiences. Chevelle's tour with Ozzfest raises questions about all three.

Tacit Support
By touring with Ozzfest, Chevelle could lend tacit support to the other bands on tour. While not saying that they support each individual band they play with, Chevelle also chosen not to criticize them, or to express any hesitancy about associating with them. All press reports from the tour indicate that Chevelle interacts with Marilyn Manson in a friendly fashion. Does this action simply show Christian love? Perhaps, but bands are known by the company they keep.

On tour, Chevelle also associates themselves with Cradle Of Filth. The band bio on the Ozzfest website describes their newest album Damnation and a Day as "spawned from the loins of five of the most controversial Lords of darkness ever to walk the earth." The entire band bio reveals a purposefully dark and even satanic motif. "The five Horsemen of the Apocalypse fed on the blood of Doug Cook who was unwittingly drafted in to co-produce and engineer the album," the write-up continues. Some might consider this material a mere joke. Joking or not, the bio gives every indication that Cradle of Filth takes their anti-Christian attitude seriously:

Damnation and a Day was scripted by the prince of darkness Dani Filth, whose quest to decipher the truth behind the Bible, brought him to summon forth Lucifer during a ritualistic killing…Your death is nigh, so listen carefully and then offer your soul to the Filth and you might be saved, deny them and your destruction will come in many forms.

This band is not merely secular, they are openly and explicitly anti-Christian. In fact, they sell T-shirts that delight in mocking Christ. Their merchandise is so blasphemous that I will refrain from describing it on The Evangel Society website. (Read the full bio for more info.)

What does all this have to do with Chevelle? By touring with bands like Cradle of Filth, and not expressing any disagreement with them Chevelle lends tacit support to the other anti-Christian bands. Obviously, Chevelle disagrees with this anti-Christian material, but to the fans watching Ozzfest, Chevelle has made themselves part of this music community - even expressing their pleasure at touring on Ozzfest. Fans could easily consider Chevelle's presence at Ozzfest a soft endorsement of the other bands. At a minimum, fans see that Chevelle does not disagree with the other bands enough with the bands to make an issue about it. Through being featured as part of the tour, Chevelle supports the promotion and profitabilty of Ozzfest, lending further unspoken support to these anti-Christian bands.

Confusing Christianity
Chevelle's Ozzfest stint also raises concerns about the impression of Christianity they will leve fans with. It is not a secret that Chevelle is a Christian band, coming to the mainstream market from the Christian music world. In this position, many unbelieving fans attending Ozzfest will look at Chevelle as an example of Christianity. Unfortunately, Chevelle probably leaves some of the fans with the impression that Christianity is a religion that can tolerate - and indeed take pride in - sharing a stage with the likes of Cradle of Filth and Marilyn Manson. Chevell's presence on the tour likely confuses the fans of anti-Christian bands in attendance, leaving them unsure of what Christianity really stands for.

Those who delight in blaspheming and mocking Christianity will find it strange that a Christian band takes pride in complacently touring with those who attack their views. Ozzfest is also associated with lifestyles and activities, such as heavy drinking, that many would expect that Christians would prefer not to take part in. Indeed, fans might view Chevelle as trying to fit into the Ozzfest group - to be one of the world - rather than standing up for their Christian beliefs.

Weak Witness
One final concern about Chevelle at Ozzfest is their apparently quiet Christian witness they present on tour. Obviously, Chevelle does not need to preaching sermons with each performance on stage. Instead, most Chevelle supporters believe that their positive Christian lyrics improve the music mainstream by providing an alternative to the anti-Christian, negative lyrics of the many other bands. However, Chevelle seems to have retreated from their first album and its positive Christian message. Point #1 carried several Christian themes and often made explicit reference to God and Christianity. (Note: explicit mention of God or Jesus is not the standard for lyrics being Christian.) Since moving to a secular label, Chevelle has watered down their lyrics and made them extremely vague. Fans now know them as a band that sings primarily about anger and pain - not about anything particularly Christian.

Chevelle's current album carries the themes of pain, breakup and suffering. In fact, Chevelle was asked in a recent interview "Considering it is such a dark record, do you think there are any positive moments that managed to slip in there?" Chevelle's answer to the question? "The song 'Send The Pain Below' is about taking all the crap in your life and using it to make art, which is something you can feel good about." Perhaps their album presents an ever so subtlety Christian perspective on pain and anger - but that seems a stretch. The album primarily focuses on describing pain and anger, only infrequently mentioning an action or recourse that should be taken to ease it. Simply expressing pain or describing hard times in life does not leave the fans of Ozzfest with much positive material.

Indeed, it unfortunately seems that fans at Ozzfest listening to Chevelle do not hear any part of the Gospel message, any particular Christian content or ideas, or anything clearly positive. Dealing with pain is a common theme of secular music, and hardly represents the Christian life well. Overall, Chevelle's tour with Ozzfest raises issues of serious concern about the complicated question of how Christians should live in the world. At minimum, more serious reflection should be given to what Chevelle's tour with Ozzfest really means, instead of knee-jerk praise and gloating about "successes" of the Christian Band. Christians should measure success by deeper and more significant things than money and fame. Perhaps touring with Ozzfest truly will bolster Chevelle's ability to shine as a Christian light in a world that certainly needs Christ. Such positive influence has not surfaced yet, we still do "Wonder What's Next." Until then, Christians should remember that while musical success can be great in and of itself, perhaps Christians should ask for something more.