Not surprisingly, many musicians aren’t happy with the United States government’s choice to blast rock music at detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay as a form of torture.
Among the bands whose music is being used for torture is Metallica; whose 1991 hit "Enter Sandman" is reportedly a popular song to play over and over again at top volume to detainees. Drummer Lars Ulrich of Metallica made an appearance on the MSNBC news program "The Rachel Maddow Show" to discuss the government’s bizarre torture methods. Video of their discussion can be viewed here.
Responding to the idea that the music is used "
to create fear, disorient ... and prolong capture shock" (a quote from Lt. Gen.
Ricardo Sanchez, the man who authorized the use of music as torture),
Ulrich says: "
If there are people that are dumb enough to use Metallica to interrogate prisoners, you're forgetting about all the music that's to the left of us. I can name, you know, 30 Norwegian death metal bands that would make Metallica sound like Simon and Garfunkle."
He adds, "There is a lot of Metallica music that's helping a lot of scared 18, 19, and 20-year-old kids out there who are out on the front lines and who are doing a hell of a job on behalf of you and me and the rest of us. But obviously when you hear stories like the one you're telling, it all seems so bizarre and so strange that Metallica's music, which generally sort of facilitates bringing people together, is used in these bizarre circumstances. It's certainly not something that we in any way advocate or condone."
Lars isn’t the only musician who’s upset with how their music is being used. Guitarist Tom Morello of Rage Against The Machine has been particularly vocal about his distaste of the practice even going so far as to tell fans at a concert, "I suggest that they level Guantanamo Bay, but they keep one small cell and they put [former U.S. President George W. Bush] in there ... and they blast some Rage Against the Machine."
Not all musicians appear to be against it, however. Bassist Steve Benton of Drowning Pool was honored to hear that the band’s song ""” was being used on prisoners. "People assume we should be offended that somebody in the military thinks our song is annoying enough that played over and over it can psychologically break someone down," he tells Spin magazine. "I take it as an honor to think that perhaps our song could be used to quell another 9/11 attack or something like that."
Military contractor Donald Vance from Chicago, IL was wrongly imprisoned in a military detention center in Iraq and said the tactics could make "innocent men go mad." Vance told MSNBC that he was "locked in an overcooled 9-foot-by-9-foot cell that had a speaker with a metal grate over it. Two large speakers stood in the hallway outside. The music was almost constant, mostly hard rock."
"There was a lot of Nine Inch Nails, including ‘March of the Pigs,’" he said. "I couldn’t tell you how many times I heard Queen’s ‘We Will Rock You.’"
He adds, "I had no blanket or sheet. If I had, I would probably have tried suicide. I got to a few points toward the end where I thought, ‘How can I do this?’ Actively plotting, ‘How can I get away with it so they don’t stop it?’" When asked to describe how it felt to be in his position, he said: "It sort of removes you from you. You can no longer formulate your own thoughts when you’re in an environment like that."
Vance was eventually released after spending 97 days incarcerated. He says that even two years later he keeps his home "very quiet."
Report by David Lowe-Bianco.
I still love the man.
They most likely deserve it also. PLEASE! NO MORE CANNIBAL CORPSE! lol. But i would feel bad afterwards
