Let there be metal
Dutch town gives green light for heavy-metal festival on condition that the metalheads are to be on their best behavior.
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - A heavy metal rock festival hoping to hold an open-air concert in an area known as the Dutch Bible Belt received a permit on one condition: no cursing.
The Elsrock festival caused an uproar last year when it was held for the first time outside the small, heavily religious town of Rijssen, 75 miles east of Amsterdam.
Two religious political parties complained that heavy metal “is typified by lyrics about death and decay, and vocals that change between a hellish wail and deep grunts.”
Churches protesting a new concert this year were pacified only by “the stated readiness of the organizers to make sure that no blasphemous words are used, and that the honor of God’s name is not besmirched,” Mayor Bort Koelewijn wrote in a letter granting the permit, made public Tuesday.
A tall order indeed for any group of godless heathens.
And just to be perfectly clear…
“Should there in practice be any blasphemy, I’ll ask the district attorney to prosecute.”