Keith Watanabe * NET 2.0

i found an interesting video on youtube.com regarding the court case against Judas Priest a decade ago for the two suicide kids in Reno Nevada. being me, i did some research to see how much information i could come up with. this is a very bizarre case because of the nature of accusations. of course, my belief is that the families and lawyers wanted to make a quick buck off these guys. at the same time though, in playing a few of their songs backwards, i did hear "messages." but i have to point out that the messages only were noticable after actively searching for phrases that was claimed in the court. meaning that, it'd be impossible to notice anything unless someone explicitly mentioned the phrase and pointed out where to look. one of the exceptions that i have taken against the case was the notion that the phrase "do it" was ever inserted as a backwards message. it's in the first and second chorus played forwards right after they say, "Better By You Better Than Me." It's very subtle in the first chorus but you can hear it twice in the second one. Despite that, as the band members mention in the video, what are you "doing?" from that, there's the other ridiculous part about the kids playing the record backwards. certainly, there are instances where a message might be interpretted amongst the garbled lyrics. however, you have to wonder where they got the idea of playing the record backwards. i mean, was it an urban legend at that point in time? obviously, this situation is now an urban legend with some level of veracity to it. however, it's hard to find materials where people are coming forward and actively admitting on the street that playing Judas Priest records backwards allows one to hear a message. Honestly, i would've thought that could've been a fun selling point for them. that said, i can't see how these kids are actively playing the record backwards, which would clearly allow them to hear messages other than "do it." the two messages on the trial that were heavily examined in "fuck the Lord" and "sing my evil spirit" only were brought up, as far as i know, by the prosecutors. the only message in question that the survivor Vance had mentioned at that point was "Do it." So everything would have to revolve around that alone. and again, the messages in question are left to interpretation. once pointed out, they seem clearer but left alone as one listens to the songs backwards, they make little sense. of course, there's the other issue where more people ought to have killed themselves in known cases for listening to the album either forwards or backwards. since there was no demonstratable evidence on this behalf, that isolates this as a singular incident. on top of that you have to recognize that Priest, as they mentioned, would find killing their fans counterproductive to album sales. seriously, what's the point? if they ever *intended* to put messages on the album, it might've been for humor or novelty since other bands have done it at one point or another (either incidentally, conscientiously or through promotion of urban legend). then when you look at the song in question, it was a cover song by another band where the writer had admitted the tune was about one not admitting their feelings towards a loved one. the song had nothing to do with suicide. here, priest could argue that doing covers was not unusual. previous to Stained Class, Priest covered Diamonds and Rust, which is now a classic for them to perform. the album, yes, is dark but that's what one calls a theme and creating environment. it's part of promotion and the selling of one's image. after that you can look at the boys' lives and realize that they were heading towards either permanent jail or the grave either way. just seeing their history with crime, i would classify them as sociopaths. by psychological definitions, their lives pretty much would mean they'd continue to commit petty crime. one guy in particular was described as having difficulty dealing with stressful situations. so just from an environment's perspective, this path was inevitable. one thing i think no one mentioned because of people being sensitive towards the parents is that both kids were just plain dumb. in essence, what happened was straigh out of Beavis and Butthead, except that these kids couldn't come back for another episode. you can just examine quotes from the trial/lawyers, etc. to see that these kids' IQ were pretty low. for instance, how one kid perceived fire coming out of the other kid's head after the blast. of course, here the lawyer/psychologist attempted to connect the album cover with what the kid saw. however, considering the drugs and alcohol imbibed along with the fact that they probably had low perception abilities (because they probably could not interpret reality properly), naturally the kid's perception would be skewed. think of it this way: when people see fireworks or explosions in a movie, people are entertained. the spectacle of the fantastic enhances our perceptions into believing alternate realities. so combine all the environmental factors, it's no wonder what he said. but of course, the prosecution attempted to take aim at Priest's music as being the thing that sent the kids over the edge. i think they should've tried figuring out who distributed the marijuana and beer. those are depressants and lead people into a state inhibition. these kids couldn't control their own behavior so these elements merely heightened what they were already thinking. sure, the songs on the album sound dark, but taken out of context (especially with two drunk, drugged out, stupid kids), you can easily misinterpret things. but blaming music for being the direct cause is stupid. there were times where the record label seemed to fail to produce evidence. it might've been that there was a possibility that the record label had some incriminating evidence, but i doubt that the intent was malicious. it might've been these guys drinking beer, smoking weed screwing around late at night while under pressure inserting a few things here and there. but again i doubt that they would want their fans to hurt themselves in anyway. instead, it might've been angst towards the recording company at the time because it might've been a difficult period for them. which is why perhaps the label could've agreed to help hide the originals (if there was a conspiracy behind this). but again, i doubt that malice was the intent. either way, i find the situation hokey. sure, this has been argued left and right before, but i had to vent.