Moral Persuasion

Moral Persuasion by Dean Carroll


In the parallel world of Earthia on the tiny island of Britania, Death and Black Metal was all the rage. The Primeminister Cameron Davidson was determined to stamp it out. Together with the help of civil and religious dignitaries he secretly devised a plan to save Britania's youth from corrupting influences and maintain a moral society.


Kate woke up at 8:00am the music of Morbid Angels latest number one blasting from her radio alarm's speakers. Rubbing her eyes she looked around her bedroom, the walls covered in her posters of her Death Metal heroes, her limited edition poster of her latest crush Glen Benton of Deicide filling the far wall. She constantly cajoled her mum to let her burn an inverted cross into her forehead like her hero. Her mum continually telling her Lemmy wouldn't have done that in her day.
Pulling on her ripped jeans and Pungent Stench t-shirt and grabbing her school bag she snatched a slice of toast off the plate on the kitchen table and ran out of the house to catch the bus.
At the stop Kate met her best friends Bethany and Alice who were both glued to the latest edition of Kerrang.
"Ooh isn't he gorgeous" cooed Bethany at a picture of Shane Embury of Napalm Death "Oh he's not as nice as Dani Filth" disagreed Alice.
Kate told them she was going out into town after school and purchase the latest Impaled Nazarene record that had just entered the album charts.
When the bus arrived all the school kids piled on chaotically flashing their bus passes to the driver who seemed more interested in getting rid of the rabble as soon as he could.
When the double-decker passed a church a harassed looking vicar stood outside. All the kids began shouting the words to 'chapel of ghouls' by Morbid Angel so loud it was audible through the open bus windows, the priest looked on dumbfounded.
At the school gates the unruly rabble spilled off the bus and entered the school yard. Lurking in the corner were all the boy band freaks and soul kids who dressed snazzy and trendy and looked on in scorn at the metal kids.
As Kate and Bethany passed them, Bethany did a satirical version of 'It's only words' by a band called Boyzone she had heard on a pirate radio station, the boy band fans gave her a dirty look.

In assembly Kate and Bethany sat down and looked over in awe at a fresh faced lad named Brian who was tastefully dressed in a Carcass t-shirt with pictures of body parts and blood.
When the pupils were settled, the headmaster did a sermon on public morals and decency to deaf ears. Kate and Bethany both listened to their I-pods.
The headmaster then finished his speech and announced that a metal disco was taking place in the city hall tonight and the school had free tickets. All the kids listened attentively. Kate smiled at Bethany gleefully both glad of a free night out.
On their way out the headmaster gave out the tickets to all the death metal kids telling them to be there by 7:30pm and not to be late.


In English, Kate had to perform a presentation on a subject for the class. She decided to base it on the origins of Death metal.
Her uncle Frank had helped her out, lending her his record collection. She talked of bands like Black Sabbath who first sang about the occult in their lyrics. Then she went on to discuss bands like Motorhead who went on to influence groups like Venom. Venom she explained were involved in the creation of thrash metal that was the precursor to death metal, inspiring bands like Possessed that were quite possibly the first Death metal band.
This new sound she explained, inspired people like Chuck Schuldiner and Trey Azagthoth to form the seminal bands in death metal- Death and Morbid Angel. Kate concluded the presentation by playing the track Death Metal by Possessed.
She received a fanfare of applause from the teacher and class only spoiled by the slow hand clap of a soul kid at the back of the classroom.


At lunchtime the canteen was bustling. The first years fought to get in the queue only to be bundled away roughly by the fifth formers.
At their table Kate, Alice and Bethany talked about the free night out. An old track by Metallica called 'Fade to Black' played mournfully on the Tannoy in the background.
"I'm going to Dorothy Perkins after school" said Kate "I've seen a witches dress I'd like to wear." she said to a grinning Bethany. Thinking of an opportunity to head bang and slam dance they all reckoned the death metal disco would be a good night.


Kate spent the afternoon lessons daydreaming thinking of the night out, unable to concentrate on her work. After school she went into town going straight to WH-smiths to look through the latest releases. Browsing through the CD's she saw Impaled Nazarenes new album and eagerly snatched it up, she also bought the new Watain album 'Sworn to the Dark'. On the way out she giggled at the Whitney Houston and Lady Gaga records that lay untouched in the bargain bin.
On her way home she popped into Dorothy Perkins to buy the lace frock adorned in dark skulls. Taking the bus home she hoped to cop off tonight.

*---*---*
At half past six Kate relaxed in her bedroom listening to her new purchases. She especially liked the Watain album, old school style black metal that soothingly pounded her head. Putting on her witch dress as well as skull rings, and her birthday present a ruby encrusted silver inverted cross, she waited for Bethany and Alice to arrive.
After persistently checking her watch the doorbell rang and Kate ran downstairs to answer the door. Outside Bethany and Alice and Alice's boyfriend Paul waited. Bethany was dressed in black skin tight leather pants and an old Autopsy t-shirt showing a man being torn apart with hooks. Alice and Paul though were dressed together in black metal garb, with long trench coats and their faces rouged sinisterly in corpse paint.
Phoning a taxi, a cab arrived ten minutes later and the four of them bundled in. Paul pulled out a half bottle of Smirnoff, they each took swigs of the vodka until all four of them were tipsy.
At the city hall hundreds of kids mingled outside waiting to be let in. Youths from eleven to eighteen were allowed entry, some dressed in combat jackets with all their favourite death metal bands logos embossed in ink on their backs, others dressed in biker jackets with bullet belts around their waist. Some youths even had porcupine bands around their arms, six inch nails protruding menacingly from the straps. The security confiscated these for health and safety reasons.
At 7:30 the hall doors were opened and the crowd spilled in. All around Kate she could feel adrenaline levels in over-drive as everyone anticipated the event. In the hall itself the room was devoid of furniture and steel grills were screwed to the windows. Thinking nothing of it she saw a batch of coke cans stacked in the corner. Picking one up from the stack she took a quench wanting something to cool her down in the heat of the room.
All at once the doors were slammed shut much to the confusion of the guests and the light faded for the disco. Cheering the clubbers anticipated the first track as a stocky built disc jockey behind a screen played the first track.
The DJ played 'I owe you nothing' much to the puzzlement of the metallers, some doing parodies to the Bros tune, the song pounding loudly through speakers wired to the ceiling.
When 'I will always love you' by Whitney Houston was played next, the mood grew to annoyance. One reveller banged on the screen to catch the DJ's attention. "Turn this shit off" he complained, the DJ kept his head down and didn't acknowledge him.
Next song was Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan's duet 'Especially for you.'
The sugar coated schmaltz went down with the revellers like diabetes some throwing cans at the DJ's screen others kicking at the door to get out, but their calls went unanswered.
By the time 'Mistletoe and Wine' by Cliff Richard was played the situation grew even more hostile, as the guests began kicking at the thick door, while others blocked their ears in frustration, but when 'Groovy kind of love' by Phil Collins was aired, the situation had flared into a full scale riot as the metal fans clawed at the door, others attempted to prise at the bars on the windows desperate to get out to ease their sanity. Blood poured down the walls like candle wax, from blistered fingers.
An assault of Culture Club, Boney-M, Justin Bieber and Celine Dion continued as the crowd were pummelled into submission some holding their ears desperately while others cried tears of frustration, many tried in vain to pull down the speakers to turn the dirge off, but they were positioned too high for anyone to reach.
Meanwhile Kate sat with Bethany in the corner. "Make it stop!" Bethany screamed, Kate looked to Alice for help but she sat on the floor in a catatonic state completely inside herself, the corpse paint dripping in rivulets of sweat down her face like mud. Everybody was having nervous breakdowns around her, some bitter with frustration others vomited with nervous tension, but still the DJ continued the aural onslaught.


By 10:00pm the rioting ceased and the crowd were battered into submission. All sat exhausted around the floor while 'I should be so lucky' by Kylie Minogue played. Some sullen, others singing along to the song in a fit of madness. Without anyone noticing, the doors were opened and a priest entered with his brethren blessing the crowd, before allowing the able bodied to make their way home. The injured and the insane taken for assessment to the hospital. Katie helped up Bethany who lay exhausted on the floor, and Alice was helped by Paul, finally able to pull out from within herself.
Walking home the four walked quietly humming 'I should be so lucky.' When Kate reached home, the first thing she did was go to her room and remove all the posters from her wall and gathered up her CD's putting them in a black bin liner to be put out for the rubbish, now fully conformed to the government's way of thinking.



All around Britania the 'Operation Moral Crusade' took place that night to rescue back the minds of the youth of today, freeing their minds of profanity and immoral thought.
Within a month the youth were listening to pop music and boy bands were the new in thing. All music was made safe and non-confrontational and soon death and black metal was banned from Britania's shores without a murmur of dissent, now everyone was conformed.
Soon music tsars like Simon Cowell were making millions releasing mass produced contemporary pop to suit the masses.


THE END
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