Earlier this morning, while sipping on my coffee I was reading Esquire's new interview with the Navy SEAL who shot Osama Bin Laden. It's a very in-depth interview and a great read. What's interesting is when the topic of interrogations was brought up, he mentioned heavy metal. This is where things get interesting:
He also insists that when it came to interrogation, repetitive questioning and leveraging fear was as aggressive as he'd go. "When we first started the war in Iraq, we were using Metallica music to soften people up before we interrogated them," the Shooter says. "Metallica got wind of this and they said, 'Hey, please don't use our music because we don't want to promote violence.' I thought, Dude, you have an album called Kill 'Em All.
"But we stopped using their music, and then a band called Demon Hunter got in touch and said, 'We're all about promoting what you do.' They sent us CDs and patches. I wore my Demon Hunter patch on every mission. I wore it when I blasted bin Laden."
Using metal as interrogation is nothing new, with reports going back 10 years stating this. James Hetfield was quoted in 2009 as saying he "was kind of bummed" that the US Armed Forces were using Metallica's music, saying he believes music and politics don't mix.
What's surprising is that Demon Hunter, a notably Christian metal band, have no such problems with their music being used. What ever happened to "turn the other cheek?"
UPDATE: Demon Hunter have just released a statement denying they ever "volunteered" their music, also detailing how the Navy SEAL 6 team reached out them. An absolute must read.
[Thanks Stan!]
