An iconoclast is someone who engages in iconoclasm—destruction of religious symbols or, by extension, established dogma or conventions.
Iconoclast may also refer to:
Symphony X /ˌsɪmfəni ˈɛks/ is an American progressive metal band from Middletown, New Jersey. Founded in 1994 by guitarist Michael Romeo, their albums The Divine Wings of Tragedy and V: The New Mythology Suite have given the band considerable attention within the progressive metal community. They also have achieved more commercial success with the 2007 album Paradise Lost; the band's 2011 album Iconoclast is the highest chart position and the most first-week sales in the band's history.
In early 1994 Michael Romeo (ex-Phantom's Opera, ex-Gemini) recorded a studio album entitled The Dark Chapter, which featured himself and keyboard player Michael Pinnella. The tape attracted a fair share of attention, particularly in Japan. He then recruited bassist Thomas Miller, drummer Jason Rullo, and vocalist Rod Tyler. Their self-titled debut album was recorded in the same year, and released to a positive reception in Japan by the now-extinct record company Zero Corporation Label. The band's second studio album, The Damnation Game, followed six months later. Singer Rod Tyler had left the band by then and was replaced by current singer Russell Allen.
David Khari Webber "Dave" Chappelle (/ʃəˈpɛl/; born August 24, 1973) is an American comedian, screenwriter, television/film producer, actor, and artist. Chappelle began his film career in the film Robin Hood: Men in Tights in 1993 and continued to star in minor roles in the films The Nutty Professor, Con Air, and Blue Streak. His first lead role in a film was in Half Baked in 1998. In 2003, he became widely known for his popular sketch comedy television series, Chappelle's Show, which ran until his abrupt retirement from the show in 2005. Chappelle is ranked forty-third in Comedy Central Presents: 100 Greatest Stand-Ups of All Time.
Chappelle was born David Khari Webber Chappelle in Washington, D.C. on August 24, 1973. His father, William David Chappelle III, was a professor at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio. His mother, Yvonne (née Reed), was a professor at Howard University, Prince George's Community College, and the University of Maryland and is also a Unitarian Universalist minister. Chappelle grew up in Silver Spring, Maryland and attended Woodlin Elementary School. During young Chappelle's formative years, his comic inspiration came from various comedians, particularly Eddie Murphy and Richard Pryor.
Maya Angelou ( /ˈmaɪ.ə ˈændʒəloʊ/; born Marguerite Ann Johnson; April 4, 1928) is an American author and poet. She has published six autobiographies, five books of essays, numerous books of poetry, and is credited with a long list of plays, movies, and television shows. She is one of the most decorated writers of her generation, with dozens of awards and over thirty honorary doctoral degrees. Angelou is best known for her series of autobiographies, which focus on her childhood and early adult experiences. The first and most highly acclaimed, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), tells of her first seventeen years, and brought her international recognition and acclaim.
Angelou's long list of occupations has included pimp, prostitute, night-club dancer and performer, castmember of the musical Porgy and Bess, coordinator for Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Southern Christian Leadership Conference, author, journalist in Egypt and Ghana during the days of decolonization, and actor, writer, director, and producer of plays, movies, and public television programs. Since 1991, she has taught at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where she holds the first lifetime Reynolds Professorship of American Studies. She was active in the Civil Rights movement, and worked with both Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. Since the 1990s she has made around eighty appearances a year on the lecture circuit, something she continued into her eighties. In 1993, Angelou recited her poem "On the Pulse of Morning" at President Bill Clinton's inauguration, the first poet to make an inaugural recitation since Robert Frost at John F. Kennedy's inauguration in 1961.
Heaven Shall Burn is a German heavy metal band from Saalfeld, formed in 1996. They combine an aggressive metal sound with lyrics that show a militant support of anti-racism and fighting social injustice. All members of the band are vegan.
Heaven Shall Burn was formed in Autumn 1996, under the name Consense. With the recording of its second demo in early 1997, the band changed its name to Heaven Shall Burn. The name is taken from a Marduk album titled Heaven Shall Burn... When We Are Gathered. In an interview, the band said, "It's not that we're huge Marduk fans, but we liked the name. It sounds a bit provoking and so people ask us again and again for the meaning behind our name. It has been like that since the very beginning. We use the term heaven as a metaphor for some kind of a fake paradise that people create in their heads. Some people close their eyes and don't see the truth surrounding them. So this kind of fake heaven should burn. Some people might think that our name is an anti-religious statement, but it isn't."
Guardians of darkness set my spirit free
From this land of madness, give me something to believe
Your system and religion control me like a disease
Strength and determination, I almost let you bleed
They'll let you bleed
No gods, no masters, no authority
Only yourself
Divine disciples control your destiny
Believe in yourself
Baptism of fire into society
Crucified and brainwashed, told just what to believe
Drowned in holy water to cleanse in purity
Guilty for existing, your mind will never be free
You'll never be free
No gods, no masters, no authority
Only yourself
Divine disciples control your destiny
Believe in yourself
You're strong without god, everyone is a star
There's no authority, but yourself
No gods, no masters, there is no god but man
No gods, no masters, there is no god but man
Man made gods and idols, you think can save man
If you become suicidal, you're made to believe they can
Sins for which I'm guilty, I am by my own hand
Forgiveness I'm not seeking, I'll live by my own command
Your own command
No gods, no masters, no authority
Only yourself
Divine disciples control your destiny
Believe in yourself
No gods, no masters, no authority
Only yourself
Divine disciples control your destiny
I am the way...
I challenge your sacred beliefs
I slaughter the flock of sheep
I am your redeeming device
Look into the eyes of your bitter demise
Habitual
Ritualistic
Eventually becoming sadistic
Human herd failing to grasp
Fall to reality
Time to tread a new path
Follow the Iconoclast
You see through holy tinted eyes
You are the one your maker despises
You and your dogma condemned are fought to death with every dying breath
You put your trust in your "savior"
Has he ever returned the favor?
If your feeble minds can grasp... the answer is no
Follow the Iconoclast when your beliefs are fading fast
After all is gone and it's useless to pray don't look to your God for he has lost His way
Crossing the span of space and time, beliefs converge, controlling the mind
Hearing the toll of sanity's bell while catching a glimpse of your religion's true hell
"Bow to me," sayeth the Lord
You are abhorred
Hallowed be My name
My kingdom come
Thy kingdom undone
On earth as well as in heaven
Follow my way to salvation this day
I lead you all into temptation and deliver you to evil
Jump into the abyss never expecting to be engulfed by darkness
I'll witness your end... your final collapse
Losing your souls in one fleeting gasp
When all that is left is a burning desire I will set heaven on fire
good lord above.
I've got nothing of consternation anymore.
Months upon years, dwelling and failing to see whats in
front of me.
A better question to ask...is if these fucking scars are
real.
my veins are strychnine.
with burning windows in my eyes,
i crawl back inside my crestfallen chest and insist to
exist.
i will never fucking change and this poses a problem for
the ones who associate with this revenant.
i don't know where it comes from, all i know is where my
malevolence travels.
i'm drained, insane, disdain, the pain - is the only
force at work in me.
this has been a long time coming, here we go, flip the
switch and step back.
it doesn't matter who hears this, it doesn't matter who
interprets what in which way.
you will never dissect these words and think you know,
what's going on in me.
this is simply a passage, a signal sent from the
transistors up above
tales of an iconoclast heretic cynic dissident with all
Lyrics: Claudio Carrasco / Music: Igor Leiva
Cliffs of contradiction
You'll feel the fury of waves
Rocks stare at the dawn / Awaiting the tides to be praised
We're coming here, to erase thy shapes
Tonight is the night / In the calmness of the dark
We're coming here, to erase thy shapes
Chorus:
No plea's been heard
Rusted structures are falling
Creating a new era
In crawling sands
The icons will be torn
Creating a new era
A still picture in blue / (Underlying) forces breed
A liquid hate will come from the depths
Drowning all eternal / An ancient rage is unleashed
A liquid hate will come from the depths
Chorus:
All this handcrafted pain, all these pictures of suffering
My eyes can now see, but I cannot feel... and I shall not regret
Final Chorus:
No plea was heard
Rusted structures no longer exist
Creating a new era
In crawling sands
The icons will be torn
Rise of the One -
The dark iconoclast
Forging a cult of fear
With legions unsurpassed
Shouting the word -
With vicious tongues of fire
Born of illusion and deceit
Fiendish soul of a liar
The chaos unseen rips
The midnight sky
Infernal machines arise
Flesh and steel collide
We are strong
We will stand and fight
We are strong
We will stand and fight
With rage we ride into the flames
Striking with spears of hate,
At the heart where evil reigns
Holding the line from the charge
Of armored steeds
Gather around this deadly ground,
Come watch the war god bleed.
The chaos unseen rips
The midnight sky
Infernal machines arise
Flesh and steel collide
We are strong
We will stand and fight
We are strong
We will stand and fight
Victory of death, only time will tell
Synthetic resurrection,
From the heart of hell
Slowly they fall, as we watch
The daylight die
We spit and curse this hallowed earth
With our final battle cry,
The chaos unseen rips
The midnight sky
Infernal machines arise -
Flesh and steel collide
We are strong
We will stand and fight
We are strong
This is my revenge full of bloody hate
Against the unholy and false words of god
Warrior of hell, adverse to the sacred, iconoclast
Black fallen angel, I fight and destroy
When I'll find heaven, I'll announce my last war
ZAZAS, NASTANADA, hell - seven deaths
Cry, breaking out the holy silence of the place
Devoted to the malignant and soldier of disgust
Warrior of hell, adverse to the sacred, iconoclast
None of you can't bring me down and stop my mission
Fight and destroy the image of the redeemer
ZAZAS...
But you dance inthe heaven Lord Satan, without god you're the new possessor out of the flames of dying, now you govern
And judge in the name of those that have acted for you setting on fire the holy images, glory to the master risen from
darkness, wake up!
Take my hand, child
be as one of my angels
and together we shall walk across the sky
unto the sea of infinite light
Here is where you must leave them
your parents, teachers, those who would be your judges
Dwellers of a dying orb condemned exist
in their war-torn temple for eons to come
Our departure shall be joyous salvation
one final act of sanctifying purity in
which we shall rise ever higher if you'll just take my hand
Your mind just can't face
the terrors of being alone
A rope with no ends
lashing itself to your soul
Don't you close your eyes
Don't believe what they're telling you
Don't be deceived by their lies
Don't you buy what they're selling
They lie
You are not alone
I too feel constrained
trapped by the limitations my material vehicle imposes
I too am forever searching for a sign
I too see that this place has become ruined
as a garden becomes overgrown and infertile
form years of neglect and abuse
We must leave here!
Trust me, and together we shall transcend to the next level
You can't find the will
To see it through on you own
The easy way out
They're dragging you down to their hole
Don't you close your eyes
Don't believe what they're telling you
Don't be deceived by their lies
Your sky falls forever
A black heart endeavor
The game of laissez-faire
Aces in the air
Your eyes stare forever
In the cold dry hereafter
Hiding an affair
I swore was never there
It's over and under and over and under
In the city that never sleeps
You're the creature that never wakes
I thought you were someone else
Scent of attraction
Lean in to listen
"Resurrect the dead on Jupiter" she said
Time's game is wasting
Worldwide lambasting
A billion miles away
A deadly bird of prey
Flies over and under and over
Force fed everytime
My tongue everytime
Fucking repent - for I am your death
Wearing the mark - of Baphomet
Iconoclast - destroy the regime
Iconoclast - War machine
Marching host - all fall in line
Fight to rise - from papal lies
Iconoclast - destroy the regime
Fire and brimstone fly as they preach
Their horror stories of a swift-coming doom
And their fury comes not from those they disdain
But from their own guilt of their mockery of worship
Cathode-ray beggars drain the blood from their bibles
Under the guise of protecting out virtue
Using religion as a tool and a weapon
Moral atrocities beyond compare
If the judgement day occured tomorrow
They'd be the first to be ground into paste
In a world of real fear, we don't need their fiction