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Antichrist (movie clip) – “Nature Is Satan’s Church”
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Satan, Lucifer, Samael, Baphomet. Call it what you will—though those four things are not the same—the devil has been a part of heavy music from almost the beginning:
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Arthur Brown – “Fire”
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For the uninformed or illiterate, that was Arthur Brown performing “Fire” on Top of the Pops in 1968—a full year before “Black Sabbath” by Black Sabbath on Black Sabbath. Strains of Arthur’s musical-DNA, such as corpse paint and melodrama, remain.
But Arthur Brown was not a satanist. His idea of using satanic imagery without the ideology persists; only a handful of pre-’00s metal musicians profess to be actual Satanists. Even fewer claim to worship the devil—most out-Satanists in metal music follow(ed) Anton LaVey’s Church of Satan, which does not believe in Satan as an actual entity. The Church of Satan’s beliefs boil down to extreme individualism with hedonistic overtones—its followers fall between Atheist and Desists. For all the flak fired at LaVey, his religion is the left hand path equivalent of Unitarian Universalist. King Diamond is LaVey’s most public follower in the metallic sphere, but the Church of Satan’s fundamental belief in self-worth—and hypersexual overtones—still show up in contemporary metal.
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King Diamond/Mercyful Fate Interview
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New satanic bands—like Akercocke below—reject LaVey.
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Akercocke Interview
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More contemporary bands talk about satanism than ever—the Decibel tour celebrated theistic satanism as much as the magazine that sponsored it. And art fueled by genuine faith has a powerful character—one distinct from music just about opposing the conventions of others. For proof, head down to your local youth-oriented megachurch, or a christian rock festival, and watch the band. The last time I saw something like this the performance captivated me while the lyrics and dominant major chords repulsed me.
And perhaps theistic satanism is the most interesting thing about these bands. Musically, Watain, The Devils Blood, and In Solitude all harken back, instead of pressing their genres forward. Performing in live animal blood is not new, neither is torches—that’s all descended from Mr. Brown. Their individual knacks for excellent songwriting is overshadowed by their collective ability to work the press in their favor while keeping up mystique.
Some find that elusiveness precious and irritating, but keeping hush-hush can be a gesture of respect. Consider the trailers for action films anxious to show something explode at the end or some starlet’s anorexic behind in a swimsuit. Satan is the big fight scene at the end. The money shot. Don’t you want something to look forward to? The new satanism does not dispense with Arthur Brown’s theatricality, but at least treats its subject matter with some genuine awe.
They talk about Satan the way christian bands talk about god—as a solution, as opposed to a symbolic middle finger, or subject matter for a creepy narrative. It’s one thing to make critiques—and criticizing religion is as metal as headbanging—but offering an alternative is mature. I see the theistic satanism of Watain, as well as the radical atheism of bands like The Ocean, as a sign of the genre’s growing sophistication.
Think of it this way: Browns’ satan spooks parents. Mainstream/old school/classic metal satan doubles for “fuck you”. Specifically a pointed and directed “fuck you”. The new satanism explores what does the fucking. The Norma Evangelium Diaboli crowd and their contemporaries celebrate their faith more than damn others. And like their Abrahamic opposition’s vanguard, they evangelize. The point of bringing “black metal” back to hooks and catchy songwriting is to make Satan interesting enough to explore and research. We are apes—things which hold our attention, but promise complexity fascinate us.
That complexity budded—at least in a prominent way—on Dissection’s comeback album Reinkaos.
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Dissection – “Starless Aeon”
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Not the band’s strongest moment musically, but the seeds of theistic satanism’s metal tropes all appear on the record. You could call it the template for postmodern satanic metal. Dissection pulls quotes—also an evangelical trait—from holy books in multiple languages. Persian, in the case of “Starless Aeon”. But primarily “Starless Aeon”, and new Satanism in particular, portray Satan as an apocalyptic force—an actual entity that eats light.
These young men and women are taking concepts from contemporary science and applying it to their spirituality, keeping their views modern.I spoke with Selim Lemouchi from The Devil’s blood about this on the first date of the Decibel tour. I asked him what the purpose of his religion was, and he told me, “Freedom from all laws, the laws of man, the laws of the spirit and the world.”
“When you say laws of the world you’re talking about the laws of reality—you’re talking about particle physics?”
“Yes. Freedom even from matter.”
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Watain – “Stellarvore”
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“Black Hole” Metal makes a more fitting genre tag. The same image of all-consuming void pops up in Stargazer, The Devil’s Blood, Deathspell Omega, Saturnalia Temple, Negative Plane . . . the list goes on. In that image, the new Satanism escapes its binary relationship with Abrahamic religions. It took the Catholic church hundreds of years to accept Galileo’s teachings—Watain look liberal in comparison.
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Melancholia (movie clip) – “The earth is evil; we don’t need to grieve for it.”
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The new Satanism borrows more from traditionally Eastern philosophies than Christian ones. Hinduism sees reality as an illusion, a Māyā, that binds us—the goal is to escape it. Bushido’s teachings oriented samurai toward death as an inevitability and a liberating force. With that in mind, the Maha Kali EP seems like a logical step for a band that once did Storm of the Light’s Bane.
None of that is original in and of itself. But for the first time since Arthur Brown, the devil in rock seems complex. His followers’ attitudes toward him carry more than distilled “fuck you”. Their lyrics anticipate the moments of satan’s arrival with awe, but also an awareness that something will be taken away. The philosopher-speaker, for example, in Deathspell Omea’s “Sola Fide I”, has anxiety toward his master, and colors satan as a being that might love his subjects a measure of order less than they love him. It’s called ambivalence—playing devil’s advocate to the devil himself—and it’s setting the tone for Satanic metal for the foreseeable future.
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If she’s in shape, she must be anorexic.
“Yes. Freedom even from matter.”
Whenever I go looking for empirical evidence of the truth behind a religion’s assertions, the most I can find is reminders of the inherent craziness of the believer.
Also: roflcopter
“These young men and women are taking concepts from contemporary science and applying it to their spirituality, keeping their views modern.”
the bit you quoted is neither science nor modern – it’s jibberish.
I speak jibber really well, so it seems to make sense to me.
I get what Lemouchi is saying, but it’s just preposterous. If his religion’s purpose is to transcend all laws, does he seriously think satanists will one day find a loophole in the laws of physics? Can they bend mathematics and logic to their will such that right is wrong and 2+2 is 5?
Part of me wants to take him at his word, and part of me thinks he’s just saying stuff to shock people. Hell, maybe he’s trolling us.
I think what you’re dealing with is a gnostic death cult. They think that reality–the act of existing–is awful, and would very much enjoy for the universe to cease.
That’s just what I take away from it.
To be fair, most religions posit some form of immaterial existence. In simple scientific terms (not that I’m an expert or anything at all) it could easily be read as energy > matter, even though in the right circumstances the two are interchangeable.
The difficulty arises in that these sorts of spiritual beliefs are, as the author wrote, “modernised” and use scientific terminology to illuminate heir spirituality – whih makes some things clearer and some things more obscure.
@The One True Street-Jammer
“does he seriously think satanists will one day find a loophole in the laws of physics? Can they bend mathematics and logic to their will such that right is wrong and 2+2 is 5?”
I’m not going to speak for him, but to address a wider point, science/logic/mathemtaics are only considered “laws” as long as they continue to work. We do keep finding things which necessitate the abandonment or reworking of our theories I’m not syaing that Satanists are going to craft some form of grand-unified theory for us, but I would hope that as a form of dogma, it retains a science-like willingness to challenge accepted forms and to alter itself as new facts come to light.
Scientific Satanists anyone?
Lemouchi’s attitude is superficially similar to science in that all assumptions and laws are challenged. The problem is that science questions in order to come up with a better answer, or to refine the existing answer. In other words, science tries to come up with a better law.
Lemouchi, like every other believer, has asked the question and assumed the answer: there are no rules. No matter what happens, that’s the belief system. If physicists came out with the Unified Theory of Physics tomorrow, he’d still be following a religion that calls BS on the laws of reality.
Interesting article.
The one thing I want to pick up on is the element of mystery that all these Satanic bands keep up, which has rarely been better displayed than in the recent Decibel cover story. I always get a strong impression that their mysteriousness, and (choreographed or not) reluctance to discuss their supposed faith, is really just an excuse. They need it because they haven’t really thought it through, and they don’t want to be challenged because they can’t really defend their beliefs if anyone knows them in detail. This stands in stark contrast to the ancient Christian apologetical tradition. Mystery does serve the purpose of theatricality, though.
I think that will conclude my involvement in this discussion, because I don’t want to sidetrack it and turn it into a shitstorm over Christianity. That’s all I wanted to say.
I have no interest in the faith (or, more likely, simple theatrics) of The Devil’s Blood, Ghost, Watain, etc., so I can’t speak to their attempts at explaining themselves, but check out Deathspell Omega if you want a lot of exposition. Just read the lyrics to “Si Monumentum Require, Circumspice”. They seem to be truly interested. Nightbringer are also pretty deep into it, it seems to me.
Personally, I’m fascinated by the imagery of Satanism, and its opposition to the Abrahamic god is attractive to me, but in the end, devil worship within Christendom is almost always the worship of twisted versions of old gods, versions created by the Christians of yore to destroy the religions of conquered peoples.
Mystery equals marketing in most cases. It’s true for cancer healing evangelicals and true for those who claim to commune with dark forces. Once you introduce logic and critical thinking the facade crumbles.
People have been claiming to be in league with Satan ever since the first wave of blues almost a century ago. It’s an established fact that Tommy Johnson claimed to have met the devil to help his musical career (the myth was wrongly attributed to Robert Johnson). This has translated quite easily to metal. Think about it: would anyone pay attention if one of these bands was pictured with a bunch of briefcases wearing Oxfords? Just like Tommy Johnson thought talking about a meeting with ‘Legba’ would boost him past regional sales…
To your point about theatricality, I believe Anton LaVey once worked as a carnival barker. The old Church of Satan in San Francisco was bulldozed years ago to make room for high-end condos, proving that no force in the world now is as powerful as the almighty dollar.
“I always get a strong impression that their mysteriousness, and (choreographed or not) reluctance to discuss their supposed faith, is really just an excuse. They need it because they haven’t really thought it through, and they don’t want to be challenged because they can’t really defend their beliefs if anyone knows them in detail.”
Maybe — I haven’t read the interviews in question. That said, this quote resonated with me because it’s similar to what a lot of people say about Fields of the Nephilim’s Carl McCoy, who is very cagey about discussing his personal spiritual practice. For a long time it seemed like maybe it was an excuse, but over time it’s just become more clear that his practice is simply very personal and he doesn’t feel like sharing it, in part because he’s aware that fans will try to follow it if he’s too explicit and he wants them to figure their own spirituality themselves. Even with Christianity, which is relatively dogmatic, there are many many ways to practice. With theistic Satanism, which is not very dogmatic, people develop very personal practices and may not feel very much like sharing the details.
Christian apologetics basically equates to admitting a god of the gaps, i.e. something that will always lose out in the end.
Also, religious folk are always willing to fill those gaps with the “mystery of god”.
I piss on the gods of camel fuckers.
A bit earlier was a killer song by The Sonics – He’s Waiting (1966). You hear the direct devil reference at the 1:01 mark.
Great, great song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oA3qKBASurg
The best part of Antichrist is when Willem Defoe’s character’s dick gets mangled.
I beg to differ. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4L2ooG_MX9E
Mental freedom from all laws and rules is important for happiness. But laws are their to make people safe. Would you like to live in a world where your neighbor can kill you cause you park in his spot and that’s alright?
The people who argue most vocally for exactly this are the people who would be least likely to survive it.
(Or: I’d like to see how far someone like Boyd Rice would get in Somalia.)
Why would you want to go far in a place like Somalia? Im not saying laws are perfect, most are not and allow for ridiculous loop holes and discriminatory actions to take place. But would it really be better to have non?
I would however agree that its just as important to protest and not follow rules (social or legal) that you disagree with.
No, I’m all in favor of laws. My point is that the most vocal proponents of a return to some sort of natural predator/prey relationship are often those most distanced from (and thus least equipped to survive in) real-world instances of circumstances pretty close to that.
ahh, ok. Interesting point.
Nice article even though I feel as if the discussion about this subject can get a bit over played. I would agree most of the people in these bands have a more eastern philosophical, hate to say “hippie” (at least the idea of freedom from laws notion) slant to them. But I find that great because that’s very roughly where a lot of my own philosophical ideas lie. Of course that may be just as upsetting as the traditional idea of satanism to most god fearing Christians, at least in the U.S.
I found this interview of LaVey’s daughter, in which she gives her opinion on the pretty hokey origins of her father’s satanism, interesting: http://www.vice.com/read/beelzebubs-daughter-0000175-v19n4
Freedom to talk from your butthole, it seems.
But yeah, if these guys want to take themselves as seriously as, say the Mormons, then fine. let ‘em.
And anybody that used to chill with Sammy Davis Jr, is an entertainer first and foremost (LaVay).
David
Holy shit that Akercocke interview is so funny! Guy in Red Shirt who stands up to comment @ 6:50 is the best part, hands down. What the hell is he saying?! I’ve watched it like thirty times by now and the best I can make out is: “Hows come a crop needs to be a craptain and say we’re goin’ to hell when they come to Northern Ireland and all we say is we pray they go to Heaven.” *Stares wide eyed ahead, as unsure as we are as to what’s just happened* And the host, no one bothers to acknowledge what he’s said. They just pull the camera away. Great, great video. “I am not a muppet whatsoever.”
That was great and can’t stop laughing. I couldn’t make it through the whole video first watch cause the audio mix was so bad.
Best I could make of what he said shows concerns for his crops?!?! haha
“I can say crop needs to be captain saint hell like no man to be brought to north Ireland and a crop prey and go to heaven.”
Was Tim and Eric quality.
What is akercocke up to these days? been a while since antichrist.
Satan, and his “followers”, is just as fucktarded as its inverse. Gimme a break.
Please talk more about the Desists.
“Freedom from all laws, the laws of man, the laws of the spirit and the world…Freedom even from matter.”
What a fucken turkey.
Does anyone know what his justification for wanting freedom from [all] is?
I think it is more of a mental freedom, I think. Some peoples minds get clouded with constantly trying to compensate for all rules and social constructs. Sometimes the only way people can get a grip on this is to ignore or denounce all of them in the real world, as well as in there heads.
Waitan are the Creed of extreme metal. They take themselves way too seriously. As does every band on that Decibel tour. Give me Manowar – or Ghost – instead.
And I’m a little sick of Decibel ramming it down my throat.
The Creed of extreme metal.
That’s solid gold, my friend. Love it!
You have my permission to use it. The test is who will you identify as the Nickelback of extreme music. I’ve got my ideas . . .
Children of Bodom
“ramming it down my throat.”
Never not a funny turn of phrase.
I was never not unimpressed with my choice of phrasing in that regard.
That’s the biggest problem with all religions. But the trick isn’t to not believe in something, its to have the ability to realize that it may not be true.
“New satanic bands—like Akercocke below—reject LaVey.”
Uhh…. If you watch the whole interview there and even just read some of their lyrics, it becomes pretty damn obvious that Akercocke ARE 100% LaVeyian.
I do like how whenever any sort of band with a distinct “belief” set is covered (not just here, but internet-wide) a plethora of responses just come on to say that their beliefs are “silly”, and play down any role their particular faith/spirituality/whatever might have in their lives and/or music.
I dream of a day when we will have bands simply made up of internet commenters, where type what thou wilt is the only law!
In seriousness though, I have no particular belief form. We live, we die. Existence is one grand cosmic coincidence, which I value more for its sheer improbability and fragility. But then again, I’m man enough to say that I could be wrong… and value the input of spiritualist beliefs, like this and others, as another chapter in the human story – it’s less important to be proved “right” than it is to embrace the cultural and personal aspects these beliefs come from and create.
But most people don’t see it that way – any sort of faith or belief has become the last bastion where it’s ok to ridicule someone for being “different”, as if you are somehow any better yourself.
people believe a lot of stuff – if anything, your view is the majoritarian one, in that a stated religious belief is generally held to be insulated from criticism. people are free to believe in young earth creationism, but that doesn’t make it not silly, and perhaps even pernicious.
You’re very much right, but I’m not trying to say religion should be immune to criticism, but more for where its beliefs interact with “real” life, as it were.
I was more just having a bitch at the overwhelming feeling that anyone religious is in some way stupider than us hyper-intelligent atheist types.
I was going to leave a comment on this thread, but you’ve managed to say everything I wanted to.
Blogged: http://backwardmessages.wordpress.com/2012/05/11/the-new-satanism-in-heavy-metal/
Freedom of Laws? Good one.
Rape. Murder. Incest. Wow! What a great plan!
who said: if god is our father then surely satan is our cousin.
Much about this is just stupid, but the idea that it took the Church hundreds of years to accept heliocentrism is absurd. Just because the ban on Galileo’s books wasn’t lifted until the early nineteenth century hardly means that the Church somehow didn’t believe the earth revolves around the sun. Catholics openly taught heliocentrism throughout the late seventeenth & eighteenth centuries with no repercussions or discouragement from the Church.
This is news to me. I apologize.
Back it up wioth a source, and I’ll have Michael post an ammenda.
Satan’s butt boys.
Is it possible that the media has a degree of involvement in this, by their absence? Readers like myself who grew up and discovered metal in the early eighties will remember the “satanic panic” features almost on a weekly basis, and the endless arguments with peers and family about how your favourite band wrote a song about the devil but are not actual satanists…
Metal is/was rebellion, and it used to be a very short distance before encountering confrontation and ignorance.
What happens when all opposition has become bored of reporting the “satanic panic”?
One conclusion I can draw is that over time, the parallels and distinctions between both paths have become quietly accepted, if not recognised as been the same types of dogma that ultimately are a force to be used for control and manipulation.
I doubt the media could sell “Is your teenager dabbling with extreme individualism?” in quite the same way without exposing their agenda for propagating chimp clones…?
Great article and food for thought!
I just have to say that the “freedom from … laws” they speak of has nothing to do with earthly/physical/governmental laws as some here seem to think. It’s the release of the self/soul/prana from the causal universe. Similar to nirvana, but whereas nirvana is the extermination of the self and the ascent into the Godhead, this is the exact opposite. Realisation of oneself into an acausal universe. The return to the primordial chaos that was before matter/creation.
The reason for not talking about it too in depth is up to the artists themselves, but there is substantial work that has been printed on the subject and it is not as “insubstantial” as some might think. It is simply very esoteric, and without the proper knowledge about religion/mysticism/occultism it probably doesn’t make that much sense. As we live in times when all spirituality is rejected with a jerk of the knee, I don’t blame people who don’t want to go too in depth. Pearls before swine and all that… But make no mistake, this is still about rebellion, the ultimate rebellion.