The Lure of the Dark Side

Satan and Western Demonology in Popular Culture

Christopher H. Partridge, Eric S. Christianson

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN:
  9781845533090
• eBook ISBN:
  9781317490784
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Music History & Criticism

Demons, devils, spirits and vampires are present throughout popular Western culture in film, music and literature. Their religious significance has only recently begun to be explored. 'The Lure of the Darkside' brings together the work of some of the most important and creative scholars in the field of Biblical and Religious Studies. The essays explore demonology in popular culture from a range of perspectives: Satanism within contemporary music; the relationship between hymn and horror film; the career of Hannibal Lecter; the portrayal of Satan in films about Christ; and spiritual perversion in the Harry Potter Stories. This fresh and ground-breaking volume will be of interest to students of religious studies and theology, as well as literary and popular culture.

Part I
Music

Chapter 1
Satanism and Popular Music

Asbjørn Dyrendal

In the popular imagination, few products of popular culture seem to connote so strongly with Satanism as heavy metal music. Within that genre, black metal, particularly Norwegian black metal, has been more closely associated with Satanism than any other subgenre. This is not merely due to the lyrical content or the musical and sartorial style. More than any thing else the image of Norwegian “Satanic” metal revolves around the willingness among a few of the early, groundbreaking bands to carry their torches where their lyrics claimed they belonged—directly to old Norwegian churches to instigate arson and “make war” on Christianity.

In this chapter, I shall look briefly at the phenomenon of black metal and its articulation of Satanism. The virulent anti Christianity and explicit imagery of satanic worship in the lyrics alone make it an interesting case. However, my scope will be broader. I shall compare and contrast black metal ideology with the Satanism constructed by Anton LaVey, founder of the Church of Satan. We shall see that those who had a certain prior claim to defining Satanism have long had their own philosophy of music, and their musical preferences may differ widely from what is popularly seen as “satanic.” I shall present this philosophy briefly, and argue that although black metal partakes, to some extent, of the Western demonological tradition, its lyrics are bad examples of Satanist ideology. I will then propose that a better entry to understanding Satanist ideology through popular music is to be found in a less obvious place.

My primary sources for this article are interviews, lyrics, published texts, Internet discussion boards,¹ and personal discussions with insiders concerning Satanism, satanic philosophy, and popular music. With regard to black metal, I will focus on Norwegian bands and the Norwegian situation during the first half of the 1990s. With regard to satanic philosophy, I view Anton LaVey’s The Satanic Bible as the primary starting point, and to the degree I depart from his texts, I focus mainly on contemporary discussions among Scandinavian (mainly Danish) and American Satanists.

Black Metal “Satanism” and its Demons

In the title song of De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas (1994), the seminal album by the groundbreaking Norwegian black metal band Mayhem, the protagonists, thirteen in all, sacrifice a goat to demons. The rite is read from a book “made of human flesh” and the deed is committed in a graveyard. Blending traditional demonological fantasies with horror fiction, the song places the demonic out in the open, explicitly thematizing satanic worship.

Seemingly, the Satanism of the more prominent bands was openly professed as well. Their lyrics often much more than hinted at Devil worship and an unhealthy interest in macabre themes, such as murder or necrophilia. In addition the band members frequently articulated the same themes beyond their musical output. In interview after interview, they would be quoted in a way that made them sound like actual “Devilworshippers.” They also looked the part, in that, at a fairly early stage, the dress code of black metal settled on black denim and leather, with long spikes on jackets, belts, boots, and wristbands. A white facial (sometimes also bodily) makeup called corpse paint,² although rarely worn off stage, completed the grim look of a scene where members seemed never to smile. When their explicit anti Christianity was connected to the spate of church burnings, violence, two murders, and allegations of rape, their role as “Satanists” was cemented in the public imagination.

There was, however, a limited amount of truth to these claims. To some extent, they were reacting to—and, in their symbolism and discourse, explicitly transgressing—the symbolic boundaries of a complacent, secularized social democracy, in a country where the state church mainly serves as ceremonial locus for rites of passage. In addition, state Protestantism is allowed access to elementary schools in many different ways and, moreover, teaching children to become “good Christians” is still one of the aims of the school system. Thus, the mainly teenaged black metallers inverted dominant cultural themes within Norway. Against the liberal left public—and perhaps equally important, the radical leftwing politics of the Norwegian punk scene—they adopted both the images and the rhetoric of the far right. Against both Christians and secularists, they often adopted an inverted, fundamentalist reading of Christianity in their public discourse. Some, like Mayhem’s Euronymous, the central figure within the Norwegian black metal scene, stressed that they wanted church burnings to revitalize a stronger Christianity in order to spread both misery and rebellion.

The internal and external discursive constructions of black metal as satanic and fascist served to separate them out from other scenes and was also a process of selfidentification. However, the emphasis and seriousness varied between individuals and over time. The external discourse could at times be tonguein cheek, but like the grim, antifun attitude promoted, it could also, from an emic perspective, be taken very seriously. The stress on transgressive practices, and the internal “competition” over transgression that amplified deviant practices, may (at least to some extent) show how seriously it was taken. However, it is difficult to assess how much the behavior stemmed from ideology and how much it was an effect of the particular dynamics within a rather small group of individuals. The problem with judging when the “attitude” was meant literally, and the degree to which it was, is compounded by what Keith KahnHarris has dubbed the “reflexive antireflexivity” discursive style within the scene (KahnHarris, 2007: 141–56).³

While the question of “authenticity” is of limited interest,⁴ we shall concentrate on something a little more easily assessed, namely how the subject of the satanic and demonic is treated within black metal lyrics.

Norwegian black metal bands were obviously not the first within heavy metal to use imagery of the demonic and Devilworship. Indeed, similar lyrics were already explicitly evident from the early 1980s. Evolving from a form of music more akin to death metal, Mayhem was among the groundbreaking, early representatives of what is commonly called the second wave of black metal. As such, the use of satanic and Devil-worshipping imagery was always part of what has retrospectively been identified as a subgenre. Black metal’s first wave included bands such as Venom, which was then perceived to belong to the “new wave of British heavy metal.” As early as 1981 they were singing proudly (although not sincerely) about being “In League with Satan,” a song that superficially celebrated Christian demonological themes: the protagonist obeys the heretical deity’s commands, sits at his left hand, and commits deeds of carnality and violence in Satan’s service.

That was not the only tradition they drew on. Among their songs we also find black metal classics such as the eponymous “Black Metal” (which Mayhem has subsequently covered), where the musicians follow in the footsteps of Satan as the recorder of “the first note,” and lay down their souls to play the Devil’s music. In this lyric, Satan as the first musician inspires the rebellious to “rock ’n’ roll” (which is also a common theme within some streams of Christian fundamentalism). From one perspective, this continues the mythology of the blues which describes— most notably in the story of Robert Johnson bargaining with Satan at the crossroads—the relation between music and Satan (in itself continuing much older folklore). This is, however, not the place to recount that history (see Moynihan and Søderlind, 1998; Baddeley, 1999; Pinn, in this volume). It is simply noted here as an antecedent to contemporary black metal. Hence, while Venom, in one sense, may be said to have been the pioneer black metal band and was certainly amongst the principal promoters of a satanic image at this early period, the genre had, by the late 1980s, moved on to something bleaker, more destructive.

The second wave of black metal was more aggressive both musically and lyrically than the first. Lyrically, both the lurid and juvenile sexuality—still present in some early black metal—and also the stereo-typical rock ’n’ roll clichés receded into the background.⁵ To the degree that sex was still part of black metal discourse, it was more often presented in the context of violence, rape, and necrophilia—themes one also finds in death metal, the genre which many Black metal musicians began their careers playing. Moreover, while the demonic was usually primary, within Norwegian black metal there was another theme, namely “nature” (e.g. Mørk, 2002: 99–100). Landscapes, particularly landscapes that are bleak, cold, barren, and hostile—which often serve as a backdrop for the violence of the protagonists—became prominent within the lyrics. Generally, agents, story, and landscape tended to draw on imagery similar to the comic book adaptations of Conan the Barbarian, which were popular in Norway. However, unlike the Conan stories, the warriors described in black metal lyrics fight under the command of and on the behalf of the dark forces, not against them. This is particularly typical of one cluster of motifs, where the lyrics describe fantasyinspired, mythic landscapes, where demons rule, and warrior heroes torture and kill their weak and godly enemies. An example from the “Black Circle”— the core of the early scene, centred around Euronymous and his record shop in Oslo—is the lyrics to Emperor’s “Into the Infinity of Thoughts.” Here, “frozen Nature chilly” is more than the scene for the antagonist’s brutal deeds of hatred and violence; it reflects both psychological ideals and the deeper reality of life.

While, in this particular song, the demonic realm is described merely as “the Shadows,” the same album, The Nightside Eclipse, also features several songs naming the demonic as literally “demonic.” Generally, the demon’s relation to brutal nature, “red in tooth and claw,” is made clear. This is evident, for example, in “Beyond the Great Vast Forest,” where a dark Lord and his “Devils of Darkness” haunt a similar landscape, draining the blood of living creatures. Not least, the album also includes “Inno a Satana.” This is one of their most “conventionally religious” songs, in that the lyrics praise the “Lord of the Night” who is “master of beasts,” compassionless bringer of everything destructive and hateful. The song ends with an oath that the singer forever will praise Satan’s name, serve him, and fight for him in the certain knowledge that “thou shalt forever prevail.”

It is once again clearly evident from the lyrics that hatred and strife are among the central “virtues” and the beasts of prey are typical symbols for the favored side. Again, we are presented with key themes from Christian demonology. Topics such as the agent’s willingness to “serve” and “praise” a nether power are not uncommon in black metal lyrics. Although the relation to “nature” may at times lend itself to a version of Paganism, particularly that of Norse religion, this is a relatively simple inversion of conventional Christian beliefs and attitudes, along with elements taken from horror movies. As such, it constitutes one of the typical “satanic” stances from the black metal scene. Indeed, as well as in some lyrics, in interviews members of the scene sometimes adopted an Christian eschatological narrative, in which they take Satan’s side.

In addition to these treatments of Satan and the demonic, however, we find a more conventional, romantic Satan in other parts of black metal. In these narratives, he is portrayed as a proud rebel against servitude, oppression, and conformity. Unlike the readings in romantic poetry (e.g. Schock, 2003), the Satan of even these black metal lyrics more often tends to be explicitly destructive. He despises the weak and encourages their destruction. It is this revised romantic, rebellious Satan that comes closest to the Satanism constructed by some of the followers of Anton LaVey and the Church of Satan.

Satanism and Black Metal

The relationship between black metal and Satanism is complex. From LaVey’s side, Norwegian black metal artists often appeared “as essentially Christian,” at least in the sense that they were “defining Satanism by Christian standards” (in Moynihan and Søderlind 1998: 234). That there was no love lost between them is evident from the fact that key members of the early Norwegian black metal scene claimed that they despised LaVey as just another humanist. Deathlike Silence Productions, the extreme metal label founded by Mayhem’s Euronymous, sometimes featured a picture of LaVey in a circle with a line drawn through it—sim ilar to conventional “no smoking” signs. At least one production carries the term “antiLaVey.” It would seem that whereas LaVey’s Church of Satan espouses “nine parts respectability to one part outrageousness,” the discourse and ethos of transgression in the early black metal scene inverts the proportions. Indeed, while the Church of Satan, like the extreme metal scene (e.g. KahnHarris, 2007), values transgression as well as control, only a few individual Satanists, many of which are marginal, would value transgression to the extent implied in black metal discourse.

But, as noted above, the relationship is somewhat more complex than may be gathered from this mutually expressed distaste. There is, firstly, a certain amount of common ground between LaVeyan Satanism, as interpreted by many Satanists, and the ideology of black metal. Both LaVeyan discourse and black metal share related themes of elitism, misanthropy, individualism, non conformity, and transgression. An admittedly impressionistic comparison of the treatment of these topics suggests that black metal discourse is more extreme. Not only do few Satanists go as far as black metal discourse, but LaVey himself seemed to have varied widely in his degree of misanthropy, with the early LaVey appearing almost optimistic compared to some of his later writings. With regard to contempt for “herd conformity,” they may seem more alike—but with important differences between individuals. While the combination of conservatism and transgression can be found in both Satanist and black metal communities, again, Satanists seem to focus differently on what counts as transgression and to what degree they are willing to transgess.

Although both parties claim to feel naturally alien in mainstream society, one can also make a case for alienation in Satanism sometimes being more strategic. Some consciously take on the role of “accuser” as part of what has sometimes been termed “creative alienation.” Consciously taking on the role of “acccuser” involves going against the main-stream by contesting what currently functions as “holy.” That said, there are similar elements in play in extreme metal as well.⁶

Moreover, the symbolism of transgression can also take on some of the same elements, with anti Christian blasphemy and Nazi aesthetics being among the principal areas of continuity. Again, however, Satanists are, generally speaking, much less interested in these elements, seeing anti Christianity as something to transcend, it being merely an unhealthy obsession with another religion, and the Nazi elements as immature foolishness or worse.⁷

Bearing in mind these common elements, it comes as no surprise tha...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of Contributors
• Introduction A Brief History of Western Demonology
• Part I Music
• 1 Satanism and Popular Music
• 2 Between Hymn and Horror Film How do we Listen to Cradle of Filth?
• 3 When Demons Come Calling Dealing with the Devil and Paradigms of Life in African American Music
• 4 Dark Theology Dissident Commerce, Gothic Capitalism, and the Spirit of Rock and Roll
• Part II Film
• 5 “Speak of the Devil” The Portrayal of Satan in the Christ Film
• 6 Celluloid Vampires, Scientization, and the Decline of Religion
• 7 A Man of Wealth and Taste The Strange Career of Hannibal Lecter
• 8 Demons of the New Polytheism
• 9 Scriptural Dimensions of Evil Biblical Text as Timepiece, Talisman, and Tattoo
• Part III Literature
• 10 James Hogg and the Demonology of Scottish Writing
• 11 Voldemort, Death Eaters, Dementors, and the Dark Arts A Contemporary Theology of Spiritual Perversion in the Harry Potter Stories
• Bibliography
• Index of Subjects
• Index of Names