Cultic Studies Journal, Vol. 8, No. 2, 1991, Page 53
the aura of the existence of some message just beyond the audience‟s
understanding.44
One has to wonder how much the CSER authors know about our youth. Have they ever
been to a concert of this type? It is common knowledge that such an experience is
unpleasant to downright dangerous. Have they ever witnessed “slam dancing”? Have they
lost sight of the difference between a lullaby, a dirge, and music composed for the sole
purpose of producing the eradication of thought by the arousal of primal instincts and
appetites? Or do they believe that the Rolling Stones‟ “Jumpin‟ Jack Flash” is
indistinguishable from “Silent Night?” One must wonder about this in light of the easily
procured evidence that points toward wholly different conclusions.
The most concrete examples which disprove the report‟s claims about an absence of
coherent messages in heavy metal music are to be found in the lyrics. The group Motley
Crue proclaims in their double platinum album, Shout at the Devil,
Not a woman, but a whore.
I can taste the hate.
Well, now I‟m killing you ...
Watch your face turning blue.
Their song, Bastard, says:
Out go the lights.
In goes the knife.
Pull out his life.
Consider the bastard dead.
Make it quick.
Blow off his head.
This is not explicitly satanic. But it is far removed from the love songs of Elvis Presley and
Buddy Holly. For more explicit encouragement to violence, one need only listen to the group
called Bitch. Their song, Leatherbound, contains the following lines:
The whip is my toy
Handcuffs are your joy
You hold me down and I‟m screaming for more
When you tie me up and gag me
The way you give me pain Give me lashes
C‟mon and drag me.
Perhaps this, too, lacks sufficient satanic references. For that we turn to the well-known
band Venom. In order to avoid being misconstrued, this group conveniently compresses its
message into a form suitable to the inefficient understanding of its audience. Its song,
“Possessed,” could have been written by LaVey himself. Its “ambiguous” message is as
follows:
Look at me, Satan‟s child
Born of evil, thus defiled.
Brought to life through Satan‟s birth
Come look at me and I‟ll show you things that will open your eyes...
Listen to me and I‟ll tell you things that will sicken your mind.
I drink the vomit of the priests,
Make love with the dying whore...
Satan as my master incarnate
Hail, praise to my unholy host.

Cultic Studies Journal, Vol. 8, No. 2, 1991, Page 54
It is important to remember that those whose lives straddle the worlds of satanic fashion,
heavy metal music, and predatory violence listen to a collection of such records. The
messages are driven home by repeated exposure, and merge with each other. The
screaming sounds, relentless beat, and appeal to excitement do not encourage discernment.
When combined with a need to exert power for power, per se, and with a more direct and
local authorization for violence, this music contributes to the eventual outcome. It may not
be the cause, but it is a factor in the cause even if that factor is limited to its being the
anthem of satanically inspired anarchy.
The attraction of violence and its visceral pleasures is not solely a contemporary issue. Saint
Augustine‟s Confessions includes a vivid account of the power exerted by the gory
spectacles in the local circus. The cruel killings provoked among the spectators a lust for
more killings, even among those previously opposed. “We feel we are masters over life and
death when we hold the fate of others in our hands,” wrote Ernest Becker in Escape From
Evil, dealing with the same period. He pointed out that “the highest form of pure excitement
is to watch another‟s death while you remain invulnerable.”45 But this sense of power does
not need to be the product of its personal exercise. Being a part of a group or community
can provide the same sense via identification with acceptable sadistic agents. The Roman
spectacles of orchestrated mass murders allowed the individual the same sense of power he
would normally experience in war. In his Confessions, St. Augustine recalls the experience
of his young student, Alypius, who had gone to Rome to study law. Literally dragged along
by his friends to view the gladiatorial shows, Alypius intended to demonstrate that, as a
good Christian, he was immune to such influences. But such was not his experience.
When they arrived at the arena, the place was seething with the lust for
cruelty ...and Alypius shut his eyes tightly, determined to have nothing to do
with these atrocities. If only he had closed his cars as well! For an incident in
the fight drew a great roar from the crowd, and this thrilled him so deeply
that he could not contain his curiosity ...So he opened his eyes ...When he
saw the blood, it was as though he had drunk a deep draught of savage
passion. Instead of turning away, he fixed his eyes upon the scene and drank
in all its frenzy, unaware of what he was doing. He reveled in the wickedness
of the fighting, and was drunk with the fascination of bloodshed. He was no
longer the man who had come to the arena, but simply one of the crowd
which he had joined, a fit companion for the friends who had brought him ...
and when he left the arena, he carried away with him a diseased mind which
would leave him no peace until he came back again, no longer simply
together with friends who had first dragged him there, but at their head ...46
As Becker observes, “for man, maximum excitement is the confrontation of death and the
skillful defiance of it by watching others fed to it as he survives transfixed with rapture.”47
While this is certainly not a universal response, it is common enough to have implications in
regard to heavy metal music and satanic doctrine.
Are these lessons suddenly inapplicable? Are our youth immune to the thrills so many
sources carefully describe? Or are we justified in our concerns that this form of predatory
pleasure is being encouraged? The report would have us believe we are not. The report
emphatically states that, “there is no compelling evidence that heavy metal music compels
teens to vandalize.”48 This flies in the face of heavy metal being a presence in every such
incident we have examined. The report does acknowledge that heavy metal bands use a
combination of acts, costumes, and lyrics which reflect ideas about “Satan, sex and drugs” -
then, as we have already noted, adds its vacuous observation that “the symbols seem
intended more to shock dm to convert.”49,50 To shock whom? Do the reports‟ authors really
believe that heavy metal music has no raison d’etre other than to scandalize Mom and Dad?