Satanism Today - An Encyclopedia of Religion, Folklore and Popular ...

106 Heavy Metal Music
Iron Maiden, 7 July 1998 (Mitchell Gerber/Corbis)
Ramirez. Ramirez, better known as the Night
Stalker, was a fan of the group, and claimed to have
modeled some of his crimes after the AC/DC song
“Night Prowler.” Other heavy metal groups associated
with the Devil were Mötley Crüe, Judas
Priest, Iron Maiden, and sometimes even KISS.
Satanism became something more than a
symbol of rebellion with the emergence of socalled
black metal. Black metal—sometimes
termed Satanic heavy metal—was a blend of
Gothic music and heavy metal. The first black
metal band was Venom, an English group originally
called Oberon. Venom popularized the cult
of death and Satanism as metal themes. Their tune
“Black Metal” became a sort of theme song for the
movement. Observers of the metal scene have
debated the question of whether a distinction
should be drawn between black metal and later
trends such as death metal, speed metal, and
doom metal. One difficulty is that different
musical groups have changed over time. In the
early 1980s, the Swedish group Bathory, for
instance, started out in the Venom tradition. By
the late 1980s, however, the group’s style was
moving in the direction of what was eventually
dubbed modern or “Northern” black metal. Other
groups such as Hammerheart introduced an
appeal to the Viking tradition. One band that
helped to define black metal was the Swiss group
Hellhammer, though in the mid-1980s they
changed their name to Celtic Frost and distanced
themselves from black metal.
In some European countries, black metal
became popular in the Gothic subculture. In
contrast to “mainstream” Goth, however, black
metal is often extremely anti-Christian, especially
Northern black metal. Some groups identify
themselves as Satanists and/or as Nazis. In a few
cases, the antagonism to Christianity has boiled
over into actual attacks, such as vandalizing graves
and burning churches. These extreme acts are
referred to as esoterrorism, or esoteric terrorism. At
least two black metal bands, Burzum and
Emperor, were involved in such activities. The
leader of Burzum, who had converted from
Satanism to a neo-Nazi form of Norse neopaganism,
was eventually sent to jail for his involvement
in the burning of at least ten churches and the