Forward: This is an article about a Satanic band written by a Christian who enjoys their music. If you’re one of the Christians who refuses to listen to the book you’re supposed to be reading and the mere mention of the devil offends you then you probably shouldn’t read it.

A few years back, my good friend, best man, and lifelong brother in arms, Sterling Lenz showed me a song by a band called “Ghost.” I remember him saying, “it’s like some kind of devil rock sort of thing, you’ll love it.” The thing was, I didn’t. Not then. When I heard the opening guitar riff of “Cirice,” I was captivated, but when the singer started singing, I thought, ‘his voice doesn’t fit this music.’ But I kept finding myself listening to them more and more, trying to make sense of their weird and very original take on heavy metal. Since then, I have become an avid fan. My love for theater and horror and distorted guitars makes it nigh on impossible for me to stop listening to this entrancing blend of the eighties pop/rock my mom listened to, and the heavy, blaring metal my father raised me on.

Friday marks the release of Ghost’s 4th studio album, “Prequelle.” For those of you unfamiliar with the band – they are a Swedish rock group whose entire schtick is that they are part of an evil, Satanic church with Catholic overtones who have plotted to take over humanity through the use of catchy rock music. They are basically a theatrical act based entirely on the view that right wing Christians seem to have about rock music… the whole “rock music is the devil” thing that’s been going on since Elvis had the audacity to shake his ass on television all those years ago.

In a way, I don’t think they’re much more than “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” in terms of how they actually effect their fans. It’s a fun show, and boy do they know how to put one on. These guys – and gals – are the closest thing to KISS that this generation will ever see. They have this whole “lore” that puts the fans directly into the band’s story. By merely attending one of their concerts – aptly dubbed “rituals” – you are contributing to the tale that the lead singer has been weaving since he posted the band’s first songs to a MySpace page a little over a decade ago.

I don’t want to review their music. I like it, other people may not. That’s fine. My tastes are most certainly not for everyone. They are a metal band that sounds more like Blue Oyster Cult than Metallica and I appreciate a break from the monotony that metal has been guilty of for the last few decades. It’s kind of nice to hear something that you can actually groove to instead of just doing the traditional headbanging thing. So… Yeah… That’s all I’ll say about their musical abilities… Which are just freaking awesome, by the way.

What I really love about them is their honest exploration of Satanic influence. I have been to multiple churches in my life, each of them a different flavor, and none of them have even tipped the iceberg that is the subject of a large part of our religion: the Devil.

The devil seems to be a great scapegoat for the Christians who are willing to discuss him. You doing drugs? It was the devil. Murder someone? The devil. Enjoy sex, cuss, smoke, drink, get sick, or lose your home to inclement weather? It’s that damn devil again. For the Christians who aren’t willing to discuss the Satan our Bible repeatedly mentions, he exists in a capacity similar to Voldemort. Ya just don’t talk about the dude. You talk about the parts of the book that you’re comfortable with and leave the other stuff off to the side like Grandma’s egg salad. You might take a bite every now and then to appease her, but – for the most part – that stuff just isn’t getting et.

Now, when it comes to the combination of Satan and Heavy Metal, I mean, the two just go together like peanut butter and jelly. They work, they jibe, they hang out together after school and smoke cigarettes, ya know? Although most of these bands are brutal about it, like the Satan is this bloodthirsty, pissed off, warrior angel – which… Well… He isn’t. In the parts of the book that include him, the guy is much more like a lawyer than a barbarian. But I digress…

Anyways, it’s no surprise that one of the biggest names in metal today is driven directly by this sort of Satanic influence, and they’re not hiding reversed messages in their lyrics or anything. They’re straight out about it and they stick to the idea that the Satan doesn’t force anyone to do anything. Force isn’t really in his bag of tricks… But it’s in ours. If anything, throughout the story of the Bible, all the Devil really does is attempt to coax people away from God… using words… like a lawyer.

With this in mind, I’d venture to say that this band is more honest about exactly what the devil does than any Christian I’ve ever spoken to on a theological level. And whether we Christians like it or not, this fella is part of our story – a big part. He’s the entire opposite of what Christ represents, and he’s there for a reason. If we didn’t have an opposing force as an example of what not to do then a lot of what Jesus says and does wouldn’t make any sense. Where Jesus is selfless, the accuser is selfish. Where Christ is represented as loving and giving, the adversary is hateful and greedy. As human beings, we have the capacity to follow the example of either one of these figures, and Ghost seems to take that into account when writing their lyrics.

“I can feel the thunder that’s breaking in your heart

I can see through the scars inside you…”

– from “Cirice”

This is that Satanic influence thing. That idea that, yeah, you’re hurt. You’re lost. You’re scared. I understand that. I can help you. But the next refrain is very telling about the true intentions of this influence, it brings it full circle to show the listener that they’ve been had, this was a trick used to lure you in and now that you’ve submitted to it, you’re nothing but a flailing fish on a hook:

“Can’t you see that you’re lost?

Can’t you see that you’re lost without me?”

– also “Cirice”

This is an abusive relationship. The frontman – a series of masked horror movie popes and now a cardinal all played by the same gentleman (who, for my utter love of theater, will remain nameless in my little scribble here) – has gone well out of his way to let the fans know that following this path will only lead to your own downfall. In another song, titled “Deus in Absentia,” Papa Emeritus III tells us, in the tune of a catchy, thumping, late 80’s stadium ballad:

“The world is on fire

And You are here to stay

And burn with me

A funeral pyre

And we are here to revel forevermore”

– from “Deus in Absentia”

He is quite literally telling them, “yeah, come party with me, but you’re gonna burn for it. No. Really. You are. It’s a funeral pyre, dude, do you think I’m joking?”

I’ll go even further and use another example in a song titled “Jiggilo Har Meddigo” where the masked singer is waxing poetic about his sexual prowess:

“I am the one who preys on weak

I offer everything they seek

I am the one who comes richly endowed

Harvesting crops of fields that others have plowed.”

– from Jiggilo Har Meddigo

He is, again, openly, stating exactly what he is and what he is going to do. His intentions are laid completely bare – and his influences is you’re familiar with the history of libertines or the Marquis de Sade (specifically the ‘richly endowed’ line plucked from the first act of “Philosophy in the Bedroom.”)

I have heard the expression used before, “the devil in disguise.” I’m sure you have too. But that isn’t the case here. And it makes it where all of these things that people engage in – these selfish acts and whorish tendencies that we have – just so… well… apparent. I think that, if Christians would honestly discuss this biblical figure in an open and honest way, like Ghost does, we would have a better understanding of our own faults and maybe even communicate better with people who disagree with us, which is what we’re supposed to do in the first place.

On a theological level, I’m right there with this band. These are messages that people need to hear and that our churches – at least in my experience – have been either too afraid to address or too caught up in their own misconceptions to address properly. The devil doesn’t do anything, he doesn’t make you do anything, those choices are yours and as far as what our book tells us, it isn’t the devil who will be held accountable for our actions. It’s us. Maybe, more than the devil, Christians need to be able to discuss their own shortcomings, because – ultimately – those are what lead us down that darker path. It’s not music. It’s not plants that we claim to believe God put here for no reason (God made everything perfect except for like 10 or 12 plants that we aren’t supposed to use at all because they get you high, yeah he really messed up there but aside from that he did pretty good… idiots) It’s not casinos or strip clubs or any vice in particular that puts us in a bad spot. It’s our choices. And this band goes well out of it’s way to deliver that message to the masses.

Plus, as I mentioned before… their music just plain rocks.