Protest against 'extreme' band
BLACK metal band Gorgoroth have cut albums called Antichrist and Incipit Satan and the lead singer claims he supports church burnings.
The extreme Norwegian group were almost prosecuted for religious offence over a stageshow in Poland which featured four naked crucified models, sheep heads on stakes, and 80 litres of animal blood.
Perhaps unsurprisingly then, news that the gruesome fourpiece have been booked to play at Belfast’s Limelight has invoked the ire of leading Christians.
A group of Free Presbyterians are to protest at the band’s planned concert in November and have warned the music could psychologically scar young fans.
The Rev David McIlveen – who in the past has spearheaded a campaign against a Brendan Behan stage play – is set to lead outraged churchgoers to the bar.
He said: “This reprehensible group’s influence on the young may push them to evil acts and lead to the fragmentation of family life.
“Organisers need to rethink their decision to give them concert time in Belfast as the majority of people in Northern Ireland will be highly offended by their apparent anti-God message.
“Anything that is detrimental to the Christian belief must be challenged and I will be doing that.”
But Limelight publicist Ian Wilson said: “We book bands with absolutely no concern about their religious or political viewpoints. It’s just music.”
According to Gorgoroth’s lead singer Gaahl, the goal of Black Metal is to turn its practitioners into “the true Satan”.
In an interview with The Observer in 2005, he said: “Black Metal was never meant to reach an audience. It was purely for our own satisfaction. Something entirely self-centred.
“The shared goal was to become the true Satan; the elite human, basically. The elite are above rules.”
The self-confessed loner, who rarely appears without monster make-up, is polite and soft-spoken in interviews. But according to a posting on Gorgoroth’s official website, Gaahl was sentenced to 14 months in prison in February 2005 for torture and committing ritual acts.
It was alleged he beat his victim – a man who had turned up drunk to a party at his house – and threatened to sacrifice him and gave him a cup into which to bleed.
Acting in his own defence, Gaahl claimed in court he had been attacked first and his assailant was only provided with a cup “so that he wouldn’t make such a mess in my house”.
And he stoked controversy in a Canadian documentary called Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey, in which he spoke out in support of a spate of arson attacks on churches linked to the Norwegian metal scene.
He said: “Church burnings and all these things are, of course, things that I support 100 per cent and it should have been done much more and will be done much more in the future.
“We have to remove every trace from what Christianity and the Semitic roots have to offer this world. Satanism is freedom for the individual to grow and to become Superman. Every man who is born to be king becomes king. Every man who is born to be a slave doesn’t know Satan.”
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Wednesday 30 May 2012
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