AA.VV.
Lords Of Chaos: Die Geschichte Der Okkulten Musik

In 2002, Prophecy released a strange collection, "Lords Of Chaos: Die Geschichte der Okkulten Musik", which closely followed the publication of the cult book "Lord Of Chaos: The Bloody Rise Of the Satanic Metal Underground" by Michael Moynihan and Didrik Soderlind. It is a colossal anthology, 2 CDs, 28 total tracks for 130 minutes of music.

The album aims to chronologically trace the history of satanic music (or as it is more philosophically called here, "Occult Music") from its origins to the Norwegian scene, which, as expected, is the central theme around which this collection revolves. In fact, this work was conceived as the soundtrack for the previously released book, intended to complete it and provide all the "scholars" interested in the theme with the right sources to delve into the intricacies of satanic music.

However, it is a pity that the album manages to worsen the mediocrity of the original book: while rhetoric can skillfully beautify the flatness of content through an engaging and successful style, music has a non-negligible flaw: if it's bad, it's just bad, with no escape. Thus, the pages that so bewitched foreign readers, on the alleged connection between La Vey, Crowley, and Scandinavian Black (!!!!!) can only lose all their charm if presented in a musical key: who could ever be interested (apart from Jimmy Page...) in an old man praising the Pentacle, or a rich American manager dealing with a black mass? At least seven tracks are along these lines.

What is lost on one side is not recovered when it comes to the actual music. The first disc is dedicated to the journey that led satanic-inspired music from its origins to consecration in the '80s. Interesting indeed. Were it not for an unpleasant atmosphere dictating the criteria behind the selection of pieces: it feels like facing the discographic version of the Maurizio Costanzo Show, with all the prejudices, ideological errors. Thus, we move from Robert Johnson's blues (who would be a satanist because it was believed that black people were bearers of evil and misfortunes... congratulations!) to the early seventies rock of Black Widow (who rode the stereotype "Rock=Devil") and Black Sabbath (who were not even vaguely evil, quite the opposite). We reach the '80s rightly celebrating the ridiculous Venom ("We drink the priest's vomit and fuck the dying whore"... great lyrics!!!) and others.

The second disc kicks off with the Norwegian Black phenomenon: the selection is good and features tracks by Mayhem, Emperor, Ulver, and Darkthrone (Burzum no, he did not grant - may he be sainted! - the permission to use his music); but then it returns to the clichés about Evil-Satan-Madness by presenting pieces by Thorns (only because the leader was linked to the Arseth murder), Abruptum (because legend had them as mad) and even Bathory, with "Twilight Of The Gods" (a song centered on Norse mythology, thus completely out of context).

A record that triumphs in the discography of every self-respecting Poser, alongside the book, leaving a gap in anticipation of the next film on the Norwegian scene (TO BE BOYCOTTED). It indeed seems, as Varg Vikerness sharply notes on his website, that these parallel projects were meticulously planned to capture the hearts of those simpletons who approach Black Metal to seem "Evil" and of those who still believe that in life you can understand something by having it told by someone who speaks well, instead of understanding on your own.