Has there ever been any form of music more closely associated with the Devil than metal? Sure, back in the '50s, most conservative types thought that Elvis and rock 'n' roll in general was "the Devil's music," but imagine if those same people had ever caught a glimpse of what was to come. They would've really lost their shit.
Early hard rock and metal bands like Black Sabbath (who wrote a pretty explicitly Christian jam called "After Forever") and Alice Cooper (who's totally Christian these days) were enough to put the fear of God ('er, Satan) into most people, but that stuff is nothing compared to the stuff out these days. Simply put, but nobody does "evil" quite like Norwegian black metal bands.
While the metal scene here in the States has gotten progressively less heavy into the whole Satan thing, black metal bands from Norway have been keeping it evil since the mid '80s. Over the past several decades the Norwegian black metal scene has taken a strong anti-Christian standpoint and have been linked to around two-dozen cases of arson, in some cases involves churches, murders, and torture. If there is anyone in need of a spiritual intervention it's these guys.
At least that's what Norwegian television station NRK seems to think. They are planning on having Jørn Stubberud better known as "Necrobutcher," bassist of infamous metal band Mayhem, visit Rev. Bob Larson of Phoenix in order to perform an exorcism.
Mayhem is one of the original bands from the black metal scene, and has a particularly brutal history. The band was notorious for their live shows, mainly for featuring pig and sheep heads impaled on stakes at the front of the stage. In 1991, Mayhem lead vocalist, Dead, committed suicide by shooting himself in the head. Rumors later started that the bands guitarist, Euronymous, made a stew with the singers brains and a necklace out of his skull fragments. Yikes. Euronymous was later stabbed to death by another member of the band in 1993. Double yikes.
Fortunately, Bob Larson, the founding pastor of Spiritual Freedom Churches International, has plenty of experience with exorcisms, and exorcising the demons of metal musicians in particular. He once performed an exorcism on Glen Benton of the band Deicide.
Necrobutcher isn't quite a believer yet, however. He spoke with Metal Hammer magazine at the Wacken Open Air festival recently and had to say, "NRK is sending me over to Phoenix, Arizona next week. There's this famous preacher. I'm not a believer, so I think he's a quack. A very religious guy. He's an exorcist; that's what he does. I'm just there for the fun of it. He's gonna perform an exorcism on me on national TV. So it's gonna be wild as fuck and, of course, I don't expect to suddenly be free from some demons or whatever. I'm just there for the fun of it and for the hell of it."
Now, we think it makes slightly more sense to fly the preacher TO the guy who's supposedly possessed, but apparently the folks at NRK didn't think to consult us.
Up on the Sun spoke with a member of the Spiritual Freedom Church recently and found out that Necrobutcher's exorcism hasn't actually taken place yet. If and when it does happen, we're hoping that we'll actually be present for the exorcism to watch Bob Larson battle it out with Necrobutcher's demons.
Below you can watch a clip of Bob Larson performing an exorcism.
And here's Mayhem rocking.
