During the 2000 US presidential election, the music industry feared the return of Tipper Gore, who was a founding member of the Parental Music Resource Center, a 1980s lobby group that attempted to censor Heavy Metal music. But the entertainment conglomerates have plenty to fear from President George W. Bush's administration, which also coincides with the rise-to-globalism of the "Millennials", the generation born after 1982.

In their book Millennials Rising: The Next Great Generation (New York: Vintage Books, 2000), authors Neil Strauss and William Howe contend that "Millennials" place "positivism over negativism, trust over cynicism, science over spiritualism, team over self, dutires over rights, honor over feeling, action over words." [1] They believe that the "Millennials" solution to current sociopolitical crises "will be to set high standards, get organized, team up, and do civic deeds." [2]

This generational viewpoint mirrors the "Compassionate Conservatism" of Bush and campaign manager/adviser Karl Rove. Strauss and Howe also believe that "Millennials" will uphold institutional values more than Generation X did, because they grew up in a post-1982 social climate that explicitely politicized children's rights. So, it's significant that the Pahler family's lawsuit against Slayer and Sony Music argues that the music industry should restrict selling violent music to minors. The worm has turned from technology lawsuits to re-examining how entertainment conglomerates create the youth market.

Other music industry-generated "controversies" are also affected by Howe and Strauss's "Millennial" dynamic. When Limp Bizkit's Fred Durst defends his band's "credibility" against Nine Inch Nails, he says that NIN's Pretty Hate Machine (TVT Records, 1989) and Hole's Live Through This (Universal/Geffen, 1994) were "landmark albums of our generation." Durst is tapping into the conflict between "Millennials" and sidelined Gen Xers, and in his rush to become a VP of Interscope Records, he also shows, according to Howe and Strauss, how "Millennials" will be more collectivist-oriented and affiliative than either Generation X or the Baby Boomers.

What is also fascinating is that Howe and Strauss's book on Generation X, 13th Gen: Abort, Retry, Ignore, Fail? (New York: Vintage Books, 1993) suggests that Slayer's melancholy imagery reflects America's "Evil-Child Movie Era", which began with Rosemary's Baby (1968), a film also cited by religious Satanists as a key influence. [3]

"In the years 1977-1981," Howe and Strauss write, "the New Realism movement reached its apogee with books about abortion, adolescent cohabitation, teen lesbianism, child abuse, family-friend rapists, and suicide." [4] The authors go so far as to suggest that 1970s America endured a Kinderfeindlickeit: "a society-wide hostility toward children." [5]

This doesn't let Slayer or Sony Records off the hook in the Pahler family's lawsuit, but it shows that the "problem" has emerged over a long period, and has been shaped by "environment" factors which the "Millennials" missed.

Diabolus In Musica

The truth is, that beyond the occasional reference to an album like Glenn Danzig's Black Aria (E-Imagine, 1993), the real stories that connect religious Satanism and Heavy Metal music are yet to be told. And they will remain unheard, as long as the negative stereotypes are reinforced by the cultural elites.

King Diamond and Marilyn Manson drew upon Anton LaVey's burlesque exploits for inspiration, and the post-1975 Church of Satan numbered eldritch musicians, including Acheron, Boyd Rice/NON, Michael Moynihan/Blood Axis and The Electric Hellfire Club, among its membership.

Dr. Michael A. Aquino, cofounder of the more secretive and elitist Temple of Set, developed a Promethean proposal for Space Migration, called "Project Atlantis", with Paul Kantner of Jefferson Airplane. Dr. Aquino and other Setians also intervened when Motley Crue bassist Nikki Sixx was sentenced to undergo fundamentalist Christian reprogramming as part of a Florida community drug treatment program. Sixx was accused of "masterminding" the armed robbery (June 1, 1984) of a bookstore in Naples, Florida, which he had simply witnessed. Locked up in Collier County Jail whilst awaiting trial (August 13, 1985), Sixx was replaced on the tour for Theatre of Pain (WEA/Elektra, 1985) by Frankie Ferraro, who toured, unannounced, under the name of . . . "Nikki Sixx." The record company scam was later exposed; a scam that was subsequently verified by a traffic ticket for speeding that Sixx received (January 1, 1985), whilst driving Mick Mars' Lamborghini on US Highway 41 to elude bail. The event's significance continues to elude the scholars who link religious Satanism and Heavy Metal music: "How," Aquino asked Sixx, "does one make a proper turn at 189 miles per hour?" [6]

The lawsuit against Slayer may create negative fallout, which poses a long-term danger to the Satanic community, already divided by conflicting doctrinal interpretations, historical propagandists, and outdated aesthetics. Organizational life cycles are creating unhealthy ("for-worse") institutional forms that recreate the authoritarian power structures uncovered by Theodor Adorno, Stanley Milgram, Philip Zimbardo, and others.

Initiates who are trapped by Social Darwinist dominance hierarchies and 'virtual gulag'-inspired scarcity will experience Seasons In The Abyss for real: 2 + 2 = 5. [7]

Postmortem (Endnotes):

[1] Neil Strauss and William Howe. Millennials Rising: The Next Great Generation. New York: Vintage Books, 2000: 352.

[2] Strauss and Howe. Millennials Rising: The Next Great Generation: 66.

[3] Neil Strauss and Bill Howe. 13th Gen: Abort, Retry, Ignore, Fail? New York, Vintage Books, 1993: 66.

[4] Strauss and Howe. 13th Gen: Abort, Retry, Ignore, Fail? ibid: 67.

[5] Strauss and Howe. 13th Gen: Abort, Retry, Ignore, Fail? ibid: 68.

[6] Dr. Michael A. Aquino. "The Cloning of Nikki Sixx." Runes. San Francisco: Temple of Set (January XXI/1986): 1-12.