Lord Satan’s Secret Rites and Satanism as Self-Therapy: The Creation of a Masculinity Gender Identity within Black Metal
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Satanism and anti-Christianity have always had prominent roles in black metal, expressed in such a way that it has usually been understood as a cult movement. While most musicians and fans today would claim that true evil is organized religion and even more so Christianity, the Satanism in black metal can also be interpreted as a new religions movement, making this statement highly paradoxical. This chapter will investigate how it is possible to understand the black metal movement as a new religious movement by applying Peter Clarke’s concept of the true self to act as a catharsis to separate the individual from the collective. By comparing the true self to ‘being true’, a complex notion of gender roles within black metal will be revealed, where Christianity can be seen as a metaphor for the consumerist society and how it emasculates men through the feminization of masculinity. By being evil through an extreme use of violence, Satanism therefore works as a tool for black metal men to free themselves of the metrosexual shackles and experience themselves as authentic in a world where everyone is supposed to be the same.