Welcome back!
For believers, the battle with the devil comes in many forms and it's waged on many front lines. We've seen the harrowing journeys of exorcism, and deliverance ministry, we've taken a deeper look at The Amityville Horror. Now, did the devil make you do it? Can an obsession with Satan wreck lives and drive people to kill?
It was a gruesome crime. fifteen-year-old (15) Elyse Pahler was lured into a grove of eucalyptus trees by three (3) teenage boys in nineteen-ninety-five (1995). They bound her neck with a belt, stabbed her repeatedly, and then raped her. Her body might never have been found if one of them, Royce Casey, hadn't come forward. He said she was a blonde-haired, blue-eyed virgin and they were offering her as a sacrifice to the devil. The boys were part of a death metal band and thought that Satan could make their music better. Casey said it was an idea they'd gotten from Altar of Sacrifice, a song by the heavy metal band Slayer.
'High priest awaiting dagger in hand
Spilling the pure virgin blood
Satan's slaughter, ceremonial death
Answer his every command'
Pahler's parents filed suit against the band, trying to hold them partially responsible for their daughter's murder; a suit that was eventually thrown out.
But for many believers, heavy metal remains inextricably tied to the devil. A kind of doorway or portal, like ouija* boards, witchcraft, or other occult practices that can invite the forces of darkness into a person's life.
Dave Mustaine is one of the gods of metal, a founding member of Metallica, and the founder and frontman for Megadeth. He says he has no doubt about the devil.
'The greatest lies ever told was convincing people he doesn't exist and uh, you know, you see people they think that he's uh, red, he's gotta goatee and a pointy tail and stuff like that. He doesn't. He's very beautiful. He's an angel. Why would he look like some monster? He's capable of looking just like you. He could be in this room right now. We wouldn't know it.'
'That's a scary thought.'
'It's a very scary thought.'
Mustaine is currently on tour in Europe with what's called The Big Four, his current and former bands, plus Anthrax, and Slayer.
'Are people right when they say that heavy metal music is infused with the power of the devil?'
'In some cases, yes, but not in all cases because you got great heavy metal bands that believe in God and glorify him, um, we pray every night before we go on stage.'
'That sounds great!'
'For a fifty-year-old (50)--'
'You happy with it?'
'For a fifty-year-old (50) man I feel pretty damn good.'
He shows me a chord progression called the tritone, also known as the devil's interval.
'The devil's tritone is made up of these three notes, and this note right here drops down one (1), so it goes...
So listen to the difference. It just sounds evil doesn't it.'
'It sounds darker.'
Which is why the progression is used so frequently in death metal. Mustaine says he is a Christian now, but wasn't always.
*Note: spelling is 'ouija' (weeja) but usually pronounced 'weegee'.
"My mom was a Johova's Witness. I was brought up as a 'Witness' and I revolted into Witchcraft because I hated going out and knocking on people's doors."
Yes, Witchcraft. As a teenager, Mustaine says, he cast two hexes. The first (1st) was on a bully who sucked-punched him.
"From what I heard, he got in a car accident and something happened to part of his body that I had targeted and hexed."
The second (2nd) was on a girl he was in a class with.
(Mustaine): "Everybody wanted her, including me. But she was so out of my batting average and, and, uh, just totally out of my league. And I did it and, uh, the next day she was at my apartment."
(Interviewer): "You were convinced that these hexes that you, err spells, that you were casting worked."
"I was, and, and I do believe in the dark side. And most people think that, you know, that black magic and witchcraft and stuff like that isn't real or it doesn't work and, and, I know that it works."
*stopped at 4:37*
(Interviewer): "Mustaine's fascination with the occult continued into adulthood."
"I was doing a lot of blood pacts with people -- this is before we found out about AIDS -- it was sorta simple stuff where you cut your thumb and your rub it against someone else's and you become blood-brothers. I don't wanna make a spiritual covenant, mixing my life with someone else, if I don't know who they are, how they are. The bible said that blood is life."
(Narrator): "And, like so many people we have met, Mustaine believes that he opened the door to demonic forces which had a profound impact on his life."
(Interviewer): "Was your abuse of alcohol related to the satanic influences that you had been dabbling in?"
"I'll say this, every time I drank, I did not always do activities that were satanic, but anytime I had been doing anything that was satanic, I had been drinking. Does that make sense?"
"Yes it does. There _was_ a relationship then."
"Absolutely."
(Narrator): "There are some songs that Mustaine will nolonger sing,"
(Song): "... I am an Antichrist..."
(Narrator): "... like Megadeath's cover of the Sex Pistols' "Anarchy in the UK". And he says, he believes he's better for it."
"I think I'm more dangerous now that I've become a Christian than I ever was before when I was trying to go the opposite route because I'm armed with the truth now."
