All I’ve wanted to read lately is books about the cultural impact of horror movies and heavy metal, and this week, that’s been Satanic Panic: Pop-Culture Paranoia in the 1980s by Kier-La Janisse and Paul Corupe. It’s a glossy, photo-heavy collection of essays about everything from RPGs and new technology to — you guessed it — horror movies and heavy metal. And that, of course, means my recent playlist has reflected that.
Judas Priest is just one of the many bands mentioned in Satanic Panic. My brother and I both went through our heavy metal phases in childhood (though mine hasn’t exactly ended), and he trended more to the Judas Priest and Iron Maiden side of things than I did. I preferred my musicians with more makeup and ended up wandering from hair metal to Norwegian black metal.
That being said, I still appreciate some good Judas Priest, and that appreciation has been revived as I read about the terrible Satanic influences of British metal. And that means I’m sharing it with you.