Jesse Hughes of Eagles of Death Metal on August 26, 2012 in Reading, England. (Photo by Simone Joyner/Getty Images)

JOSH writes:

First, I would like to say that I have been a fan of your site for years and that I am broadly in sympathy with your views (including agnosticism including agnosticism in interpreting various recent world events).  However,  I am writing to correct what I think is a misconception regarding the music group “The Eagles of Death Metal,” [the band playing at the Bataclan Hall in Paris during Friday night’s attacks.]  I am not writing to defend the band as talented, wholesome, or even morally neutral.  Like most modern pop music they unreflectively endorse a casual attitude toward sex, and a general (though, frankly, mildly so compared to many of their contemporaries) disposition toward hedonism.  Having said that, I did want to say, for your benefit, that they are not who you think they are.

 “The Eagles of Death Metal,” are not in fact a “Death Metal” band.  The name is a joke of sorts.  The word “Eagles” in the name, is a reference to the 1970s band, who, I gather the EODM consider to be lame.  One of the band members once heard a friend describe a different band  as “The Eagles of Death Metal” and he found this an amusing description.  The EODM’s music is blues influenced, heavy on slide guitar, mostly melodic.  The devil horns sign is more of a hipster detached irony, combined with the fact that most urban young hipsters are atheists and associate this hand symbol with “rock and roll” (though even this is viewed with a detached kind of irony).  I imagine that the band and the audience find the whole idea of Satan to be provincial to the extent that they even think about it.  Note that I am not saying that these symbols have no power despite the intentions of the people involved, or that on some level, this indifference between good and evil isn’t the work of the devil.  Modern culture and modern rock and roll certainly unwittingly (semi-wittingly?) play into the devil’s hands.

I only write to tell you this, because there are, of course, bands that are more overtly and consciously Satanic.  If one were to confuse the Eagles of Death Metal with one of these groups based on their name alone, one might get the impression that the whole event was a kind of “working”, which makes conspiracies of elites seem all the more likely.  I am not saying, that the events in Paris necessarily took place exactly as they are being reported to have done, only that, in my view, an Eagles of Death Metal concert is an unlikely event for any kind of Satanic ritual and it is unlikely that, in the event that this was a western rather than a Muslim conspiracy, the choice of band at the concert was of any significance.

Laura writes:

Thank you very much for the clarifications.

— Comments —

Karl D. writes:

Just to give further clarification as to the “Devils Horn’s” hand sign. As someone who was a teenaged metal head back in the early to mid-80s. The whole thing started with the singer Ronnie James Dio who sang for bands Rainbow, Black Sabbath (Which was named after a film) and his own band named “Dio.” When Dio (who is of Italian descent) was a boy, his grandmother who was very much a peasant superstitious type from the old country used to throw the hand sign as a way to ward off evil. She called it the Moloch. Just as Leonard Nimoy utilized his hand sign on Star Trek from witnessing Rabbis use it in temple when he was a child, Dio did the same thing. He thought it was just an unusual gesture and would use during live performances. From there it kind of took off. There are a few underground metal bands who really are Satanists and Nihilists. They are mostly from Scandinavia and the genre was/is known as Scandinavian Black Metal. Back in the late 90s a few of these bands took to murder, torture, cannibalism and burning down historic churches.

Michael writes:

I came to the same conclusion about Eagles of Death Metal that  Josh and Karl D did. They have done a good  job of explaining  them and the genre they operate in.  They cannot be classified as a Satanist band,  the intention seems to be to offer  a good night out with Lucifer Lite. “The devil horns sign is more of a hipster detached irony.”  Whatever.

Certainly , there  was no  conspiracy that night or  deliberate summoning of the devil . It was , however,  Mohammad meets  Metal.   It was a meeting of the vacuous with the viscous.

Laura writes:

There are different levels of Satanism. With T-shirts like the one Jesse Hughes is wearing and songs like “Kiss the Devil,” even if filled with irony, I would still classify Eagles of Death Metal as Satanic.

“KISS THE DEVIL” – BY EAGLES OF DEATH METAL

WHO’LL LOVE THE DEVIL?
WHO’LL SONG HIS SONG?
WHO WILL LOVE THE DEVIL AND HIS SONG?

I’LL LOVE THE DEVIL
I’LL SING HIS SONG
I WILL LOVE THE DEVIL AND HIS SONG

WHO’LL LOVE THE DEVIL?
WHO’LL KISS HIS TONGUE?
WHO WILL KISS THE DEVIL ON HIS TONGUE?

I’LL LOVE THE DEVIL
I’LL KISS HIS TONGUE
I WILL KISS THE DEVIL ON HIS TONGUE

Have you seen any pictures of Muslims in the concert hall? If you do, please pass them on.

Nov. 20, 2015

Laura writes:

The attack on Friday the 13th at the Bataclan Theater has all the hallmarks of a Satanic ritual. The gruesome photo of the bodies that has been widely circulated suggests ritual killings. There is no good reason why these bodies are left on the floor in that way, without emergency treatment, and why the blood is smeared as if the bodies were dragged around. I don’t think Muslims follow Eagle Death Metal or occult symbolism, another reason why I do not believe Muslim terrorists were responsible for any killings at the theater.

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