Satanic messages being hidden inside of music is nothing new. In fact, it’s kind of old hat, but for a time it was something that captivated listeners and forced them to play their records in reverse searching for crazy, hidden messages telling them to serve Satan. After the whole Satanic messages played in reverse bit became popular thanks to The Exorcist, it became a practice that drove fans to obsessively comb through their favorite music to discover hidden messages. The new Doom game has a lot of Easter eggs hidden within, and Satanic content is sort of what the game is all about, but that didn’t stop them from hiding messages in their music, an ode to Satanic messages of the past.
So while metal bands dabbled in Satanic imagery on the surface, there were also bands that hid their messages via “backmasking” thanks to The Exorcist. For example, Norweigan black metal act Darkthrone didn’t really need to hide their Satanic, pro-church burning messages. In fact, they were rather up front about those messages, but that didn’t stop them from doing it anyway.
People have been wondering for years if the message hidden in Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven was intentional or not, but c’mon, that band openly talked about dabbling in the occult. That was a part of their image.
People even think that the Eagles, one of the most “Dad” rock bands in the world, were planting hidden, Satanic messages in their songs. Their most popular, haunting song, Hotel California, may even contain a Satanic message.
This whole idea of hiding Satanic messages got so much press that even Weird Al got in on the practice, although it was with his always-deft, satirical touch. That’s right, SATAN EATS CHEEZ WHIZ.
But we’re at a point where technology allows us to do even cooler stuff with music than simply recording something, play it backwards and hide it in the background. Redditor tomcb tossed part of Doom’s soundtrack into a spectrogram and the result was simply, well, on-message.
Yes, you are absolutely seeing that correctly. That is the Number of the Beast along with a pentagram appearing within track 11 there. I mean, look, Doom is a game about shooting and killing demons, so this isn’t exactly a revelation here, but, it’s one of those really cool little touches that adds to the game’s overall appeal. The team at id Software’s attention to detail is simply insane, almost without peer in the world of gaming. Sure, lots of games have Eastern Eggs, but like this?
Composer Mick Gordon’s work on Doom truly was a step above, in a way reminding me of Junkie XL’s tremendous work on Mad Max: Fury Road. In fact, he even put up two videos detailing what went into making the music for Doom on his YouTube channel.
Just beautiful, chunky riffs, crazy electronic drum beats that sound violent and oh yeah, awesome attention to detail. This really puts the game world on notice when it comes to the little, Satanic things.
(Via Reddit)