Heavy Metal

Last week, Datura Books published Confessions of an Antichrist by Marta Skaði — a novel that takes readers into the world of Norwegian heavy metal. As a long-time fan of Scandinavian metal (mainly Swedish), I was very much intrigued by the novel. To celebrate the release, Datura has provided this excerpt (Chapter 2) with us to share! First, check out the synopsis:

Marta Skaði is on a mission to destroy the world. Rebelling against the perfect, picturesque Norwegian fishing town she was born in, she has formed a black metal band of such disturbing depravity she knows they’re the perfect weapon to corrupt the masses.

When a record deal is dangled before the band after a particularly offensive gig, Marta has to hold the young, wannabe Satanists in her midst together as they reach for their destiny. Not easy when they consist of her ox-brained best friend drummer, a Viking-obsessed bass guitarist, a sex-addicted lead guitarist, and a barely human singer who could well be the Anti-Christ.

Yet as the record deal seems within reach, everything falls apart. And so begins the spiralling descent into madness of Marta and her strange, sordid group as they corrupt Christians on crosses and battle fascists with dildos, while coming to realise that one of them may be more evil than they realised…

Set in the grungy heavy metal scene of 2010’s Norway, Marta chronicles her descent into chaos and murder, fuelled by thinly veiled lust described as love. From burning down churches to satanic orgies, Confessions of an Antichrist is a fast paced and hair raising story, detailing the gruesome fulfilment of teenage dreams and nightmares.

Continue reading →

WrayJ-GoneToTheWolvesUSHC As a life-long metalhead, my eyes must be tuned to spot “metal script”, as they did on the cover of John Wray‘s upcoming new novel, Gone to the Wolves. “What’s that about?” I wondered. The new novel from the author of The Lost Time Accidents and Godsend, it delves into “the wild, risky world of heavy metal in the 1980s and ’90s”. Here’s the synopsis:

Kip, Leslie, and Kira are outliers—even in the metal scene they love. In arch-conservative Gulf Coast Florida in the late 1980s, just listening to metal can get you arrested, but for the three of them the risk is well worth it, because metal is what leads them to one another.

Different as they are, Kip, Leslie, and Kira form a family of sorts that proves far safer, and more loving, than the families they come from. Together, they make the pilgrimage from Florida’s swamp country to the fabled Sunset Strip in Hollywood. But in time, the delicate equilibrium they’ve found begins to crumble. Leslie moves home to live with his elderly parents; Kip struggles to find his footing in the sordid world of LA music journalism; and Kira, the most troubled of the three, finds herself drawn to ever darker and more extreme strains of metal. On a trip to northern Europe for her twenty-second birthday, in the middle of a show, she simply vanishes. Two years later, the truth about her disappearance reunites Kip with Leslie, who in order to bring Kira home alive must make greater sacrifices than they could ever have imagined.

In his most absorbing and ambitious novel yet, John Wray dives deep into the wild, funhouse world of heavy metal and death cults in the 1980s and ’90s. Gone to the Wolves lays bare the intensity, tumult, and thrill of friendship in adolescence—a time when music can often feel like life or death.

I’m really looking forward to reading this. John Wray’s Gone to the Wolves is due to be published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux in North America on May 2nd, 2023.

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