"Fellow headbangers, I would like to relate to you a series of strange events that have deeply troubled me in ways that it are difficult to fathom. About a year ago, a very good friend of mine by the name of Tom suddenly died under mysterious circumstances after a period of months of increasing detachment, bizarre behavior, and cannabis consumption. I would relate the cause of death, but it is the unfortunate and disturbing case that medical science can offer no explanation for his untimely passing, even after an autopsy and an extensive investigation was performed to investigate the circumstances surrounding it.
Indeed, it seems likely at this juncture that no forensic explanation for his passing will ever be found. I still grieve for my friend, as we were quite close, having met when both of us had just discovered underground metal music from the 80s and early 90s, our friendship blossoming as we explored the various classic works of the death metal and black metal genres together. However, my personal loss is overshadowed by the mysterious and fearful events which led up to and followed his death. After missing for a couple of days, his body was found in a local forest preserve. No evidence of a struggle was found at the scene. On his person were a few crumpled dollar bills, about 3 grams of an extremely potent strain of weed, a Torch lighter, and a half smoked joint which had extinguished itself. Also found at the scene was a portable CD player still playing the 1989 Morbid Angel album Altars of Madness on repeat.
Tom had become increasingly obsessed with this album after discovering it about a year and a half prior to his death. From the moment I introduced him to it, he couldn't stop listening to it. It came to the point where he wouldn't even listen to other metal albums unless I vehemently insisted on it. Previous favorites such as Pure Holocaust by Immortal and Sinister's Hate gathered dust next to his stereo while Altars of Madness blared almost constantly. I started to become irritated. As good as the album was, I was hearing it way too often. But it only got worse from there. When he would come over to my house to play music or do drugs, I would have to walk out to the car and get him to turn his car and stereo off and coax him to come in. Then, when we would play guitars or drums, the only songs he would want to play were Immortal Rites and Lord of All Fevers and Plagues.
I knew something was really wrong one night when he came over, and I found him at 4 AM in the morning parked in front of my house in a haze of smoke. His car had run out of gas, and sure enough, Altars was playing. From then on, when we would play instruments, he would accidentally slip in Morbid Angel riffs into the middle of Slayer songs without realizing it. He started to come over less and less, and when I went over to his house his mother would yell at me, telling me that this "Satan music" I had gotten him into was destroying his life. I protested, but part of me wondered if she was right.
I started asking other local Hessians if they had heard of any strangeness related to people who listened to this album too much. A few people laughed at me, but one person I talked to instantly looked troubled. He told me how he once had a job as the sound technician at a local club, and that Morbid Angel played there on a couple tours. He said that when they played the song Lord of All Fevers and Plagues that a large portion of the crowd would suddenly act as if possessed by some force beyond them, their voices echoing through the club along with the lyrics in unision, screaming along at the part where the chorus breaks into "Iak...! Iak Sakkath! Iak Sakkath!" I'm sure all Hessians know which part I'm speaking of. He told me that when this happened on both occasions they played, he swore he could see some kind of strange energy float through the clouds of smoke in the venue, permutating the non-descript haze into images of horrific Things which were not of this world, and that on both occasions afterwards he would have nightmares involving strange, abominable creatures which lived in some kind of netherworld where a sort of obscene form of impossible geometry dominated, who all seemed to be gathered around a slimy pool of water in which some unspeakable horror dwelled.
I have been going through his stuff today, since his mother hasn't had the heart to, and have found notes which appear to be of some kind of ancient script, with drawings of demons and strange looking symbols on the pages. I am quite perturbed by this. I've logged onto his account here at this forum, as he seems to have made posts here before, wondering if anyone would know anything about this. I'm not sure what to make of this, and I am troubled by my friend's loss. I am usually a rational man of science, inclined to scoff at the supernatural, but right now I'm not sure.
Does anyone know what to make of this?"
This was taken from anus.com's message board.
I don't know if this is true or not, but the media has a history of discrimination against metal music and its fans and lifestyle. If this is a true story, I sure hope they don't blame it.
Subject: Morbid Angel 
Mon Mar 05, 2007 10:58 pm
