mms 8 (2) pp. 245–268 Intellect Limited 2022
Metal Music Studies
Volume 8 Number 2
www.intellectbooks.com  245
© 2022 Intellect Ltd Article. English language. https://doi.org/10.1386/mms_00077_1
Received 14 August 2020; Accepted 4 May 2022
	
MIROSLAV VRZAL
Masaryk University
Against the devil’s metal:
Christian public discursive
strategies against metal
concerts and festivals in
Czechia and Slovakia
ABSTRACT
In the context of a process of return of religion to the public sphere, this article
deals with Christian discursive strategies in public struggles against selected
metal concerts and festivals since 2013 in highly secularized Czechia and in
Slovakia with a close connection of religion (especially the Catholic Church) to the
state. Membership categorization analysis identified three main categories used
in the construction of metal as an enemy: ‘religious struggle’, ‘danger for society/
state’ and ‘danger for morality and health of individuals’. Christian opponents of
metal use in their discourse sets of rhetorical tactics with both religious (i.e. fight
against Satan) and secular pieces (i.e. supposed extremism of some bands) to mobilize
Christian community and also to attract politics and the public. In Czechia it
was targeted mainly to the Christian minority and local politics, while in Slovakia
religious actors were able to mobilize broader networks against metal concerts/
festivals, including nation-wide politics.
KEYWORDS
metal
religion
Christian opponents of
metal
public struggles and
debates
creation of enemy
Czechia
Slovakia
Miroslav Vrzal
246  Metal Music Studies
INTRODUCTION
Metal has been controversial since it was established in western Europe and
the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s (see Hjelm et al. 2011). As
one of the most extreme parts of popular culture, metal intentionally explores
humanity’s darker side and has always been characterized by its fascination
for dark imagery and themes such as evil, war, death, violence, alienation,
suffering and the occult (Hjelm et al. 2011: 14; Moberg 2009: 110). Its ‘driving
engine’ is transgression, especially in extreme metal, which means testing
different boundaries and limits associated with vocals and musical procedures
as well as discursive transgression, sometimes on the edges (or beyond) of
social norms and breaking various taboos (Kahn-Harris 2007: 29–49). It is
possible to encounter, for example, ‘non-traditional’ sexual practices such as
necrophilia and many types of brutal violence. Both in lyrical and visual forms,
there are also quite common images of violence linked to anti-religious/antiChristian
and blasphemous elements set within a Satanic discourse (most
often in black metal).
As Keith Kahn-Harris describes in connection with the concept of antireflexive
reflexivity, this is often not a quite serious discursive ‘game’ with
extreme expression (Kahn-Harris 2007: 145–56). It is also linked to the creation
of a bricolage of ‘fanciful’ images taken from popular horror culture and
other cultural sources, as Robert Walser describes with regard to heavy metal
(1993: 151–65). For this reason, many metal bands claim to be ‘just’ a horror
show when they use different Satanic features and images. On the other hand,
some bands (especially black metal) identify directly with different variations
of Satanism (both non-theistic and theistic forms) based on ideology/religion.
Metal also often expresses the criticism of churches and organized religion;
in the Euro-American cultural area, it is specifically towards Christianity
and its institutions. It is embedded in wider social criticism by metal bands,
often based on the concept of emancipation of the modern individual from
organized religion, which from this perspective represents oppression, falsehood
and hypocrisy. This is also true for other cultural areas where, for example,
Islam is the dominant religion, as shown by Otterbeck et  al. (2018) in
the example of black metal bands from Turkey and Saudi Arabia. Some metal
bands express an explicit anti-religious ideological approach, and there have
aslo been several cases of extreme acts such as church burnings based on antiChristian
ideology (see Phillipov 2011; Vrzal 2017a). Thus, in the social field
of metal, especially extreme metal, there is a mix of horror show and ideology
concerning these violent, anti-religious and Satanic images (see also MercerTaylor
2014).
The transgressive orientation of metal also creates a social response,
sometimes formed within broader public debates including both the opponents
of metal (or only specific bands) and metal supporters. Religious actors,
mainly from fundamentalist or conservative religious spectrum (such as the
Christian right in the United States), have traditionally played an important
role as opponents in public struggles against metal.These public struggles and
debates on metal are heavily influenced by the local religious situation, the
role of religion in the public sphere and within state institutions. Due to the
global spread of metal since the 1980s, public debates on metal have been
raised around the world – for example, in the Middle East or North Africa –
during the last two decades. In general, metal and religion (including individualized
spirituality) are very closely intertwined areas (see Vrzal 2015, 2017b),
Against the devil’s metal
www.intellectbooks.com  247
and religion is still a relevant source of controversy for metal. Therefore, the
area of ‘metal and religion’ is an important field of study for metal studies
(see Vrzal 2017b). In this text, I will specifically highlight public struggles and
debates concerning metal, where religious actors play the roles of opponents
of metal, as one of the significant areas in that field (see alsoVrzal 2017b).
The article focuses primarily on a public argumentation of Christian opponents
of selected metal concerts/festivals (or only selected metal bands that
played at these events)1
in Czechia and Slovakia since 2013. Cases in Czechia
include the cancellation of a concert featuring the bands Törr and Root in
Valašské Klobouky (2016) and in Vizovice (2020) and Christian initiatives
against the festival Hell Fast Attack in Brno (2015). Slovakian cases comprise
the efforts to cancel or limit the Gothoom Festival in 2014 in Nová Baňa,
initiatives against the Iron Maiden concert in Žilina in 2016 and previously
against its headlining performance at TopFest 2013 in Piešťany, in addition to
the initiative against Arch Enemy and Amorphis’s performance at Rock pod
Kameňom festival in Snina in 2017 and the cancellation of Root’s performance
at Dobrý Festival in Prešov (2017).
Inspired by Gérôme Guibert and Jedediah Sklower’s study (2011) of
the public debate about Hellfest in France, the text is specifically interested
in discursive strategy including sets of rhetoric and arguments of Christian
opponents that they used in the public sphere to influence different actors
(e.g. politicians) and achieve their goals in a social field. According to Pierre
Bourdieu, I will understand the social field as a segmented field where individual
and collective actors (such as churches) have different amounts of
economic, social, cultural capital2
(but also subcultural capital; see Thornton
1997; Kahn-Harris 2007), which determines their position but also the influence
in the social field (Bourdieu 1984). Since public struggles are fought on
the basis of the discourse used (see Nekvapil and Leudar 2006), the article
attempts to decipher how the public discourse of the Christian opponents
is constructed and used in Czech and Slovak cases, with a particular focus
on how metal is constructed as the enemy in this rhetoric and argumentation.
Through membership categorization analysis, which main categories
and subcategories describing ‘enemy’ are used for those constructions will be
specifically identified (see also Nekvapil and Leudar 2006). Subsequently, an
attempt will be made to compare whether this discourse differs in Czechia
and Slovakia.
At the same time, the article inquiries into how these public struggles and
debates involving representatives of Christian churches and Christian activists
reflect the religious situation in Czechia and Slovakia and the respective
position, role and influence of Christian churches (mainly Roman Catholic
Church) within these countries. By addressing these questions, the text aims
to contribute in part to the understanding of the current role of religion in
the public sphere of central and eastern Europe. The problem, however, also
touches on the wider (global) processes, such as deprivatization of religion
(see Casanova 1994), that also have an impact on metal music culture. In
public struggles and debates about metal in different local contexts, we can
study the form, status and role of religion in the contemporary world and,
by analysing it, contribute to the understanding of global transformation the
present world is going through, including the transformation of religion and
its influence in politics, culture and other social areas (see Vrzal 2017b: 28). In
this regard, the text focuses on selected cases in Czechia and Slovakia where
it is possible to observe how public discussion about metal works both in a
	 1.	 In the following text I
will use the shortened
term ‘Christian
opponents’ only.
	 2.	 Simplified: cultural
capital is based
on education and
knowledge; social
capital is a set of
relationships and ties
that can be mobilized;
and economic capital
is based on material
goods and money
(Bourdieu 1986).
Miroslav Vrzal
248  Metal Music Studies
more secularized country (Czechia) and in a country where (Christian) religion
plays a strong role (Slovakia).
RELIGIOUS SITUATION IN CZECHIA AND SLOVAKIA
Over several decades, it has been possible to observe the resurgence of religion
(see Gorski et al. 2012: 2–3) and its return into the public sphere. As José
Casanova (1994) describes, since the 1980s, religions around the globe have
rejected to play only a marginal role according to the secularization of individual
spheres of societies. Religious actors from different traditions (Christianity,
Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism) enter the public sphere and political
struggles to gain influence not only in the sphere of religion but also in politics,
law, economy, education and in forming values and morality of societies.
After the fall of the Iron Curtain, post-communist Europe began a transformation,
which was also related to a question over the role of religion in the
new organization of the state (Zachar-Podolinská 2008: 58). It is possible to
observe deprivatization of traditional Christian religions in central and eastern
European countries. In all of these countries, with one exception which
is Czechia, we can recognize, especially during recent years, the return of the
biggest traditional Christian churches into the public sphere, the rise of their
connections to the political sphere and state apparatus and also the intersection
between Christian church and national identity (Nešpor 2020: 108;
see also Vido 2017: 46). The close connection of the Christian (in this case
Catholic) church is well observable also in the case of Slovakia (Nešpor 2020;
Tížik 2011, 2017).
Czechia and Slovakia were one state (Czechoslovakia), which was divided
into two states on 1 January 1993. Despite the common past, we can observe
very different trajectories regarding religious situation (see Nešpor 2020),
and the current situation is well illustrated in the numbers of believers of the
Roman Catholic Church, which is the biggest church in both states. In Czechia,
according to the latest census in 2021, approximately 7 per cent of the population
actively identified with it (Český statistický úřad 2022). In Slovakia, a
census of the same year recorded 56 per cent of the population identified with
the Roman Catholic Church (Štatistický úrad SR 2022).
In both countries, in contrast to the communist era, when communist
regime officially fought against religion and its manifestations, which ended
with Czechoslovakia’s 1989 Velvet Revolution, we can talk about deprivatization
of religion (see Nešpor 2004: 287). Christian churches and their believers
were again able to participate more in political and public life. In both Czechia
and Slovakia, we have witnessed, for example, the return of Christian democratic
parties to top politics (Tížik 2011; Fiala 2007).
Although the churches of Czechia were in good moral standing in the eyes
of the public for a short time following the Velvet Revolution, as they were
perceived to be a force that contributed to the fall of communism (Václavík
2010: 130–31), they have not been able to use this potential to reach out to
the wider public or overcome ancient anti-clerical stereotypes generalized into
all traditional Christian churches and rooted in the Czech population (Nešpor
2010: 154, 162). This is manifested in the Czech population’s lack of confidence
in and desire for traditional Christian churches (Václavík 2010: 214–15;
Nešpor 2010: 158–64; Hamplová 2013: 49–51), which are also seen as a surviving
relic of the past (see Nešpor 2010: 155–57), and in establishing a specific
Czech discourse about religion, including scepsis regarding organized religion
Against the devil’s metal
www.intellectbooks.com  249
(Václavík 2010: 213). In the long term, churches are the least trusted public
institution (Vido 2017: 48). The Roman Catholic Church (shortly Catholic
Church in the following text) itself, as well as the other large Christian
churches in Czechia, has thus closed in on itself and functions as if in its own
ghetto (Nešpor 2010: 162), and it can be said that their social capital is small –
despite relatively high economic capital (especially of Catholic Church) after
the recent generous church restitutions (see Nešpor 2020: 155). The distance
of the majority of the population from traditional Christian churches does
not mean, however, that the Czechs are a nation of atheists (see, e.g., Nešpor
2010;Václavík 2010; Hamplová 2013). Instead of Christian religiosity, however,
they prefer to ‘consume’ what is offered within the field of alternative spirituality
(Hamplová 2013: 58–81; Václavík 2010: 204–12; Nešpor 2004: 258–87;
Nešpor 2010: 118–32).
The situation in Slovakia is almost diametrically different, although here,
too, there is a boom in alternative spirituality, especially among the younger
generation and in the urban environment (Zachar-Podolinská 2008: 73–76).
Across the whole religious field of Slovakia, however, Christianity, especially
that which is connected with the Catholic Church, plays a dominant role.
During the 1990s, the national identity was reconnected with Christianity – the
Catholic Church in particular – gaining a privileged position and strengthened
influence in state institutions (in education, for example), over state symbols
and, overall, in public affairs (Tížik 2011, 2017; Nešpor 2020), despite the fact
that the number of those who want a separation of church and state has
increased (Tížik 2011, 2017). Miroslav Tížik even speaks of the secularization of
public life in Slovakia, but also at the same time the partial Christianization and
thus desecularization of the Slovak state and its institutions, which occurred
especially after the turn of the century when the position of the Catholic
Church was also formalized in a concordat with the Vatican (Tížik 2011, 2017).
Unlike Czechia, Christianity, and especially Catholicism, has thus become
an important part of public and political events in Slovakia, and the Catholic
Church has been naturalized as a positive and democratizing actor in civil society
(Tížik 2011). Representatives of the Catholic Church have become important
actors in public discourse and politics, and permanent strengthening of
economic position and symbolic favouring of traditional churches allow for the
reproduction of Christian religion and its power in Slovakia (Tížik 2017: 166).
RELIGION, ESTABLISHMENT AND ANTI-METAL STRUGGLES
Religious actors (individual or collective: churches, religious organizations,
various religious networks) are an integral part of public debates on metal
across the world. The classical example of broad public debates of metal is
the 1980s and 1990s moral panic created in the United States (Hjelm et al.
2011; Walser 1993: 137–74; Kahn-Harris 2007: 27–29). Approached by various
organizations (especially religious, educational and parental), some political
leaders became involved in the censorship of some metal bands and their
records, for example, the Senate hearing initiated by Parents’ Music Resource
Center in 1985. There were also several trials with Judas Priest or Ozzy
Osbourne in which it was argued that metal was the cause of various murders,
and that listening to metal increased the likelihood of suicide among young
people, and that secret Satanic messages were recorded in albums, which
are decipherable when the record is played backwards (Walser 1993: 145–51;
Partridge 2005: 247).
Miroslav Vrzal
250  Metal Music Studies
These anti-metal processes and campaigns in the United States are necessary
to be understood in the context of Satanic panic of that time. Metal was by some
actors, especially conservative Christians, seen as part of the Satanic conspiracy
and as a form of Satanic evangelization that leads young people to ‘dangerous’
Satanism (see Partridge 2005: 247). Protestant conservative Christians, evangelical
and fundamentalist groups shared and actively promoted a view on metal
associated with the promotion of violence, self-destructive behaviour, suicide,
sexual promiscuity and perversion, extreme rebellion, juvenile delinquency
and the occult (Moberg 2015: 17). As Marcus Moberg describes, through their
engagement in these wider debates, the issue of Satanism also started figuring
ever more frequently in critical debates on metal. As a consequence, metal
became accused of being anti-Christian, and of actively promoting Satanism
and outright devil worship (Moberg 2015: 17). Although the broader Satanic
panic in American society declined and several previous‘public enemies’people
such as Ozzy Osbourne are currently respected ‘rock fathers’ (see Hjelm et al.
2011: 6), such perception of metal by conservative Christians is still persistent.
With the global spread of metal in recent decades, such public debates
have also begun to emerge in other parts of the world where metal has also
been perceived (even by the establishment) as subversive, destructive and
potentially dangerous (see Moberg 2012: 114). For example, in Malaysia in
2001, the government excluded metal from television and radio as an action
against alleged‘black metal sects’that sacrificed animals and burned the Koran
during secret rituals in the woods (Christe 2005: 313). Titus Hjelm et al. (2011:
10) describe, since the beginning of the new millennium, it was mainly the
Muslim world where heavy metal faces the most persistent censorship, political
repression and societal stigmatization. As the regional metal scenes in the
Middle East and North Africa became more popular, they also began to attract
the attention of governments and conservative religious forces. They ‘saw them
as vehicles for the penetration of foreign, Western and even Satanic cultures’
that threatened their societies (Hjelm et  al. 2011: 10). Mark LeVine points
out public discussions in Egypt and Morocco about the connection between
metal and devil worship, which has led to the arrests of metalheads and their
persecution (LeVine 2008). As a more current example, the case about Iranian
death metal band Confess in 2015 can be mentioned. As Chris Krovatin (2019)
describes, members of the band were arrested and accused of blasphemy and
playing music against the Islamic Republic of Iran and the nation’s Supreme
Leader. Upon the arrest, they also faced execution for their crimes. According
to Joelle Fiss (2016: 5–6), 47 per cent of the countries and territories in the
world have laws or policies penalizing blasphemy, apostasy (abandoning one’s
faith) or defamation of religions, and 22 per cent have anti-blasphemy laws or
policies in place.The Middle East and North Africa as a region has the highest
proportion of countries criminalizing blasphemy (65 per cent).
Many metal bands, especially those with a Satanic discourse, are nowadays
struggling with public performance, including bands in some European countries,
especially central and eastern Europe. An example is the well-known
Polish death-black metal band Behemoth. It has traditionally had a problem
domestically in strongly Catholic Poland, but also recently in Russia. For
example, their 2014 tour ‘Russian Satanist’ caused mass protests of Orthodox
Christian believers and failures of concerts in different regions (Anon. 2016a).
In recent years, the concerts of bands such as Belphegor, Marilyn Manson,
Rotting Christ, Cradle of Filth, Batushka and others have been cancelled in
Russia, also due to threats from Orthodox Christian activists (Anastezia 2014).
Against the devil’s metal
www.intellectbooks.com  251
For example, the Polish black metal band Batushka, regarding two
cancelled concerts in Moscow in 2016, stated:
Unfortunately we received threats from extremists affiliated with the
Russian Orthodox Church stating that they will beat up and even kill
people attending to both shows. Since it’s beyond our control and we
are not able to assure that the concerts will be 100% safe for both the
audience and us we are forced to cancel both of them immediately.
(Anastasiya 2016: n.pag.)
Orthodox Christian activists perceived the band Batushka as Satanic and blasphemous.
For example, on the website of the Centre for Monitoring the Rights
and Freedoms of Orthodox Christians, it is possible to find the statement of
Roman Plyuta, the chairman of the non-governmental organization Orthodox
Union (Krasnodar), considering the album Lyturgia (Liturgy):
That is, eight supposedly Christian litanies – prayer petitions. But in the
tracks of those ‘prayers’ feature songs of a pseudo-church choir with
distorted words of the Church Slavonic language, interrupted with typical
of the‘black metal’music sounds, growl and hysterical shrieking. The
lyrics of the first song are a Psalm by Prophet David which is turned
inside out. The words are changed and they turn out to be spoken on
behalf of Satan.
(Anon. 2016a: n.pag.)
Plyuta addressed to Alexander Bastrykin, the chairman of Russian Investigative
Committee,‘demanding to prosecute the organizers of concerts […] to be held
in Moscow and St. Petersburg in April’ (Anon. 2016a: n.pag.). Plyuta, for the
news agency Interfax, stated about this case that Batushka is, from his point of
view, in contradiction with Russian laws:
[The] band have all the signs of incitement to religious hatred in full
conformity with Articles 148 and 282 of the Criminal Code of the
Russian Federation. And the purpose of their attacks is Christians. We
demand from the law enforcement agencies to pay close attention at
this fact in order to avoid possible provocations, both before and during
and after the concerts.
(Anon. 2016a: n.pag.)
METHODOLOGY AND DATA
The struggles within the social field largely take place in the domain of the
public sphere, which is, according to Jürgen Habermas, an arena where the
social conversations (with an important role of the media) of various actors
take place (Habermas 1991: 398–99). Power struggles in the public sphere
take place through the discourse used by actors (Nekvapil 2006: 265) against
‘enemies’in the‘battlefield’of public conversations.
Michel Foucault shows that power is also an integral part of discourse
(see, e.g., Foucault 2002). As James Gee describes, using discourse (meaning
language-in-use) in these interactions is also a matter of promoting a certain
perspective on‘what is“normal”and not; what is“acceptable”and not; what is
“right”and not’, through discourse (Gee 2001: 2).
Miroslav Vrzal
252  Metal Music Studies
Based on the assumption that discourse has certain rules that determine
possible forms of statements (Foucault 2002; for more about Foucault’s conceptions
of discourse, see, e.g., Moberg 2022), it is possible to observe how the
‘enemy’ is formed verbally in this argumentation and what attributes are
assigned to it (see Nekvapil and Leudar 2006: 356). This also applies to struggles
against metal by its Christian opponents who also establish a discourse
they enter the arena of the public sphere with. Using specific discourse in order
to achieve a certain state of affairs in the social field (e.g. attempts to cancel/
restrict a metal concert/festival) will be seen as a discursive strategy in this text.
Consider the example of Hellfest, the biggest metal festival in France. Guibert
and Sklower show that the discursive strategy of Christian opponents can be
flexible within the context and mobilizes a whole set of eclectic rhetorical tactics,
which aims at producing a representation of the metal world that could hook up
within the French Catholic milieu and also state authorities (Guibert and Sklower
2011: 105). It can be said that the ‘metal enemy’ is constructed through this
discursive strategy that is, like Frankenstein’s monster, composited from many
pieces. Fear of the‘metal monster’is, on the one hand, used in order to unite the
Christian community, but, on the other hand, argumentation also attempts to
convince the public and political representatives that metal (or only some bands)
is something dangerous (see Guibert and Sklower 2011: 105). In connection to
this, there can also be pressure on other influential actors (companies, etc.) in the
field, which in the case of Hellfest manifested in the resignation of Coca-Cola as
a sponsor of the festival for some time (Guibert and Sklower 2011: 109).
The analysis focuses on which categories (‘pieces of Frankenstein’s
monster’) are used in the construction of metal or only selected bands as
‘enemies’. The method used in this study is membership categorization analysis,
which focuses on studying how people – in interaction – categorize each
other (Martikainen 2020). As described by Jiří Nekvapil and Ivan Leudar, categorization
is part of defining moral, social or religious characteristics, both one’s
own and the enemy’s (2006: 355). Membership categorization is also linked to
consequences – it also provides a moral basis for certain ways of speaking and
acting (Nekvapil and Leudar 2006: 356), for example, trying to prevent certain
metal bands from performing. Specification of others, including the members
of different social groups (e.g. ‘members’ of metal subculture), by means of
certain categories, is an integral part of interactions that are tied to specific
events (Nekvapil and Leudar 2006: 355–56) – in our case, a concert/festival.
The corpus of analysed data includes Czech and Slovak media reports on
selected cases, with a specific focus on statements from Christian opponents
of the mentioned metal events, official public statements of parishes and religious
organizations on their webpages, statements in municipal councils that
are available online as well as petitions and open letters that are also publicly
available. Information from metal fans’ websites and public statements of
festival/concert organizers and statements of musicians related to these events
in media were also included. In one case, in our Facebook chat conversation,
I also asked one long-term member of the band Root, Igor Hubík (who
has played/plays also in black and death metal bands Hypnos, Solfernus and
Ravenoir), for a statement – which is also included within the text.
CASES IN CZECHIA
In 2016, a concert by the well-known and old Czech black metal bands Törr
and Root was to be held in Valašské Klobouky (approximately 4800 people,
Against the devil’s metal
www.intellectbooks.com  253
eastern-most part of Czechia). It can also be mentioned here that, according
to the percentage of Christian believers, it is one of the most religious (and
religiously homogenous) regions in Czechia (Havlíček 2020: 20). Christian
believers together with the local Catholic parish were against this concert
and put pressure on the city council and mayor. Subsequently, the council
took action against the concert, being staged in the town community centre,
by putting pressure on the organizers. The mayor’s official statement was:
‘I consider as legitimate that the Catholic public commented on expressions of
the band Root, whose lyrics spread violence, fear, and hate, and which openly
claims allegiance to Satanism’(Kainová 2016: n.pag.).
Although Root and Törr are not the most radical Czech black metal bands,
their repertoire also includes significantly anti-Christian and Satanic lyrics. In
one of the media reports after the cancellation of the concert, the members
of Törr (Ota Hereš and Radek Sladký) commented on the situation by saying
that they are aware that some of their lyrics may cause controversy, but
they distance themselves from Satanism as such: ‘That’s just theater, where
symbols are used, right? Some pentagrams, three sixes, horns, and things like
that. That’s what it takes’(‘Zrušení koncertů kapel Törr a Root’2016: n.pag.).
On the other hand, the leader of the band Root, Jiří ‘Big Boss’Valter, who
often publicly expresses negativity towards Christianity, especially the Catholic
Church, openly proclaims his identification with Satanism. Valter, in accordance
with his Church of Satan-based Satanism, focused as it is on the material
world, and success within it – labelled by some scholars as rationalistic
Satanism (see Petersen 2005) – denies the true existence of Satan and emphasizes
that it is a symbol (see Škarda 2008). Specifically older lyrics of the band
are openly Satanic. The band has, for example, a hymn song called ‘Song for
Satan’glorifying Satan and declaring love to him in their repertoire.
The fear of Satanism was behind the arguments against the concert by
chaplain František Ponížil of the Valašské Klobouky parish, who spoke in one
of the most influential Czech TV Prima in its report dedicated to this event
(‘Zrušení koncertů kapel Törr a Root’2016). He was primarily concerned with
the band Root and its leader Jiří‘Big Boss’Valter as the founder of the Church
of Satan Czech branch and the translator of the Satanic Bible. Ponížil associated
Root and its performances with the promotion of Satanism (described
by him as a philosophy of‘absolute selfishness’) and expressed concern about
its negative influence, especially on young people: ‘I checked some of the
lyrics and, considering those fans – especially the young ones – taking it as an
inspiration for their lives, for their actions, I do not think it’s good’ (‘Zrušení
koncertů kapel Törr a Root’2016: n.pag.). He tried to contribute to the concert
cancellation, worrying that the production could spread from the community
centre to the public square (Kainová 2016). He interpreted the whole event
as a part of the ancient struggle with Satan, where it was needed ‘[t]o pray.
And we know that God won over Satan. We can be confident here’ (‘Zrušení
koncertů kapel Törr a Root’2016: n.pag.).
The joint concert of Törr and Root was cancelled once more in 2020 in
Vizovice (approximately 4800 people), which is located in the same region
as Valašské Klobouky, near the border with Slovakia. The committee of the
organization TJ Sokol Vizovice, which owns the building where the event was
to take place, cancelled the planned concert. The chairman of the organization,
Jaromír Slezák, made the following statement: ‘We received complaints
about the band Root and […] the committee decided […] we do not want
a concert of this extremist band at Sokolovna building’(Skácel 2020: n.pag.).
Miroslav Vrzal
254  Metal Music Studies
The metal music website Orbis Metallum reported (unfortunately without
much detail) that the complaint itself was supposed to come from one of
the religiously active residents (Lata 2020). However, the local parish said that
they were not behind it and had not taken any initiative, and if anyone had
taken any initiative, it was a private initiative only; nevertheless, local parish
priest Vít Hlavica added: ‘I understand that some Christians may not like the
promotion of Satanism’(Skácel 2020: n.pag.).
The paradox of the whole situation is that Vizovice has been hosting a big
rock-metal festival Masters of Rock annually for many years, which was also
reflected by the vice-mayor of Vizovice, Alena Hanáková, in her comments
on the cancellation of the concert: ‘concerts like this normally take place
at Sokolovna, but we have never had any problems with them. The metal
community in the city is strong, and there is also a Masters of Rock festival’
(Skácel 2020: n.pag.). For example, the organizer (Tomáš Ševčík) of the
gathering of metal fans inVizovice commented on the situation by saying that
cancelling concerts for religious reasons should not happen nowadays:
I see the biggest problem in the very reason why this decision was made.
Probably few people would have expected that in 2020 concerts would
be cancelled for religious reasons. I don’t know if it’s more communist
or medieval practice, but it’s wrong and it shouldn’t happen.
(Skácel 2020: n.pag.)
It should be said that the cancellations of this kind of concert based on religious
actors’ protests are rare cases in the Czech context, which was reflected
also in the media. Both bands also confirmed that they did not experience
similar cancellation since the end of communist regime in 1989 (Lukášová
2016).3
Nevertheless, it is possible to observe the local mobilization of Christian
believers towards metal concerts/festivals in other places in Czechia, which
were not visible in national level media and broader public debates. For
example, in 2015 in the parishes of Brno Bystrc and Šitbořice u Brna, when
the international extreme metal festival Hell Fast Attack featured the performances
of especially Pagan and black metal bands (such as Nokturnal Mortum,
Acherontas or Obtest), local believers organized various prayer chains and
posts directed at the festival, hoping to disrupt the festival by, for example,
invoking bad weather (Oliver 2015). The official website of the Šitbořice u
Brna parish warned that ‘a lot of young people going there don’t even know
the danger they are in’ (Oliver 2015: n.pag.). Based on an e-mail from one of
the believers, the website declared:
Productions of this kind, which directly celebrate Satan, are in fact
ceremonies and rituals through which its domination over this world
comes. Brno is known as a center and a powerful Satanist base, but it
has gained at least a Euro-regional level with this festival. Evil wants
to triumph openly and arrogantly not only over souls but also over the
territory which it wants to demand and claim for itself. I would not be
surprised if under the guise of this satanic festival its organizers wanted
to proclaim Satan’s rule over our homeland. […] Let’s consider it a
challenge to fight. Jesus teaches us that such powers of evil cannot be
expelled except by prayer and fasting. It is necessary to join forces with
the Holy Spirit and with respect for the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the
	 3.	 In the 1980s, during
the communist regime,
these bands faced
bans, and some of
their members were
interrogated by state
security apparatus.
Against the devil’s metal
www.intellectbooks.com  255
Immaculate Heart of Mary. This struggle is not only ours, but also the
whole heavens. Do not be afraid if there are not many of us (1 Mos.
18,32). Jesus has already won over Satan, let’s declare this victory and
offer ourselves as mediators of His grace and power.
(Oliver 2015: n.pag.)
The announcement was shared also by other parishes calling for a spiritual
fight against the festival, including masses for that purpose (Společenství
nadačního fondu Creda 2015) and Christian websites (e.g. http://www.7den.
cz/). There was a warning on this website about a ‘dangerous festival’ and
about bands that come to the festival ‘to infest our country and especially
human souls with their deadly poison’ (Spravce 2015: n.pag.). The web post
also included a reference to a similar Slovakia festival (probably the Gothoom
Festival in 2014) and mentioned that petitions were not successful there, but
prayers for bad weather were: ‘[B]efore it started, a storm came up, blew the
equipment’(Spravce 2015: n.pag.) – a big storm really happened in the beginning
of Gothoom Festival in 2014 (Anon. 2014b). Despite this, there was no
bad weather in the case of the 2015 Hell Fast Attack. Alongside this, another
warning e-mail from a Christian activist was featured in an online post linking
the Hell Fast Attack, a Judas Priest concert in Prague and Satanic conspiracy of
the organizers to‘let the Antichrist be publicly known’(Spravce 2015: n.pag.).
These initiatives, and their activities towards Hell Fast Attack 2015, were
directed mainly towards inner Catholic circles, which it sought to mobilize,
given its rhetoric. It uses an explicitly religious interpretation embedded in
the age-old ‘cosmic war’ of good against evil (for more about the concept of
cosmic war, see Juergensmeyer 2001). That kind of argument the surrounding
society and state agencies of Czechia find difficult to accept. It is hardly accessible
for the secular audience, even in the case of other possible threats to the
society that are apparent in the Slovak Gothoom Festival in 2014.
CASES IN SLOVAKIA
In 2014, there were initiatives against the fifth annual Gothoom Festival
organized in the town of Nová Baňa (approximately 7400 inhabitants, central
Slovakia) by the lake Tajch. These activities brought about wide public debates
around the festival, with various Christian activists and church representatives
playing an important role. In 2014, extreme metal bands such as Hypocrisy,
Belphegor and Fleshgod Apocalypse were announced as headliners. That
year saw the highest number of visitors to that time (between 1500 and 1600;
Anon. 2014b), probably due to the public controversy and media attention
before the festival.
It should be mentioned that after the fourth edition of Gothoom Festival
in 2013, festival organizer Peter Beťko announced that the festival would move
to another location. However, he did not find another suitable location and
the festival was held again in the same place, which was also partly the impetus
for the initiatives against the festival in 2014 (Rapčanová 2017: 45).
As described by Slavomíra Rapčanová (2017), the festival’s opponents
consist of several groups. The first was a group of residents (including
Christian activists) of Nová Baňa and the surrounding villages who were
behind a petition against the festival (more than 650 local residents signed
it). These opponents objected both to the noise and to some of the problematic
lyrics (mainly anti-Christian) of the bands, an objection also supported by
Miroslav Vrzal
256  Metal Music Studies
European parliament member Anna Záborská from the Christian Democratic
Movement (KDH) party (TASR 2014).The petition was initiated by local councillor
Tomáš Palaj, who was outraged by some of the bands, proclaiming in
the municipal council in Nová Baňa before the festival: ‘The bands that will
come here are what we Christians will stand and fight against’ (Nová Baňa
2014: 19). In the municipal council was also Marián Kvasnička, a member of
the national council for the KDH. He commented on bands at the festival
that they‘encourage intolerance of religion and extremist positions that incite
to violence, a return to the occult, and the songs often have Satanic content’
and subsequently referred to the key role of Christianity in Slovakia and the
need to defend it from undesirable influences (Nová Baňa 2014: 2–4). Based
on the incentives of the voters, the local KDH branch highlighted the topic
of Satanism among the bands and the alleged promotion of orgies, violence
and anti-Christianity, according to which the festival contradicts the moral
conviction of the population and encourages violence and defamation of religious
symbols – supposedly contrary to the laws of Slovakia (Motyka 2014).
They then requested the organizer to reconsider the festival (Rapčanová 2017:
41). The debate was given a nationwide dimension, and Christian groups and
individuals (including official representatives of various Christian churches
and organizations; see Forgáč et al. 2014: n.pag.) mobilized in other parts of
Slovakia and wrote an open letter to the minister of culture and the president
of the Slovak Police Force. It was signed by more than 16,000 Slovak citizens.
An excerpt from the letter follows:
[I]t is clear that this year’s program will feature music bands that
profoundly insult our God, Jesus Christ, in their songs and they invite
others to kill Christians as well as to kill priests. We are convinced
that while the Constitution of the Slovak Republic ensures freedom
of expression and religious belief to everyone, it is not permissible for
anyone to abuse this freedom and use it for humiliation, ridicule, and
insults of a religion.
(Forgáč et al. 2014: n.pag., original emphasis)
At the end of the open letter, the authors ask to take a detailed look at the
Gothoom Festival and‘not to permit a state in which they incite violence and
defamation of the right of the belief of the majority population’ (Forgáč et al.
2014: n.pag.). The open letter also presents excerpts from the lyrics of the
bands Fleshgod Apocalypse, Centurian, Inquisition, Azarath, Hypocrisy and
Belphegor in which the authors try to substantiate their claims (Forgáč et al.
2014).
Organizer Beťko took several measures to prevent problems regarding
Gothoom 2014. He tried to reduce noise problems by moving the stage
further away from the town and by turning the stage with its back to the city
(Anon. 2014a; Rapčanová 2017: 35). He also shortened the concert end time
from 3 a.m. to 0.30 a.m. (Nová Baňa 2014: 11; Rapčanová 2017: 39). After
the pressure, he approached bands with ‘problematic’ lyrics and asked them
not to play them at the festival and was told they were not on the playlist
(Rapčanová 2017: 39). At the same time, Beťko said at the council meeting
that he sees the upcoming municipal elections and the targeted politicization
of the whole event as the reason for the escalation of the situation, when the
problem of noise gradually became the problem of a Satanic festival (Nová
Baňa 2014: 18). Beťko expressed that the organizers distanced themselves
Against the devil’s metal
www.intellectbooks.com  257
from ‘any manifestations of violence, racism, xenophobia, neo-Nazism, antiSemitism,
or any other form of discrimination on the basis of race, gender,
sexual orientation, or religious beliefs’(Nová Baňa 2014: 12). At the same time,
he defended the freedom of artistic expression in the context of metal, including
offensive, shocking or upsetting statements in reference to the case law of
the European Court of Human Rights in the case Oberschlick vs. Austria and
the freedom of speech enshrined in the Constitution of the Slovak Republic
(Nová Baňa 2014: 12).
The Gothoom 2014 festival eventually took place, even though there were
attempts to cancel and censor it. The prosecutor’s office postponed the initiative,
which came before the festival, as unfounded (Rapčanová 2017: 36), stating
that the town of Nová Baňa had not issued any decision to be reviewed
by the prosecutor’s office (Rapčanová 2017: 36). The mayor ultimately decided
not to ban the Gothoom 2014 festival, which he said was not even possible
given that it was held on private land (Rapčanová 2017: 46).
In 2016, voicing their opposition to the upcoming concert of Iron Maiden
at the airport near the city of Žilina (approximately 82,700 people, northwestern
Slovakia), the Catholic monks of the Society of Saint Basil the Great
(Spoločnost svätého Bazila Veľkého) wrote an open letter to the minister of
culture, the chairman of the Žilina region, the mayor of the city and the Žilina
Airport. They blamed Iron Maiden for ‘promoting Satanism, violence, and
immorality’ and then wrote: ‘Rock music, including the band’s genre, heavy
metal, is based on shamanic voodoo rituals and spreads occultism, aggressiveness,
drug use, and in many cases leads to suicide’ and wanted to warn
‘Catholics of the dangers of rock music behind which God’s enemy stands –
the Devil’ (Jarabica et al. 2016: n.pag.). They continued by claiming ‘we are
deeply outraged by this concert, which is against our cultural and Christian
roots because it demoralizes youth and destroys all moral and Christian values’
(Jarabica et al. 2016: n.pag.). They also challenged the mayor of the nearby
village of Dolný Hričov to stand against the concert, which ‘brings a curse to
Slovakia’, and prevent‘the satanization of the nation’(Jarabica et al. 2016).
However, the town of Žilina, through a spokesman, stated that‘[t]he town
sees no reason why this band should not play the concert’, and Airlines Žilina
pointed out that it only rents out spaces (Anon. 2016b: n.pag.). Tomáš Holetz
from the organizing agency commented on the open letter: ‘We respect free
expression of opinions.The Community Appeal needs no comment. However,
we are convinced that rock music brings people together and brings joy’
(Anon. 2016b: n.pag.).
The Community of St Joseph  – Christian Initiative from Považie
(Spoločenstvo svätého Jozefa – Kresťanská iniciatíva z Považia) also created
a petition against Iron Maiden (signed by 458 people; Spoločenstvo svätého
Jozefa  – Kresťanská iniciatíva z Považia 2016)  – which describes specific
objections to Iron Maiden regarding the promotion of darkness in demonic
images in relation to the promotion of Satanism (including connection to
Crowley and coming of Antichrist) and occultism perceived as a service for the
devil, which was applied to rock music too – and declared that Iron Maiden
‘worships the devil with their occult music which is rooted in pagan voodoo’;
blasphemy against Jesus Christ; ‘a curse on Slovakia’; destroying the sensitivity
of conscience, especially in children, who ‘loses their natural fear of evil
and demonic darkness’; ‘mass manipulation of people’s minds’ by the occult
power ‘breaking through people’s natural resistance to the darkness of the
occult, Pagan world and thereby and manipulation of traditional Christian
Miroslav Vrzal
258  Metal Music Studies
thought in connection to damaging the foundations of traditional European
society’;‘glorifying of the Egyptian pagan cult’(Spoločenstvo svätého Jozefa –
Kresťanská iniciatíva z Považia 2016: n.pag.).
There were protests against Iron Maiden’s concert already in 2013, when
Iron Maiden performed at the TopFest rock festival in Piešťany (approximately
27,100 people, western Slovakia). At that time, local priests urged young
people to protect their beliefs and not to attend the concert (Vilček 2013).
Catholic dean František Babčík from Piešťany said: ‘Of course we are against
such music. We protect and value our faith. We teach this to young people as
well’ (Vilček 2013: n.pag.). According to Babčík, Iron Maiden’s lyrics call for
violence and Satan worship, adding: ‘It is necessary to avoid such music, it
can have a very negative psychological effect on young people’ (Vilček 2013:
n.pag.). The Society of St Joseph – Christian Initiative from Považie created a
petition (signed by 1332 people; Spoločenstvo svätého Jozefa 2013) against
Iron Maiden’s performance at the festival to ‘express our opposition to the
public promotion of Satanism and hatred of God in Slovakia’ (Spoločenstvo
svätého Jozefa 2013: n.pag.). Nevertheless, organizer Dušan Drobný ruled out
the possibility of Iron Maiden’s cancellation based on the petition and also
said that the band members have repeatedly denied worshipping symbols of
occultism with Satan (Vilček 2013: n.pag.).
Similar rhetoric appears regarding the criticism of some bands (specifically
Arch Enemy and Amorphis) at the fifteenth annual festival Rock pod
Kameňom in 2017, an event that took place near the town of Snina (approximately
18,700 inhabitants) located in eastern Slovakia. This case also attracted
wider media attention in Slovakia. Two city councillors, Ján Čop and Peter
Vološin from the KDH party, submitted a proposal at a council meeting to
distance the city from the festival, including that the city be removed as a
partner from all promotional materials for the festival (Slezáková 2017). They
then refer to their Christian identity, which they perceive as connected also to
their political role and claimed: ‘When someone mocks God and Jesus Christ
and his sacrifice on the cross in their lyrics and calls for a union with evil, we
should resolutely reject it and not support such things’(Čop et al. 2017: 2).
In support of this endeavour, they submitted a solicited statement by
theologian and exorcist Imrich Degro. He stated that ‘metal lyrical content
promotes evil and immorality, anti-Christian declarations, occultism and
Satanism’, and the music itself is full of ‘despair, anxiety, a mixture of scattered
sounds, cacophonies’; listeners can thus take over this depressing musical
mood (Zoznam 2017: n.pag.). These bands can even, according to exorcist
Degro, cause demonic ‘contamination’, while opening up to demons through
this music can cause the devil to act in the lives of performers and listeners
(Čop et al. 2017: 4).
Christian priests from parishes in Snina also commented on the upcoming
performance of Arch Enemy and Amorphis. They did not agree with the
performance of the mentioned bands and argued these bands have elements
of Satanism. They met with the mayor and deputies of the KDH party and
created a document where they (similarly) declared: ‘We are Christians not
only at church, but also in public life, which obliges us, of course, to protect
Christian values and beliefs’ (Zoznam 2017: n.pag.). They also discouraged
believers from attending the festival and declared that they will ‘do penance,
prayer and fasting in order to prevent the spread of evil in this way’ and also
called on the festival organizers to‘carefully analyze the invited groups in the
forthcoming years’(Zoznam 2017: n.pag.).
Against the devil’s metal
www.intellectbooks.com  259
The organizer of the festival, Marián Križánek, then tried to refute that
these were Satanic bands (see, e.g., Otriová 2017) and commented on the
matter to rock and metal magazine Spark as follows:‘This is not an inquisition
and we do not live in the Middle Ages to invite exorcists to examine music
festivals. They are of course entitled to their own opinion, but this is a wrong
signal’(Anon. 2017: n.pag.).
Arch Enemy singer Alissa White-Gluz later commented on the incident
in an interview. She described herself as an atheist, and at the same time she
declared sympathy to LaVeyean (Church of Satan) Satanism (Havlena 2017:
18). Regarding mentioned Snina councillors, she said in the interview:
These are people who don’t understand at all what metal music is about.
They think metal is evil, and that its protagonists worship the devil and
demons. […] I understand that I might irritate the believers with my
dark appearance, and they are also pretty pissed off with our anthem
‘No Gods, No Master’, but our whole concept is based on positive vibes.
Plus we also condemn wars and mass murder and try to bring people
together to stick together as much as possible.
(Havlena 2017: 19)
The proposal by the aforementioned city councillors to distance the town from
the festival was not ultimately adopted by the town council. The mayor of the
town, Štefan Milovčík, also supported the festival and pointed out that it also
contributes to the development of tourism (Novy Cas, ee 2017).
In 2017, the aforementioned band Root, which was supposed to perform
as one of the metal bands at the summer multi-genre Dobrý Festival in Prešov
(approximately 88,700 people) located in eastern Slovakia, was also cancelled.
According to metal fan website Obscuro, the cancellation of the concert
happened after pressure from local activists and church communities on the
city’s leadership (Miklaras 2017; see also ROOT Official 2017). Igor Hubík
from Root described the situation in our conversation as follows:
[S]hortly after the Valašské Klobouky case, ROOT were confirmed for
a pretty big summer festival with a cool name Dobrý Festival, which
takes place in Prešov. It’s a multi-genre event where ROOT was invited
together with several metal bands from abroad and the main star
was to be Brazilian Sepultura. Several months before the festival we
received information from one of the organizers, who was in charge
of the bands of rough character, that he was personally invited to the
Mayor of the city […] saying that he had to cancel ROOT’s participation
in the festival at the request of an activist group. Since the city of
Prešov financially supports the festival, the organizer had no choice but
to comply in order to (in his own words) save the participation of other
metal bands. From his words it was clear at the time that ROOT was
not the first or the last metal band in Eastern Slovakia that the activists
mentioned.
(Facebook chat conversation with Igor Hubík, 2 March 2022, original
emphasis)
As the evidence, the band Root also posted on its Facebook page an original
e-mail from the Christian activist Marian Bednar that was intended to mobilize
the Christian community against Root’s performance. In the email, Bednar
Miroslav Vrzal
260  Metal Music Studies
called for Christian and civic activism, including pressure on the mayor and
other politicians to express dissatisfaction and disapproval (ROOT Official
2017: n.pag.). Satanism was again mentioned as a key problem in connection
with Jiří ‘Big Boss’ Valter as a ‘priest of the Church of Satan in the Czech
Republic’(ROOT Official 2017: n.pag.).
FINDINGS, DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
Guibert and Sklower (2011) in their study focusing on public debates about
Hellfest in France (2008–10) regarding Christian opponents’ discourse (e.g.
statements of father Benoît Domergue, a Catholic priest with a Ph.D. in theology,
who studied gothic and metal culture) found that: (1) on the one hand,
this discourse stems from the context of Christian faith and identity where the
music of some metal bands is perceived in a negative sense as the promotion
of Satanism. Christian opponents show themselves as victims when they fight
against the anti-Christian and Satanic lyrics of some metal bands. (2) At the
same time, their argumentation works with a broader concept whereby metal
endangers the morale and mental health of listeners (e.g. through depressing
lyrics and morbid topics). (3) Metal culture is interpreted monosemantically
within the Christian opponents’discourse and the bands’lyrics are taken
literally.
Very similar discursive strategies are possible to find in analysed cases in
Czechia and Slovakia, too. Membership categorization analysis identified the
three main categories used in the discursive strategies of Christian opponents
to construct the ‘metal enemy’: ‘religious struggle’, ‘danger for state/society’,
‘danger for morality and health of individuals’. These main categories are
partially overlapping, and, for example, the subcategory ‘Satanism’, which
plays a very important role in that construction, can be found in the context of
all main categories. In both countries, traditional Christian churches and their
believers perceive these struggles as defending Christians’ faith and identity.
The category of ‘religious struggle’ is primarily linked to arguments directed
at the Christian community itself and is based on the content of the Christian
faith. It also includes engagement in a metaphysical cosmic war of good and
evil, where metal is connected to the action of the arch enemy Satan and his
followers on Earth. Against this, the Christian community defends itself with
religious practices such as mass, prayer and fasting.
Nevertheless, religious arguments about the anti-Christian dangers of
metal can work only in an already religious context. To become powerful and
to have an agency to spread fear within the Christian community but at the
same time in the broader society,‘metal enemy’constructed by Christian opponents’
discursive strategy needs to have both religious and secular pieces. In
Czechia and Slovakia, it is included in‘more secular’arguments in the form of
a potential threat to youth (demoralization, suicides, violence, drugs – classical
arguments used before in the broad public debate about metal in the United
States in the 1980s and 1990s, being still reiterated till today) and the whole
society. Secular arguments within the main category of ‘danger for state/soci-
ety’  – including subcategories such as ‘extremism’ and, based on the literal
interpretation of lyrics, supposed contradiction with laws for the protection
of religion; anti-hatred; and promotion of violence – seem to be a currently
powerful piece of the Christian opponents’ discursive strategy in terms of
stimulating broader public attention and pushing politics. It was well observable
especially in the example of Gothoom 2014 in Slovakia. These arguments
Against the devil’s metal
www.intellectbooks.com  261
are also used to victimize Christians, and violent and blasphemous anti-Christian
texts are seen as overcoming freedom of speech. Freedom of speech, on
the other hand, is the key argument of metal bands and their supporters (see
also Rapčanová 2017).
It seems to be also an important element of discursive strategies in public
struggles against metal enemy in other central and eastern European countries.
For example, in Poland, it was manifested in the case of the frontman
of the band Behemoth, nicknamed Nergal, in his 2010 trial for publicly
denouncing religion by tearing up the Bible while performing on stage, and
in a criminal charge for blasphemy after posting a photo of him trampling on
the image of theVirgin Mary on his social media (Instagram) in 2019. In both
cases, Nergal was acquitted, but as Michael Hann describes, this is part of a
growing wave of blasphemy prosecutions in Poland, which are often targeted
at artists, and the number of blasphemy prosecutions almost tripled between
2016 and 2020: 29 indictments were filed in 2020, compared to ten in 2016
(Hann 2021).
On the other hand, extreme metal bands such as Behemoth have purposefully
used within their discourse elements as violence, Satanism and antiChristian
declarations (including, e.g., controversial images such as burning
churches; see also Vrzal 2017a) which is also related to aimed controversy
and provocativeness as part of subcultural capital (including a subcultural
knowledge about metal discourse; for more about subcultural capital, see
Thornton 1997: 202–04; see also Kahn-Harris 2007: 123–24, 141) and identity
of metal. Although extreme metal bands often escape wider moral panics
due to the marginality of extreme metal (Kahn-Harris 2007: 28), unless they
are already part of mainstream media attention such as Behemoth. However,
this may change when bands are due to play at a major festival that attracts
public attention, or when a band is heavily media-hyped such as the band
Root in the case of the cancelled concert in Valašské Klobouky in Czechia.
This can lead to further controversy and even possible problems with the
bands’ concerts. Nevertheless, as Igor Hubík from Root told me with exaggeration
in our Facebook chat (2 March 2022), even a concert cancellation
like the one in Valašské Klobouky in 2016, with great media response, is a
good advertisement for the band, which is also completely free. That at the
same time well illustrates the incorporation of controversy into subcultural
capital.
If we compare Czech and Slovak Christian public discursive strategies
against the mentioned metal bands and festivals/concerts, we find that they
do not differ radically in their basis. Nevertheless, Czech Christian opponents
targeted more into Christian ghetto, or to local politics, but they did not want
to stimulate broader public discussion. It started after media reports, especially
in case of Valašské Klobouky. They also did not explicitly highlight the
theme of borders of freedom of speech and supposed contradiction with laws,
as it was in Slovakia. In contrast, Slovak Christian opponents aimed (in most
cases) to attract the attention of broader Slovak public and politics, not only
on local but also on national level. In their self-confident statements, they also
perceived themselves, and especially the Catholic Church in general, as an
important social force and as actors watching over the morality and security of
Slovak society and state portrayed as Christian land.
In both countries, it is clear that the activities against some metal bands
and their concerts are not only about the reaction of the church representatives
themselves. The stimuli for counterreaction comes also from Christian
Miroslav Vrzal
262  Metal Music Studies
believers. Subsequently, local parishes and Christian networks are mobilized.
When we look at the society as a Bourdieusian social field (Bourdieu 1984,
1986), the influence on the public sphere depends also on the social capital,
including the mobilization potential religious actors have in the field. It
seems, in the highly secularized Czechia today, due to the small social capital
of churches, the Christian fight against ‘problematic’ metal bands has only
limited the mobilization potential, can be realized only within the framework
of that ghetto and has only local impact. While in more religious-based countries
such as Slovakia, religious actors are more able to use their social capital
in the social field and mobilize broader networks against ‘problematic’ bands/
concerts/festivals and are better able to construct ‘metal enemy’ as the public
enemy.
It is evident that public struggles and debates about metal stimulated
by religious actors are not a matter of the past. Public debates about metal
involving religious actors have even increased in the last two decades, especially
in countries with a strong religious base and possible close interconnections
between the state and religion, such as Poland and Russia in central
and eastern Europe or in countries with a Muslim majority in the Middle East
and North Africa. This can also be seen as a manifestation of a trend of deprivatization
of religion returned into the public sphere. As religion is playing
an important public role in many societies again, we expect public debates
about metal stimulated by religious actors to continue, including in countries
in central and eastern Europe.
As mentioned in the introduction, metal and religion are very closely
linked fields. Moberg (2012) describes that there are two important research
orientations in the study of metal and religion: the study of religion in metal,
and the study of metal as religion. I would add here that another important
pillar should be the study of public debates and controversies about metal,
where various religious actors are present (Vrzal 2017b). It seems that this
scholarly orientation in the field of metal and religion is going to continue to
be relevant.
FUNDING
This article is funded by the grant ‘GA17-02917S’, ‘Return of Religion to the
Public Space: Czecho-Slovak Comparison’, provided by the Grant Agency of
the Czech Republic. The grant was provided for the project conducted at the
author’s former institution, Institute of Sociology of the Czech Academy of
Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic.
REFERENCES
Anastasiya (2016), ‘BATUSHKA interview: “Everything that I wanted to tell
is in the music, in the lyrics and in the cover art”’, HitKiller, 12 April,
http://www.hitkiller.com/batushka-interview-everything-that-i-wantedto-tell-is-in-the-music-in-the-lyrics-and-in-the-cover-art.html.
Accessed
22 June 2020.
Anastezia (2014), ‘Power of veto: Forbidden bands in Russia’, Noizr,
17  December, https://noizr.com/articles/power-of-veto-forbidden-bandsin-russia/:128/.
Accessed 22 June 2020.
Anon. (2014a), ‘Extrémna hudba’, Týždeň, 16 August, https://www.tyzden.sk/
casopis/16118/extr-mna-hudba/. Accessed 20 March 2022.
Against the devil’s metal
www.intellectbooks.com  263
Anon. (2014b), ‘Organizátor metalového festivalu v Novej Bani: Toto už
naozaj nepotrebujem’, Život, 20 August, https://zivot.pluska.sk/reportaze/
organizator-metaloveho-festivalu-novej-bani-toto-naozaj-nepotrebujem.
Accessed 31 March 2022.
Anon. (2016a), ‘Orthodox Christian activists demanded to ban the concerts
of a Polish band Batushka’, Orthodox Christians, 10 February, http://
orthodoxrights.org/orthodox-christian-activists-demanded-to-ban-theconcerts-of-a-polish-band-batushka.html.
Accessed 22 June 2020.
Anon. (2016b), ‘Rehoľníci broja proti koncertu Iron Maiden: Zakážte ich,
velebia satana!’, Plus jeden deň, 8 June, https://www1.pluska.sk/regiony/
stredne-slovensko/reholnici-broja-proti-koncertu-iron-maiden-zakazteich-velebia-satana.
Accessed 31 March 2022.
Anon. (2017), ‘Satanisti ve Snině: Festival Rock pod Kameňom bojuje
s církví’, Spark, 27 June, https://www.spark-rockmagazine.cz/satanisti-ve-snine-festival-rock-pod-kamenom-bojuje-s-cirkvi.
Accessed
31 March 2022.
Bourdieu, Pierre (1984), Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste,
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Bourdieu, Pierre (1986), ‘The forms of capital’, in J. G. Richardson (ed.),
Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education, Westport, CT:
Greenwood, pp. 241–58.
Casanova, José (1994), Public Religions in the Modern World, Chicago, IL:
University of Chicago Press.
Český statistický úřad (2022),‘Náboženská víra’, 31 March, https://www.czso.
cz/csu/scitani2021/nabozenska-vira. Accessed 31 March 2022.
Christe, Ian (2005), Ďáblův hlas: Heavy Metal – Kompletní historie pro znalce,
Prague: BB/art.
Čop, Ján, Vološin, Peter and poslanci MsZ (2017), ‘Dištancovanie sa od festivalu,
Rock pod Kameňom’, Snina, 29 June, https://www.snina.sk/e_down-
load.php?file=data%2Furedni_deska%2Fobsah372_50.pdf&original=57.
Accessed 22 June 2020.
Fiala, Petr (2007), Laboratoř sekularizace: Náboženství a politika v ne-náboženské
společnosti: český případ, Brno: Centrum pro studium demokracie a kultury.
Fiss, Joelle (2016), Anti-Blasphemy Offensives in the Digital Age: When Hardliners
Take Over, Washington, DC: The Brookings.
Forgáč, Peter, Gáborík, Pavol, Kožuch, Branislav, Beňa, Vlastimil, Poloha,
Slavomír, Slovák, Július, Strežo, Pavol, Strojný, Peter, Šefranko, Martin and
Filo, Eduard (2014),‘Otvorený list ministrovi kultúry Slovenskej republiky
a prezidentovi Policajného zboru Slovenskej republiky ohľadne plánovaného
festivalu Gothoom Open Air Fest 2014 v Novej Bani’, Peticie,
22 July, https://www.peticie.com/gothoom_2014_otvoreny_list_ministrovi_
kultury_prezidentovi_pz. Accessed 22 June 2020.
Foucault, Michel (2002), The Archaeology of Knowledge, London and NewYork:
Routledge.
Gee, James P. (2001), An Introduction to Discourse Analysis: Theory and Method,
London and NewYork: Routledge.
Gorski, Philip S., Kim, David K., Torpey, John and VanAntwerpen, Jonathan
(2012),‘The post-secular in question’, in P. S. Gorski, D. K. Kim, J. Torpey
and J. VanAntwerpen (eds), The Post-Secular in Question: Religion in
Contemporary Society, London and New York: Social Science Research
Council and NewYork University, pp. 1–22.
Miroslav Vrzal
264  Metal Music Studies
Guibert, Gérôme and Sklower, Jedediah (2011), ‘Hellfest: The thing that
should not be? Local perceptions and Catholic discourses on metal culture
in France’, Popular Music History, 6:1&2, pp. 100–15.
Habermas, Jürgen (1991),‘The public sphere’, in C. Mukerji and M. Schudson
(eds), Rethinking Popular Culture: Contemporary Perspectives in Cultural
Studies, Berkeley, CA, Los Angeles, CA and London: University of
California Press, pp. 398–404.
Hamplová, Dana (2013), Náboženství v české společnosti na prahu 3. tisíciletí,
Prague: Karolinum.
Hann, Miachael (2021),‘Nergal: The extreme metal musician fighting Poland’s
blasphemy laws’, The Guardian, 18 March, https://www.theguardian.com/
music/2021/mar/18/nergal-the-extreme-metal-musician-fighting-polandblasphemy-laws.
Accessed 31 March 2022.
Havlena, David (2017), ‘Arch Enemy: S ďáblem se nepřátelíme’, Fakker, 4:4,
pp. 16–20.
Havlíček, Tomáš (2020), ‘Obecné rámce postsekularismu’, in T. Havlíček,
K. Klingorová, A. Beláňová, P. Dostál, Z. R. Nešpor and Z. Vojtíšek,
Postsekularismus v Česku: Trendy a regionální souvislosti, Prague: P3K,
pp. 15–27.
Hjelm, Titus, Kahn-Harris, Keith and LeVine, Mark (2011), ‘Heavy metal as
controversy and counterculture’, Popular Music History, 6:1&2, pp. 5–18.
Jarabica, Matej R., Jarabica, Bernard M., Chlebek, Michal M. and Mazúr,
Charbel P. (2016),‘Listy proti satanskému koncertu Iron Maiden v Žiline’,
Spoločnosť svätého Bazila Veľkého, 8 April, http://www.spolocnostsbm.
com/clanky/listy/listy-proti-satanskemu-koncertu-iron-maiden-v-ziline.
html. Accessed 31 March 2019.
Juergensmeyer, Mark (2001), Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of
Religious Violence, Berkeley, CA, Los Angeles, CA and London: University
of California Press.
Kahn-Harris, Keith (2007), Extreme Metal: Music and Culture on the Edge,
Oxford and NewYork: Berg.
Kainová, Marcela (2016), ‘Za zrušením koncertu stojí také faráři. Klobouky
plní internet’, Zlínský deník, 17 November, https://zlinsky.denik.cz/zpravy_
region/za-zrusenim-koncertu-stoji-take-farari-klobouky-plni-internet-20161117.html.
Accessed 15 June 2019.
Krovatin, Chris (2019), ‘74 lashes: What it’s like to be a metal band In Iran’,
Kerrang, 5 September, https://www.kerrang.com/features/74-lashes-whatits-like-to-be-a-metal-band-in-iran/.
Accessed 19 June 2020.
Lata,Vlastimil (2020),‘Co stojí za zrušením koncertu root ve vizovicích?’, Orbis
Metallum, 16 September, https://www.metallum.cz/novinky/co-stoji-zazrusenim-koncertu-root-ve-vizovicich/.
Accessed 31 March 2022.
LeVine, Mark (2008), Heavy Metal Islam: Rock, Resistance, and the Struggle for
the Soul of Islam, NewYork: Broadway Books.
Lukášová, Eva (2016),‘Fanoušci sepisují petici, chtějí zrušit koncert křesťanské
kapely’, Zlínský deník, 21 November, https://zlinsky.denik.cz/kultura_
region/fanousci-sepisuji-petici-chteji-zrusit-koncert-krestanske-kapely-20161121.html.
Accessed 31 March 2022.
Martikainen, Jari (2020), ‘Membership categorization analysis as means of
studying person perception’, Qualitative Research in Psychology, 19:3,
pp. 703–21, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14780887.2020.
1794089. Accessed 31 March 2022.
Against the devil’s metal
www.intellectbooks.com  265
Mercer-Taylor, Peter (2014),‘Between hymn and horror film: How do we listen
to Cradle of Filth?’, in C. H. Partridge and E. S. Christianson (eds), The Lure
of the Dark Side: Satan and Western Demonology in Popular Culture, London
and NewYork: Routledge, pp. 39–59.
Miklaras (2017),‘Zakázaná účast Root v Prešově’, Obscuro, 25 March, https://
obscuro.cz/zakazana-ucast-root-v-presove/. Accessed 30 March 2022.
Moberg, Marcus (2009), ‘Popular culture and the “darker side” of alternative
spirituality: The case of metal music’, Scripta Instituti Donneriani Aboensis,
21, pp. 110–28.
Moberg, Marcus (2012), ‘Religion in popular music or popular music as religion?
A critical review of scholarly writing on the place of religion in metal
music and culture’, Popular Music and Society, 35:1, pp. 113–30.
Moberg, Marcus (2015), Christian Metal: History, Ideology, Scene, London, New
Delhi, NewYork and Sydney: Bloomsbury.
Moberg, Marcus (2022), Religion, Discourse, and Society: Towards a Discursive
Sociology of Religion, Abingdon and NewYork: Routledge.
Motyka, Michal (2014), ‘KDH: Kresťansko demokratické hnutie’, TinyPic,
6 June, http://i62.tinypic.com/263eww1.jpg. Accessed 15 June 2019.
Nekvapil, Jiří (2006), ‘Úvodem k monotematikému číslu “Analýza promluv
a textů, analýza diskurzu”’, Sociologiký časopis: Czech Sociological Review,
42:2, pp. 263–67.
Nekvapil, Jiří and Leudar, Ivan (2006),‘Prezentace událostí 21. 9. 2001: Bush,
bin Ládin a jiní v interakci’, Sociologiký časopis: Czech Sociological Review,
42:2, pp. 353–77.
Nešpor, Zdeněk R. (2004),‘Religious processes in contemporary Czech society’,
Sociologický časopis: Czech Sociological Review, 40:3, pp. 277–95.
Nešpor, Zdeněk R. (2010), Příliš slábi ve víře: Česká ne/religiozita v evropském
kontextu, Prague: Kalich.
Nešpor, Zdeněk R. (2020), Česká a slovenská religiozita po rozpadu společného
státu: Náboženství Dioskúrů, Prague: Karolinum.
Nová Baňa (2014), ‘Zápisnica zo zasadnutia Mestského zastupiteľstva
v Novej Bani’, 6 August, https://www.novabana.sk/files/filelist/159/
nbdoku_2014_20069-1.pdf. Accessed 20 June 2020.
Novy Cas, ee (2017),‘Organizátor festivalu v Snine reaguje na varovanie pred
démonickým zamorením: Krok, ktorý od neho nik nečakal!’, Nový čas, 30
June, https://www.cas.sk/clanok/566915/organizator-festivalu-v-snine-
reaguje-na-varovanie-pred-demonickym-zamorenim-krok-ktoryod-neho-nik-necakal/.
Accessed 31 March 2022.
Oliver (2015),‘Prosba o zapojení se do duchovního boje proti uskutečnění
festivalu“HELL FAST ATTACK”v Brně’, Farnost Šitbořice – Internetové
Stránky římskokatolické farnosti Šitbořice, 25 June, https://www.
farnostsitborice.cz/2015/06/25/prosba-o-zapojeni-se-do-ducho-
vniho-boje-proti-uskutecneni-festivalu-hell-fast-attack-v-brne/.
Accessed 31 March 2019.
Otriová, Jana (2017),‘Dvaja sninskí poslanci varujú pred satanizmom na rockovom
festivale’, Korzár Horný Zemplín, 26 June, https://hornyzemplin.korzar.
sme.sk/c/20568704/dvaja-sninski-poslanci-varuju-pred-satanizmom-narockovom-festivale.html#axzz4lE1rtv7D.
Accessed 31 March 2022.
Otterbeck, Jonas, Mattsson, Douglas and Pastene, Orlando (2018), ‘“I am
Satan!” Black metal, Islam and blasphemy in Turkey and Saudi Arabia’,
Contemporary Islam, 12:3, pp. 267–86.
Miroslav Vrzal
266  Metal Music Studies
Partridge, Christopher H. (2005), The Re-Enchantment of the West: Volume
2: Alternative Spiritualities, Sacralization, Popular Culture, and Occulture,
London and NewYork: T&T Clark International.
Petersen, Jesper A. (2005), ‘Modern Satanism: Dark doctrines and black
flames’, in J. R. Lewis and J. A. Petersen (eds), Controversial New Religions,
Oxford and NewYork: Oxford University Press, pp. 423–57.
Phillipov, Michelle (2011), ‘Extreme music for extreme people? Norwegian
black metal and transcendent violence’, Popular Music History, 6:1&2,
pp. 150–63.
Rapčanová, Slavomíra (2017),‘Kontroverzia a verejná diskusia okolo slovenského
metalového festivalu Gothoom’, Sacra, 15:2, pp. 33–49.
ROOT Official (2017), ‘Zakázané vystoupení ROOT v Prešově!’, 24 March,
https://www.facebook.com/396971113678944/posts/1444583342251044/.
Accessed 31 March 2022.
Skácel, Petr (2020), ‘Metalové kapele zrušili na Zlínsku další koncert, prý je
extremistická’, Idnes, 25 September, https://www.idnes.cz/zlin/zpravy/
root-torr-metal-satanismus-koncert-vizovice-zruseni.A200925_572976_
zlin-zpravy_ras. Accessed 31 March 2022.
Škarda, Petr (2008), ‘BigBoss: Kdo je úspěšný, je satanista’, Brněnský deník,
28  April, https://brnensky.denik.cz/serialy/bigboss-kdo-je-uspesny-jesatanista20080428.html.
Accessed 31 March 2022.
Slezáková, Magdalena (2017),‘“Démonické zamoření”, bijí slovenští radní na
poplach kvůli metalovému festivalu. Povolali exorcistu’, Irozhlas, 29 June,
https://www.irozhlas.cz/kultura/hudba/slovensko-rock-pod-kamenommetal-festival-exorcista_1706292115_mls.
Accessed 31 March 2022.
Společenství nadačního fondu Creda (2015),‘Prosba o zapojení se do duchovního
boje proti uskutečnění festivalu s názvem “HELL FAST ATTACK”
v Brně’, Fatym, 18 June, https://www.fatym.com/view.php?cisloclanku=
2015060121. Accessed 30 March 2022.
Spoločenstvo svätého Jozefa (2013), ‘Iron Maiden, nie ste tu vítaní!’, Peticie,
4 June, https://www.peticie.com/iron_maiden_nie_ste_tu_vitani. Accessed
31 March 2022.
Spoločenstvo svätého Jozefa  – Kresťanská iniciatíva z Považia (2016), ‘Za
slovensko bez Iron Maiden 2016’, https://ssvj.webnode.sk/za-slovenskobez-iron-maiden-2016/.
Accessed 30 March 2022.
Spravce (2015), ‘Akce: Nebezpečný festival – modlete se za zrušení – “HELL
FASTATTACK”  = Peklo útočí rychle’, 7den, 25 June, http://www.7den.
cz/akce-nebezpecny-festival-modlete-se-za-zruseni-hell-fastattackpeklo-utoci-rychle/.
Accessed 30 March 2022.
Štatistický úrad SR (2022), ‘Náboženské vyznanie’, Sčítanie obyvateľov, domov
a bytov 2021, https://www.scitanie.sk/k-rimskokatolickemu-vyznaniu-saprihlasilo-56-obyvateov.
Accessed 30 March 2022.
TASR (2014), ‘Europoslankyňa KDH podporila petíciu kresťansky orientovaných
obyvateľov Novej Bane, ktorí žiadajú zákaz augustového festivalu
Gothoom Fest 2014’, Teraz, 25 July, http://www.teraz.sk/sloven
sko/zaborska-gothoom-metal-nova-bana/92618-clanok.html. Accessed
29 March 2022.
Thornton, Sarah (1997), ‘The social logic of subcultural capital’, in K. Gelder
and S. Thornton (eds), The Subcultures Reader, London: Routledge,
pp. 200–09.
Tížik, Miroslav (2011), Náboženstvo vo verejnom životě na Slovensku: Zápas o
ideový charakter štátu a spoločnosti, Bratislava: Sociologický ústav SAV.
Against the devil’s metal
www.intellectbooks.com  267
Tížik, Miroslav (2017), ‘Slovakia: Secularization of public life and desecularization
of the state’, in J. Nelis, C. Sägesser and J. Schreiber (eds), Religion
and Secularism in the European Union: State of Affairs and Current Debates,
Brussels, Bern, Berlin, Frankfurt am Main, New York, Oxford and Vienna:
P.I.E Peter Lang, pp. 161–67.
Václavík, David (2010), Náboženství a moderní česká společnost, Prague: Grada.
Vido, Roman (2017), ‘The Czech Republic: New challenges for churches in
highly secularized society’, in J. Nelis, C. Sägesser and J. Schreiber (eds),
Religion and Secularism in the European Union: State of Affairs and Current
Debates, Brussels, Bern, Berlin, Frankfurt am Main, New York, Oxford and
Vienna: P.I.E Peter Lang, pp. 45–50.
Vilček, Ivan (2013),‘Slovenští kněží brojí proti Iron Maiden’, Novinky, 15 June,
https://www.novinky.cz/kultura/clanek/slovensti-knezi-broji-proti-ironmaiden-194120.
Accessed 30 March 2022.
Vrzal, Miroslav (2015), ‘Okultní aspekty v metalové hudbě: Od hororového
stylu k temné spiritualitě’, Sacra, 13:2, pp. 7–29.
Vrzal, Miroslav (2017a), ‘Pagan terror: The role of Pagan ideology in church
burnings and the 1990s Norwegian black metal subculture’, Pomegranate:
The International Journal of Pagan Studies, 19:2, pp. 173–204.
Vrzal, Miroslav (2017b),‘Metal a akademické studium náboženství aneb proč
by se religionistika měla o metal zajímat, se zaměřením na téma metal a
satanismus’, Sacra, 15:2, pp. 7–32.
Walser, Robert (1993), Running with the Devil: Power, Gender, and Madness in
Heavy Metal Music, Hanover, NH: Wesleyan University Press.
Zachar-Podolinská, Tatiana (2008), ‘Religiozita v dobe neskorej modernity:
Prípad Slovensko’, Sociální studia, 5:3&4, pp. 53–86.
Zoznam (2017), ‘Exorcista varuje pred démonickým zamorením v Snine:
Slovákov bude pokúšať satan’, Topky, 27 June, https://www.topky.sk/
cl/10/1638959/Exorcista-varuje-pred-demonickym-zamorenim-v-Snine--
Slovakov-bude-pokusat-satan. Accessed 31 March 2022.
‘Zrušení koncertů kapel Törr a Root’ (2016), Očima Josefa Klímy, TV Prima,
13 December, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFJzbPZWR28. Accessed
31 March 2019.
SUGGESTED CITATION
Vrzal, Miroslav (2022),‘Against the devil’s metal: Christian public discursive strategies
against metal concerts and festivals in Czechia and Slovakia’, Metal Music
Studies, 8:2, pp. 245–68, https://doi.org/10.1386/mms_00077_1
CONTRIBUTOR DETAILS
Miroslav Vrzal is currently affiliated with the Department for the Study
of Religions at Masaryk University in Brno (Czechia). He also worked as a
researcher at the Department of Sociology at the Czech Academy of Sciences
in Prague in 2019. His main field of interest is sociology of religion with
specific focus on religious situation in Czechia and new religious movements,
especially Satanism and Paganism. Next to that, he is involved in the study of
popular culture and music subcultures/scenes, mainly metal. His main interest
in that field is the area of‘metal and religion’.Vrzal is also founder of an association
of scholars interested in metal studies in Czechia, named Czech Metal
Studies. He also founded an international network of scholars, Metal Studies
in Central and Eastern Europe.
Miroslav Vrzal
268  Metal Music Studies
Contact: Department for the Study of Religions, Faculty of Arts, Masaryk
University, Jaselská 201/18, 602 00 Brno, Czech Republic.
E-mail: miroslav.vrzal@mail.muni.cz
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1176-4447
Miroslav Vrzal has asserted their right under the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work in the format that
was submitted to Intellect Ltd.