As a viewer, though, it felt as though I were being actively inducted into a phallus-worshiping Satanic death cult. I felt as if I were being dragged down to the ninth and final circle of Hell–to which Judas himself rushed from the jaws of Satan to open the gates.

In response to Smith’s ghastly performance, I noticed many people asking the same question: Why the devil?

Why the devil, indeed. It’s all reducible, I think, to a misreading of Milton. …

The seeds of Devil-worship (in an artistic and literary sense) were planted in the 19th century by the great English poet, Percy Bysshe Shelley.

[It’s a great column, but I think it gives these attention-addicted fools far more intellectual credit than they deserve. They may be following the same impulse as Shelley, but mostly for its shock value rather than any coherent philosophical position. And even the shock value is much lower than they think, since the whole satanic-theme approach to rock has been around far longer than its current adherents. It was tired out by the time I got out of high school. — Ed]