Led Zep & Satanic Panic Revisited + Blind Guardian’s Quest for Tanelorn

Plus Hellworld Earth Heavy Music-Inspired TTRPG & Art

D&D gets a mention as a Satanic Panic target in this American Songwriter article revisiting when a crazed former Led Zeppelin fan tried to kill Jimmy Page onstage during a concert.

The 1980s saw the rise of the Satanic Panic across the United States. Parent groups, news broadcasts, and other sources warned that the country was crawling with devil-worshiping cult members bent on human sacrifice, raising the Antichrist, and corrupting the nation’s youth. Ouija board, Dungeons & Dragons, horror movies, certain multinational corporations, and musicians were called “Satanic” or “demonic” during this period of intense fear mongering.

Led Zeppelin–and by extension Page and Plant–were among the countless rock and metal musicians who found themselves at the center of the Satanic Panic. While the trend largely faded after the dawn of the 1990s, plenty of individuals still clung to the misinformation they learned. Twenty-three-year-old Lance Alworth Cunningham was among those who still believed firmly that the band and its members were spreading the Satanic messages. As a result, he attended the Page and Plant gig in Auburn Hills with the goal of killing Plant onstage.

According to reports, Lance Alwood Cunningham was a former Led Zeppelin fan. However, he had stopped listening to the band because he, like many others, began to believe that they were using their music to further the Satanic agenda in America.

Although Cunningham was subdued before reaching Jimmy Page, four people were injured with knife wounds as a result of his murderous attempt. It shows how dangerous the ignorance behind moral-panic driven movements like BADD and the PMRC can be.

Hellworld Earth - Heavy Music Inspired TTRPG & Art

Gavriel Quiroga and Austin DuRivage have collaborated on Hellworld Earth, a TTRPG product that is crowdfunding now. Here is a description:

Inspired by the awesome wargames of the 70s, this is a complete RPG setting absolutely packed with traditional black & white artwork featuring a riveting adventure scenario with brutal, randomized encounters.

Gavriel is the mastermind behind Hell Night and The Black Rainbow Society, which had metal inspirations that I discussed here. Austin has “a passion for heavy music and old-school wargames and TTRPG artwork,” and he both wrote and illustrated Hellworld Earth. I love this Aja album-referencing piece from his Instagram site:

blood_oath_garfield

A post shared by @blood_oath_garfield

There is even an official playlist for Hellword Earth, which includes classic tracks by Slayer, Voivod, Sepultura, and more:

Pledge your support at the Hellworld Earth Kickstarter page.

Blind Guardian’s Quest for Tanelorn

Blind Guardian released the following short video talking about the making of their Michael Moorcock-inspired song “Quest for Tanelorn”:

The video is focused on the music creation process, but I suspect many Critical Hit Parader readers will recognize that the title of the song comes from the third book in Moorcock’s Chronicles of Castle Brass series.

I included Blind Guardian as one of my Appendix LP bands in the Critical Hit Parader zine. Here is what I wrote at the time:

Blind Guardian - This German power metal band’s catalog is filled with songs based on the works of fantasy authors, both Appendix N (such as J.R.R. Tolkien and Michael Moorcock) and contemporary (such as George R.R. Martin, Stephen King, and Neil Gaiman). Their signature recording, Nightfall in Middle Earth, is a concept album based on Tolkien's The Silmarillion.

For another amazing song that references Moorcock’s mythic city of Tanelorn, check out “Victims of Fate” by Smoulder, which I profiled in a previous newsletter: