Once upon a time, some devout, evangelical Christians viewed high profile heavy metal artists as slaves of The One With Horns, believing everyone from Ozzy Osbourne and Iron Maiden, to AC/DC and Kiss, to be corrupting innocent minds with their filthy Devil's Music. Now, however, it seems that it's the world's biggest pop stars who are under suspicion of weaving dark magic to ensnare souls for Satan to chow down upon in Hell. Who knew?
Shane Lynch knows.
In the unlikely event of any readers failing to recognise the name of the former Boyzone stool-botherer, Lynch is the tattooed fella whose sisters represent fifty per cent of decidedly non-Satanic Irish pop act B*Witched. In the wake of reconnecting with Jesus Christ, God the Father and The Holy Ghost in 2003, Mr Lynch chose to extricate himself from the pop world, and now that he's on the outside, he has 20/20 vision on the darkness at its core, which - blessed be! - he has chosen to expose via sex-and-scandal-heavy Irish tabloid newspaper The Sunday World.
In an interview guaranteed to send shockwaves across the music industry, Lynch, 47, says that he no longer listens to much contemporary pop music, hip-hop or grime, because "music is dangerous."
"When it comes to a lot of the music that’s out there at the moment - more of the hip-hop side of things - there is a lot of hidden Satanic and a lot of evil within them, including down to the beats," he reveals. "It’s very real."
Claiming that, in his former life as a boy band crooner, he had witnessed 'Satanic rituals where albums were prayed over to ensure success' - which DEFINITELY happened - Lynch has identified Taylor Swift, for one, as 'an advocate of Satanism', according to the paper.
“I think when you’re looking at a lot of the artists out there, a lot of their stage shows are Satanic rituals live in front of 20,000 people without them realising and recognising,” says Lynch. “You’ll see a lot of hoods up and masks on and fire ceremonies.”
“Even down to Taylor Swift - one of the biggest artists in the world - you watch one of her shows and she has two or three different demonic rituals to do with the pentagrams on the ground, to do with all sorts of stuff on her stage. But to a lot of people it’s just art and that’s how people are seeing it, unfortunately.”
Unfortunate indeed. Thank God we have now had our eyes opened to such wickedness.
Let us all pray that Lynch never discovers the existence of Ghost, Slayer or Impaled Nazarene, because, sweet baby Jesus, if that were to happen, there'll be hell to pay.
