Review originally on JamReads

Confessions of an Antichrist is a thrilling and messed up novel inspired by the Norwegian Black Metal scene, written by Marta Skaði, and published by Datura Books. From the start, we know we are for a riot of a story, with all the elements one could expect from the inspiration, slowly descending into madness and told from the perspective of Marta, manager of a young Black Metal band.

A fast-moving story that mixes the ascend of the band with the own Marta's memories about them and how their personal pasts have ended creating the characters each of the band's members; except for Suffer, the mad vocalist that takes much of the lead of the spectacle, also obsessed with murdering an innocent because of his own beliefs, the rest of the members are Marta's friends (and occasionally lovers).

Choosing Marta as the voice to narrate all is an interesting election, partly creating the parallel line with the own author, but also because despite she might be unable, it is clearly shown she has the control over the band; all movements are just a result of her actions or her influence over the other members, going against all the traditional sexism that is tied together with the scene.

Plot advances in some unexpected directions, trying to create shock in the reader, exploring more the horror elements that are naturally tied to the story. Skaði uses a relatively low amount of settings, putting instead the focus on the self-destructive race started by the band and which ends with an apotheosic climax, really fitting for the direction the story was headed.

If you are in the search for a chaotic, intense and hard-going horror story, which could happen IRL, don't look more, Confessions of an Antichrist is exactly the perfect fit; bonus points if you know Black Metal's history, as you will recognize many hidden references. A book to devour!2 s JoshAuthor 13 books38

Confessions of an Antichrist is just what it says on the tin: a fast-moving plunge into a kind of mythical Norwegian Black Metal scene complete with murder, church burning, and complex love triangles. What I wasn’t prepared for was the degree to which it read a kind of Crying of Lot 49-style surreal freak out. That is to say, it’s deeply funny as long as you your humor as black as, well, as Norwegian Black Metal.

Marta (yes, the protagonist shares the author’s name, adding to the meta-tinged strangeness of the text) manages a Black Metal band in a small coastal town. The band consists of her oldest friends (and sometime lovers) and also Suffer, the feral Id who fronts the band when not beating up the audience or searching for an innocent to murder.

We follow the band’s ascent, such as it is, intertwined with the narrative of Marta’s machinations to transform the members of the band into characters in her own drama. You know, kind of the writer. Writing a book. Okay, meta-fiction boxes checked.

That this is all playacting for most of these characters (with the exception of Suffer, who is simply insane) is a great source of humor, and Marta continually attempts to school The Exorcist in the basic tenants of Satanism. The trouble is that The Exorcist is just a big Christian softy who loves his mother.

There are also roving bands of Christian Metalheads and a gang of “Traditional” Black Metal aficionados who have targeted the band. These competing forces sometimes explode into wild and comic violence, but it all feels very distant, almost cartoonish.

So, is this a horror novel? Finally, I think not, though it does tread much of the traditional ground of psychological horror: an unreliable narrator, a focus on guilt and shame (or their supposed absence), and a fascination with self-destruction. But these themes never really connect beyond comic effect, however effective that comedy may be.

In the end, the absolute satanic nihilism proposed is a bit tedious, and the conclusion, which packs several soap opera reveals into the last fifty pages, are mostly confusing. Am I now supposed to take these things seriously? Am I being asked to see Marta as a full character with genuine emotional depth? It’s a conclusion that asks quite a lot of its readers, and that the novel hasn’t necessarily prepared them for.

Rather than revealing that the desires that drove this outlandish plot were actually the same desires that drive every plot, I wish the story had doubled down on its quirky bleakness. Had the plot actually summoned up Ragnarok, I’d have been well prepared for it by all that came before, and I’d have welcomed it, even as a portrait of a dissolving psyche.

Instead, we get a portrait of a choreographed disaster designed solely to shift units, and in the meta-fictional milieu of the novel, that almost feels an accusation against the reader, as if we were silly enough to fall for the whole goofy ruse.

And maybe we were.horror1 Paige304 33

Thank you Datura for sending me a review copy.

This book is an absolute riot. It starts with a gig that descends into madness and it never really lets up from there. The backdrop for the story is a Black Metal band trying to make their fame and fortune, and it soon turns into a story of love, loss, madness and chaos. The biggest draw for me was the potential Anti-Christ lead vocalists and it left me with more questions than answers (which I’m perfectly fine with).

Every character in the story is touched by madness in some way, some for more obvious reasons than others. Within the story you’ll find sex, love, death, blood and everything you could really want from a good horror book. This is a horror story set firmly in our world, and while you might not find any paranormal elements or monsters the actions of some of the characters will leave you horrified.

I flew through Confessions of an Antichrist. The plot flows so seamlessly with reveals happening in just the right amount of time, and enough mystery to keep you guessing. Marta is a pretty unable narrator, but at no point did that hinder my enjoyment. It’s important that she makes awful decisions and does terrible things with no remorse. She’s really the leader of the band and she’s the one calling the shots for them.

The majority of the story happens in only a few settings. It works perfectly because really you’re focussing on the band and their actions in places that become familiar fairly quickly. I could easily picture their underground store and I really enjoyed that that was kind of ‘their space’ as a band.

Honestly I feel a little Confessions could have gone even darker with the story. But I also that it’s firmly rooted in our world and it’s somewhat more horrifying that these people could be real.

I’d say pick this up for a quick horror read that’ll throw all kinds of madness at you.arcs1 Cheryl249

An interesting read that follows Marta, the manager of an upcoming Black Metal band in Norway.
Initially it begins as a somewhat normal and expected story, the relationships between Marta and the band members is explained and her ambitions for the band seem to be as ambitious as you’d expect.
However there’s an underlying aura of madness in the book, seemingly from all angles, whether it’s a widow who waits for her dead husband to come home and still cooks meals for him, or the various characters who exist alongside the band, or the band members themselves, all different flavours of the archetypal metal musician.
Soon, you realise it’s Marta’s descent into madness that you’re witnessing, her constant subjection to extreme is creating a desensitised person who becomes a puppet master of those around her, her cruelty the psychological control she exerts over other people.

I read this in one sitting, I laughed out loud a few times, feeling I was reading a parody of the Norwegian Black Metal scene, seeing elements of real musicians amongst the books characters.
At first glance it’s a crude, unfiltered description of a Metal band trying to gain reputation and success, then it becomes a sad story of trauma, abandonment and the search for something to feel.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for a chance to read - this book. This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.Show full review1 mo • lesmotsdemo394 15

It was a quite interesting read. On one hand, I loved the thriller aspect of it, the darker but focused on death and murder side of it. Some moments were gripping. On the other hand, I did not the emphasis on sex. The sexual affairs between the characters annoyed me and disconnected me from the story. And I wanted more of the music. The main character was not able but she was sometimes quite interesting. To sum up, I wanted more death and less sex. But it is only a personal preference — I actually prefer death. It’s just more interesting to me.

Thank you to Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for a honest review.1 Emma23

I really wanted to this, but three quarters the way through, I was still waiting for something, anything to be better than Marta going on and on about her friendship / relationship with the band and bits of history as to why she thought they acted as they did to her. I get that she was a bit weird, but this book bored the pants off me.
When the "revelation" came, I was no more shocked by it than if she'd told me the band would headline Glastonbury. Just bored me.

Sorry if some of you loved it, but not me.

Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with an e-arc.1 Cat36 6

Full review to come but this was an absolute delight. Fantastic humor and so much fun. 1 Bree18 1 follower

To put it simply it’s a messed up story, which has plenty of humour, a little bit of love & a hell of a lot of black metal. I loved it!
Thank you to NetGalley for providing an advanced copy on exchange for this honest review1 Missy (myweereads)566 23

“Kindness, love and beauty cannot exist in a world that doesn’t know evil, hatred and pain. That is where I come in. I create the darkness out of which the light can shine.”

Marta Skadi’s novel is about a a young women called Marta who forms a black metal band from a fishing village in Norway. These wannabe satanists want to spread their message and corrupt the masses across the world through their depraved displays at their infamous shows. As a record deal is on the table, soon things take a turn within the band and community. Marta is good at getting what she wants so this decent into madness is only the beginning of the destruction headed her way.

The novel is set around the 2010 heavy metal scene in Norway. It takes a deep dive into the metal music scene, what happens behind the scenes and the conflicts between other communities who are not afraid to voice their opinions against black metal music. Within this is a crime story and a disturbing look at the dynamics between band members struggling with troubled pasts.

Violence, sex, murder and abuse are a few of the themes that add to the shock and horror of what is happening within the band and how evil takes form in many ways. It is obvious that each member of this band has issues and begs the question who is the most disturbed one out of them all? But when there is a puppet master pulling the strings surely the answer is obvious.

I enjoyed reading this novel, it was a dark and twisted tale that would appeal to those who want to try something different.

Many thanks to @daturabooks for a copy of this book. Ghastly25 3

I want to thank NetGalley and Datura Books for giving me access to this novel's e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

I am sure we are all aware of the lore around Scandinavian Black Metal. The murders, church burnings, and self-destruction that played out in the darkest era of Black Metal. Confessions of an Anti-Christ plays off that infamy with its story that smothers the reader with Sex, Violence, Satan, and BLACK-METAL-N-ROLL!

It is 2010, and our narrator, Marta, manages a band of extreme personality misfits. She is basically the Malcolm McLaren of Black Metal. She has a mission, and she will not be stopped. The world must be destroyed, and Marta and company are dead set on providing the soundtrack to its destruction.

The publisher’s description of Confessions of an Anti-Christ boasts of fighting fascists with dildos as the group descends into the chaos of church burnings, Chaos, and Murder! The book delivers on all those 10 times fold. The publishers also talk about Marta being an unreliable narrator. That’s true, though I think it had the opposite of the intended effect.

The book does what it sets out to do: deliver a harrowing tale of depravity set to the pulsing energy of Norwegian Black Metal. There is plenty of dark humor, and it's downright funny if you have that sense of humor. Where it loses me, though, is with the unreliable narration and the very annoying ramblings about the interconnecting relationships between Marta and the band members. When it comes to the reveals near the end, it feels a cluttered mess of confusion. Trace153

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this novel to read in exchange for an honest review.

I really wanted to this book. A horror novel about a Norwegian black metal band? What's not to about that? I'm a sucker for books about fictional media (podcasts, bands, movies, etc) and this one was right in line with my musical interests. However I felt for as excited as I was to start reading it, I couldn't maintain that excitement through the book. It was off to a slow start and it unfortunately it didn't get any better for me in the back half. The characters were all as deplorable as you'd expect but their motivations seemed murky at best and none of the characters ever evolved into three dimensions. There was a lot of foreshadowing that fizzled out rather than coming into interesting fruition and the one element of the book I actually got excited about never actually went anywhere.

I gave this book two stars because while I won't read it again I still thought it was readable. There is definitely an audience for this book that will enjoy it, it just wasn't me. Riven102 3

First off, I’d to thank Netgalley, the author and publishing house for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. I’ve been eyeing this book for a while and was over the moon when I received it.

We started off great with such a STRONG opening chapter, and from then I knew I was hooked.
Though I will admit that the beginning dragged a bit and I found myself slightly impatient on that end, but that’s because I’ve always preferred fast-paced novels.

A very interesting read nevertheless. It pushed literary boundaries and made a mark. The blatancy of Marta making certain observations was a key highlight for me. I’ve always enjoyed narrators that.

The humour was great, it was vile and full of violence and death and sex with a sprinkle of love all on top of a heap of black metal music and the combination was perfect. The ending was the filthiest, most shocking, twisted and picturesque part. It’s a perfect example of how humans can read about the most disgusting things, and still find curiosity in it. Remarkable. I couldn’t stop reading. Lizzy Lang3

I picked this book up at random at a bookstore I’d never been to before (s/o Quimbys in Chicago!), but knew from the vibe in the store and on the book cover that this would be heavy, occult, and pretty effed-up. And boy was I right
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