"Why must Satan be released?" In Revelation 20, the release of Satan has puzzled interpreters for generations. In this paper, Empire Studies strategies are implemented to explore the parallels of Revelation 20:1-3, 7-10 and the widely celebrated Roman practice known as Roman triumphal processions (or Roman Triumphs). The paper answers the stated question: Satan is released to march in God's triumphal procession.

Neopaganism, briefly defined as the attempt to reconstruct and reinterpret pre-Christian heritage, is not confined to purely religious movements. A romanticized view of ancestral religion particularly expressed through an extensive use of mythological elements adapted to a contemporary context now represents a fundamental part of certain scenes that utilize them to construct a primordialist view of the past. Pagan metal makes use of religion and mythology as a form of cultural capital to suggest cultural distinctiveness in order to create an alternative antimodern, conservative discourse to mainstream culture. Artists attempt to forge and empower a new identity shaped by language, music, style, behavior and values when they, for instance, dwell on old myths which they recontextualize according to their own agenda. Starting from an exploration of American and European pagan revivalist movements, this paper pinpoints the main characteristics of the relationship between Neopaganism and musical expression by evoking and commenting on textual and non-textual evidence in an attempt to offer a paradigm for understanding the intersections between spirituality and popular culture. On a more or less serious note, several popular music genres explore and celebrate Pagan histories and mythologies in order to shape what can be deemed an aesthetic code rather than an ideology. They employ loose artistic expressions that make use of a constellation of images taken from ancient histories and myths in the form of a romanticized golden past. Pagan elements are used in folk, punk or metal communities in order to construct artistic as well as regional or national identities, ranging from the carnivalesque to the political extreme (such as National Socialist Black Metal, on the fringes of the metal scene). In the case of metal music, however, the ambiguity between usage and purpose can be understood in its broader cultural context, as a means to achieving controversy and transgression. In this chapter, as such, I attempt to explore the usage of Paganism in metal music, its discursive meanings and its potential for shaping cultural identity.

Analyzes the depictions of religion within metal music, lyrics, and imagery. Focuses specifically on how religious themes can be utilized to support political ideologies, including those considered 'extreme'