{"id":1114,"date":"2023-01-18T18:57:38","date_gmt":"2023-01-18T23:57:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/?p=1114"},"modified":"2023-01-21T19:39:16","modified_gmt":"2023-01-22T00:39:16","slug":"speak-of-the-devil-interview-with-thomas-thorn-of-the-electric-hellfire-club","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/?p=1114","title":{"rendered":"SPEAK OF THE DEVIL: Interview With THOMAS THORN of The Electric Hellfire Club"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Interview from issue #3 MK ULTRA Magazine 1995<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Alex Zander Goes Head To Head With Satan\u2019s Little Helper Thomas Thorn of the Electric Hellfire Club<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thomas Thorn and the Electric Hellfire Club are truly the real thing in terms of
Satanism. They\u2019re not kidding. They\u2019re not Black Sabbath or Danzig singing tales of the
Dark One. EHC sing praises of Anton LeVay\u2019s Satanic Bible. They praise Ricky Kasso,
Charles Manson, David Berkowitz. In other words, they\u2019re downright scary.
Their latest offering on Cleopatra Records, titled \u201cKiss The Goat,\u201d is also about the
best recording of the year so far. It\u2019s a psychedelic, hypnotic journey through Hades,
sex and drugs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thorn, formerly known as \u201cBuck Ryder,\u201d was once a member of My Life With The
Thrill Kill Kult. He quit the band as they became disco oriented and began recording the
Sexplosion CD. Based in Kenosha, WI., home of Weezer, (joke get it?) EHC boasts 5 members. Thorn is vocalist and programmer, Rev. Dr. Luv is keyboardist, Richard Frost on drums, new member Gregor Mephisto is guitarist, sexy Sabrina Santana does vocals, go-go dancing and erotica, while Otto Mattix works the sounds and imagines. \u201cKiss The Goat\u201d is EHC\u2019s 3rd release on Cleopatra. \u201cBurn Baby Burn\u201d was recorded in 1993 and earlier this year the EP \u201cSatan\u2019s Little Helper\u201d was also released on Cleopatra.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

EHC is as incredible as one may accuse them of being controversial. I cannot help but
be seduced by their sound and music, although I\u2019m not in agreement nor disagreement
with their message. It is as dark and violent as real life. Their lyrics are the evening
news, tabloids, and talk shows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I spoke to Thorn just days before I met him and other members of EHC in Chicago at
Convergence. I didn\u2019t expect him to be as articulate and charismatic as he came across
in conversation. After all, I read a review by Carl Brown in which he described his
meeting with Thorn in these words, \u201cI said, \u2018God bless you\u2019 and left. I wanted to hose
myself down. I felt like I had spent the night with an HIV infected prostitute. Thorn was
an unapologetic Disciple of Lucifer on a mission from Hell. If there was ever a guy I\u2019d
like to see tossed into a burning lake, it was Thorn.\u201d Thorn has also gone head to horn
with evangelist Bob Larson, and now Thorn was preaching to me.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Alex Zander: You just finished a tour for \u201cKiss The Goat\u201d. Who opened up for you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Thomas Thorn: We had Penal Colony opening for us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AZ: What does a live show consist of? I read a lot of good reviews about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TT: (laughs) It\u2019s basically us playing. It\u2019s not some big theatrical stage show or anything
like that. Definitely we\u2019re a very visual band in the way we present ourselves and our
music. But it\u2019s us up there with Sabrina dancing around and there are a few props,
costume type things and stuff like that. Nothing that\u2019s what I would consider theatrical in
a cheesy way. No fake blood, no giant toothbrushes, nothing like that. But I would say
that one of the main things we do is use a lot of fog and a lot of psychedelic lights to try
and really alter the space. For bands that are playing the size clubs that we are right
now, I think that\u2019s an unusual thing. Most bands don\u2019t bring their own light show. People
are accustomed to seeing whatever band it is with the exact same lights that the club
has been installed there. We always look different from any other band you\u2019ve seen there. We
use a lot of lights you probably haven\u2019t seen before and a lot of lights that really interact
with the audience. They\u2019re not necessarily focusing on the band, they\u2019re altering the
stage and going out into the audience. They\u2019re sort of grabbing you and bringing you
into it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AZ: Your band’s message is very blatant. Unlike bands such as Slayer or Sabbath,
bands with similar themes, your music seems a lot more enjoyable. Do you think the
audience is more attracted to the image or do you think they come to actually hear the music?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TT: I think that there’s definitely a cross section. There are people who are big fans who
have gotten turned onto the band through death metal fanzines and things like that,
because of interest in music of that sort of content. They say, \u201cHey, this isn\u2019t usually my
cup of tea but I really enjoy what you guys are doing.\u201d Likewise, there are people out
there who basically feel, \u201cOh, it\u2019s another industrial band or psychedelic band and I
don\u2019t get into that devil shit but I really like the music.\u201d I don\u2019t necessarily appreciate that
element in the fanbase but at the same time, if they\u2019re going to buy the record and
empty money to see the band, I guess I can\u2019t argue. (laughs)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AZ: What about any hassles? Problems from religious groups on tour. Do you have any
of that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TT: I think that the main problem we have along those lines is that we\u2019ll get a show
booked and then the label will send out a bunch of press material. Then all the sudden
the club owner freaks out because, like you said, it’s not like Slayer. For that matter,
it\u2019s not even like Deicide. Those things tend to be a lot easier for people to deal with in
that context. They don\u2019t want to intellectualize, they want a cartoon version of what
Satanism is. They want people saying, \u201cOh well, we\u2019re not really serious.\u201d Or that there\u2019s
some big mystery behind it or something like that. But for your average club owner, this
makes us out to be a bunch of monsters that are going to set the club on fire. We
definitely had some shows canceled over things like that. We haven\u2019t had a lot of
Christian groups protesting. In all the time we\u2019ve been doing it, I can count the times
that we\u2019ve had that happen on both hands. I remember in Iowa that they had a prayer
circle around the club. I remember a place in Texas where they were trying to grab the
microphone between us and Christian Death because they wanted to tell the people to
leave. That they were being seduced by Satan. They weren\u2019t concerned with Christian
Death. They were out there talking to us, \u201cOh yeah, we heard about you guys from Bob
Larsen and we know what you\u2019re doing.\u201d It\u2019s weird. (laughs) They\u2019re out there and I
think we don\u2019t have that high of a profile yet. The second we do we\u2019re going to be into
shit up to our knees. For now, there just aren\u2019t that many people aware of it. I saw some
things on the internet warning people about us and asking people to get out and protest.
To warn other people about us being on tour. It\u2019s not a significant force of any kind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AZ: Do you want to push for a higher profile?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TT: Higher profile depends on what you mean. As far as, do we want to leave the
underground? No. Do we want to sell more records? Yes. There\u2019s a fine line between
the two. I don\u2019t want to become Nine Inch Nails, but at the same time, if by some bizarre
chain of events we did, I wouldn\u2019t be kicking and screaming at the millions of dollars
somebody was handing me. I don\u2019t see much danger in it. We\u2019re going through this right
now. Cleopatra is starting to get into college radio. And there\u2019s not anything on the
album that is \u201cthe pop song\u201d or for that matter \u201cradio friendly.\u201d The songs are 8-12
minutes long, they have obscenity in them, and they have really questionable content.
It\u2019s one of those things where we don\u2019t make records like that. I don\u2019t think there\u2019s any
danger of us becoming press darlings. Likewise, while these kids and their parents can
live with, \u201cI want to fuck you like an animal,\u201d and \u201cGod is dead and no one cares\u201d they
can\u2019t live with, \u201cGod is dead and Satan lives\u201d or \u201cYou are my latest masterpiece
dismembered on your bed.\u201d They can\u2019t live with that kind of content.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Still from the music video for Incubus<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

AZ: Getting out of Thrill Kill Kult, that wasn\u2019t a bad idea. At the time it was actually good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TT: It was one of those things where, at the time, I was tired of what I was doing and
what was going on, and Buzz McCoy was working on a solo project that was more
mainstream, sort of house music. He\u2019d been listening to a lot of Black Box,
Technotronic, and things like that. Which is great for a solo project, but when it was
announced to me that they were going to take those songs and turn them into Thrill Kill
Kult songs for the new album, I was like, \u201cEh.\u201d I envisioned myself (laughs) doing the
fag dance behind my keyboard for the rest of my life. I wasn\u2019t particularly interested in
that element and it was a hard thing to do to leave a band you knew was going to get
really huge right then. I thought about it and if there was ever going to be a time to leave
this band, the time was now. Before the whole success thing happens so I can walk
away with some degree of credibility. So people wouldn\u2019t say, \u201cOh, he quit the band after
their stab at the mainstream completely failed.\u201d And so here I am.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AZ: Have they come to see your new band?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TT: No. It\u2019s weird because when we first started out, I used to talk to them a little bit.
Buzz and I were good friends and he was kind of bummed out because at the time that I
left the band, I really just disappeared. I moved out of Chicago, I didn\u2019t really tell anyone
where I was going. I had a lot of different issues that I was trying to resolve. The only
way I was going to resolve them was by completely getting myself out of the situation I
was in and not being around the people that I\u2019d been around. By the time they figured
out where I was, I had already started working on this side project. When I talked to
them, they said the Sexplosion tour is going to start at such and such time. I said, \u201cWell,
I\u2019m not going to go.\u201d It wasn\u2019t a popular thing. When we (EHC) were playing little piss
ant clubs, I would let them know. They\u2019d say, \u201cOh yeah, we\u2019re going to show up.\u201d But
they never bothered. Jacky Blacque came and saw us once, which was cool. But when
we got signed, it was a completely different issue. Groovie Mann got a bug up his butt
about the fact that Cleopatra was really whoring out the Thrill Kill connection. Thrill Kill
Kult\u2019s first ever cover story in Alternative Press was followed by a full page ad for us.
This is a time when a lot of people were really questioning what had happened to Thrill
Kill Kult. I think maybe a lot of people were saying, \u201cHey, maybe this is the real hero.\u201d
Certain people joke and refer to me as the man who took the Kill out of Thrill Kill Kult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AZ: How did you meet the members of your band?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TT: Actually a couple of them were Thrill Kill Kult fans I had met at some of the shows.
Where we\u2019re based and where we live right now is only about an hour from Chicago. I
met them and I was trying to get out of my Chicago burnout thing and was driving to my
parents in Wisconsin a lot where I had a lot of older friends up there. I\u2019d be hanging out
in Milwaukee or Madison or wherever, and I started stopping in to see these guys in
Kenosha. (I was) helping them learn how to work their electronic gear and start their
own band. It kind of came together as a thing where, \u201cMaybe I should be in this band.\u201d
That was going to be the side project that I was doing. The time that we were ready to
start playing shows coincided with when I would’ve been leaving to go on a Thrill Kill
Kult tour for another 2 months or so. It just wasn\u2019t something that I was willing to
sacrifice. I decided that this was a lot more important to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AZ: I like this new album a lot. I haven\u2019t quit listening to it since it came out. We really
dig it. Did you write all the lyrics on this?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TT: Yeah, I did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AZ: My favorites are \u201cEvil Genius\u201d and \u201cBitchcraft.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TT: (laughs) That\u2019s really funny. We just got our first really negative fan letter ever. It was
this guy who was saying that compared to our first 2 albums, this was the weakest
piece of shit that he\u2019s ever heard. One of the obvious problems was Sabrina\u2019s influence
on the album and that she can\u2019t carry a tune to save her life and shit like that. I don\u2019t
know if he\u2019s a woman hating guy or what, but I think she has a pretty nice voice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AZ: I sense a little sexual sense of humor in those two. Where did you get the
inspiration for these 2 cuts? They are completely different from everything else on the
album.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TT: You can put yourself in a lot of different places when you write. \u201cBitchcraft\u201d was
intended to kind of be that sassy, \u201cThese boots are made for walking\u201d song. LeVay has
a chapter in his book called The Satanic Witch called \u201cBitchcraft.\u201d There\u2019s an element of
sarcasm, but at the same time, the way that the people in the band, particularly Sabrina,
view the whole feminine mystique and the role of the woman and the concept of
feminism is not from a very politically correct standpoint. She, as most Satanic women
do, believe in using feminine wiles and their powers of seduction to get their way to
accomplish things, realizing that those are natural gifts, rather than that those are things
you should avoid it in your pursuit of happiness and power. \u201cEvil Genius\u201d was one of
those things where you\u2019re taking the whole concept of sort of a semi-pornographic
superwoman of your dreams. Looking at it from the standpoint of the things she should
say, things like that. Rather than what the average person thinks is right or how women
should act. Also taking into consideration the power of woman over man. Using some
biblical metaphors and marking femme fatales throughout history (laughs) that I
consider to be significant personas.<\/p>\n\n\n

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AZ: It\u2019s a very psychedelic album. Did LSD serve as an inspiration?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TT: Oh yes. Well, LSD has been a continuous inspiration in the band. I mean since the
beginning. When we started the band, it was big doses of LSD playing a role in bridging
the gap between spirituality and the music that we were creating. I mentioned LeVay
and the Church of Satan, but there are areas in which we differ from their beliefs. I was
just reading something the other day that was saying no true Satanist would ever take
mind altering drugs. I bed to differ! (laughs) I really do! I can understand your average
fucked up teenager, your Sean Sellers and Ricky Kassos, all those people who we\u2019ve
actually got songs about, those are weak willed people. And if weak willed people use
drugs, particularly psychedelics, bad things happen. Particularly if they\u2019re invoking
demonic entities. But then again, half the people in the Church of Satan don\u2019t
acknowledge the existence of any certain demonic entities. So, I don\u2019t know what their
problem is (laughs). We definitely believe that if you are weak willed and using drugs as
a shortcut to demonic intervention then (laughs) you stand the risk of possession.
That\u2019s one of the risks you take. (laughs) Psychedelic Satanism is definitely one
medium and our goal. We\u2019re not trying to recapture the 60\u2019s or anything like that, but we
are influenced by that whole flower power era, primarily the dark side of it. Flower power
and psychedelics really created a whole new generation of sheep\u2026the hippies, sex,
drugs, fucking in the streets, all that. At the same time, wherever sheep tend to
congregate, so do wolves and other predators. I think that the psychedelic era gave rise
to a new archetype of that sort of predator. Manson being one of the greatest
archetypes within that. Manson, the Process, all sorts of types of things are archetypes
of psychedelic Satanism. It\u2019s no coincidence that the Church of Satan evolved at the
time dayglo and acid rock were reigning supreme. There\u2019s definitely a connection. That
was the time of the occult explosion. I was born in \u201964, so I basically grew up at a time
when all those things had been assimilated into mass media and popular culture. Those
were things that I was spoon fed through TV, magazines, and other forms of media on a
daily basis. They are definitely things that have inspired me and were extremely
influential during my formative years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AZ: Where do you think this whole Manson popularity is coming from?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TT: It\u2019s really weird because I would say that a good percentage of the kids wearing
Manson shirts don\u2019t have a real particular understanding of who and what he is and
what he did or anything like. I manage a record store when I\u2019m not on tour, kids will say
something about the Manson shirts, we obviously (laughs) stock a full variety of them,
and I\u2019ll say, \u201cWell, do you know why Manson is in prison?\u201d They\u2019ll say, :Oh, because he\u2019s
a crazy guy that killed a bunch of people.\u201d We\u2019re actually working with some people
from Cleopatra now and Blood Axis to arrange a Manson Aid compilation. Nobody has
spent as much time in prison as Charles Manson has for complicity in a crime. He didn\u2019t
kill anybody. That\u2019s not to say he never killed anybody, but he\u2019s not convicted on that,
He’s convicted of murder in a sense of complicity. In other words, he told people to jump
off a bridge and they did it. I think the fact the man has been in prison that long and he\u2019s
been portrayed as the most notorious mass murderer in all of history is a travesty. It
shows what a joke the American justice system is and can be. As far as the current
popularity, it\u2019s the same reason you get kids identifying with or becoming Satanists. Kids
becoming Satanists on the basis of what they\u2019ve learned from things like talk shows.
Geraldo says, \u201cOh, this is what Satanism is.\u201d and whether it is or not you\u2019re going to
have a thousand kids who look at that and say, \u201cI want to be a Satanist, that\u2019s cool.\u201d It\u2019s
a self-fulfilling prophecy that they become that kind of Satanist. They go out and
sacrifice their neighbor\u2019s cat in the name of Satan because they saw it on TV or some
\u2018B\u2019 movie. That’s what it is. They know their parents hate him and most authority figures
that they abhor hate Satan. He\u2019s the man that has the best music, he wears the coolest
clothes. The only thing he really did, the bible says, was thriving to be more like God.
They call that sin of pride. Any kid, or human being, can\u2019t really look at that and say,
\u201cOh, that\u2019s a horrible thing.\u201d I think that these kids become Satanists because they\u2019re
identifying with the rebel archetype. Likewise, those who don\u2019t grow up under intensely
religious oppression is constantly bombarded in the media by certain images of evil,
and Manson, as I said, is portrayed as the ultimate evil. So the ones who are
rebelling, consciously or subconsciously, against the media archetypes of \u201cwhat is right\u201d,
even fucking MTV! Who died and put them in charge of telling you what you should
think? You know, no censorship, no racism, no fascism, no this, no that. All you are is a
fucking entertainment channel! Shut the fuck up and stay out of my head! Like it or not,
Manson has become a figurehead to a certain degree of racial ideology. These
kids feel that they\u2019ve been disinherited I guess, in talking about white kids. They do 1 of
2 things: They either listen to rap music or they feel like they are completely
disenfranchised and start a rebellious attitude that turns into racial hate, that Manson
has been presented as this racial hate figure as well. There\u2019s probably 10 different sides
to this coin as to why Manson has become a cultural icon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AZ: The creepy crawler cut, that was written by somebody on the outside, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TT: Yeah. It was written and performed by Sean Partridge. I don\u2019t know if you\u2019re familiar
with the Partridge Family Temple. They\u2019re (laughs) to put it mildly, a fringe group that
sort of worship the Partridge family. Sean Partridge is one of the main characters; he\u2019s
one of these people that are incredibly groovy and incredibly frightening at the same
time. He\u2019s a friend of ours. The guys from Marilyn Manson came to out show in New
Orleans and I was talking to the keyboard player, he had met
Sean in Denver and he was talking about how great he was. I said, \u201cOh yeah, you have
to pick up our new album because Sean does a little thing there.\u201d You just have to
have him on your record. (laughs) He walks around in purple velvet bell bottoms and
flower print shirts but at the same time, is one of those predatory psychedelics. I
thought it worked out very well. It was an interesting reference. We immediately thought
of Sean when we thought of the intro to that. Do you know what \u2018creepy crawlers\u2019 is a
reference to? When the Manson family would sneak up on a house, they would call it
creepy crawling. Even Rollins, whether he admits it in his public face or not, is a huge
Manson fan. He has a tattoo that is identical to one of Manson\u2019s tattoos, it\u2019s a spider that
says, \u201ccreepy crawl.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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Early promo shot for Burn Baby Burn<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

AZ: Your videos obviously aren\u2019t going to get on MTV, but have you done anything?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TT: We did a video for \u201cMr. 44.\u201d It\u2019s on a Cleopatra compilation. I like some of the
images in it. There was tons of footage shot and then it was edited by these 2 guys
while we were on tour and I\u2019m not completely thrilled with the footage that they chose or
fashion in which it was edited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AZ: What about the Pink Floyd tribute? I\u2019ve got an advance of that. Was \u201cLucifer Sam\u201d
the obvious song to do?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TT: We did 2 versions of it. The other version, I\u2019ll actually say, I like a lot better. This was
allegedly supposed to be like an ambient tribute of some sort. Particularly doing an
ambient version of a song by another band was a really difficult issue. So we did
something that was just a fluffier mix of what we\u2019ve been doing and that was the one
they opted for. I think we\u2019ll probably take the one that we like better and release it at
some point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AZ: What do you think the mainstream\u2019s biggest misconceptions about Satanism are?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TT: That\u2019s hard to say because I\u2019m one of these real (laughs) thorns in the side about a
lot of the what you would call, Satanic community. These are the guys that would take
this opportunity to say the greatest misconceptions is that Satanists burn churches,
sacrifice animals, they only wear black, they do this, they do another thing. The
difference is the way we perceive Satanism is I personally don\u2019t see that it\u2019s anybody\u2019s
place to define exactly what it is. It\u2019s just like somebody saying, \u201cWhat makes music
industrial?\u201d Who\u2019s to say? Is the Ministry industrial? Is NIN industrial or is Throbbing Gristle
industrial? It\u2019s one of those questions like that. We tend to take all comers as far as the
the whole Satanic trip goes. There are a lot of kids who are involved in death metal who are
really a lot more into the whole thing of drinking blood and desecrating churches and
shit like that. I\u2019ve got no problem with that. Whereas, most of these people I call
armchair intellectual Satanists are really opposed to illegal activity, drug taking, and
things like that. It\u2019s really not anything that I have any great concerns with. I always buy
all the Christian fright books where they talk about, \u201cIs your child a devil worshipper?\u201d
and, \u201cHere are the signs.\u201d We use that stuff. As an example, the Ricky Kasso thing.
Another kid that dropped too much acid and stabbed another kid to death over a bad
drug deal, screaming, \u201cSay you love Satan!\u201d while he was plunging a dagger into his
eyes. That completely freaks the shit out of John and Jane Cute Public. What\u2019s going to
freak them more than a band that\u2019s openly Satanic and places this kid up, not as a hero
or martyr, but as a significant part of history (laughs) in Satanism. It drives some of
these people crazy that I keep dragging all of these characters that they say are not
Satanists back into it. What are other misconceptions? I\u2019m not concerned so much
about people having misconceptions, just figuring out what they are, what scares them
and using it against them. That\u2019s my strategy. This is my only pet peeve, from every kid
who writes to Industrial Nations to Christian Death in their latest interview in Seconds.
(They) sit and say, \u201cWell, all these people who call themselves Satanists are obviously
Christians because Satan is a Christian creation.\u201d I don\u2019t know how many times I have
had to explain myself but my concepts of what Satan and Satanism are is not limited to
or defined by Christian theology or any sort of biblical writings. The reason that we use
the terminology and the biblical metaphor is because it is culturally relevant. I do not
believe in Satan as necessarily portrayed in the bible. I definitely believe in a power that
I refer to as Satan. That same power or entity has existed for thousands of years before
Christianity was ever an inkling in some stupid prophets imagination. Likewise, it\u2019s
existed in every single culture that has had some sort of spiritual founding. It\u2019s in every
religion from ancient Chinese through old myths through Indian mythology and
things like that. There\u2019s always a dark side and dark force. In most of the world
religions, while it\u2019s something to be respected and feared, it is also something that\u2019s
considered to be an integral part of everything that goes on, the night and the day are
part of the whole. They don\u2019t want to create endless daytime or whatever. They know
not to endorse any sort of Eastern ideology but the Yin Yang where the light and dark
are balanced and each contains a bit of the other, that they are integral forces and one
couldn\u2019t exist without the other or you\u2019d have complete lack of balance. That\u2019s more or
less what I believe. All these people who are saying, \u201cI don\u2019t see how you can call
yourself a Satanist without being Christian.\u201d Well, tell the Christians that. You know,
what we believe has nothing to do with them and so on. We\u2019re not subscribing to their
theology. That\u2019s the only misconception that I care about . The fact of the matter is what
they believe is a Christian creation and is defined by that. They\u2019re absolutely wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Gatefold of the 2022 re release of “Burn Baby Burn” 2 LP gold vinyl order at https:\/\/cleorecs.com\/store\/shop\/the-electric-hellfire-club-burn-baby-burn-orange-vinyl\/<\/a><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

AZ:What is your biggest gripe against Christianity?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TT: My biggest gripe against Christianity is that it\u2019s completely hypocritical if you study it
from it\u2019s inception, it was created as a power structure for the state. The church and state
went hand in hand. The way I see it, they figured the state could tell you, \u201cif you get
caught stealing, we can cut off you hand.\u201d But it takes people a short while to realize
that only 1 out of 10 people actually get caught when they steal. So the state creates
the ultimate cop who can see you when you\u2019re sleeping, who knows if you\u2019re awake,
who knows if you\u2019ve been bad or good, you know? It doesn\u2019t matter if they catch you or
not, in the end you\u2019re going to go to hell if you did any of that stuff. It\u2019s power structure. It
exists primarily to control people and to make money. It does so in the guise of
something friendly, charitable and stuff like that. I resent the fact that morality is
legislated, rather than thought out. Like the abortion issue. They say, \u201cOh, it\u2019s wrong to
kill.\u201d Why is it wrong to kill? It\u2019s not wrong for you guys to kill when you going off to war!
There are so many people that should be forced to have abortions. There\u2019s so many
things I hate about (Christianity) and I\u2019m probably a little reactionary and inarticulate in
relation to it right now. The thing I hate the most about it is the intense hypocrisy and the
fact that it\u2019s the biggest lie that was ever told. The bible is the biggest work of plagiarism
ever! There are so many different stories that are taken from different cultures and
different religions that are rewritten trying desperately to fit them into a singular context.
When you get all this crap about Jesus, I hate all the stuff that was preached by Jesus.
His whole turn the other cheek and things like that. I think that any religion that glorifies
and preaches submission and weakness is such an abomination that it\u2019s very existence
gives me reason to live. I want to live to see the day it crumbles and is destroyed. I don\u2019t
know (laughs) whether that answers the question or not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AZ: I read some press from Cleopatra about this bit Carl Brown said\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TT: Oh, that guy. The thing where he said (laughs) that if there was anybody he\u2019d like to
see cast into a lake of fire, it was me?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AZ: Yeah. How does press like that affect you guys?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TT: I thought it was great. I got that in the mail and sent it to Cleopatra and said, \u201cPut
this in the press kit!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AZ: I liked the picture of \u201cA Quiet Night At Home.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TT: It\u2019s interesting. I would much rather have somebody saying that, than somebody
sitting there and saying the basic agnostic or new age philosophy of, \u201cWell, these guys
are just Christians that have it wrong.\u201d Or people that say, \u201cThis is just a gimmick.\u201d We
play the image for everything it\u2019s worth. There\u2019s no question. We obviously like to play
with cultural terminology and cultural icons and things like that. The devil is one of the
most popular cultural icons that we have. I was saying to someone the other day, you
can\u2019t even walk through a grocery store without seeing images of the devil. It\u2019s powerful
from one standpoint to another and we\u2019re more than willing to use that power to our
advantage. Admittedly doing so. We\u2019re not sitting here saying, \u201cOh no, we\u2019re not trying
to use its power, it\u2019s just something we happen to think.\u201d We definitely understand and
recognize its power and use it to our advantage. I think that that in itself is a Satanic
ideal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AZ: Where does Scary Lady Sarah fit it?I saw her name on the credits. Is she a friend?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TT: She\u2019s a really good friend of ours. We recorded the album in Chicago and stayed at
her house. Actually they own an apartment complex. We stayed in one of the
vacant apartments while we were down there. I think it says \u201cHellfire Hotel\u201d next to it or
something. She\u2019s a good friend and an avid supporter of the band. She\u2019s probably one
of the first DJ\u2019s in Chicago to really play out stuff a lot and has supported the band.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AZ: Peter Steele saying that his favorite album is Burn Baby Burn wasn\u2019t bad for
publicity, was it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TT: Yeah, definitely. I actually just finished talking to him yesterday because they agreed
to do a remix for us. They\u2019re (Type O) really good guys, I really like them a lot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AZ: Good show too. They do \u201cCinnamon Girl\u201d now it\u2019s crazy seeing them open up with<\/p>\n\n\n\n

that song. They\u2019re out with Queensryche right now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TT: (laughs) I was asking Peter what he thought about it and he said it was incredibly,
incredibly boring. I suppose after coming off tour with Pantera where it\u2019s a wild fucking
party every night. I heard from Peter and other people, that Phil from Panters fancies
himself this incredible Satanist too, (laughs) and is like, \u201cI live for the devil!\u201d and \u201cI\u2019ve got
a swimming pool that\u2019s round and its painted with a pentagram on the bottom of it!\u201d
Peter told me that that\u2019s definitely true. As a matter of fact, Peter jumped off Phil\u2019s
second story balcony naked into Phil\u2019s pentagram pool. (laughs) He said, he could just
see if he cracked his head or something. It\u2019d be like, \u201cRock singer dies in bizarre
Satanic ritual sacrifice\u201d or something like that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AZ: Hey, that\u2019s how Peter wants to go out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TT: Yeah, I\u2019m sure. (laughs)<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Early promo shot for Burn Baby Burn<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

AZ: What would you say is the scariest thing you\u2019ve seen or situation you\u2019ve been in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TT: I\u2019ve seen a lot of really remarkable things that at the time were really scary. In
in retrospect, I think it\u2019s really cool that I witnessed them. I think one of the strangest and
at the time most frightening demonic manifestations was a black cat that laughed a
human laugh. Which sounds like a cheesy thing out of a Stephen King novel, but I could
tell you stories from my youth that make Pet Cemetery sound like a fairytale. At a
at a certain age, I came to align myself with the dark side and now it doesn\u2019t really frighten
me anymore. I\u2019ll give you another one. I was probably about 18 and my father\u2019s father
had killed himself. He had been having these dreams about his father where his father
kept saying, \u201cMeet me at..\u201d and then he\u2019d always wake up. It was like his father had
something to tell him. One night I was at this friend\u2019s house and he lived out in the
country, and there was this really bad thunderstorm. It was bad enough that I didn\u2019t want
to drive back so I just ended up staying at his house. He and his little brother had a
room that they shared together but his little brother was somewhere else. So we\u2019re in
this room in twin beds and this thunderstorm\u2019s raging and all of a sudden I felt the room
get really cold in the middle of summer. I just got one of those feelings you get when
you\u2019ve been witness to some phenomenon. I heard this voice it was a voice that
sounded like 2 blocks of concrete scraping together. The voice was calling my friend\u2019s
name. I heard him sit up and I\u2019m just laying there looking around. You see lightning
flash just like in an episode of Tales From The Dark Side and there\u2019s this figure standing
in the doorway. To make this story even weirder, I worked for his father and his father
was a funeral director. So I saw some pretty fucked up stuff there too. Anyhow, this
friend of mine flips the light on and there\u2019s nothing there. Group hallucination or
whatever you want to call it, I definitely saw it. The feeling you got was not so much
frightening as it was bad. Something that definitely didn\u2019t belong there. It was wrong that
it was there and it should not be there and you should not have converse with it. That
was the general sensation that you got from it. I have a long list of experiences, but I
was pretty chilled to the bone by that experience. Since accidentally stumbling on things
like that (laughs), now we go out of our way to evoke them. (laughs) That\u2019s another
story in itself . Fear is an exhilarating feeling, it kind of takes you to the next level. I think
that has something to do with where we\u2019re at and what we\u2019re doing and what we\u2019re
trying to achieve.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alex Zander Goes Head To Head With Satan\u2019s Little Helper Thomas Thorn of the Electric Hellfire Club Thomas Thorn and the Electric Hellfire Club are truly the real thing in terms ofSatanism. They\u2019re not kidding. They\u2019re not Black Sabbath or Danzig singing tales of theDark One. EHC sing praises of Anton LeVay\u2019s Satanic Bible. They… Read More »SPEAK OF THE DEVIL: Interview With THOMAS THORN of The Electric Hellfire Club<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1159,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-innerviewz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1114"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1114\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1164,"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1114\/revisions\/1164"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}