How to Hunt Down Satanic Messages in Your Music Library

Back in the late 70s and 80s, any number of conservative groups were convinced that rock bands were indoctrinating the young in the ways of Beelzebub by hiding satanic messages on records.  How?  By “backmasking,” running them backward.

The claim was that while the conscious mind couldn’t hear these evil messages, the subconscious could, allowing rock bands to sign up knights in Satan’s service.

To be fair, a lot of bands did put backwards messages on their records but mostly as jokes.  I can’t recall a single example of someone going over to the Dark Side as a result of listening to a B52s record.

The hysteria over these hidden messages died down after the CD supplanted vinyl.  Finding a message on a vinyl record was easy; you just spun the record backwards.  But because you couldn’t do that with a CD, people soon lost interest.  

Even when people started ripping CDs to their computers–which, with a little knowledge, effort and free software it was possible to reverse a song–the issue never came back.  Even now, I can’t be arsed to bother.

However, Talkbackwards.com, allows you to reverse any audio for free.  And it’s super-easy.

Lemme know if you find anything from the Dark Lord anywhere in your collection, okay?