Hymn of the Satanic Empire
a.k.a. 'Battle Hymn of the Apocalypse'
Recht die Drommel! Das Lied von die Satanischer Reich!*
Eja! Eja! Alal'!**
Drums out of the darkness, listen well.
Drums beating like thunder straight from Hell.
Trumpets are blaring, the time's come 'round -
Satan is here to claim His ground!
Chorus;
There's an earth that's green, there's an earth that's free,
There's a place for you and a place for me.
But the bleeding hearts wouldn't let it be,
We don't need them any more!
Let the lions and tigers rip them up.
The arena shouts for Christian blood.
Let them chew them up and spit them out -
We don't need them any more!
Once, there was a need for simple minds.
Once, there was a need to save men's souls.
Fools had to be forced to stay in line,
Preachers and bibles could serve those goals
Chorus:
With their holy writ and their card'nal sin
They could force their paper demons in -
To a cardboard prison, a paper cell -
They can't do that any more!
Furies from Hell are diving down!
"Lex Talionis" is their cry!
Even though tricksters made the law,
Justice is served by fang and claw!
Chorus:
With their beaks of steel, see them slash askew
Righteous Christian, Buddhist, Moslem, Jew;
They've become a plague, so let's start anew -
We don't need them anymore!
Drums out of darkness, listen well.
Drums beating like thunder, straight from Hell.
"Rege Satanas!" - the time's come 'round
Satan is here to claim His ground!
Final Chorus:
With our morning star from the deepest night
Smash the crumbling cross, for Might is Right!
Let the shuffling zombies grope for light -
And we'll reign forevermore!
Music and lyrics © Anton Szandor LaVey, 1988. Lyrics reprinted with the express permission of the Church of Satan. This song can be found on the audio CD entitled The Satanic Mass, available from Adversary Records at http://www.reptilianrecords.com/adversary/releases.html . For further information, please contact the Church of Satan via its official website at http://www.churchofsatan.com/ .
* The
recording I have is not particularly clear, so I am not 100% sure of what Mr. LaVey is saying in the first
German language sentence. As these non-English phrases are not listed on the various
lyric sheets available for this hymn, I had to guess at the first sentence. "Recht die Drommel" is my best
approximation. If you have heard this recording and have a clearer idea of what is being said, please /msg me and tell me what it is. The second sentence, however, is much easier to understand. Based on my understanding, it means:
Right (as in "correct" or "prepare") the drum! The Hymn of the Satanic Empire!
Lennon says re: Hymn of the Satanic Empire : Recht means "to quite". Not sure what "Drommel" but I think it's a last name, so the first bit is "Quite the Drommel!"
** 4/12/05: Originally, I thought this part was "Ia! Ia! Alala!" It made no sense, of course, but I was hard pressed to come up with anything else. Today, however, I discovered that this was actually another foreign-language phrase that LaVey's terrible accent obscured. It is actually part of an old
fascist-era Italian anthem called
Giovinezza, meaning "Youth." Make of that what you will.