Anton LaVey and the Church of Satan

Infernal Wisdom from the Devil's Den

By: Carl Abrahamsson, Mitch Horowitz

Narrated by: Kevin Moriarty

Length: 14 hrs and 54 mins

Publisher's summary

• Includes never-before-published material from LaVey, including transcripts from his never-released “Hail Satan!” video.

• Shares in-depth interviews with intimate friends and collaborators, including LaVey’s partner Blanche Barton, his son Xerxes LaVey, and current heads of the Church of Satan Peter Gilmore and Peggy Nadramia.

• Provides inside accounts of the Church of Satan and activities at the Black House, personal stories and anecdotes from the very colorful life of the Black Pope, and firsthand explanations of key principles of LaVey’s philosophy.

With his creation of the infamous Church of Satan in 1966 and his bestselling book The Satanic Bible in 1969, Anton Szandor LaVey (1930-1997) became a controversial celebrity who basked in the attention and even made a successful career out of it. But who was Anton LaVey behind the public persona that so easily provoked Christians and others intolerant of his views?

One of privileged few who spent time with the “Black Pope” in the last decade of his life, Carl Abrahamsson met Anton LaVey in 1989, sparking an “infernally” empowering friendship. In this book Abrahamsson explores what LaVey was really about, where he came from, and how he shaped the esoteric landscape of the 1960s. The author shares in-depth interviews with the notorious Satanist’s intimate friends and collaborators, including LaVey’s partner Blanche Barton; his son, Xerxes LaVey; current heads of the Church of Satan, Peter Gilmore and Peggy Nadramia; occult filmmaker Kenneth Anger; LaVey’s personal secretary Margie Bauer; film collector Jack Stevenson; and film historian Jim Morton. Abrahamsson also shares never-before-published material from LaVey himself, including discussions between LaVey and Genesis P-Orridge and transcribed excerpts from LaVey’s never-released “Hail Satan!” video.

Providing inside accounts of the Church of Satan and activities at the Black House, this intimate exploration of Anton LaVey reveals his ongoing role in the history of culture and magic.

©2022 Carl Abrahamsson. All Rights Reserved. (P)2022 Inner Traditions Audio. All Rights Reserved.

At times very interesting but terribly read

Interesting story for sure. It’s fairly well-written, but terribly read by voice actor. A robot would be better. That said, I finished it because it was interesting.

Good book but awful narrator.

Good book but very hard to focus and listen as the narrator sounds like an AI produced robot. It was a real bummer as I liked the book. Will need to actually read the book to get a better hold on it. Who chooses these readers? A deep gravelly voice doesn’t translate the way they thought it would.

Speed up your audio to 3.5

The book is wonderful but if you listen to it at normal speed you will die before the book is over due to the narrator reads so slow. Up the speed and it is much much more palatable.

Wonderful book, subpar narration.

A new understanding of Anton LaVey!

I liked the the tone of voice of the reader and everything he described about Anton LaVey, well done!

interesting people interviewed

interesting people and perspectives, but it is basically the same interview repeated to different people throughout the book. The reader is also strangely robotic in the delivery, sounds like it is read by a computer.

Too interview heavy

If you enjoy transcripts of repetitive interviews with everyone repeating the same stories, this is for you. The first part of the book where its actually a biography is pretty good, but then it changes over to nothing but transcripts of interviews with everyone repeating the same kinds of stories. I don't read bios for transcripts of interviews, so I was very uninterested at this point. I have 6 hours left on the book and probably won't finish it. I also watched the documentary which features the exact same interviews, so there really isn't any need for both. The book is a letdown.

Narrated by a computer?

The book is very interesting when I'm able to pay attention. But the narration is so hard to stomach its almost impossible to remain engaged. Both the pronunciation and cadence is robotic—to the point where I can't believe it's being read by a human. It just does not do the work justice.