Were Italian Black Metal Killers Following Orders From The Devil?

Independent.co.uk has issued the following report:

When a group of young Italian heavy-rock musicians drove two of their friends to a lonely wood east of Milan, stabbed and beat them and threw their bodies into a pit, were they enacting a satanic rite? Were they following orders from the Devil? Or were they merely drunk, stoned, scared, confused losers, trapped into violence by the nonsense with which they had stuffed their heads?

The trial of three of the eight people accused in the case gets under way in Milan this week. Ever since the two victims' bodies, missing since 1998, were dug up last June, the case has excited immense, ghoulish interest. Italy's staid newspapers have relayed every titbit, every new rumour. A group photo of killers and victims, all heavy metal fans and/or musicians, all in black, several sporting upside-down crosses and five-pointed stars, has been reproduced ad nauseam.

The trial comes at a time when evil is much on people's minds here. Vittorio Sgarbi, who has curated an exhibition on the theme of evil, which opened in a Milan museum on Saturday, believes it is the dominant theme of the new century. "Every century has an opening image which constitutes its signature," says the art critic. "In the first years of the 20th century it was Cubism, the 19th century it was Turner and Goya, the 17th it was the Caravaggio revolution. The first 10 years of a century give you its signature, its soundtrack. The soundtrack of the 21st century is the collapse of the twin towers. This is the century in which evil has put its signature at the entrance."

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