Confessions of an Antichrist

by Marta Skaði

Overview

A delightfully twisted crime novel with an unreliable narrator, Confessions of an Antichrist tells the tale of the rise and fall of a Norwegian band of wannabe-Satanists embarking on a mission to burn the world down with black metal.

Marta Skaði is on a mission to destroy the world.

Rebelling against the perfect, picturesque Norwegian fishing town she was born in, she has formed a black metal band of such disturbing depravity she knows they’re the perfect weapon to corrupt the masses. When a record deal is dangled before the band after a particularly offensive gig, Marta has to hold the young, wannabe Satanists in her midst together as they reach for their destiny. Not easy when they consist of her ox-brained best friend drummer, a Viking-obsessed bass guitarist, a sex-addicted lead guitarist, and a barely human singer who could well be the Antichrist.

Yet as the record deal seems within reach, everything falls apart. And so begins the spiralling descent into madness of Marta and her strange, sordid group as they corrupt Christians on crosses and battle fascists with dildos, while coming to realise that one of them may be more evil than they realised…

Set in the grungy heavy metal scene of 2010’s Norway, Marta chronicles her descent into chaos and murder, fuelled by thinly veiled lust described as love. From burning down churches to satanic orgies, Confessions of an Antichrist is a fast paced and hair raising story, detailing the gruesome fulfilment of teenage dreams and nightmares.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781915523075
Publisher:	Watkins Media
Publication date:	03/12/2024
Pages:	296
Sales rank:	632,695
Product dimensions:	5.32(w) x 8.46(h) x 0.86(d)

About the Author

Marta Skadi is best known as the manager and general fixer for the black metal band Baphomet's Agony. She has written an account of her time with the band in her debut book “Confessions of an Antichrist”. Names may have been changed to protect the guilty and some content might have been fictionalised.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Extra sharp and disgustingly hilarious."
– Library Journal

Editorial Reviews

04/08/2024

The pseudonymous Skadi, who shares a name with the book’s protagonist, delivers a twisted, darkly comic debut about the rise and fall of a fictional Norwegian black metal band. In a small fishing village near Oslo, Skadi manages the band Baphomet’s Agony, comprising guitarist Snorri, drummer Peter, bassist Edvard, and dead-eyed singer Suffer, most of whom have complicated interpersonal histories. Determined since she was a teenager to “demolish everything that most of you hold dear,” Skadi hopes to catapult the band to fame as a ploy to corrupt the masses. For a moment, that goal seems within reach, when the group is offered a recording contract after a harrowing gig that hospitalizes 17 audience members. Slowly, however, the opportunity unravels, with the band’s savage angsts—plus a marauding band of Christians and a group of metal snobs who think Baphomet’s Agony are posers—pulling them apart. Skadi is more concerned with ladling on maximum depravity than delivering a coherent, well-paced narrative, and the plot takes frequent detours to recount sordid interludes from the band members’ childhoods. Readers with a taste for pitch-black humor will find a few laughs; others will be put off by the prevailing tone of adolescent fantasy. This fails to strike the right chord. (Mar.)This review has been updated with further information.

Publishers Weekly

"Extra sharp and disgustingly hilarious; you’d be hard pressed to find a reader not offended by it."
– Library Journal

From the Publisher

01/12/2024

DEBUT This debut by lawyer Anthony Misquitta, writing as Skaði, follows the band Baphomet's Agony as they are about to hit it big. They've also never played a gig longer than 15 minutes before the cops shut it down. That's Norwegian black metal for you. And no one knows the fan base like Marta, the band's manager. Add in an abundance of Satanism, regular orgies, an occasional church burning, and plenty of thrown fists, and you have yourself a band. But what happens when one of the members may be the actual Antichrist? How much of their belief is just for show, and how far are they willing to go? Like its inspiration, the writing of this character driven novel is a frenzy of flashbacks, forwards, and sideways, not intended for accessibility. The tell-all format is the right structure for the confusing writing and cutting observations of organized religion and society. Readers will not escape this book unalienated—that's the point. But for those who can stomach the vulgar and grotesque, the humor is as dark and surprising as it gets. VERDICT Extra sharp and disgustingly hilarious; you'd be hard pressed to find a reader not offended by it.—Elisha Sheffer

Library Journal