The Black Mass was a horror-fantasy radio drama produced by Erik Bauersfeld, a leading American radio dramatist of the post-television era. The series aired on KPFA (Berkeley) and KPFK (Los Angeles) from 1963 to 1967, on an irregular schedule. Bauersfeld was the Director of Drama and Literature at KPFA from 1966 to 1991.
Bauersfeld's sound designer for most of the episodes was John Whiting, KPFA's production director. Their collaborations were later credited in a Ph.D. dissertation with "keeping radio drama alive in America in the 1960s."
Music for the series was by several Bay Area composers, including KPFA's Music Director Charles Shere, a composer and music critic who later wrote books on American composers and also serves on the board of the Berkeley restaurant Chez Panisse.
Bauersfeld's Black Mass productions were an influence on writer-producer Thomas Lopez (ZBS), who noted, "In the 1960s, I was inspired by someone at KPFA in Berkeley, Eric Bauersfeld. who did a series called The Black Mass, adaptations of H. P. Lovecraft and such. He helped me a lot. I consider Eric my mentor. He also did some fine Eugene O'Neill plays for radio."
The Black is a rock band from Austin, Texas that formed in 2002 when singer/songwriter David Longoria began collaborating with drummer Andy Morales. The two were later joined by renowned guitarist Alan Schaefer (son of famous guitar maker Ed Schaefer) and Nick Moulos of the Austin band The Crackpipes.
The group began playing regularly at Emo's and house parties until Schaefer moved to France to teach English in 2004. Longoria joined major label act ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead during the band's hiatus, his first performance with them on the Late Show with David Letterman in January 2005. Schaefer joined the rest of the band to support Trail of Dead on their European Worlds Apart tour. During the tour Trail of Dead was the band's backing band for a handful of shows.
Their full-length album Tanglewood was recorded in 2004 and released the spring of 2005 on their own record label K Woo.
The band's next release, titled Donna, was released in the summer of 2007.
The Black is the fourth studio album by British metalcore band Asking Alexandria. The album is due to release on 25 March 2016, and marks the first album featuring former Make Me Famous guitarist and Down & Dirty frontman Denis Shaforostov as the band's new lead vocalist, best known under his moniker Denis Stoff, succeeding former frontman Danny Worsnop who has departed for hard rock supergroup We Are Harlot. It was proceeded by the singles "I Won't Give In" released on 26 May 2015, "Undivided" released on 25 September 2015, and the album's eponymous track "The Black" released on 2 February 2016.
On 22 January 2015, former frontman Danny Worsnop announced his departure from the band to focus his work on hard rock band We Are Harlot, however, he stated that the band will continue touring as well. This has been done with the induction of former Down & Dirty and newly introduced Asking Alexandria frontman Denis Stoff. Stoff's Asking Alexandria covers on his YouTube account above92 had drawn the attention of Ben Bruce, with Bruce stating that "it had to be Denis" for whom he was praised for his much greater vocal range and his style which was inspired by Worsnop during the band's early stages, believing he was capable of performing their songs live on a much higher level than his predecessor. Moreover, just like Asking Alexandria, Stoff's previous bands were contracted to Sumerian Records, which may have granted him an easier transition on succeeding Danny Worsnop.
A Black Mass is a ritual characterized by the inversion of the Traditional Latin Mass celebrated by the Roman Catholic Church. The history of such rituals is unclear before the modern era. The Black Mass was allegedly celebrated during the Witches' Sabbath.
The clarity of the celebration of the Black Mass in medieval times is imprecise; some sources referring to Black Masses during the medieval period appear to be lurid manuals that seem to have been written for witch-hunters in Latin, such as the Malleus Maleficarum (1486) and the Compendium Maleficarum (1608). There are arguments claiming that the Black Mass served solely as a shock method in order to accuse enemies for several reasons, but there also remain various sources claiming that it was practiced throughout Western history and currently in the modern era for the sole purpose of Satanic worship and sacrifice in ridicule of Christianity.
One recent outline of the history of the Black Mass can be found in Richard Cavendish, The Black Arts (1967) in the section on the Black Mass. Before that, an entire book was written about it, The Satanic Mass, by H.T.F. Rhodes (1954). Additionally, a detailed study was published in German (and since translated into English) by Gerhard Zacharias, The Dark God: Satan Worship and Black Masses (1964).
Black Mass is the fourth studio album by the American rock band This Is Hell. The album was released on October 11, 2011 through Rise Records.
In early August 2011, a viral marketing website titled allrisefortheblackmass.com was created. The website, described as a "mysterious teaser" site for an "unknown event" in a press release, featured nothing but a countdown timer set to go off on October 11, 2011. About three weeks later on August 28, the website was revealed to be a promotion for an new album by This Is Hell titled Black Mass. The album's title track was made available for streaming online on August 31, and "Salt the Earth" was available on September 15.
This Is Hell's first tour in support of Black Mass will be a late 2011 North American tour opening for Underoath, Comeback Kid and The Chariot.
All songs written by This is Hell.
A Black Mass is a Satanic ritual.
Black Mass may also refer to:
Through the corridors of darkness, on the wings of mans
desire,
Conjured by the soulless ones at the everlasting fire.
Borne on waves of insanity from mans primeval past,
The mantra of the tumult has awakened him at last.
Drawing near in the gloom comes the twilight of all
shame,
The ravens of night have flown away to set Valhalla
aflame.
For too long now the right hand gods have fought between
themselves,
With paths that lead to paradise from this demented
world.
This is the age, the age of Satan, now that the twilight
is done,
Now that Satan has come.
Blue velvet shrouds the altar, black candles pierce the
dark,
The skulls of the unbelievers peer sightless, bleached
and stark.
The inverted cross of burnished gold the burial urns of
light,
The pungent smell of incense wafts out into the night.
This is the age, the age of Satan, now that the twilight
is done,