Gavin Baddeley
Author of Goth Chic: A Connoisseur's Guide to Dark Culture
About the Author
Works by Gavin Baddeley
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Gender
- male
- Short biography
- Gavin Baddeley is an ordained Reverend in the Church of Satan, and an experienced journalist who has worked for The Observer and Metal Hammer. He is the occult authority for the BBC and Channel 4, has addressed Cambridge University, and has been profiled in The Independent and The London Evening Standard. His books have provoked controversy and media attention, but he still remains a popular figure among Goths, Satanists, and Pagans alike. He made an appearance in the documentary film Metal: A Headbanger's Journey. His style of writing is journalistic in nature, covering subjects which are tangential but relevant to the topic at hand. He has a noticeably dry wit and observant humor in his writing.
- Nationality
- England
- Associated Place (for map)
- England
Members
Reviews
I bought this book solely because I am a huge Cradle of Filth fan. However, that will not be enough to carry you through the 498 pages (depending on your edition) it contains.
"The Gospel of Filth" describes itself as a book that employs the discography of Cradle of Filth as a roadmap to traverse of the dark side in its multifarious forms. And you will need to have a somewhat deep interest in the dark side (horror, the occult, satanism, etc.) to keep you turning the pages with vigor. A mild show more interest won't cut it. When I had turned around 10 pages over in a reading session, I would usually have a feeling of, "okay, that's enough for now". As a result, my interest was fluctuating throughout, and for the last 100 pages I found myself resorting to simply skimming the pages after points of interest. I was starting to become sick and tired of hearing about the likes of Aleister Crowley over and over again...
One thing I really could have done without was the slapdash satanism found sprinkled on pages here and there. At times, it draws parallels between Christianity and Nazism, even calling it totalitarian, something I find quite appalling as it tries to elevate it to the equivalent of the absolute horrors people have lived through, and some still do. It even blames religion, especially Christianity (of course...), for the fact that our cultures tolerates/encourage alcohol as opposed to marijuana.
As we shed ourselves of religion, we were supposed to appear "enlightened". The 20th century was not exactly a good poster boy to showcase that, and we're not doing much better in the 21st century.
Featured, are a ton of photographs and the print is pretty good, although some photos are a bit too small, and some could be argued to be redundant. There is, however, one place where the print quality would vary. On many pages, there are small black boxes in which Dani Filth's input has been confined to. In those boxes they chose a stylish font which really isn't easily readable when used in smaller print, and on some pages, these black boxes are printed pretty badly, so I had to not only squint, but almost press the book through my nose to read it. Another nuisance is under "contents" where the chapters are listed, they omitted which page each chapter starts at.
What kept me going was mostly the passages including Cradle of Filth. Small titbits of information, rare photos, concept art, and anecdotes such as the band was once invited to a royal wedding in Monaco but tore up the invitation because they were convinced it was a hoax - it wasn't. The book really starts off slow, and even as it picked up for me, it never moved beyond simply being peaks and valleys. More contemporary subjects in the realm of film, music and goth culture were also, at times, quite engaging. One thing that was surprisingly fascinating was the part on fairytales, its nature, and its influences on horror. You'll also come across a ton of references to film, music, and literature, and I certainly walked away with a list of things I may delve into at some point.
At the end of the day, this is a book for those intensely infatuated with the dark side and the occult. And pretty much nobody else. show less
"The Gospel of Filth" describes itself as a book that employs the discography of Cradle of Filth as a roadmap to traverse of the dark side in its multifarious forms. And you will need to have a somewhat deep interest in the dark side (horror, the occult, satanism, etc.) to keep you turning the pages with vigor. A mild show more interest won't cut it. When I had turned around 10 pages over in a reading session, I would usually have a feeling of, "okay, that's enough for now". As a result, my interest was fluctuating throughout, and for the last 100 pages I found myself resorting to simply skimming the pages after points of interest. I was starting to become sick and tired of hearing about the likes of Aleister Crowley over and over again...
One thing I really could have done without was the slapdash satanism found sprinkled on pages here and there. At times, it draws parallels between Christianity and Nazism, even calling it totalitarian, something I find quite appalling as it tries to elevate it to the equivalent of the absolute horrors people have lived through, and some still do. It even blames religion, especially Christianity (of course...), for the fact that our cultures tolerates/encourage alcohol as opposed to marijuana.
As we shed ourselves of religion, we were supposed to appear "enlightened". The 20th century was not exactly a good poster boy to showcase that, and we're not doing much better in the 21st century.
Featured, are a ton of photographs and the print is pretty good, although some photos are a bit too small, and some could be argued to be redundant. There is, however, one place where the print quality would vary. On many pages, there are small black boxes in which Dani Filth's input has been confined to. In those boxes they chose a stylish font which really isn't easily readable when used in smaller print, and on some pages, these black boxes are printed pretty badly, so I had to not only squint, but almost press the book through my nose to read it. Another nuisance is under "contents" where the chapters are listed, they omitted which page each chapter starts at.
What kept me going was mostly the passages including Cradle of Filth. Small titbits of information, rare photos, concept art, and anecdotes such as the band was once invited to a royal wedding in Monaco but tore up the invitation because they were convinced it was a hoax - it wasn't. The book really starts off slow, and even as it picked up for me, it never moved beyond simply being peaks and valleys. More contemporary subjects in the realm of film, music and goth culture were also, at times, quite engaging. One thing that was surprisingly fascinating was the part on fairytales, its nature, and its influences on horror. You'll also come across a ton of references to film, music, and literature, and I certainly walked away with a list of things I may delve into at some point.
At the end of the day, this is a book for those intensely infatuated with the dark side and the occult. And pretty much nobody else. show less
Man mag von Marilyn Manson halten, was man will. Aber man sollte ihn nicht in eine Schublade stecken, ohne ihn zu kennen. Oder ohne wenigstens versucht zu haben, etwas über ihn zu erfahren.
Und hat man es dann getan, wie mit diesem Buch, dann wird man schnell feststellen, dass man Manson niemals in irgendeine Schublade stecken kann. Ganz gleich welche Eigenschaften er mit anderen Persönlichkeiten gemein haben sollte.
Gavin Baddeley kriecht teilweise sehr tief in die dunklen Löcher von show more Manson's Leben und schreibt haargenau über jedes einzelne Detail. Für den einen oder anderen mag dies zu langweilig werden. Doch hat man das Buch einmal beendet, dann weiss man, dass man jedes dieser Details auch wirklich brauchte. Denn nur so kann man die Figur Marilyn Manson verstehen. Würden wir nichts von Brian Warner's, Manson's bürgerlicher Name, Vergangenheit wissen, dann wäre dieses Buch nicht mal ansatzweise möglich gewesen. show less
Und hat man es dann getan, wie mit diesem Buch, dann wird man schnell feststellen, dass man Manson niemals in irgendeine Schublade stecken kann. Ganz gleich welche Eigenschaften er mit anderen Persönlichkeiten gemein haben sollte.
Gavin Baddeley kriecht teilweise sehr tief in die dunklen Löcher von show more Manson's Leben und schreibt haargenau über jedes einzelne Detail. Für den einen oder anderen mag dies zu langweilig werden. Doch hat man das Buch einmal beendet, dann weiss man, dass man jedes dieser Details auch wirklich brauchte. Denn nur so kann man die Figur Marilyn Manson verstehen. Würden wir nichts von Brian Warner's, Manson's bürgerlicher Name, Vergangenheit wissen, dann wäre dieses Buch nicht mal ansatzweise möglich gewesen. show less
This book was new in my library just before christmas and made brilliant reading over the holidays when I knew i would be too busy to get properly stuck into a novel. i would say this was a must for anyone interested in the vampire genre be it in tv and / or film. I liked the way that it was split up into easily read segments which meant that it was a book that you could easily pick up and put down when needed.(as i did) That said it probably would not appeal to someone who wanted a 'heavy' show more serious discussion of the Vampire genre / folklore.
It seemed to cover most popular depictions on the big and small screen and was very informative and I found the sections about the earlier screen depictions especially interesting.
Lots of good pictures too show less
It seemed to cover most popular depictions on the big and small screen and was very informative and I found the sections about the earlier screen depictions especially interesting.
Lots of good pictures too show less
An allaround pretty informative book about gothic culture, music, etc... Talks about bands who started with the sound which would become known as goth up to the current day "gothic metal" bands. Focus also on horror movies, authors such as Poe, etc... Not bad as an intro into gothic culture.
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Statistics
- Works
- 19
- Also by
- 1
- Members
- 569
- Popularity
- #43,980
- Rating
- 3.8
- Reviews
- 6
- ISBNs
- 38
- Languages
- 7