This is an interesting article that discusses the backmasking craze that went on back in the 80s involving fundamentalist Christians, the PMRC and "heavy metal" / "hard rock" bands such as Rush.
... During the 1980s, many Americans-- concerned community and church leaders, educators, experts, and parents-- attributed a considerable bulk of society's problems, especially those related to youth culture, to Satanism, specifically as it was spread via heavy metal. The trend developed in parallel to the founding of the Parents Music Resource Center, its Filthy Fifteen list of offensive artists, and the legislation to rate albums based on content ... Accusations of Satanism and the general moral indictment of heavy metal abounded during this era, as did calls to censor the music and curtail its availability. The underlying assumption seemed to be that protecting children from evil music would insulate society against real problems like drug use, pregnancy, abortion, and poverty. Satan became an easy straw man for larger, stickier social problems.
In 1989 ... a small media company called Reel to Real Ministries began selling a video documentary called Hell's Bells: The Dangers of Rock and Roll. Taking its name from the AC/DC song, Hell's Bells was produced, directed, and hosted by Reel to Real's founder, Eric Holmberg, an amiable emcee and a mid-life convert whose self-confessed gods had once been John Lennon, Jimi Hendrix, and Jim Morrison. The documentary, which was shown and discussed in churches, homes, Christian academies, and youth group retreats, explored rock music's harmful effects on listeners' bodies, minds, spirits, and souls. ...
I was a teenager back in the 80s as well as an avid heavy metal maniac (and Rush fan), so I remember all this stuff very well. It really pissed me off back then - now it just makes me laugh. Here're the portions of the article that discuss Rush:
... inverted crosses, 666, and the devil hands (referred to here as "El Cronado") appear in the album art and videos for Be Bop Deluxe, Duran Duran, Rush, Iron Maiden, and Chris "The Lady in Red" de Burgh, but they're just the tip of Satan's iceberg. ... Backmasking was a hot topic during the Satanic Panic, reinforced by the fact that listeners could find whatever messages they were looking for among the weird scrambles of reversed sounds. The examples Holmberg gives all seem a little incredible, mostly thanks to uniformly awkward wording ... On the live version of Rush's "Anthem": "Oh Satan you are the one who is shining...Walls of Satan, I know it is you are the one I love." ...
Hee hee. Oh Satan.
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