Devil in a Midnight Mass
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Devil In A Midnight Mass is the first single released from the Canadian punk rock music group Billy Talent's second album, Billy Talent II.
Song Information
There are two differing versions of the song: the album version, and an unpolished demo version released in December 2005 via their myspace.com account. In the album version Ben Kowalewicz shouts "Yeah!!!" at the beginning the track; in the other, this is omitted, and the bridge sounds significantly different. Both versions of the song were released on the Devil In a Midnight Mass single.
MuchMusic aired a "Behind the Scenes" look at the video for this song, hosted by Sarah Taylor, and filmed in an Ontario church, featuring the members of the band as well as children who took part in the recording of the video. In the feature, drummer Aaron Solowoniuk mentions that an elderly woman walked by and said to him, "A rock band in a church, don't see that everyday".
Devil In A Midnight Mass is currently being broadcast on radio stations across Canada.
Meaning of the Song
The song has deep meaning to it. As lead singer Ben Kowalewicz told MuchMusic's Sarah Taylor,
It's from a story I read about Boston priest John Geoghan who had been arrested for child abuse and the church kept moving him from parish to parish. The Supreme Court tried and convicted him of molesting 150 kids over a 30 year span and while he was serving his sentence another inmate broke into his cell and murdered him. I stumble upon these stories, they don't necessarily have to be directly personal but it's things like this that move me. I'm a big advocate for children's rights and this song looks at sexual abuse. It's not against the church or anything, it's more about that individual betrayal between adult and child. I don't have the answers but hopefully if I sing about a certain issue it will get people talking about it.
Billy Talent says that their aim is not to attack Christianity through the song, but point out that the events which led to the molestation of a child by a priest did happen.
Music video
The music video relates the nightmare of an altar boy who is forced to confront many of his greatest fears. When the boy enters the basement he is faced with visions of a future without a mouth and garbed in brown clothing. He is scared by this prospect and flees, however the "Darkness" follows him. At the video's pinnacle, the boy finally confronts it: grabbing an emergency axe, he attacks the "Darkness" and runs away. However, as he arrives in the main body of the church, he sees other alter boys standing, without mouths.
Parallels have been drawn between this music video and the movie The Shining due to its overwhelming darkness. Imagery of blood flowing from paintings is also shared between both. The music video was directed by Sean Micheal Turell.
The music video for Devil In A Midnight Mass was released via myspace.com on May 1, 2006.
The video premiered on Fuse on the show Oven Fresh, which highlights new videos.
Controversy
The band was worried that the controversial nature of the song may cause some Christian groups to take issue with it. Billy Talent, whose members personally don't hold strong faith in the Catholic Church, are hoping that the song will not cause any religious grievances and claim that they are simply telling a story and are not directly attacking Christianity.
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