Living in York, PA, I discovered quickly that I was just a stone’s throw from the infamous Seven Gates of Hell – specifically, located in HELLam Township, PA (York County). I am not a Yorkie by birth, so discovering this was rather exciting. The more I think about it, the more I wonder, and can’t even understand why there isn’t one true, real, convincing Black Metal band from here that is out Satanizing the world and spreading Trve Black Metal – this could have been little Norway. I mean, everything is perfect for that culture and genuine sound here. The adventure (as everything begins with me) begins with music, so this story begins with Venom – yes Venom, quickly get some Venom playing before you continue, I recommend the albums Welcome To Hell or Black Metal. Actually, take a time out and just listen to Venom for a few hours, then come on back here.
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I was too young when Venom were new, but I can only imagine the response from the general music public. When I discovered them, I was touched with joyful and eerie emotions, with full blown goosebumps that I am certain were topped with inverted crosses. And that feeling is so hard to get naturally in any release at any time, but it still does happen. I will never forget the first time I heard Cronos chanting “I’m in League with Satan” and realizing what the true feeling of evil darkness was like. I instantly could see things in the dark that were always there, yet I could never see. Then I heard “Buried Alive” and didn’t sleep for weeks, yet I must have hit play and rewind for days. Truly the feeling of death and darkness was real just from their music, but kick in Cronos’ chants and boom, you are in Hell. I had to acquire every Venom release instantly, but it wasn’t that easy. Not at that time. Eventually I did, and I had never been so proud of having anything at that moment, all be it on dubbed cassette tapes, and with the production quality I wasn’t sure if the dubs made it sound that way or if it was purposeful – but it was perfect, every millisecond, every warp and blank spot perfectly placed. I’m still disappointed when I listen to the digital versions and it’s missing those flaws; which were never flaws to me, but now they are missing. None of you will ever experience it the way I did, and I will never experience the way you do or have, but I’m sure if you listen (if you haven’t) that the impact will be the same. But you must listen – put down the phone and go sit in your basement and listen. But for now, listen while you’re reading this. And don’t stop listening; you need to experience these albums. I wish I had the power to ban listening to Venom on anything other than Vinyl or Cassette. Make everyone do the hunting, the rewards are so much better, and the feelings so much more intense listening to Venom on the correct format. Especially the cracking sounds of a dirty needle on Vinyl. Venom!
There are numerous myths about the Seven Gates Of Hell. Depending on who you talk to, what you believe, and what is possible, somewhere along the line you will be intrigued. Society in general tries to ignore the darkness and downplay and shoot a million messages to you about how some things just didn’t happen. This is especially popular in America – where we spend most of our time hiding and covering up the ugly of our history. Our world has a dark history that every generation of “leaders” on every level tends to try and write off. Even tiny Hellam Township has gone as far as to publish and try to explain that the name is some sort of misspelling derived from or related to Hallamshire, England. To me, that just doesn’t make much sense. I believe it was always meant to have Hell in the name for a reason – a truly dark and more plausible reason. Like the fact that there is a Portal directly to Hell right here in my backyard, and was rightfully named Hellam back in 1739.
I’ve been close to the location of the Seven Gates of Hell during the day; there isn’t much to see for those who don’t want to see. I can feel the depths of Hell reaching out. At night, I can hear the souls call out just like classic Black Sabbath, “Oh, no, no, please, God, help me!” Go with me and I guarantee you will experience things you didn’t think you could.
I believe there was an Insane Asylum, as one tale goes. Way back in the early days of America, many people were put in Asylums – beaten, killed, and banished from society because of their ideology, their speech, their looks, and that they may have been self-made outcasts avoiding contact with the “Normals” of society. I could compare the activities to what happened in New England, but I’ll save that for another time. Basically, the story goes that there was a fire at the Asylum one day which allowed what I call Prisoners to escape and wander about the wooded areas outside the Asylum (still fairly wooded today). The what I call guards or servants of the higher powers got quite ticked off that they were going to have to go out and recapture the people that got out who weren’t initially killed by the fire. As they tracked down the “patients,” they beat them if they put up a fight and even killed them. The ones killed, well, their souls were unable to escape and became trapped within the Gates – for years you could hear them haunting, screaming, and crying, but eventually they discovered the portal directly to Hell and their souls were able to leave. There were apparently Seven Gates, and they say no one that managed to get through every gate made it back to talk about it. Apparently, the owners of the land have removed all the gates, but you can never remove the true gate to hell – it isn’t physical to the living, the gate can only be seen by the dead, so if we listen to the dead they will lead us directly to the gate. The gate to Hell, the gate in HELLam Township PA.
Contact me: paul@cvltnation.com with any stories or experiences with this you’d like to share, and maybe I’ll add them into a follow up later.
