Nikolas Schreck | |
|---|---|
Schreck at SLM in 2005 | |
| Born | 1958 or 1959 (age 66–67) |
| Known for |
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| Spouse | |
Nikolas Schreck (born 1958 or 1959)[1] is an American singer-songwriter, author and film-maker. Schreck founded the music and performance collective Radio Werewolf, and was the co-founder of the Abraxas Foundation. He was formerly a Satanist and affiliated with the Church of Satan and the Temple of Set, but later disavowed both and left the Church of Satan. He later became a Buddhist. He collaborated musically with his former wife, American singer and musician Zeena Schreck. He has written several books and directed the 1989 documentary Charles Manson Superstar.
Career
[edit]Nikolas Schreck is not his birth name; he changed his name in his 20s. Schreck means terror or fright in German.[2][3] Schreck was the founder, frontman, and sole constant member of the Gothic band Radio Werewolf.[4][2][5] He founded the band in 1984 in Los Angeles, California.[6] As the group's lead singer he performed theatrical ritual performances, which were billed as "Rallies of the Radio Werewolf Youth Party".[7][8] The band embraced initially ironic and tongue-in-cheek Nazi symbolism early in its life.[9]
Schreck was a practitioner of black magic and founded The Werewolf Order. He later connected the Order to the Church of Satan and co-led it with his wife Zeena. He worked in the late 1980s with Church of Satan founder Anton LaVey (Zeena's father), publicly speaking in support for the Church.[10][3]
Schreck was part of the Abraxas Foundation, a collective made up of Schreck, Boyd Rice, Adam Parfrey, and Michael J. Moynihan.[11][12][13] The Abraxas Foundation, which began in 1987 and which Schreck declared himself a co-funder, described itself as "an occult-fascist think tank" and focused on social darwinist philosophy.[12][14] Schreck described it as "sort of a Thule Society for the '90s."[14] In San Francisco in August 1987, Schreck's right ear was cut off.[13][15][16] According to Boyd Rice and another associate of Schreck, this came after Schreck had passed out pro-AIDS leaflets in an area where gay sex workers were common. In retaliation, a gang of "gay leatherboys" chased him and cut his ear off.[13][15]
He is an advocate of the cult leader Charles Manson.[4][17][18] Schreck personally corresponded with him.[1] He does not believe the official narrative of the Manson murders, arguing Manson was a "talented, poetic musician with wisdom and with a strong, powerful philosophy who got caught up in these tragic crimes. But he was not the sole instigator and responsible for the crimes".[18][19] Radio Werewolf held rallies for Manson.[20] He was credited as the editor of the book The Manson File in 1988, published by Parfrey's Amok Press.[4][5][13] Schreck directed the 1989 documentary Charles Manson Superstar.[21][4][12][22] Schreck wrote a different book, also named The Manson File, but subtitled Myth and Reality of an Outlaw Shaman, in 2011, which is 991 pages long.[23][24][19]
Schreck appeared multiple times on the white supremacist public-access show Race and Reason, run by white supremacist Tom Metzger.[25][26][27][28] On a 1988 appearance to promote The Manson File, he spoke of his own projects and ideology, and declared his intention to start a "cultural war on every front" against "Judeo-Christian values". During this appearance he described "race-mixing" as "genetic suicide", positively quoted Adolf Hitler, and espoused an Odinist kind of white nationalism.[25][26]
When his wife Zeena renounced the Church of Satan, he followed suit.[29][12] Schreck and Zeena compiled a fact sheet entitled "Anton LaVey: Legend and Reality" criticizing LaVey and claiming to expose him as a charlatan.[30] They later joined Michael A. Aquino's Temple of Set.[12] Eventually they left over a belief dispute, then founded the Sethian Liberation Movement.[23] Together they authored a book, Demons of the Flesh: The Complete Guide to Left Hand Path Sex Magic, in 2002.[31] He and Zeena divorced in 2015.[32] As of 2019, he was based in Berlin, and is a Buddhist.[18][19]
Bibliography
[edit]- —— (1988). The Manson File. New York City: Amok Press. ISBN 0-941693-04-X.
- —— (2001). Flowers From Hell: A Satanic Reader. Creation Books. ISBN 1-84068-024-5.
- —— (2001). The Satanic Screen: An Illustrated Guide to the Devil in Cinema. Creation Books. ISBN 1-84068-043-1.
- ——; Schreck, Zeena (2002). Demons of the Flesh: The Complete Guide to Left Hand Path Sex Magic. Creation Books. ISBN 1-84068-061-X.
- —— (2011). The Manson File: Myth and Reality of an Outlaw Shaman. Note: Different book from the 1988 The Manson File.
Filmography
[edit]- Charles Manson Superstar (1989), director
References
[edit]- ^ a b Shuster, Fred (September 28, 1987). "Manson film – basically a joke". The Enterprise. Vol. 76, no. 311. Simi Valley. p. 18. Retrieved September 16, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b Sunshine 2024, pp. 275–276.
- ^ a b Baddeley 2006, p. 149.
- ^ a b c d Berry 2017, p. 149.
- ^ a b Mathews 2009, p. 142.
- ^ Sunshine 2024, p. 275.
- ^ "Who Needs a Record Deal when you're Busy Taking over the World?". Music Connection. Vol. 3, no. 12. Glendale. 1989. ISSN 1091-9791.
- ^ "Race and Reason Interview with Radio Werewolf". Radio Werewolf. Los Angeles. July 8, 1985.
- ^ Sunshine 2024, p. 276.
- ^ Bob Larson (1990). The First Family of Satan. Denver, Colorado.
- ^ Sunshine 2024, p. 154.
- ^ a b c d e Mathews 2009, p. 143.
- ^ a b c d Krafft, Charles (November 1, 1988). "The Hellfire Club". The Rocket. Seattle. p. 19. Retrieved September 16, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b Sunshine 2024, p. 161.
- ^ a b Sunshine 2024, p. 278.
- ^ Baddeley 2006, p. 162.
- ^ Mathews 2009, p. 190.
- ^ a b c La Ganga, Maria L.; Himmelsbach-Weinstein, Erik (July 28, 2019). "Manson case 'put the era on trial'". Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles, California. ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved September 16, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b c La Ganga, Maria L.; Himmelsbach-Weinstein, Erik (July 21, 2019). "The sins of the father, revisited 50 years later". Los Angeles Times. p. A1, A12. ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved September 16, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Lee, Herschell Gordon (March 26, 1987). "Rocker's Report". LA Weekly. Vol. 9, no. 17. p. 41. ISSN 0192-1940. Retrieved September 16, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Sunshine 2024, p. 138.
- ^ Kermode, Mark (July 10, 2004). "We're still mad about Manson". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved September 16, 2025.
- ^ a b Urban 2015, p. 190.
- ^ Edelstein, Dan; Geroulanos, Stefanos; Wheatley, Natasha, eds. (2020). Power and Time: Temporalities in Conflict and the Making of History. The University of Chicago Press. p. 287. ISBN 978-0-226-48162-3.
- ^ a b Sunshine 2024, p. 277.
- ^ a b Berry 2017, p. 149–151.
- ^ Faxneld & Petersen 2013, p. 186.
- ^ Lewis 2011, p. 352.
- ^ Lamothe-Ramos, Annette (September 26, 2012). "Beelzebub's Daughter: How Zeena Schreck left the Church of Satan". Vice. New York City. ISSN 1077-6788. Retrieved April 26, 2021.
- ^ Lewis 2001, p. 193.
- ^ Leith, Sam (November 2, 2002). "On the side". The Daily Telegraph. No. 45844. London. p. 2. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved September 16, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Coming Out Announcement... A Public Statement from Zeena and Nikolas". Zeenaschreck.com. July 10, 2019. Retrieved December 28, 2020.
Works cited
[edit]- Berry, Damon T. (2017). Blood and Faith: Christianity in American White Nationalism. Syracuse University Press. ISBN 978-0-8156-5410-0.
- Baddeley, Gavin (2006) [1999]. Lucifer Rising: Sin, Devil Worship, and Rock'n'Roll (2nd ed.). London: Plexus. ISBN 978-0-85965-378-7.
- Faxneld, Per; Petersen, Jesper Aagaard, eds. (2013). The Devil's Party: Satanism in Modernity. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-977924-6.
- Lewis, James R. (2001). Satanism Today: An Encyclopedia of Religion, Folklore, and Popular Culture. Denver: ABC-Clio. ISBN 978-1-57607-292-9.
- Lewis, James R., ed. (2011). Violence and New Religious Movements. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-973563-1.
- Mathews, Chris (2009). Modern Satanism: Anatomy of a Radical Subculture. Westport: Praeger Publishers. ISBN 978-0-313-36639-0.
- Sunshine, Spencer (2024). Neo-Nazi Terrorism and Countercultural Fascism: The Origins and Afterlife of James Mason's Siege. New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-429-57601-0.
- Urban, Hugh B. (2015). New Age, Neopagan, and New Religious Movements: Alternative Spirituality in Contemporary America. Oakland: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-96212-5.