Archive frequency 09-B

The Music is Reversible!

Recovered audio index / ongoing restoration

Tape Vault

Search the resurrected collection by artist or song. Every recovered case has a stable link that the Documentary Field Guide can use as evidence.

Need the history behind the noise? Open the Documentary Field Guide →

Archive ready.

Showing 121–135 of 144 recovered cases.

Tattoo You cover
Released: 08-18-1981
Archive notes: Tops belongs to Tattoo You’s slower second-side sequence. A contemporary-song reference archive preserves Mick Taylor’s recollection of playing on it. Neither that performance history nor the forward love-song setting confirms the Devil phrase claimed on this card.
Case 064 Permanent link
Alleged phrase Listener allegation

Rolling Stones

Album: Tattoo You Song: Tops

Research / recording source →

Forward:
I'm sorry for a breath of your sweet love

Alleged backward phrase:
I love you, said the Devil

2112 cover
Released: 04-01-1976
Archive notes: Thanks to rwyoung for informing me of this!

The official 2112 text places the spoken announcement at the end of its science-fiction narrative. The claimed Satan sentence is a separate listener reversal, not the forward story or an acknowledged Rush message.
Case 065 Permanent link
Alleged phrase Listener allegation

Rush

Album: 2112 Song: 2112 Grand Finale

Research / recording source →

Forward:
We have assumed control

Alleged backward phrase:
Rush is with Satan

Schizophrenia cover
Released: 10-30-1987
Archive notes: Thanks to Deepak for submitting this information.
Case 110 Permanent link

Sepultura

Album: Schizophrenia Song: N/A

Forward:
Gibberish

Alleged backward phrase:
SCHIZOPHRENIA !!!

Remission cover
Released: December 1984
Archive notes: Another original brought to you by Underground Noize!
Case 068 Permanent link

Skinny Puppy

Album: Remission Song: Sleeping Beast

Forward:
Unintelligible

Alleged backward phrase:
Zeppelin?

Hell Awaits cover
Released: March 1985
Archive notes: The backward chant functions as overt horror staging. Kerry King has directly identified the repeated phrase in interview.
Case 134 Permanent link
Intentional message Artist acknowledged Field Guide Reel 07

Slayer

Album: Hell Awaits Song: Hell Awaits

Research / recording source →

Forward:
The title track fades in with a deliberately reversed repeated voice before the band enters.

Message transcription:
Join us. (repeated)

Audio sample needed Sample the opening backward chant through the transition into the forward "welcome back" and first instrumental impact.
Iowa cover
Released: 08-28-2001
Archive notes: Thanks to shawn-rickard for submitting this backmask information!
Case 082 Permanent link

Slipknot

Album: Iowa Song: Iowa

Forward:
Gibberish

Alleged backward phrase:
So don't look at me

Iowa cover
Released: 08-28-2001
Archive notes: This is the same as the audio clip above, except this occurs at at different point in the song and is at a different speed.
Case 083 Permanent link

Slipknot

Album: Iowa Song: Iowa

Forward:
Gibberish

Alleged backward phrase:
So don't look at me

Iowa cover
Released: 08-28-2001
Archive notes: Another original backmask brought to you by Underground Noize.
Case 111 Permanent link

Slipknot

Album: Iowa Song: People = Shit

Forward:
Gun against my head

Alleged backward phrase:
Hail Satan

Self Titled cover
Released: 06-29-1999
Archive notes: Another original brought to you by Underground Noize!

Wait and Bleed introduced many listeners to the 1999 debut; Mick Thomson later described the label asking for more songs like it and the band resisting that template. This restored Underground Noize comparison preserves the owner’s discovery credit, but the proposed Satan phrases remain listener interpretations.
Case 069 Permanent link
Alleged phrase Listener allegation

Slipknot

Album: Self Titled Song: Wait and Bleed

Research / recording source →

Forward:
Inside my shell, I wait and bleed... I've felt the hate rise up in me... Kneel down and clear the stone of leaves... I wander out where you can't see...Inside my shell..

Alleged backward phrase:
I smell Satan inside me.. Oh well I was all around.. Tomorrow, some where past me.. It makes my self.. Really makes my self.. It makes me wanna smell Satan..

Ultramega OK cover
Released: 10-31-1988
Archive notes: Chris Cornell described the track as a send-up of rock's fascination with 666 and confirmed the backward joke in a 2009 interview.
Case 132 Permanent link
Intentional message Artist acknowledged Field Guide Reel 07

Soundgarden

Album: Ultramega OK Song: 665

Research / recording source →

Forward:
A backward vocal joke is embedded in the short companion to 667.

Message transcription:
Hail Santa!

The Stone Roses cover
Released: 05-02-1989
Archive notes: Producer John Leckie described taking the Waterfall tape, playing it backward, and developing it into Don't Stop.
Case 133 Permanent link
Reverse-source composition Artist acknowledged Field Guide Reel 02

Stone Roses, The

Album: The Stone Roses Song: Don't Stop

Research / recording source →

Forward:
Waterfall was played backward and used as the foundation for a new performance with additional parts.

Reverse/source relationship:
Reverse playback exposes the Waterfall-derived bed; this is a transformation, not a hidden sentence.

Audio sample needed Sample a 20–30 second passage that makes the Waterfall relationship audible; retain the same passage from Waterfall for comparison.
N/A cover
Released: 2002
Archive notes: Thanks to Scottieboy143 for submitting this information.
Case 116 Permanent link

Styles P

Album: N/A Song: High (Good Times) Remix

Forward:
Gibberish

Alleged backward phrase:
faggot and bullshit

Kilroy Was Here cover
Released: 02-22-1983
Archive notes: A deliberate response to the accusations aimed at Styx. James Young has explained that “Heavy Metal Poisoning” intentionally uses a backward Latin phrase associated with the Great Seal of the United States.
Case 070 Permanent link
Intentional message Artist acknowledged Field Guide Reel 07

Styx

Album: Kilroy Was Here Song: Heavy Metal Poisoning

Research / recording source →

Forward:
Unintelligible

Message transcription:
Latin: Annuit Coeptis. Novus ordo seclorum.

Paradise Theater cover
Released: 01-19-1981
Archive notes: A historically documented allegation demonstrated during California's 1982 warning-label debate. Styx guitarist James Young has denied that the band planted a Satanic message.
Case 071 Permanent link
Alleged phrase Artist disputed Field Guide Reel 04

Styx

Album: Paradise Theater Song: Snowblind

Research / recording source →

Forward:
I've tried so hard to make it so.. Mornings are such cold distress

Alleged backward phrase:
Oh Satan move through our voices

Tenacious D cover
Released: 09-25-2001
Archive notes: Recovered from Underground Noize forum post 662 and its original June 2003 WAV attachment. The one-second attachment contains the decoded direction only, so the archive wording is kept visibly qualified.
Case 138 Permanent link
Intentional message Documented

Tenacious D

Album: Tenacious D Song: Karate

Research / recording source →

Forward:
A short reversed utterance closes the song before Rock Your Socks begins.

Message transcription:
Donkey crap. (Often transcribed as “Eat donkey crap.”)