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“Hail Satan”, sometimes expressed in a Latinized version as Ave Satanas (or Ave Satana) is an expression used by some self-identified Satanists to show their dedication to Satan, but has also been used for the purpose of comedy or satire. The phrase is used by some heavy metal musicians and fans—often along with the sign of the horns—as well as by musicians in other genres, including Glen Benton. Use of the “Hail Satan” sign in heavy metal music has been described by Henry Owings of Chunklet as being ironic in intent, rendering the gesture supposedly harmless, however some evangelical Christians, such as Jeff Godwin and Jimmy Swaggart, believe that phrases such as “Hail Satan” in metal music encourages Satanism and may lead to criminal behavior. Believers in backmasking think they can hear “Hail Satan” and other messages to Satan in some songs played in reverse, such as “Walk This Way” by Aerosmith. The variation Ave Satani is sometimes used, because it was used by Jerry Goldsmith in his theme music to The Omen, but, regarding the Latin, its declension is not correct, as it is declined either as a masculine noun of the first declension, or a Greek loan word, and the ending -i- is for some forms of nouns of the second declension.

“Ave Satani” is the theme song to the 1976 film The Omen. It was composed by Jerry Goldsmith and won him an Academy Award. The Omen won an Oscar for Best Score, with Ave Satani nominated for Best Song, one of the few “foreign” language songs ever to be nominated. The language is Latin.

The title means “Hail Satan” in Latin, in opposition to “Ave Christi”. In an interview, Goldsmith says that his idea was to create a kind of Satanic version of a Gregorian chant and came up with ideas while talking with the London choir-master of the orchestra that was helping him. He decided to create something like a Black Mass, inverting Latin phrases from the Latin Mass. The choir-master, according to Goldsmith, was an expert in Latin and helped him come up with phrases – instead of saying “Hail Mary”, they decided on “Hail Satan”, and so on. So the song contains various Latin phrases inverting Christ and the Mass, such as “Ave Versus Christi”, meaning “Hail Anti-Christ”, and “Corpus Satani”, an inversion of “Corpus Christi”, the body of Christ.

A version of the song has been produced by the band Fantômas, who altered some of the lyrics so that they mean “smallest blood, body spirit” rather than “we drink the blood, we eat the flesh,” and added the word “Rotted”. Other versions of the original song have been performed by the Italian vocalist Survio Tulio, and by Gregorian. It has been used in mixes of sinister music and such a concept was made into an album by Dee Snider and other musicians, entitled Oculus Infernum Van Helsing’s Curse.

The British heavy metal band Black Sabbath have used the song as an intro for many shows and tours during their tenure with Tony Martin. The American heavy-metal band, Machine Head, previously used this as an introduction track to their live performances some of which have been recorded. The Norwegian black metal band Mayhem has also used the song as an intro to shows.