| “ | Satirical Hyperbole | ” |
―Tagline | ||
Richard Michael Egan[citation needed] (born: April 24, 1999),[citation needed] better known as Baphömet (formerly known as Baphömet666), is a Welsh-born American[citation needed] YouTube commentator on various topics from music, Formula One racing, James Bond, and an overall focus on rants. He affectionately refers to his fans as Metal Maniacs during his Heavy Metal-focused videos.
Style[]
Baphömet is known for his distinct rapid fire delivery, mixed with swearing, pop culture references, odd metaphors/analogies and tongue-twister like sentences. He often varies his tone from his normal voice, to dramatic pauses, yelling for emphasis, speaking even faster than normal, or slowing down to make a point. Most videos use Heavy Metal music for intros and outros. He's known for his style of leather jackets, a variety of styles of sunglasses, band shirts, long hair and facial hair, which has been consistent since he first began.
Content[]
General[]
Baphömet’s content is mostly about music, particularly Heavy Metal. However he has delved into other topics involving Formula One Racing and films. He has stated he wants to make videos about the James Bond franchise, as he has been a lifelong fan of the film franchise. He also rips into the idea of Political Correctness in general, saying that the idea of Political Correctness has ruined modern day entertainment. He and speaks his mind completely unfiltered, bringing a fresh and unique perspective to the topics he covers.
Rants[]
Baphömet is primarily known for his rant videos. His rant series covers a variety of topics.
Hallowed Be Thy Plagiarism[]
Baphömet’s breakout video, titled “Hallowed Be Thy Plagiarism - Beckett (and more) vs. Iron Maiden” catapulted his YouTube channel to the forefront of the Heavy Metal community. The video covers the 2017 lawsuit against the NWOBHM band Iron Maiden apparently plagiarizing their hit song “Hallowed Be Thy Name” from Beckett’s 1973 songs “Life’s Shadow” and “A Rainbow’s Gold”. Iron Maiden’s song plagiarized lyrics from the Beckett song, as well as Iron Maiden also plagiarizing an instrumental portion from “Life’s Shadow” for their 2000 song “The Nomad” off their Brave New World album. The video also brings up more instances of plagiarism in Iron Maiden’s discography, most of which have gone unnoticed.
The critically acclaimed video has become the subject of many controversies, including Iron Maiden fans that refute the claim that Iron Maiden plagiarized anything.
One year later, Baphömet released a second part, titled “Hallowed Be Thy Plagiarism II: The Plagiarism Continues” where he concludes the original court case against Iron Maiden from Beckett and goes on to talk about the latest court case against the band. This time, it was former Iron Maiden frontman Dennis Wilcock, who claimed the Iron Maiden stole lyrics he wrote during his tenure.
Music Mania[]
Baphömet’s most enduring series is Music Mania, a longform Retrospective/Documentary series of his favourite artists that go through their history, musical style and overall legacy. The series was partly inspired by RazörFist’s series “Music/Metal Mythos”.
As of December 2024, there are only four episodes so far since the series began, the first covering the Grunge band Nirvana, titled “Grunge Mania: NIRVANA”, the second covers the American Heavy Metal band W.A.S.P., the third covers American Pop artist Taylor Swift, the fourth covers American Blues artist Stevie Ray Vaughan and the fifth covers the American Heavy Metal band Godsmack.
The W.A.S.P. episode, titled “Metal Mania: W.A.S.P. is his most viewed and most popular video to date.
As of March 1, 2025, the "Music Mania: TAYLOR SWIFT" video was copyright claimed by the Grammys and is, so far, currently unavailable to view. Baphömet has stated he is working on appealing the copyright claim.
Films & Television[]
Baphömet only has one video that goes into the topic of films. The rant was originally aired on Florida based Spectrum TV’s Channel 5 “WUCF” on December 7, 2017 after a friend who worked at the station invited him to give a televised rant in an effort to help his channel grow. The rant is technically untitled, simply titled “Baphömet666 Channel 5 WUCF - Live Rant - December 7, 2017” but it goes into the use of holograms in music concerts to “raise dead musicians back from the dead” but it also goes into the use of CGI to bring dead actors back to life, notably Peter Cushing in Rouge One. He also uses the example of it being used in television as well, such as commercials, notably a Kimi Räikkönen commercial that obviously used CGI to create his likeness.
Formula One Racing[]
Baphömet has been a lifelong fan of the Motorsport “Formula One Racing”. While he only has one video on the subject so far, he mostly covers his views on the sport on his Twitter account.
His first and so far only video on Formula One was debuted on June 19, 2024 titled “Jacques Jacques Attack: The Honey Badger Kicks Back | A Rant” focuses on the war of words between 1997 World Champion Jacques Villeneuve and current Formula One driver Daniel Ricciardo. The rant sees Baphömet taking the side of Ricciardo, retorting to Villeneuve’s criticisms, roasts Villeneuve and goes over Villeneuve’s statistics in Formula One, pointing out the hypocrisy of Villeneuve’s criticisms.
Baphömet stated that he intends to do more Formula One videos.
James Bond[]
Baphömet does not currently have any James Bond videos uploaded to his channel, but he has stated that he intends on doing so.
However, Baphömet regularly posts about the James Bond franchise on his Twitter account.
Video Games[]
Baphömet does not currently have any video game videos uploaded to his channel, but he used to have two video game livestreams uploaded that have since been either deleted or set to private. Both livestreams were recorded during the COVID-19 lockdown. The first was Baphömet playing “Plague Inc. Evolved” while the second one was of him playing “[PROTOTYPE]”, both games including pandemics.
Baphömet has since stated that he intends on making more video game videos, with particular emphasis on the Call of Duty Zombies games.
About[]
Richard Michael Egan was born in Swansea, Wales, U.K. on April 24, 1999. His father was a former Marine and his mother was a Lt. Col in the Air Force. He moved frequently in the first few years of his life, from Wales to Colorado to Maryland to London, England before finally settling in Melbourne, Florida. He went to Ascension Catholic School from Pre-K to 6th Grade, DeLaura Middle School in Satelitte Beach, Florida in 7th and Brevard Virtual School from 8th to 12th Grade. In 10th Grade he began dual enrollment at Eastern Florida State College, which he graduated from before graduating high school. He has a major in Digital Media Production and a minor in Psychology.
Acting and Directing Career[]
Richard Michael Egan has appeared in films and television shows, albeit in minor non-speaking roles. He was an extra in the Nickelodeon sitcoms “iCarly”, “Victorious” and “Sam & Cat”. He was also an extra in The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises and Transformers: Dark of The Moon.
From 2013-2016, Egan was a directorial student of the New York Film Academy, where he directed four short films.
In 2014, Egan started dual enrollment at Eastern Florida State College, where he took video production courses. He directed a further three short films, titled "Robots From Wickham Park", "ZombieCollege" and "Drugaí Marú".
Music Career[]
Egan has attempted to start numerous bands, all of which to no avail. His most "successful" band was an Iron Maiden cover band called "S̈teel V̈irgin" which recorded an EP titled "Delta" (stylized as Δ) [1]
Comparisons To RazörFist[]
Since he started uploading videos, Baphömet has been compared with fellow YouTube creator RazörFist. Baphömet has been open about RazörFist’s influence but also claims that he only influenced a small part of his YouTube personality.
| “ | The ONLY thing RazörFist inspired is the fact that I didn’t know I could be myself like that on YouTube until I discovered RazörFist back in 2015. I thought I’d have to censor myself and be “politically correct” if I ever wanted to start making YouTube videos, and that really discouraged me for years. So when I discovered RazörFist in 2015, I was like “HOLY SHIT! You can ACTUALLY do that!?” and the rest is all purely me | ” |
―Baphömet | ||
In the intro for his Grunge Mania: NIRVANA Retrospective, Baphömet stated that his Music Mania series was indeed a ripoff of RazörFist’s Music/Metal Mythos series, following the admission up with that he actually wanted to start making band retrospectives years before RazörFist’s first Metal Mythos episode after seeing the 2006 documentary on The Moody Blues, titled “Classic Artists: The Moody Blues”. So it could be argued that Baphömet’s interest in music retrospectives wasn’t influenced by RazörFist, but RazörFist influenced the style that Baphömet took when he began making videos.
RazörFist is aware of Baphömet and has even stated that Baphömet is “like Keegan Michael Key, but with actual comedic talent” in his Thief II: The Metal Age livestream.
Videos[]
- Tom Petty Dead at Age 66 | VLOG #1
- Hallowed Be Thy Plagiarism - Beckett (and more) vs. Iron Maiden
- A Panterrible Rant
- Yngwie Malmsteen World on Fire Concert | VLOG #2
- Baphömet666 Channel 5 WUCF - Live Rant - December 7, 2017
- Monsters of Rock - Dave Holland Dead at 69 - A Rant
- Grunge Mania: NIRVANA
- Glenn Tipton Out, Andy Sneap In, and In Defense of K.K. Downing
- f.y.e.’s #MetalMadness Dumbassery - A Rant
- Highway To Sweet Pie o' Mine - Axl/DC Rant
- f.y.e.'s #MetalMadness Dumbassery Part 2: The Metallica Rant
- Eagles, Jimmy Buffett, and Caroline Jones… Oh My! | VLOG #3
- Of Bodybags and Bullet Sponges - A Rant
- When Pussies Cancel Tours - A Rant
- God Damn Neoplasims | VLOG #4
- Hallowed Be Thy Plagiarism II: The Plagiarism Continues
- The Downies At DownFall Network - A Rant
- Top 10 Hard Rock/Heavy Metal Albums of 2018
- Blaze Bayley Has Had A Heart Attack | VLOG #5
- Metal Mania: W.A.S.P.
- Jacques Jacques Attack: The Honey Badger Kicks Back! | A Rant
- Paramount Killed The Video Star | A Rant
- Quit Complaining About Team Orders Already! McLaren Did Nothing Wrong! | BaphömetF1 | A Rant
- Formula One Rules That Need To Go Away | BaphömetF1 | A Rant
- Music Mania: TAYLOR SWIFT
- Blues Mania: STEVIE RAY VAUGHAN
- Metal Mania: GODSMACK