In short, The Mongloid Sire like Abraham in the Old Testament is the ultimate father figure in Salem's universe. In the band's complex web of interrelated mythical characters he is by far the most eliptical and opague. His symbolic power bears on the fact that he is the quintessence of contraditiction as well as possibility. Both a genetic deviate and the founding father of a whole species of creatures that each in their own right supply the raw material for Salems fascinating landscape of nightmarish narratives he displays a certain uncomfortable normativity. He is a figure that is ipso facto in contradiction to the major moral narrative of society and yet overcomes this contradition to the point of becoming master himself.
Mongloids have been a major concern of the 20th century from the point of view of the purity of race and the management of genetic deviants. From the human laboratory of german doctor Krafft-Ebing to the well meant but even more pervasive racisim of the early social democrats, mongloids have had their own sub category as an inferior race in need of external management. The status of their sexuality has varied, but in many respects they have been regarded as unfit to breed (by medical doctors and social workers alike) but not necessarily unfit to have sexual intercourse.
Salem's Mongloid Sire, hence, is part science fiction and part social fact. He is the deviant who surpasses all the moral bondage that society brings to bear on him and becomes king and founding father in spite.
The parallel to Salem as a rock band trying to manifest themselves in a hard business that holds little hope for newcomers is obvious, yet when one attempts to dig deeper into the qualities of this Mongloid Sire, one is left with little to build any interpretation on. The first part of the Trilogy has his anthem, a unique little piece of music that is vibrant with images and colours. The base of the piece is in fact little more than a pastiche of mariachi flamingo at its most pathetic and if it were not for the trumpet the piece would be far less significant. This trumpet, however, sounds as it holds all the fury of hell while it simultaneously has a remarkably hard time even hitting the notes it wants to hit. If one does not simply disregard this trumpet (as many listeners of little imagination will probably tend to do) but instead tries to imagine what story it tries to convey, a very obvious reading is that it actually enframes a parallel universe, a seperate normativity, the normativity of The Mongloid Sire. It imbues the notes of its theme with a rawness and gravel pitch that should scare even the most hard boiled metal fan and yet it is actually in perfect balance.
These traits of character give life to the shadow of The Mongloid Sire yet the anthem is instrumental and we get no linguistic help to bring him into the light as a person. Furthermore it is hard to overlook that the theme of the Mongloid Sire is in fact only a kind of prelude to the majestic tale of 'The Blacksmith's Son', who as we later learn, is a rather distant relative with no immediate relation.
The Mongloid Sire is completely absent from the second part of the Trilogy, the one that has 'Pain' as its theme, and this fact is in itself puzzling, as the overcoming that The Mongloid Sire represents seems in any case to be closely affiliated with some sort of painful transition. And then, in the booklet of the third part of the Trilogy we find him again as the founding father of the whole gallery of personae that make up the Trilogy.
The questions remain what to make of all this. Is Salem trying to tell us something about our selves? Do any of the other tracks on the Trilogy hold additional material adequate for further interpretation? To the curious, the path seems to be open...