I can't say whether or not those people were seriously trying to perform a ritual or if the "Devil made me do it" claims are just a cover/excuse. However, I'll assume for the sake of this post that they
were serious and I'm well aware I may get a lot of flak for this.
In my opinion, yes they were Satanists and I personally loathe the term "Reverse Christian". To me it smacks of trying to pin the blame on another religion, y'know
exactly like Christians sometimes do to Satanists? The various dark religions are not about peace and love and fluffy rabbits and they will sometimes attract mentally disturbed or simply twisted people.
They probably have little to no idea about common Satanic practices and philosophies, they probably don't belong to any Satanic organisation and they probably think of Satan in a similar manner to some fundamentalist Christians. However, Satanism is such a diverse, fragmented term there's not much of a leg to stand on in claiming they aren't Satanists if they fulfill the basic criteria. They follow Satan, simple as.
Now this doesn't mean I'm standing up for them and I'm well aware that people like this make it more difficult for other Satanists of all varieties. You know what? Good. How can we claim to be adversarial if we immediately try to throw out those who bring us a little adversity? I for one don't want Satanism to become another safe religion. It's supposed to be misunderstood, it's supposed to make people uncomfortable and we're supposed to learn how to deal with that fact.
That's my take on it, folks are free to disagree... I wouldn't have it any other way!