Metal Band or the Bible?

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Despite 40 years of incessant battling between conservative Christian groups and iconoclastic metal bands looking to piss them off, the two are closer bedfellows than either would like to admit. Both have talked/sang frequently about God, the Devil, Armageddon and other topics of Biblical relevance. See if you can spot which lines are from the Good Book and which have been spewed by metal masters.

Feel thy name extermination/Desecrating, hail of fire/So we cross that line/Into the crypt

Metallica sang about "My Apocalypse" on their 2008 album Death Magnetic.

Leave your lifeless corpses/Piled on top of your lifeless idols/And I will despise you

David Freund

                                                                 Leviticus 26:30

I'll strip your pride/I'll spread your blood around/Your face is scarred with steel/Wounds deep and neat

Influential British metal band Diamond Head threatened you with this lyric from 1980's "Am I Evil."

When you run to your towns for safety/I will send a plague to destroy you there/You will eat the flesh/Of your own sons and daughters

David Freund

                                                                 Leviticus 26:25, 29

Father to the fatherless/Defender of widows

David Freund

                                                                 Psalms 68:5

We are defenders of the faith

Judas Priest yelled this, and only this, on the title track to their 1984 album Defenders of the Faith.

It's desecration of souls in their holy lair/Copulation in the night/Two shadows upon a grave/Screams of pleasure with screams of pain

1980s Danish metal band and Metallica influencers Mercyful Fate screamed this on "Desecration of Souls" from 1984's Don't Break the Oath.

I saw a beast rising up out of the sea/It had seven heads and ten horns/With ten crowns on its horns

David Freund

                                                                 Revelation 13:1

It is time to judge the dead/And reward your servants the prophets/It is time to destroy all/Who have caused destruction on the Earth

David Freund

                                                                 Revelation 11:18

Your choice's up then/how many sins can be yours/At my kingdom's final choice

'80s metal band Grim Reaper sang this one on "See You in Hell," the title track from their 1984 album of the same name.

Pray for solace/Pray for resolve/Pray for a savior/Pray for deliverance

Virginia metal band Lamb of God screamed this on 2006's "Walk With Me In Hell."

I will bring sudden terrors upon you/Wasting diseases and burning fevers/That will cause your eyes to fail/And your life to ebb away

David Freund

                                                                 Leviticus 26:16

Conquest of flesh has condemned you to death/Destroy the trust of the congregation/Faith insincere leaving wounds that won't mend

Death metal band Deicide cookie monstered this one on "Conquered By Sodom" from 2004's Scars of the Crucifix.

I am the Alpha and the Omega/The beginning and the end/I am the one who is, who always was/And who is still to come

David Freund

                                                                 Revelation 1:8

Walk with me, you'll never leave/Wait to see your spirit free/Tell me how your heart's in need

Swedish prog-metal band Opeth used this on the title track to their 2001 album Deliverance.

Come and eat the flesh of kings/Generals and strong warriors/Of horses and their riders/And of all humanity/Both free and slave/Small and great

David Freund

                                                                 Revelation 19:18

The warriors gather slowly around/The sacred city, Hell/Satan screams a vengeance/On the land as the angels fell

British metal band Venom's 20-minute opus "At War With Satan" appeared on the 1984 album of the same name.

Continue through the skein of boughs/Navigate to keep you straight on track/Make the right ramification-turns/Conceit will be your allied guide

Swedish metal band Meshuggah gave these friendly suggestions on 1998's "Corridor of Chameleons."

They are deceitful workers/Who disguise themselves as apostles of Christ/But I am not surprised!/Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light

David Freund

                                                                 Corinthians 2:11

He seized the dragon/That old serpent/Who is the devil, Satan/And bound him in chains for a thousand years

David Freund

                                                                 Revelation 20:2