“Creeping Death” by Metallica

For those who are familiar with the latter part of the story of the Hebrews in Egypt as depicted in the Book of Exodus, that is what “Creeping Death” is centered on. As the story goes Pharaoh, the leader of Egypt, did not want to free those people from captivity, even though God, via Moses, was commanding him to do so. Resultantly God released a number of plagues onto Egypt, and this song focuses specifically on one referred to as the Plague of the Firstborn. 

Basically, as the legend goes a sickness swept through the land killing the firstborn of every Egyptian, including Pharaoh’s own eldest son, as is well documented in the song. And this miraculous disease is actually what Metallica is referring to as the “creeping death”. 

Additionally in the second verse they reference some of the other infamous 10 Plagues of Egypt. Examples include the River Nile turning into blood and the sun being blackened for three days.

So basically what we have here is a detailed retelling of that particular tale.  And the way the rockers go about doing so is by relaying the story from the perspective of the disease itself. Moreover it should be noted that by and large there does not seem to be any type of moral lesson or subliminal message contained therein. Rather, as Metallica tends to do from time to time, the band came across a compelling story and transformed it into a rock song.

Facts about “Creeping Death”

“Creeping Death” is featured on Metallica’s second album, “Ride the Lightning”. In fact it is the only track from that project which they actually released as a standard single. But before so the song came out with the rest of the album, via Megaforce Records, on 27 July 1984.

“Creeping Death” stands amongst the band’s songs which they play the most.  In fact as of 2020, the only other track which Metallica has played lived more would be “Master of Puppets” (1986).

This song was written by Metallica co-founders Ulrich and Hetfield, in addition to fellow band members Burton (1962-1986) and Hammett. In fact Kirk composed parts of this track during his teenage years. This was even before becoming a member of Metallica. And it was Burton who came up with the phrase “creeping death”. He came up with the phrase while he and the crew were watching the Biblical film “The Ten Commandments” (1956), specifically the part about the Plague of the Firstborn.

Metallica debuted “Creeping Death” during a live performance in California on the date of 4 November 1983.