SO LET IT BE WRITTEN
Riffs, arguments with Exodus and murderous plagues: this is the story of how Metallica made Creeping Death
WORDS: DAVE EVERLEY
GETTY
The inspiration for Metallica’s first truly world-beating anthem came from an unlikely source. Cecil B. DeMille was the director of some of the most opulent Hollywood movies of the 40s and 50s. For his final film, 1956’s biblical epic The Ten Commandments, DeMille enlisted chisel-jawed superstar Charlton Heston to play Moses as he led the enslaved Hebrew people out of Egypt to the Promised Land as a series of plagues were visited on their oppressors.
In one Danish household, this Old Testament extravaganza became essential viewing whenever it was repeated on TV years later. “I was obsessed with The Ten Commandments as a kid,” says Lars Ulrich. “If you watch the movie, you can definitely see that it inspired Creeping Death. There’s a connection.”