"Creeping Death" is a song by Metallica and is the seventh track on their album Ride the Lightning. It is written from the point of view of the Plague of the Firstborn (Exodus 12:29), that is, the Destroyer. The song is 6 minutes and 36 seconds long. "Creeping Death" is also one of Metallica's most frequently played songs, and stands as a classic example of the band's thrash style, albeit slower than the Kill 'Em All material. The middle section, based around ominous chants of "Die!" set to a perilous phrygian-mode chord progression, is a fan participation staple during Metallica shows.
It was released as a single in 1984 on the Music for Nations label in the UK and France. The b-sides were the cover songs "Am I Evil?" (originally by Diamond Head) and "Blitzkrieg" (originally by Blitzkrieg). Together these covers were known as Garage Days Revisited, which set the stage for Metallica's next cover record, the Garage Days Re-Revisited EP.
The band was inspired for the song by the second half of the movie The Ten Commandments, which is based upon the Bible tale of the plagues which were bestowed upon the Egyptians. When they watched the movie, bassist Cliff Burton remarked "Whoa - it's like creeping death," a phrase which the other members took a liking to, so they put it as the song title.
Throughout the song, there is mention of more of the ten plagues. In the second verse, four of the ten plagues are mentioned: :Plague (This line might refer to the 5th plague, disease of livestock) :hail to fire (The seventh of the ten, burning hail fell from the sky).
Burton can be heard roaring the backing vocals during the third chorus, as well as during the bridge. When Jason Newsted joined the band, he often sang the third chorus alone in live performances, as well as the first word of every line.
Creeping Death has been covered by many bands, including Hiretsukan, Drowning Pool, Machine Head, Apocalyptica, and Stormlord. At the second Desert Rock Festival in Dubai, Sepultura joined Machine Head in a cover of "Creeping Death" as the concert's final act. Bullet for My Valentine also performed a live cover of the song during their UK tour in January 2007. And just recently they had a studio version cover on Kerrang! Higher Voltage Compilation. The Showdown also did a live rendition of the breakdown part of Creeping Death during a live set on Ozzfest 2007 in Chicago, IL. They combined it with the main riff of "Sad But True", "Cowboys From Hell", the main verse of "Walk", and the intro of "Wherever I May Roam".
"Creeping Death" was featured in an episode of the MTV show Wildboyz.
The middle section of the song was originally written by lead guitarist Kirk Hammett's former band Exodus. Exodus called the song "Die By His Hand", because of the bridge, where they sang "Die by his hand". (Metallica instead sings "Die by my hand".) The song was recorded and released by Exodus as a demo, but never appeared on any album.
