To Appease Religious Zealots, Rotting Christ Will Change Their Name for South African Shows

You may recall that a few years ago, Dave Mustaine refused to allow to Megadeth to share a stage with Rotting Christ, because Mustaine moshes 4 Christ and can’t very acknowledge the physiological state of Christ’s corpse lest Christ stop answering his prayers? I dunno if anyone ever floated the idea of Rotting Christ temporarily changing their name to placate Mustaine, and I dunno if Mustaine even would have gone for that or if he would’ve been like “No, regardless of what they’re called, I’ll know they think Christ is rotting in their hearts.” But it seems like for their part, Rotting Christ would not have been opposed to the idea: according to Metal Hammer, the Greek band “will have to appear under an assumed name” in order to play gigs in Johannesburg and Cape Town, South Africa this July.

“The shows have been arranged by Witchdoctor Productions, the firm behind the country’s Witchfest event which, last year, was also the target of protests. Those opposed to the Rotting Christ shows are also up in arms over Behemoth gigs scheduled for Johannesburg on March 26 and Cape Town on March 27.”

The article goes on to quote Witchdoctor’s Shaughn Pieterse as saying that even though he hates to ask Rotting Christ to make this compromise, “you have to make the show happen because if you don’t then [the religious protestors] have won.” And at the end of the day, I suspect that Pieterse is right: nothing will piss the protestors off more than the band showing up and playing their sacrilegious Devil’s music, regardless of what they’re called.

Speaking of which: what will Rotting Christ call themselves for these shows? The band hasn’t said yet. They could just change a few letters — e.g., “Rotting Crêpe” — or they could get really witty about it and call themselves something like “Blooming Buddha.” Either one of these solutions strikes me as being appropriately droll, given the situation.

While we wait for an announcement regarding Rotting Christ’s rotting re-christening, feel free to proffer your own suggestions in the comments section below.