Greek masters Rotting Christ are known by the non-metal community due to their name and the stir it may cause, particularly with the Christian community. While that’s the point of their name, sometimes even they have to think about it whenever they have to perform in a very religious country and they decided to change their name to be able to perform in South Africa.
Rotting Christ is scheduled to perform in Johannesburg and Cape Town, South Africa this coming July and, in order to appease the Christian protestors they will surely have, they decided to, temporarily, change their name. The explained the following:
What we’re going through is what the metal scene dealt with in the late ’80s and early ’90s, with religious folks challenging them and trying to stop the shows because they disagreed with the opinions and messages of the bands.
“It started early last year with Witchfest 2015. In order to host an event you’ve got to get certain certificates from the council. Every time we made a move to do everything by the book, the councils were getting shot down by so-called Christians and religious protesters.
“Every time we had to move venue we lost the deposit and you keep haemorrhaging money. But you have to make the show happen because if you don’t then they’ve won. You have to take quite a knock to show that they can’t stop you.
“It’s started again with BEHEMOTH and more so with ROTTING CHRIST. But we even accommodated that and spoke to the band and they will be playing in South Africa under an alternative name so as not to offend people in that sense. ROTTING CHRIST was maybe a little bit too far for some people; it’s really in your face.”
The Greeks didn’t reveal what moniker they will use to sound more family-friendly but here we’re hoping they go for “Rocking Christ.”
