International day of Slayer

Warning: The day of reckoning has arrived. Today the name of the antichrist will be revealed.

Half expecting the devil incarnate to knock at my door this morning, I undertook some research to know what I’d be up against. According to satanrapture.com, a website loved by goths worldwide, “The Antichrist himself will come to earth in a spaceship.” This was beginning to sound interesting.

Type antichrist into most search engines, and the name George W Bush pings straight up at number one. Interestingly enough, former Baywatch star, and current cult icon David Hasslehoff, also known as ‘The Hoffmeister’ comes in at number three.

The Omen, a costly remake of the 1976 horror movie of the same title opens today. The Independent’s list of alleged curses to infest the filming of the original slotted nicely into the array of scaremongering tactics used to promote the film. Apparently the scriptwriter’s plane was struck by lightning, the director survived an IRA bomb and one
of the actors chartered a plane which crashed.

So what grisly coincidences are to haunt the remake? That it is released just as everyone catches Dan Brown’s superstitious Bible fever, leading to a universal paranoia about the Holy book? Or perhaps just that it is released on the 6^th day of the 6^th month of the 2006^th year? A convenient coincidence for box office success.

Today is also ‘International day of Slayer’, a cunning play on the International day of Prayer, when the famous death metal band, encourage their-largely aging-fans to turn it up loud. The group were set to begin their Unholy Alliance tour with support acts Lamb of God and Thine Eyes Bleed, but unfortunately guitarist Kerry King postpone due to gall bladder problems.

Perhaps the one event we should most fear on this day, is the universally scary release of the new album from Eurovision heroes Lordi. The Finnish rock monsters today release their spin off album Hard Rock Hallelujah. In a world where men can dress up head to toe in full gory garb and still take themselves seriously, the message from my research becomes clear: Be afraid, be very afraid.

Six things you didn’t know about 666

1. The fear of the number 666 is called hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia.
2. 666 is a brand of American cough syrup made by the Monticello Drug Company.
3. There is a German house band called 666.
4. Film director Stanley Kubrick who produced cult horror movie ' The Shining'  (1980) died 666 days before January,1, 2001
5. The Exorcist was edited at 666th Fifth Avenue.
6. The Japanese yen comes in coins of 1, 5, 10, 50, 100 and 500. If you have one of each coin, you have 666 yen.