It might seem like a break from tradition to celebrate Hanukkah, which starts Friday, by head-banging to heavy metal songs like “No Gelt No Glory,” “Taking the Temple” and “Spin for the Blood of Our Elders,” but it all came naturally to Gods of Fire, said the band’s guitarist Seth Diamond.
“Metal has a very storied lineage of famous Jews, from Anthrax and Megadeth and Dream Theater and Twisted Sister to Anvil and many more,” Diamond, 33, of Prospect Heights, pointed out.
“However, I don’t feel — with very few exceptions — actual Jewishness has been represented in metal.”
The band (they’re three-fifths Jewish, really) formed in 2002. They found inspiration for their new “Hanukkah Gone Metal” album after performing a metalized version of the Israeli national anthem at last year’s Major League Dreidel spinning tournament, and put together the record in six months. They play Saturday at the Knitting Factory in Brooklyn.
The whole band was on board for its first attempt at religious music, but Diamond — who has a day job in Internet advertising — added: “We are a metal band first and foremost.”
