A Louisiana man is facing up to 70 years in prison for burning down three churches last year in a bizarre attempt to build up his reputation as a black metal musician.
22-year-old Holden Matthews has admitted to burning down three churches in St. Landry Parish, Louisiana, to “promote himself” among fans of black metal, a subgenre of heavy metal. The son of a sheriff deputy, Mathews reportedly wanted to mimic the church burnings carried out in the 1990s by Norwegian black metal musicians as a crusade against Christianity. Matthews single-handedly set fire to three churches, using gasoline and oily shop rags in the middle of the night, in a span of 10 days.
