Metal isn’t just a type of music — it’s a religion. Accordingly, it’s full of rituals, including the solemn pre-show application of corpse paint. In Metal Lords, a new movie about two metal-obsessed best friends who create an unexpected musical trinity with a cellist in an attempt to win a battle of the bands, this ritual comes to life. Guitarist Hunter (Adrian Greensmith) not only loves metal but also fully embodies it, thanks to the stage persona he adopts, featuring his own iteration of the ghoulish aesthetic.

So what is corpse paint, exactly? Typically created with black and white makeup, it’s intended to make the wearer look, well, like a corpse. Resemblance to a decaying human body has long roots in metal music. Arthur Brown, an English musician widely considered a founding father of heavy metal, was known for his high-pitched screams and over-the-top corpse paint makeup. Over the years, versions of the black-eyed skeletal look found its way to the faces of metal gods like Alice Cooper, King Diamond, Mercyful Fate, Hellhammer and Kiss. Corpse paint even transcended genres — horror punk legends Misfits made it a part of their persona, too. Considering the fact that Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello served as executive music producer on Metal Lords (he even wrote Hunter’s song “Machinery of Torment”), it makes sense that the makeup would be just as dark and dastardly as the riffs. As they say, if the corpse paint fits, shred on.

Watch Hunter transform into an all-powerful metal god in the video below. 

Watch Hunter’s Heavy Metal Makeup Transformation in ‘Metal Lords’