Date With the Devil

Those Who Seek 'the Number of the Beast' Need Look No Further Than Today's Calendar

Jeff Hannerman of the group Slayer, which is releasing "Eternal Pyre" today. (Dave Etheridge-barnes -- Getty Images)

Satan's spawn are having a lucrative old time today. The calendar says this is the 6th day of the 6th month of the millennium's 6th year.

According to the King James version of the Book of Revelation, 666 is "the number of the beast." Some interpret Chapter 13, Verse 18 as referring to the coming of the Antichrist, who will receive his power directly from Satan to establish a kingdom on Earth that will be the beginning of Armageddon.

Cue the spooky music.

Or at least the head-banging kind.

Slayer, the self-described "pioneers and undisputed kings of extreme speed/thrash metal," will release "Eternal Pyre," a limited edition EP, today. It will feature a live version of "Dead Skin Mask," which turns out not to be a Botox commercial.

Deicide (God killing -- get it?) is taking the opportunity to release a two-track downloadable EP that previews its latest album, "The Stench of Redemption," with the tender love ballads "Homage for Satan" and "Crucified for the Innocence."

Most heavily hyped is today's release of "The Omen," the remake of a 1976 film of the same name, in which Damien, that charming tyke, turns out to be the Antichrist. Subtle hints include his nanny hanging herself at his birthday party.

Ann Coulter, the leggy blond scourge of all things leftish, is releasing her latest book, "Godless: The Church of Liberalism," on this supposedly demonic day. In it, she asserts, "Of course liberalism is a religion. It has its own cosmology, its own miracles, its own beliefs in the supernatural, its own churches, its own high priests, its own saints, its own total worldview, and its own explanation of the existence of the universe."

It will compete with a "No Armageddon for Bush" antiwar rally in front of the White House, as well as the release of "The Rapture: In the Twinkling of an Eye, Countdown to the Earth's Last Days," the latest installment in the "Left Behind" apocalyptic books series, with more than 63 million in print.

You can even find a "Countdown to Your Damnation," at http://www.radiofreesatan.com/ , that has been calculating the seconds, minutes, hours and days left until the big event.

In a city where the selling of souls is supposed to be the

main economic activity, you'd expect a fair amount of Beelzebub homage on this date. But punch "Washington Satan worship" into Google and you don't get much, although http://www.freemasonrywatch.org/ says that 666 is all over the map of the city.