Religious band names

SISTERS OF MERCY
A tribute to the Leonard Cohen song of same name. There is also an order of nuns known as the Sisters of Mercy.

NIRVANA In Buddhism it means the state of perfect blessedness attained through the annihilation of the self.

MANIC STREET PREACHERS James Dean Bradfield was inspired by a manic street preaching tramp one day.

KING CRIMSON Their original lyricist, Peter Sinfield, thought of it as a synonym for Beelzebub, which is Hebrew for 'Lord of the Flies'. Beelzebub was Satan's chief lieutenant among the fallen angels.

JUDAS PRIESTFrom the Bob Dylan tune "The ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest". Also a mild curse.

HEAVEN 17A fictitious band mentioned in the movie 'A Clockwork Orange'

GENESIS The first book in the Bible. The name was part of their first album title From Genesis to Revelation which was suggested by their original manager Jonathan King.

DOORS From a William Blake quote 'If the doors of perception were to be cleansed evry thing would appear to man as it is, infinite'. The Doors were originally called the Psychedelic Rangers.

CURE They were originally called Easy Cure.

BLACK SABBATH Named after a 1963 horror movie starring Boris Karloff. They released an album as Earth before changing their name to Black Sabbath.

ABBAAn acronym for the first names of the band members: Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Anderson and Anni-Frid (Frida) Lyngstad.

GRATEFUL DEAD
Refers to a series of Old English folk tales with the same basic theme. A traveler enters a village and finds the villagers desecrating, or refusing to bury the body of a dead man because he died owing creditors money. The traveler pays the dead man's debts and sees to a decent burial. Later in his travels the man is saved by a mysterious event, which is credited to the dead man's grateful spirit. Hence, the Grateful Dead. The band was originally the Warlocks, and picked Grateful Dead out of a dictionary after realising there was another band called the Warlocks.

STYXAfter the mythical river Styx that people crossed over to go into Hell.

XTC
Andy Partridge was inspried by a Jimmy Durante clip when he said, "That's it, I'm in ecstasy!

FAITH NO MORE
The band was originally called Sharp Young Men, but changed to Faith No Man when their front man was Mike 'The Man' Morris. After he left, 'The Man' was no more, so they switched to Faith No More.

with 'God' in the title:

God Country
Godfathers
Godhead
God lives underwater
God's Child
Godsmack
Godspeed You Black Emperor
Godhead Silo (punk)