"Holy Wars... The Punishment Due" ( ) is the opening track of speed / thrash metal band Megadeth's classic 1990 album Rust in Peace.
The song has an unusual structure, shifting at 2:26 after an acoustic bridge by Marty Friedman to a different, slower and heavier section called "The Punishment Due", the first section being "Holy Wars". The entire song is generally referred to as simply "Holy Wars".
The lyrical theme of "Holy Wars" deals with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In an interview with the UK magazine Guitarist, Mustaine says that he was inspired to write the song in Ireland, when he discovered bootlegged Megadeth T-shirts were on sale and was dissuaded from taking action to have them removed on the basis that they were part of fund raising activities for "The Cause" (i.e. the Northern Ireland conflict). Dave also recently stated at a gig at Rock City (Nottingham, U.K. 18/02/2008) that it was at this venue that he wrote Holy Wars, after they travelled there from Ireland in a bullet proof bus. "The Punishment Due" is a nod to the popular Marvel comic book character, The Punisher.
