--- title: Christian Metal Band As I Lay Dying Frontman Is Actually Atheist description: Tim Lambesis, the frontman of the Christian metal band As I Lay Dying, tried to murder his wife, and confessed he's actually atheist. canonical: https://time.com/2900967/christian-heavy-metal-band-frontman-admits-hes-actually-an-atheist/ author: Kyle Chayka article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-06-19T17:30:51.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:10:56.254Z og:title: Christian Heavy Metal Band Frontman Admits He’s Actually an Atheist og:description: Apostasy is so metal og:url: https://time.com/2900967/christian-heavy-metal-band-frontman-admits-hes-actually-an-atheist/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9291c2c7e12497d8/6986984af983e7cdc804e783/asilaydying.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: asilaydying og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Christian Heavy Metal Band Frontman Admits He’s Actually an Atheist twitter:description: Apostasy is so metal twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9291c2c7e12497d8/6986984af983e7cdc804e783/asilaydying.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Christian Heavy Metal Band Frontman Admits He’s Actually an Atheist > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=2f50d656-b481-4236-8473-a44f7a1ef5da&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1) by [Kyle Chayka](https://time.com/author/kyle-chayka/) ## Kyle Chayka Jun 19, 2014 5:30 PM UTC  As I Lay Dying As I Lay Dying Wikipedia / Matthias Bauer by [Kyle Chayka](https://time.com/author/kyle-chayka/) ## Kyle Chayka Jun 19, 2014 5:30 PM UTC If you grew up Christian, or just really emo, you might remember the band As I Lay Dying from your teenage years. They mixed heavy metal instrumentation and angsty lyrics with a tinge of religion. But it turns out that was something of a lie. The band’s frontman, Tim Lambesis, just admitted that he has been an atheist for years—and he wasn’t the only band member to drop out of their creed. This confession wasn’t the first time Lambesis betrayed his fans, however. He was also [recently arrested](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2631057/Lead-singer-heavy-metal-band-As-I-Lay-Dying-sentenced-six-years-prison-plotting-kill-wife.html) for hiring an undercover detective to kill his soon-to-be former wife—he was angry that she had restricted visits with their children and would get a share of his income in the divorce. His wife, Meggan, has filed a $2 million lawsuit against him. Lambesis says he was the third guy who became an atheist in the band, a fact that had come to light in the couple’s divorce papers. “In the process of trying to defend my faith, I started thinking the other point of view was the stronger one,” [he said](http://christiannews.net/2014/06/18/convicted-heavy-metal-christian-singer-admits-being-atheist-duped-fans-to-sell-music/) in an interview with _Alternative Press_. “In 12 years of touring with As I Lay Dying, I would say maybe one in 10 Christian bands we toured with were actually Christian bands.” The singer has been sentenced to six years in jail, but the band’s near future probably isn’t a good bet, either. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2900967/christian-heavy-metal-band-frontman-admits-hes-actually-an-atheist/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2900967/christian-heavy-metal-band-frontman-admits-hes-actually-an-atheist/"},"headline":"Christian Heavy Metal Band Frontman Admits He’s Actually an Atheist","datePublished":"2014-06-19T17:30:51.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:10:56.254Z","description":"Apostasy is so metal","url":"https://time.com/2900967/christian-heavy-metal-band-frontman-admits-hes-actually-an-atheist/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Crime","Music","Religion","faith","atheism"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9291c2c7e12497d8/6986984af983e7cdc804e783/asilaydying.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Kyle Chayka","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/kyle-chayka/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9291c2c7e12497d8/6986984af983e7cdc804e783/asilaydying.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"asilaydying","caption":"As I Lay Dying","creditText":"Wikipedia / Matthias Bauer","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2900967/christian-heavy-metal-band-frontman-admits-hes-actually-an-atheist/","name":"Christian Heavy Metal Band Frontman Admits He’s Actually an Atheist"}}]}] ```