“Holy Wars… The Punishment Due” is the opening track off Megadeth’s fourth studio album Rust in Peace. The song consists of two different parts.

The track’s first half, “Holy Wars,” is written about the religious conflict in Northern Ireland, which started in 1960, but has its roots as far back as the 17th Century.

The story of Dave Mustaine’s inspiration for the song is outlined in the liner notes of the 2004 re-release of Rust in Peace, originally taken from an interview with the UK magazine Guitarist.

Whilst on tour in Northern Ireland, he was dissuaded from “taking action” against bootleggers selling Megadeth t-shirts as they claimed it was to help “fund the cause.”

Dave liked the sound of “the cause” so dedicated a cover of The Sex Pistols' “Anarchy in the U.K.” (which appears on So Far, So Good… So What!) to it shouting “Give Ireland back to the Irish! This one’s for ‘the cause’—Anarchy in Ireland!” This resulted in a near riot and Megadeth had to leave the city of Belfast in a bulletproof bus, by police escort.

“The Punishment Due” was written in reference to the Marvel comic book The Punisher. Megadeth had also referenced The Punisher in an earlier song, “Killing Is My Business… and Business Is Good!”

The lead single from Countdown to Extinction, peaked on the UK Charts at #15, and initially had heavy rotation on MTV (before the video was pulled and edited because of controversy). The introduction of the song is sampled from Mozart’s “Offertorium, Domine Jesu Christe”.

This song discuses about how power corrupts people: when people have too much of it they can use it to cause great problems and destruction.

Basically what this is about is you take a person, a typical stereotype numbskull, and you give him the old shit, shower, and shave, throw him in a monkey suit and he can run the country…It’s about the masses being led to their own destruction by a leader who’s more or less a puppet of a phantom government.*This could also refer to how society is causing nature’s destruction and our systematic suicide of the world.

—Dave Mustaine

FUN FACT:
Dave Mustaine has a column in the magazine Guitar World called “Symphony of Instruction”.

In this Vakill goes all out in demonstrating his lyrical prowess over NWA’s Appetite For Destruction.

Big Pun goes into storytelling mode in this track about obtaining quick cash. Fat Joe spoke to XXL magazine in 2004 about “Fast Money”:

That was one of the greatest storytelling rhymes in hip-hop, ever. It’s songs like this that make me think Pun don’t get his props. This shit is ripped down to the point of a blind man sees this. So lyrical, to me one of the most lyrical storytelling rhymes ever.

“Punish Me” finds Pun speaking on a relationship gone wrong with an immoral woman. He performed this song in a Season Four episode of singer Brandy’s sitcom Moesha.

Singer Miss Jones spoke about her involvement in the track during an interview with XXL magazine in 2004:

It was a very warm session. I had been friends with Joey for years, since he was on Relativity Records and I was a receptionist there. I had fun. I stayed there pretty much all night. […] Pun was there and he was very hands-on with all the production. They appreciated the value of a singer. They didn’t just want me humming, sounding stupid and off-key. They appreciated it.

Fat Joe also talked about the inspiration behind this song’s creation:

I said, ‘We need to make a song for the bitches, man.’ He didn’t think to do that before. I told him, ‘Yo, we gotta take Biggie’s place.’