666 was created as a concept album, telling the story of Revelation, the Apocalypse of John. That book of the Bible that was an attack on the tyranny of the Roman empire at it was written, and the album goes through a number of famous passages and themes, including the Whore of Babylon, The Beast, and in this case the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The song's lyrics mostly paraphrasing the text of Revelation 6. The song's structure is marked by a dynamic contrast, with Roussos singing over an echoed keyboard drone and wind chimes in the verses, and the chorus containing traditional rock instrumentation highlighted by Sideras' drumming. The song culminates in a two-minute wah guitar solo by Koulouris over heavy drumming by Sideras and a repeated "fa fa fa" background chant by Roussos. In the song, as in, "The Lamb" is presented with a sealed scroll. This lamb is often taken to mean Jesus. But this lamb has "seven horns and seven eyes", and may represent seven Christian groups in the Roman world, oppressed by Nero's tyranny, to whom John is instructed in visions to send the book. The scroll may, indeed, represent the Book of Revelation, itself. Either way, the Lamb begins opening the scroll in both the book and the song. It has seven seals, and as each of the first four is opened, it releases some crisis represented by a horseman. These horsemen are described in part, by the color of their horses, especially in the song: . The Lamb is visible at the top. The leading horse is white The second horse is red The third one is a black The last one is a green The first horseman holds a bow, and is said to represent either Plague or evangelism of the Gospels. But more specifically it seems to historically refer to Nero, who expelled the author from Rome and plays the role of the Beast in Revelation. The sword-wielding second horseman may represent war, or genocide. "Red" is a legitimate horse color, a reddish brown. The third horseman, mounted on black, is famine, which carries a balance because this is how grain was handed out when food was scarce: The fourth horse is described using a word "khloros", which probably should be translated from the original greek as "pale". But the Greek-speaking songwriters make a pun here, another meaning of khloros being "green", the origin of the word chlorophyll. The fourth horseman is explicitly named Thanatos, meaning "death" in Greek, the same word from which Thanos got his name in the Marvel universe.
Impact
Receiving significant airplay on album-oriented radio, the song went on to be covered or sampled by a number of bands. "The Four Horsemen" influenced Beck's "Chemtrails", which has a similar structure, and The Verve's "The Rolling People", which quoted the "fa fa fa" chant. The chorus was also sampled, in a slowed-down fashion, on Daniel Lopatin's "A7", from Chuck Person's Eccojams Vol. 1. The song is very popular among metal and techno acts, forming a significant list of covers and samplings.
In 2004, Gregorian released a cover of "The Four Horsemen" on their album The Dark Side.
In 2005, German dance groupScooter released a Techno version of "The Four Horsemen" called The Leading Horse on their album Who's Got The Last Laugh Now?.
In 2015, the Greek band Cyanna Mercury covered "The Four Horsemen" on the Death Roots Syndicate compilation The End.
The Verve's song "The Rolling People" borrows its title from "Altamont", while also containing musical elements of "The Four Horsemen". Frontman Richard Ashcroft reportedly mentioned 666 as a strong influence on his music.
Beck's song "Chemtrails" also resembles "The Four Horsemen".
