Christian Metal

[halcyonwayband@aol.com]

I gotta go with the following:

Deliverance
Saviour Machine
Living Sacrifice
Galactic Cowboys
Impellitteri
Believer
The Crucified
Sacred Warrior
Precious Death
Rob Rock
Magnitude 9
Guardian

The new Harmony & Theocracy albums are really good too, but I kept my list to more old-school stuff. =)

There's a lot of bands in that scene that I'm familiar with, like Vengeance Rising (Zane & I know a lot of people that were involved with Roger Martinez when he went all crazy and that was a very Springer-esque story, wannit?), Recon, Bloodgood, etc etc.... I'm pretty picky about music and thought & think that a lot of those bands suck. Or at least, weren't all that. Like Tamplin.....anyone remember "Radio Bikini"...er, I mean, "Livin On A Prayer"? Seventh Angel played some of the most generic thrash ever. They had a couple good songs, though. Mortification hasn't come out with anything listenable since probably "Primitive Rhythm Machine", and some would argue that he hasn't since "Scrolls Of The Megilloth". I gotta respect the guy - I've met him and he's a really nice genuine guy - and his story of surviving cancer is inspiring too - but the material....not so much.

I'd much rather listen to someone that is positive than negative, but any artist to me has to have a vision and a unique voice. So a lot of the bands that got touted as the big thing in that scene didn't do much for me.

 

[Mr. Zane of HW]

Hey I was there too! Saw all those bands that weekend. It was incredibly fun!

As for Rackets & Drapes, they are close pals of mine so I've been quite biased on their account for a long long long time. (Heck, my user name is a direct result of my involvement with them! lol!) More than one person can do gothic shock rock and not be Manson-infliuenced. After having seen them countless times on stage and being involved in the writing process, I can honestly say that Manson really was not an influence in their mind. If anything, they were closer to Alice Cooper. Either way, I don't think those are bad comparisions anyway. Both acts were wildly successful. To be honest, the major reason R&D lashed out against the Manson references is because they didn't want his name tainting everything they were trying to do from a ministry standpoint. The man has been outspoken against the church, so he's really the last one they wanted to be in the shadow of just because of a genre that has a short supply of bands.

Can't believe I forgot to put Bride on my list. Snakes in the Playground is one of my favorite metal discs of all time. Well, I'd say Top 20 at least.

I actually thought the Trick or Treat disc was a move into a more original direction, and I hope you understand my commemnts are not personal(they were quite nice guys), it was just MMwas HUGE right then, and I have a hard time believing they had not taken a few ques. But, if they didn't want Manosn references, they got them anyway as almost every review of themthat I ad read had it. BTW, what are they up to(if anything)?

 

[Mr. Zane of HW]

I gotta go with the following:

Deliverance
Saviour Machine
Living Sacrifice
Galactic Cowboys
Impellitteri
Believer
The Crucified
Sacred Warrior
Precious Death
Rob Rock
Magnitude 9
Guardian

The new Harmony & Theocracy albums are really good too, but I kept my list to more old-school stuff. =)

There's a lot of bands in that scene that I'm familiar with, like Vengeance Rising (Zane & I know a lot of people that were involved with Roger Martinez when he went all crazy and that was a very Springer-esque story, wannit?), Recon, Bloodgood, etc etc.... I'm pretty picky about music and thought & think that a lot of those bands suck. Or at least, weren't all that. Like Tamplin.....anyone remember "Radio Bikini"...er, I mean, "Livin On A Prayer"? Seventh Angel played some of the most generic thrash ever. They had a couple good songs, though. Mortification hasn't come out with anything listenable since probably "Primitive Rhythm Machine", and some would argue that he hasn't since "Scrolls Of The Megilloth". I gotta respect the guy - I've met him and he's a really nice genuine guy - and his story of surviving cancer is inspiring too - but the material....not so much.

I'd much rather listen to someone that is positive than negative, but any artist to me has to have a vision and a unique voice. So a lot of the bands that got touted as the big thing in that scene didn't do much for me.

Dude!Don't touch Tamplin!!! An Axe To Grind is on eof the greatest guitar oriented albums EVER!!!
I saw Jon open for Vengeance Rising in 92, a young naive 16 year old in a band called Final Judgment.

 

[Chai]

Wow, lot of great suggestions here. Need to check a bunch of these out. I had previously been scrolling through this list looking for new music. I'll throw a couple of my favorites into the hat (though most if not all have been mentioned already):

Theocracy (The new album is in almost constant rotation in my CD player)
DivineFire
Demon Hunter
Harmony
Jacob's Dream

 

[Mr. Zane of HW]

Ditto that!

Which bands do you still need to check out? I can make some album recommendations if you'd like.

I noticed you have Joy Electric in your playlist box, they are one of my guilty pleasures.You can't be in a bad mood when you listen to them!

 

[Mr. Zane of HW]

hey, does anyone get this reference: "One Bad Pig!Oink!!"

 

[PurpleCrayonWriter]

hey, does anyone get this reference: "One Bad Pig!Oink!!"

One Bad Pig were a Christian punk band. In 1996, their guitarist/vocalist Paul Q-Pek released a totally killer, Peter Gabrielesque CD called Touch the Ground. I saw Paul in Milwaukee about 10 years ago. An amazing performance. Touch the Ground is a beautiful CD. Great arrangements. Passionate vocals.

 

[Danny McDoom]

Mmmmm did anyone else eat a piece of that tension? It was alright but I thought it was a little bitter.....

I like Theocracy, Rob Rock, some Stryper, Demon Hunter.........

But it is hard for me to get into... That is why I said some Stryper, I cannot deal with to much flamboyancy.

Kind of like I don't like Behemoth because they are too flamboyant...

 

[Pellaz]

What we have in common musically far overshadows and outweighs what we may not share spiritually-speaking, agreed? Let us all love one another in metal! Can I get an amen?

Nope, but you can get a "So say we all!"*


I'm an agnostic or perhaps a Deist, so I'm not likely to dump on anyone's beliefs. I guess I'm a recovering Catholic.

I played a band on WREKage last night as part of my "damn it's cold" theme called Immortal Souls who are tagged as Christian. CoB-like sound from Finland, which is odd. Not the CoB sound, but I can't think of too many Christian bands from that part of the world.

I guess I should also mention Becoming the Archetype since they're local......I mean really local, they're from the small town right next to mine.









-=-=-=-
* I've been on a (new) Battlestar Galactica kick, and "so say we all" is their stand-in for "Amen"

 

[mel_progson]

Oh I nearly forgot, Theres an amazing christian metal band called Teramaze from Melbourne Australia who had a great rockin power metal cd out called Tears to Dust. It would definitely suit alot of the people on this board. Anyone know of them?

 

[Danny McDoom]

I'm an agnostic or perhaps a Deist, so I'm not likely to dump on anyone's beliefs

I am a Deist... I agree...

Score +1 for Deism.... Hahaha

 

[GameFreac]

Crimson Moonlight
Slechtvalk
Divinefire
Antestor
Holy Blood (they're ok)
Immortal Souls
War of Ages (live)
With Blood Comes Cleansing

 

[Primal]

I own that cd and it is a great cd. Love the Christian metal, been into it since the 80's. I probably have over 450 Christian metal cd's in my collection, all the originals from back in the day. I'm trying to think of some of the bands not mentioned yet ----- Barnabas, Zion, Crystavox, Angelica (Rob Rock sings on their first release), Haven, Neon Cross - there's a few anyway!!!

 

[Mr. Zane of HW]

One Bad Pig were a Christian punk band. In 1996, their guitarist/vocalist Paul Q-Pek released a totally killer, Peter Gabrielesque CD called Touch the Ground. I saw Paul in Milwaukee about 10 years ago. An amazing performance. Touch the Ground is a beautiful CD. Great arrangements. Passionate vocals.

Congratulations , you deserve a prize! I have a live VHS of them, I have Swine Flew somewhere on a tape, fun memeories of high school for me.

 

[Mr. Zane of HW]

I own that cd and it is a great cd. Love the Christian metal, been into it since the 80's. I probably have over 450 Christian metal cd's in my collection, all the originals from back in the day. I'm trying to think of some of the bands not mentioned yet ----- Barnabas, Zion, Crystavox, Angelica (Rob Rock sings on their first release), Haven, Neon Cross - there's a few anyway!!!

Haven's Age of Darkness disc rocks! kinda like Mercyful Fate.
I was a huge fan of Barren Cross, particularly the Atomic Arena release. I also liked Tempest(Jaime Rowe of Guardian's first band). I used to dig Jesus Freaks as well.

 

[Mr. Zane of HW]

One Bad Pig were a Christian punk band. In 1996, their guitarist/vocalist Paul Q-Pek released a totally killer, Peter Gabrielesque CD called Touch the Ground. I saw Paul in Milwaukee about 10 years ago. An amazing performance. Touch the Ground is a beautiful CD. Great arrangements. Passionate vocals.

Did you ever get into Charlie Peacock's album Stragelanguage? very Gabriel-esque in places.
Here are more bands(I was DEEP in the scene): Dighayzoose(the Magentamantalovetree disc was wierd and progressive)
Frank's Enenmy
Lengsel
GROMS
Metanoia
ULTIMATUM(rox)
Randy Rose(the Healing album is good, his other stuff, not so much)
Bloodgood
The Showdown

anyone here like some Larry Norman? saw him live too..........

 

[GoRillaBoy76]

Almost all the great bands have been named so far, except for my favorite, Project 86. I know they are a hard Rock band not a metal band, but they are the band that got me into hard music, and they still have some of my favorite lyrics, plus an amazing live show.

Anyway, have not heard heard the new Theocracy(want to), The Showdown=the return of Great American Thrash, and I am a Narnia fanboy, would love to see them at ProgPower.

 

[Palabra de Dios]

Paramaecium
Phlebotomized
Horde
Impending Doom
Aletheian
Acoustic Torment
Pantokrator
Indwelling

Some of my favorites that I haven't seen already mentioned in this topic. I think lyrical content has nothing to do with musical quality. If it's good metal, it's good metal. Therefore, regardless of my beliefs I know that there are some Christian bands that truly rock. I love a lot of the bands already mentioned in this topic and will check out some of the others.

I might stay away from some of the more goofy old-school 80s bands that might be a bit too Stryper-esque for my tastes. Even Rob Rock is only good in small doses for me (kind of like really really good at first but loses its luster after a while).

 

[happytimes]

A couple of the more prog-metal type of Christian bands that I haven't seen anyone mention yet (or at least I don't remember them being mentioned, but I'm old and forgetful) is Veni Domine or Mehida. I've seen a couple of my personal favorites like War of Ages and Jacob's Dream and thanks to Pellaz for bringing up Becoming the Archetype! Also, if anyone is into the "retro" type of prog rock sound, you may want to give Flagship (members of Narnia) a listen - great Kansas feel to their music.

 

[7thSaviour]

Glad to see you guys from HW weighing in on this topic! I know y'all are major CM fans! Christian metal rules!