Christian Music

(Will) Being a teen in the '80s, that is the "golden age" of music for me. I grew up on secular '80s hard rock/heavy metal (I wasn't a Christian until 2000), and even began playing guitar in '86 at the height of the shred guitar era. So I tend to like my music with screaming guitars and vocalists who sing with great range and dynamics. I don't like bands with Cookie Monster singing lead (the growling death metal stuff), nor do I like the monotone whining of most modern rock.

In addition to the style issues above, there came a time when I started trying to find Christian alternatives for my secular favorites. I was *not* looking for pale imitations of secular bands, which if often what you find in Christian music. Furthermore, I was looking for evangelical bands - bands that were singing overtly Christian lyrics rather than trying to play both the secular and Christian sides of the fence. That proved much more difficult than I expected it to be. It seemed like I either found bands that had good lyrics but couldn't cut it musically, or had good music but weak lyrics.

I tried a few times to find some good heavy Christian bands to listen to, but for a long time didn't have much luck. Melissa was a big Petra fan, but really didn't listen to any other Christian rock bands. She had liked the '80s metal style too, but needed good Christian lyrics and therefore didn't listen to secular music. I gradually weeded down what I listened to to secular bands that were either "positive message" or were otherwise not promoting anti-God lifestyles. So I was done with the whole "sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll" lyrical content, but I was still primarily listening to bands like Fates Warning, Queensryche, Sonata Arctica, Megadeth, Yngwie Malmsteen, and so on. Plus a lot of instrumental guitarists like Vinnie Moore, Tony MacAlpine, Joe Satriani, Andy Timmons, and Steve Vai among others. About the only Christian metal band I was into was Narnia, a neoclassical metal band from Sweden. In 2006 Melissa and I decided to make a concerted effort to find some Christian hard rock/metal bands that we could enjoy together. So that began another search.

Fortunately, this time I came across an excellent website for Christian metal -- Firestream. More specifically, Firestream's music vault, which has an index of Christian metal bands and albums, with user reviews and ratings. The best part for me was that the site even breaks down the bands by genre/style, which is important because within the broad category of "metal" there are dozens of sub-genres. I gravitate towards more "melodic," "progressive," "symphonic," "power," and "neoclassical" metal, and have pretty much no interest in "black," "industrial," "death," or "extreme" metal. So being able to sort through bands in a relatively systematic fashion was a big help.

Here are some of the Christian metal bands that we've discovered and come to be fans of. What is kind of a running joke when we find a new band is asking right off, "are they from Sweden?" Seems like a majority of the music we like comes from that part of the world. Kind of frustrating having to pay import prices for the albums to get them in the U.S., but I guess that's how it goes. Album links go to Amazon just for reference and other reviews, but buy the albums anywhere you can find them.

Rob Rob

Rob Rock is a great melodic metal singer, who was worked on a number of great albums both as a solo artist and with other bands.

Recommended albums:

Holy Hell (Lyrics)

Rage of Creation (Lyrics)

Impellitteri

Impellitteri is a well known "shredder" who has produced a mixed bag of albums throughout his career. His peak came in a three album stretch in the '90s when Rob Rock was his vocalist. With Rock penning the lyrics, the four albums they did together are also the most overtly Christian albums from Impellitteri.

Recommended albums:

Screaming Symphony (Lyrics)

Eye of the Hurricane (Lyrics)

Answer to the Master (Lyrics)

Theocracy
        Theocracy only has one album out as of this writing, the self-titled debut. While they are a full band now and working on their second album, the first album was entirely written and recorded by founder Matt Smith as a one man band. Despite that, this is great power metal with intricate/dense arrangements and great lyrics.
        Recommended albums:
                Theocracy        (Lyrics)

Majestic Vanguard
        Majestic Vanguard is a Swedish melodic metal band that released its debut album in 2005. Keyboard plays a more prominent role in Majestic Vanguard than in say Rob Rock/Impellitteri, but along the lines that is typical of the symphonic metal coming out of Scandinavia. Still plenty of guitars going on, and good songs. There's a video on their website for the song The Great Eternity that is pretty cool.
        Recommended albums:
                Beyond the Moon    (Lyrics)

Harmony
        Harmony is another Swedish band in a similar vein as Majestic Vanguard and Narnia. They are working on their second album at the time of this writing, with only their debut actually out.
        Recommended albums:
                Dreaming Awake    (Lyrics)

Narnia
        Narnia is also from Sweden, and is a neoclassical metal band very much in the style of Yngwie Malmsteen. The members of Narnia have played in a number of other Christian metal bands as well, showing that there is a lot of cross-breeding in the Christian metal scene. The production has improved quite a bit from their first album, though the lyrics tend to be a bit on the cheesy side. Killer musicianship though.
        Recommended albums:
                Enter the Gate    (Lyrics)
                The Great Fall    (Lyrics)
                Awakening        (Lyrics)

Eterna
        Eterna is from the other hotbed of power metal these days, Brazil. Despite Portuguese being their first language, the lyrics are sung in well enunciated English. Eterna is a more of a straight up power metal band than the Swedish bands. Less overt in their lyrics, but not bad.
        Recommended albums:
                The Gate    (Lyrics)
                Epiphany    (Lyrics)

7 Days
        7 Days is a symphonic/gothic metal band from Sweden, and is a side project for Markus Sigfridsson, the guitarist and main song writer of Harmony. Whereas Harmony is more neoclassical/melodic metal in nature, 7 Days has more of a brooding symphonic feel to it. The keyboards are more prominent, and the guitar tone is heavier than Harmony. To date they have only released one album, "Weight of the World." I haven't been able to find the lyrics online, so at some point I might scan in the lyrics from the CD insert or manually type them in.
        Recommended albums:
                Weight of the World

Defyance
        Defyance is a melodic metal band fronted by former Balance of Power vocalist Lance King. The band has been around awhile, but King has only been with them since their most current release, "Transitional Forms." I have not heard any of their previous albums, just this one. The singing and vocal melodies are the strongest part of the album. The music is good, but the musicianship suffers a bit at times. The lead playing is more serviceable than anything that really jumps out at you. The production is smooth, but the bass tends to be buried in the mix, taking away from the heaviness of the feel. Still a good album though worth owning. Their website has a couple of full songs you can hear in their entirety, as well as clips of all of the others.
        Recommended albums:
                Transitional Forms    (Lyrics)

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