Christian metal and hardcore: classic or dud?

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i'm listening to a bunch of mp3's right now. the one playing is a zao track, it's pretty cool. really heavy.

but what do you think of this sub-sub-genre?

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Tuesday, 24 August 2004 10:28 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't know if this is the case these days, but in the '80s, Christian metal bands were carbon copies of specific mainstream bands:

Barren Cross -> Iron Maiden
Whitecross -> Ratt
Barnabas -> Scorpions (albeit with a female singer)

I'm sure there a plenty more, but I've blacked out that time in my mind.

― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Tuesday, 24 August 2004 12:02 (twenty-one years ago)

hmm. i might need to check out barnabas.

christians never really did much in metal i was interested in. i remember this band pale horse being a massive disappointment. believer were kind of ok. tourniquet were funny.

― el sabor de gene (yournullfame), Tuesday, 24 August 2004 12:08 (twenty-one years ago)

My Barnabas comparions may or may not be entirely accurate. I haven't heard their album in 20 years, but I do remember the Klaus-like pipes on that girl.

― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Tuesday, 24 August 2004 12:14 (twenty-one years ago)

some of the modern xian metalcore bands are indeed pretty good, such as Zao. It's nothing like the stuff from the 80s as it tends to have a bit more of its own identity as opposed to be being straight rip-offs of more successful artists.
I haven't delved too deeply into the stuff, but you'd probably be well off by checking out the Solid State and/or Tooth & Nail catalogues.

of course the best modern xian band is 16 Horsepower, hands down

― Avi (Avi), Tuesday, 24 August 2004 13:27 (twenty-one years ago)

Lust Control!!!

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Tuesday, 24 August 2004 13:28 (twenty-one years ago)

Dud. I really can't stand Zao or any of the Solid State/Tooth and Nail lineup (especially Norma Jean). I'm not very well versed in Christian metal but I'm hard pressed to think of any good Christian hardcore bands. As far as hardcore goes, you're better off looking for good Krishna bands.

― Reed Rosenberg (reed), Tuesday, 24 August 2004 14:53 (twenty-one years ago)

Believer is one of the few Christian metal bands that gets any respect. They were mildly interesting proggy thrash outfit, generally accepted by metalheads in the early nineties. Of course, they were a metal band first and Christians second, which begs the question, were they really Christian metal?

Overall, I'd say dud. But a lot of metal I like (particularly doom) uses heavy Chistian iconography and fairly traditional religious concepts, so...

James

― James Slone (Freon Trotsky), Tuesday, 24 August 2004 17:40 (twenty-one years ago)

i had a couple friends who were in a christian metal band in high school (i think their name was Vox Domini). I always just shrugged my shoulders as to why they thought god was worth thrashing about. sadly, these are the only friends of mine from high school who either a)are illegitimate fathers b)are serving time for drug possession or c)don't even give me the time of day when i run into them at the supermarket.

― Felonious Drunk (Felcher), Tuesday, 24 August 2004 17:46 (twenty-one years ago)

heh. yeah, half the reason i avoided even lsitening to zao for a long time was because the guys the people i knew who were into them were invariably a bunch of dicks.

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Tuesday, 24 August 2004 17:54 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, you might as well watch the Stryper documentary:

http://www.soldiersundercommand.com

― Ian Christe (Ian Christe), Tuesday, 24 August 2004 20:04 (twenty-one years ago)

hey, what about trouble?

(and i forgot about lust control, that's some pretty ridiculous shit.)

― el sabor de gene (yournullfame), Tuesday, 24 August 2004 22:31 (twenty-one years ago)

Ian beat me to the Stryper punch... there's a documentary?!?!?! Off to check that link!...

― Softly Weeping at the Oki Dog (Ben Boyer), Tuesday, 24 August 2004 22:39 (twenty-one years ago)

maria brought me home a zillion magazines a couple weeks ago and one of them was called HM -Heavy Music Mag. I started looking at it and I felt like i had stepped into an alternate universe. I didn't know it was Xian at first, so looking thru it i kept thinking, "how is it possible that i've never heard of ANY of these bands?" Then i figured it out. I mean there are hundreds of them. hardcore, xian death metal, you name it. i'd like to here a comp or sampler of some of the metal acts.

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 24 August 2004 22:49 (twenty-one years ago)

I like Zao okay, and I like Extol even more:

http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0351/eddy.php

― chuck, Tuesday, 24 August 2004 23:01 (twenty-one years ago)

theres a guy on slsk who calls christian metal "white metal"
i think thats classic.

― astroblaster (astroblaster), Wednesday, 25 August 2004 01:34 (twenty-one years ago)

Lust Control!!!

Dear God, I actually saw their first show back at Cornerstone '89. The editor of HM was the frontman, if I remember (they had a whole anonymous thing going on).

I still have a soft spot for The Lead. Sometimes terribly dorky, and they switched styles like no one's business, but trying to top the "Question What Authority?"/"One Step Ahead"/"Ballad of a Gunfighter" trilogy from Return Fire c.1985 is pretty steep business. And bassist Nina Llopis dedicated a song to D. Boon on her solo album. Awww...

― Joshua Houk (chascarrillo), Wednesday, 25 August 2004 01:44 (twenty-one years ago)

I think Trouble's "White Metal" tag was a Metal Blade marketing scheme, to offset the band from Slayer (in the same way that Casablanca launched Angel as the anti-Kiss). Nonetheless, their old testament lyrics are Klassik. Same goes for early Sabbath.

A friend gave me the Mortification live album -- picture a Christian Australian death metal band whose singer has just survived brain cancer, and needs to talk about the miracle between every song. The artwork -- photos and visionary sketches -- bends my little head sideways.

― Ian Christe (Ian Christe), Wednesday, 25 August 2004 03:39 (twenty-one years ago)

Dud. It's the Devil's music. Leave it that way.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 25 August 2004 16:36 (twenty-one years ago)

I suppose I should'be probably been more clear: while there's a couple decent acts (and even exceptional ones like Trouble), overall I'd have to go with the dud call as well.

― Avi (Avi), Wednesday, 25 August 2004 16:48 (twenty-one years ago)

Trouble weren't all that great (despite what Dave Grohl might insist).

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 25 August 2004 16:49 (twenty-one years ago)

Alex is right, metal is 100% about banging your head for Satan. Christian metal is as useful as a punk band promoting family life in the suburbs and a 9-to-5 job in accounting.

I always liked how Believer was the clone band of Atheist, and how Horde managed to copy the Darkthrone/Mayhem sound, vocals, songwriting AND artwork, but with christian lyrics. Hell, I'll even admit that "Invert The Inverted Cross" is pretty catchy.

― Siegbran (eofor), Wednesday, 25 August 2004 18:17 (twenty-one years ago)

Christian metal is as useful as a punk band promoting family life in the suburbs......

"Suburban Home" by the Descendents (although, I sincerely believe it to be ironic.)

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 25 August 2004 18:35 (twenty-one years ago)

eleven years pass...

http://q13fox.com/2016/08/04/popular-christian-musician-critically-injured-in-atv-crash/

― how's life, Thursday, 4 August 2016 15:55 (nine years ago)

CALA, Fla. (AP) — Christian musician Dallas Taylor is in critical condition after an all-terrain vehicle accident in Florida.
The 36-year-old lead singer of southern heavy metal band Maylene and the Sons of Disaster was injured Tuesday when the ATV he was driving on church property near Ocala went out of control and struck a sign.
Authorities say Taylor was flown by helicopter to UF Health Shands Hospital in Gainesville.
Dottie Taylor tells the Ocala Star-Banner doctors brought her son out of sedation briefly on Wednesday to perform neurological tests. She says Taylor and his 10-year-old son were visiting from Birmingham, Alabama, when he took the ATV for a spin.
The Florida Highway Patrol says Taylor wasn’t wearing a helmet.
Taylor is also a founding member of the Christian metalcore band Underoath.

― how's life, Thursday, 4 August 2016 15:55 (nine years ago)

four years pass...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4IOXncop9Y

DC Talk reminded me of one of my first co-worker's Christian metal band (that signed to Tooth & Nail I think?).

― Joe Bombin (milo z), Sunday, 1 August 2021 22:27 (four years ago)

lol I remember Embodyment. the site I wrote for (Satan Stole My Teddybear) wrote a negative review of one of their albums and writer got so much hate mail.

writer otm

― making splashes at Dan Flashes (Neanderthal), Sunday, 1 August 2021 23:08 (four years ago)

enjoy this terrible underground classic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8D5UjxFVMp8

― making splashes at Dan Flashes (Neanderthal), Sunday, 1 August 2021 23:09 (four years ago)

is christian death a jesus freak group?

― xzanfar, Sunday, 1 August 2021 23:26 (four years ago)

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