What's up with all this christian stuff ???

[carnut]

Don't know what's up with all the White Metal Stuff, but the year started off with Neil Morse's "Sola Scriptura", a modern symphonic masterpiece. Trouble followed with "Simple Mind Condition", okay, not that "white" but alot of "love is in the air, and flowers in my hair" stuff. Letter 7 suprised me with "Salt of the Earth", a modern reincarnation of bands like Prophet and Tyketto. Now I just got a copy of the new Mehida album (with ex- Sonata Arctica, Candlemass, Therion, members),
"Blood & Water", again an fantastic modern progressive White Metal album. These albums all are in my top ten 2007 list. Now Slayer members are forming a christian band ?? Who can save me from temptation to become a fanatic christian ??? Muhahahahaha....

 

[ElectricWiz]

...and you forgot to mention United Abominations, which is basically Dave's christian album if you ask me. Some of it is veiled in metal-ish lyrics, but really it's pretty blatant when you look at it.

Never Walk Alone is clearly about Jesus...I'd say. Not to mention Blessed Be The Dead which is surely about the Book of Revelations. Thing is, Dave being, "reborn," that changes the whole feel of the thing. Still, it comes off as a "four horsemen," type song, and so remains...metal. haha. Only that there is a difference between writing about the apocalyptic vision in the book of Revelations in the metal sense, and really believing in it. Anyway, more power to him. If you put up with the satanic stuff, it's hard to complain about the christian stuff. 'course if such things aren't ones cup of tea, it's all just mythology in the end to the listener. Demons, Wizards, Jesus...all pretty good fodder for metal! (though I admit to always having felt christian metal a bit...preachy.)

 

[carnut]

... If you put up with the satanic stuff, it's hard to complain about the christian stuff. 'course if such things aren't ones cup of tea, it's all just mythology in the end to the listener. Demons, Wizards, Jesus...all pretty good fodder for metal!

right on... When reviewing the Letter 7 album I realized it wouldn't be honoust to give a lesser score to a White Metal album. I like alot of "Satanic" bands , but I'm not a Satanist either, so why treat a White Metal band different... Although I myselve would prefer more social engaged and fantasy lyrics, I let the music speak most, and there were some damn good albums in that little list I mentioned !!

 

[Orfanos]

WHite metal kicks ass! I am new to the music of this kind but I like it a lot. Some bands that I recommend to every fan of good heavy metal:

Stryper
Sacred Warrior
Barren Cross
Messiah Force
Tourniquet
Apostle

the list is endless... And I don't understand why it is a bad thing to like the bands that play metal with christian lyrics. I am not a fanatic christian, but the first I see at an album is the music.

 

[Wyvern]

WHite metal kicks ass! I am new to the music of this kind but I like it a lot. Some bands that I recommend to every fan of good heavy metal:

Stryper
Sacred Warrior
Barren Cross
Messiah Force
Tourniquet
Apostle

the list is endless... And I don't understand why it is a bad thing to like the bands that play metal with christian lyrics. I am not a fanatic christian, but the first I see at an album is the music.

Agree and you can include Whitecross, Mortification, Believer, Extol, Vengeance Rising, Saviour Machine, Narnia too. One of my favorite Argentinian bands is Logos which is obviously Christian but never preachy to an obnoxious point. And let's get real Black Sabbath 'After Forever' and 'Into The Void' are as white metal as can be.

Don't know what's up with all the White Metal Stuff, but the year started off with Neil Morse's "Sola Scriptura", a modern symphonic masterpiece. Trouble followed with "Simple Mind Condition"

Now Slayer members are forming a christian band ?? Who can save me from temptation to become a fanatic christian ??? Muhahahahaha....

A few comments on your post Gert:

a) Neal become "fanatic" Christian after he left Spock's Beard and Transatlantic , all his albums since has been very much Christian lyrically speaking

b) Trouble has ALWAYS been a white metal band, maybe now more openly Christina (dunno hadn't check SMC throughly)

c) The Slayer thing can be a hoax don't take it so literally

NP: Girlschool - 'Bomber'

 

[carnut]

A few comments on your post Gert:

a) Neal become "fanatic" Christian after he left Spock's Beard and Transatlantic , all his albums since has been very much Christian lyrically speaking

b) Trouble has ALWAYS been a white metal band, maybe now more openly Christina (dunno hadn't check SMC throughly)

c) The Slayer thing can be a hoax don't take it so literally

Knew these were christian before ofcourse, probably I gave a wrong impression with my imperfect english that those bands are new in the White Metal scene. I just wanted to say that alot of my fav releases of this year seem to be white Metal.

Slayer a hoax ?? The same as me becoming a christian I guess

NP; Letter7 - I'm a Christian Soldier

 

[DoctorX3]

I love Trouble, King's X, and Tourniquet, but yeah, bible-thumping lyrics really annoy me.

I recognize that religious imagery and metaphor have inspired a lot of great art, but adherence to orthodoxy and dogma have also destroyed the individual thought needed to create it, and been a blight upon civilization for centuries.

The Bible, Torah, and Q'ran are books filled with beautiful poetry, but their sermons on morality are rife with logical contradictions that only serve to dilute our perception of the natural world and ethics based on a fair and just social contract.

 

[T_man357]

Jesus Wept
xxLooking Fowardxx
War Of Ages
No Innocent Victim
All Out War
Armed Conflict
Of The Son
Once Dead
The Crucified

WHite metal kicks ass! I am new to the music of this kind but I like it a lot. Some bands that I recommend to every fan of good heavy metal:

Stryper
Sacred Warrior
Barren Cross
Messiah Force
Tourniquet
Apostle

the list is endless... And I don't understand why it is a bad thing to like the bands that play metal with christian lyrics. I am not a fanatic christian, but the first I see at an album is the music.

 

[Orfanos]

NP; Letter7 - I'm a Christian Soldier

I have heard many positive thoughts about this album. Is that so good?

 

[Wyvern]

Slayer a hoax ?? The same as me becoming a christian I guess

I meant the post about members from Slayer forming a Christian band. I don{t know if it{s true, I posted because is funny. If it proves to be real it will be really funny.

I forgot to mention an extraordinary band Lordian's Guard which as well as its previous incarnation Warlord had a very positive white attitude, and let's not forget Helloween 'Save Us' , 'Laudate Dominum', 'Salvation', 'Deliver Us from Temptation', etc.

 

[carnut]

I have heard many positive thoughts about this album. Is that so good?

it indeed is really good. It's very good AOR/Classic Metal mix! Real catchy songs, awesome vocalist and very good production. I you like stuff in the vein of Tyketto, Prophet, Allen/Lande etc you'll surely like this one too!

 

[Orfanos]

Thanks for the reply, carnut!

The rest, listen to this man:

Cross - Metal From Above is probably the best overtly Christian Metal album that I've ever heard. I don't consider Trouble to be overtly Christian.

This band's demo has been rereleased some months ago by Steel Legacy Records (the same label that rereleased the amazing Zions Abyss album) and it is indeed a very very good piece of US metal. Check out some songs here: ----> http://www.myspace.com/crossmetalfromabove

Another nice White Metal recommendation is the first LP by the greek band InnerWish, called "Waiting for the Dawn". An outstandind melodic metal album, with good christian (and sometimes preachy) lyrics.

The funny thing here, is that the band's singer at the time, Yannis Papanikolaou, left the band and became... a monk. But in the monastery he formed a band (!) where he writes the music and sings. Of course the lyrics contain christian messages.

If you remember him from InnerWish and you want to take a taste, you can watch this video (the song is not metal and has greek lyrics): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6-CMtwqz5M

 

[Bryant]

I'll give three answers to this post:

1) It's all about the music (which includes vocal delivery) as opposed to lyrics in my ears. I don't care if you worship cat piss.... as long as you write and play good stuff. I have been offended by some of the lyrics that were in both the dark and white arts, but more often than not I enjoy either about the same and enjoy the masters that can write ambiguous stuff like Ronnie Dio.

2) I think a strong presence of white metal is probably good for the genre because I think it offers a change of style with all of the death metal out there. I am not saying that all of the death metal out there is religious in nature by any means, but stylistically, it often gives a dark feeling. The white metal gives a change of style. I don't think I own much true "white metal" but Vanden Plas is my favorite band and their vocalist doesn't hide the fact he is a Christian man.

3) Lastly, I don't want metal to get too saturated with either dark or white metal. one of the best things about metal music is the diversity of the content. If metal bands start to get too involved in religion, I think it will stagnate the genre to a degree.

Bryant

 

[wdiv]

b) Trouble has ALWAYS been a white metal band, maybe now more openly Christian (dunno hadn't check SMC throughly)

nah, Trouble's early albums were much more Christian-themed then the more recent (s/t album forward).

 

[wdiv]

WHite metal kicks ass! I am new to the music of this kind but I like it a lot. Some bands that I recommend to every fan of good heavy metal:

Stryper
Sacred Warrior
Barren Cross
Messiah Force
Tourniquet
Apostle

the list is endless... And I don't understand why it is a bad thing to like the bands that play metal with christian lyrics. I am not a fanatic christian, but the first I see at an album is the music.

I just checked out a couple of Tourniquet cds. Great stuff! Can't believe that I've been totally oblivious to them up until now.

 

[Psychonaut]

Force3 was another one but I'm not sure if anyone has ever heard of them. They really weren't too good.

 

[Oddity_13]

I'll have to heck some of this stuff out.

Coincidently, here's an overly christain band that someone on one of these forums reccomended to me.

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=235406184

They still sound great, but that's cause they've got John Greely on vocals.

 

[poundingmetal74]

Despite the fact that I'm anything but religious, many Christian metal bands dominate much of my playlist:

Recon
Titanic / Final Axe
Stryper (Yes, these guys have some AWESOME heavy stuff)
Barren Cross (my bassist's mom met their singer on a plane)
Sacred Warrior
Theocracy
Holy Soldier
Deliverance (Early material)
Bloodgood
Undercover (They're an "alternative" band, but their album "Balance of Power" is a slap of metal brilliance).
Megadeth (?)

Perhaps in a bit of Irony, I've had a number of emails asking if Final Stage is a Christian band. At which point I refer them to the lyrics of Infidel.

 

[Thoth-Amon]

yeah there's some good christian metal:
the first tourniquet album slays
the first 4 deliverance albums are good
early living sacrifice is good
saviour machine is good
etc.

 

[Bryant]

I think I will repost because I can't understand what the hell I said on my other reply. I said a bunch of words that didn't really mean anything...... so I will try something else:

I have no problem with religion in metal, be it "dark" or "white." The problem I have with 98% of Christian music is that it is "praise and worship" music. You can get more biblical references out of "Creeping Death" by Metallica than you can by most songs performed by a Christian artists. The Holy Bible, history, the life of Jesus, the life of Moses etc. is very interesting. There is an incredible amount of work put into both the Old and New Testament. I think that many Christian bands should try and sneak up on people with biblical stories and lay the praise and worship out to a minimum.
The "dark" arts aren't any better. These death/black metal bands look like a bunch of freaking clowns. They probably offend some Christians, but probably simply amuse many of them as well. I think many of these bands know nothing about Lucifer AS IT/HE PERTAINS TO THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. The "devil" is far from some kind of monster according to The Holy Bible. Lucifer is a great musician, but he is also beautiful and powerful, not some monster. I have never seen Cookie Monster in a picture Bible.. >~

There is good and evil in all of us. I think all of us here find some sort of balance in that. One can not live without the other as well. I welcome white metal or dark metal as long as it sounds good. I refuse to get too caught up in the politics of metal. Who really cares ?

The way I see it is listen to whatever you like and if you don't like it, change CDs.

Bryant