Christian metal

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Christian music
Stylistic origins: A variety of genres evolving from Jesus music.
Cultural origins: 1960s United States
Typical instruments: Electric guitar, Bass guitar, Drums, Keyboard, Synthesizers
Mainstream popularity: Continuous from 1990s
Subgenres
Christian alternative rock - Christian bubblegum pop - Christian hardcore - Christian industrial - Christian hip hop - Christian metal - Christian pop music - Christian punk - Christian rock - Christian soft rock - Christian ska - Worship music - Cprog
Other topics
Christian entertainment industry - Christian girl group

Christian metal is a form of heavy metal music and its many subgenres with Christian lyrics and themes.

Contents

[edit] History

Christian metal has its origins in the early 1970s. Generally, Resurrection Band and Jerusalem are cited as the earliest Christian metal bands. During the mid-1980s, the band Stryper helped to popularize the genre, as they were the first Christian Metal band to reach platinum status on an album. [1]

Because Christian metal is largely characterized by lyrical content, there are various musical subgenres within Christian metal. In the 1980s, Christian metal bands closely followed the trends of more mainstream bands, producing a large amount of glam metal such as Stryper, Whitecross and Neon Cross. Many speed and thrash bands such as Tourniquet, Deliverance, Vengeance Rising, and Believer also began to appear.

In 1990, Mortification became the first widely recognised Christian death metal band. Though they played an old style of death metal very close to its thrash roots, their 1992 album Scrolls of the Megilloth is still considered classic death metal,[citation needed] and was released in both Christian and secular markets. At roughly the same time the band Living Sacrifice was creating thrash/death metal; also, Paramaecium became one of the largest Christian doom metal bands and would influence later Christian bands such as Pantokrator.

Horde is widely considered to be the first Christian black metal band. As a one man band with only one release (in 1994), Horde initiated controversy within the extreme metal community, opposing the more common lyrical themes of Satanism and evil. The title of Horde's only release -- Hellig Usvart -- means "Holy Unblack", which is now often used as a replacement name for black metal made by Christians by those who see black metal as exclusively Satanic.

Antestor existed prior to the release of Hellig Usvart but their music was a death/doom style (or as they called it, "Sorrow Metal"), and was not yet musically considered black metal. They, as well as Crimson Moonlight and others(such as Divine Symphony), make up today's more polished style of Christian black metal comparable to more mainstream high production black metal bands. However, more traditional and raw low-production black metal bands such as Abdijah, Duister Maanlicht, Light Shall Prevail, Offerblod, Arch of Thorns, Eulogium, Eligbbor, Horrific Majesty, Dormant (band), Firethrone, etc., still exist on record labels such as Son of Man Records, Sneeuwstorm Produkties, and GES Productions, among others.

Currently, there exist Christian metal bands for virtually every sub-genre of metal. Extol has a mixed (and often changing) style, and is popular among both Christian and Non-Christian metal fans. Theocracy, Narnia, Rob Rock, Jacobs Dream, and Divinefire are the most prominent Christian power metal bands. Rob Rock also achieved initial fame as the vocalist for guitar virtuoso Chris Impellitteri's band Impellitteri during the 80's and 90's and then went solo with his Rage of Creation album. He also performed guest vocals for the heavy metal band Warrior. There are many other notable bands, including Ultimatum, Becoming the Archetype, Temple of Blood, Aletheian, Crimson Thorn, Harmony, Saviour Machine, Majestic Vanguard, Soul Embraced, Sympathy, Virgin Black, Disciple, and Veni Domine.

Certain Christian metal artists have found mainstream acceptance selling millions of albums to both Christian and non-Christian fans, including P.O.D. and Stryper. Metalcore's popularity is especially based on Christian bands, including such crossover successes as Underoath, Norma Jean, Zao, As I Lay Dying, Still Remains, and Demon Hunter.

In its 2006 In Review issue (February 2007), Revolver Magazine dubbed Christian metal the phenomenon of the year. Editor in Chief Tom Beaujour interviewed the lead singers of As I Lay Dying, Demon Hunter, Norma Jean, and Underoath (Tim Lambesis, Ryan Clark, Cory Brandan, and Spencer Chamberlain, respectively) as the front-page article for the issue. Tooth and Nail Records, P.O.D., Zao, War of Ages, Still Remains, and He Is Legend were also mentioned.

[edit] Controversies

Several general market metal bands do not identify themselves as a "Christian band" but still use their lyrics to portray God in a positive light. There are some bands, Virgin Black and Klank, for example, who have Christian members but prefer to remain in the general market. Other more notable mainstream acts that feature Christian members are Anthrax (Dan Spitz), Accept (Peter Baltes), Saliva (Josey Scott), Blind Guardian (Hansi Kursch), Iron Maiden (Nicko McBrain), Avian (Lance King), Shadow Gallery, Magnitude 9, Dream Theater, Alice Cooper (who himself is a Christian), Savatage, All That Remains (Philip Labonte), and Megadeth (Dave Mustaine and David Ellefson). Other bands, such as Killswitch Engage [2] and Linkin Park [3] have members who were raised in Christian homes, thus occasionally using spiritual themes.

Certain artists, however, are controversial in that they claim Christianity while playing in bands with anti-Christian lyrics or themes. Tom Araya, Slayer's lead vocalist, claims to be a Roman Catholic despite singing overtly anti-Christian lyrics. Deicide, known for their Satanic and anti-Christian themes, includes guitarist Ralph Santolla, another professing Roman Catholic.

Certain fans of metal consider the use of Christian lyrics to be opposed to the "true" purpose of metal. On the other side, certain Christian groups, most notably those in some King James Only denominations, consider all types of rock and metal music opposed to their faith regardless of lyrical content or the lifestyles being led by band members. However, many fans and artists see metal as another genre of music, parallel to such genres as blues, classical, jazz, punk, and hip-hop. These people claim that the instrumentation of the music is simply a medium, agnostic to a worldwiew, while the person creating the music as well as the lyrics being presented provide the message. Therefore, Christian metal is created when Christians compose metal music in a way that reflects their faith in Christ.

[edit] See also


[edit] Record labels

[edit] External links

Heavy metal
Black metal - Classic metal - Death metal - Doom metal - Folk metal - Glam metal - Gothic metal - Grindcore - Industrial metal - Neo-classical metal - Nu metal - Post-metal - Power metal - Progressive metal - Speed metal - Symphonic metal - Thrash metal
Regional scenes
Scandinavian death metal - New Wave of British Heavy Metal - Bay Area thrash metal
Other topics
Fashion - Bands - Umlaut - Slang
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