Fun topic! Just to know what're your best christian metal bands of all time? I'll go for the list myself.

1. Neon Cross

2. Barren Cross

3. Zion

4. Saint

How about yours?

Black Sabbath

Sacrament - Haunts Of Violence is my all-time favorite Christian Thrash album
Deliverance - Self titled album is my favorite of theirs but outside of a lot of their 90s output, they smoke.
Believer - First album crushes, 2nd album is merely awesome.
Living Sacrifice - Self titled debut and that's it for me. The singer sounds like Tom Araya and the music rages but doesn't really sound like Slayer
Tourniquet - Kind of hit or miss with me but I know some people that love them
Stryper - The Rock That Makes Me Roll and Soldiers Under Command are both great tracks from their early stuff and some of their later tunes don't suck. I know that they catch a lot of shit, but fuck it. They were a part of my growth from evolving from a Rocker to a Metalhead.

This and also some bonus ones:

Seventh Angel - extremely unique thrash with a doomy flavour (on the first two albums). Some great riffage - sometimes with a Celtic Frost flavour and other times (more on the second album) with little bits of AJFA vibes.
Bloodgood - the first two albums are extremely good examples of melodic and riffy USPM with some great vocals.

-Theocracy by far the most enjoyable band I have ever heard. I've talked with the singer a few times, great guy.
-Deliverance is fantastic and again, I've talked with the singer and he's pretty cool.
-Stryper everyone knows.
-Whitecross is basically Christian Ratt, not on the heavier side but very good.
-Seventh Angel is great, definitely unique as someone else mentioned.
-Recon sounded a bit like a speedier Queensryche and their guitarist later joined Deliverance. Their only album is pretty good.
-The Showdown is not explicitly Christian but the members are and their last three albums are all quite enjoyable.
-Signun Regis is solid power metal.
-Harmony is very much like Theocracy, but less intense.
-Project Aegis is a charity project run by the singer from Theocracy with a bunch of guest vocalists.
-Oracle has a song called "Desolate Kings" with one of the coolest riffs I know.
-Ordained Fate were pretty good from the demo collection I have. Haven't actually heard their studio albums.

I agree with the above poster about Theocracy being the most enjoyable Christian metal band. Their last two albums are especially great, probably some of the best power metal to come out of North America.

1. Leviticus: although they haven't released anything in years they've got some very good songs such as don't go out, I shall conquer etc. They currently have the vocalist of their 1989 album which I think only had two good songs in it. But the legendary first vocalist which sung on the strongest power plays bass and sometimes sings lead vocals live such as in 2016 with you want to stay with us and in 2012 with let me fight. But yeah, these guys have been a huge inspiration to me and definitely deserve a listen from every Christian metalhead.

2. Driver: I've only listened to the driver ep and Boy was it a bomb. The first song has that masterful guitar work by Roy z and I think Rudy sarzo played bass? Rob rock gives a powerful performance in every song. Great continuation of MARS. Although these guys don't perform live anymore I think, just Rob rock performs some of their songs.

3. Warlord: the ultimate Christian metal band with epic elements inside their music. I don't have any words to say about them. Everyone in the forum knows how good they are and what an influence they had on a lot of new bands.

Hesychast

Antestor. The Forsaken is a masterpiece of melodic black metal.

Yes. How ironic that one of the most essential albums in black metal was made by Christians.

Whiteheart, White Cross, De Garmo & Key, Mortification, Sacrificium, Sacred Warrior, Guardian, Vengeance Rising, Die Happy.

But if you mention a Christian band on a "secular" thread here, your contribution will be totally ignored - a strange thing indeed.

Only truly ironic if you believe BM to be inherently satanic rather than just another genre of music defined by sound.

Incubus/Opprobrium

Revelation, especially the debut "Salvation's Answer" is my go-to Christian album, and one of my all-time favourite albums. What I love about it is that it's not a preachy bible-bashing sermon, instead it's more of an introspective personal soul-search: one man struggling with his spirituality, and the weak vocals just add to the sense of frailty. I never get tired of listening to it, and it almost makes me wish I was a believer.

Griftegård deserve a mention too, albeit with a totally different approach: no-one does epic fire-and-brimstone bombast better, in my opinion.

Xinr was pretty rad. Traditional heavy metal/muscular USPM of the archaic variety. They had an ass load of swagger in their sound, and their vocalist had some distinctive wails.

Although I am the complete opposite of Christianity's views, I like quite a bit of Christian music. As long as its not too preachy. Two guys I went to high school with, volunteered for Lightshine Ministries. I have seen many of the bands from the Pennsylvania area live. One of the best, was when I saw Erie Nye (bassist for Sacrament) with Sardonyx. Before the show he hung out with myself and some friends. He asked us if we like Sacrament? We said yes of course. He told us to hold on. He went in the back and came out with a few boxes of Sacrament merchandise. It was every shirt and album they had put out. He told us to help ourselves. Then the real topper was, he went on stage and played Sacrament songs on bass for me. I have met a lot of musicians, but he takes the cake. Cant believe he cut that hair and is a dentist in PA now. I hate that I lost contact with him.

Some bands that I still listen to this day.

Zion - Thunder from the Mountain. My all time favorite Christian metal album. Just completely blows me away. Its a shame the guitarist/singer moved onto X-Sinner.

Believer - As was said absolutely crushing riffs. Everyone knows them. Not much more is needed to be said.

Paramaecium - Australian doom, with Jayson Sherlock on drums. Someone way back when told me this is tuned to F#. Either way, super crushing.

Sacrament - Really great thrash. First guitarist I ever saw sweep.

Vengeance Rising - Human Sacrifice, could go against any thrash album of the time. I stayed in touch with Roger Martinez, up to just a few years ago. He is a real estate guy in Cali now. Makes a million a week. His words, not mine.

Possession - Eternally Haunt. I am huge horror fan and have seen people killed in the military. I am not phased. The beginning of this album actually bothers me to this day. A recording from a church, where the entire congregation is possessed. Totally fucked up. The singer told me he caught it on some Christian radio programming. The albums slays. I believe it is so underrated, its the only review that I have written here. Its a mix of Dark Angel and King Diamond. I legitimately thought this was some hardcore Satanic shit the first time I heard it. Crazy shit.

I may have missed it, but I don't think I saw Wytch Hazel mentioned yet. Some absolutely fantastic stuff, particularly their third album, Pentecost.

Why do you listen to this shit?

Some of it is good. Some of it isn't - just like all music.

I did a series of threads on this over at ultimatemetal.com forums if anyone is interested. I listed a slew of Thrash, Death, and (Un)Black bands with short descriptions and songs embedded. I'm not sure if you'd have any issues seeing them if you're not registered but we could always use new blood there if you're so inclined. Most of the guys on there were not too interested so it'd be nice to discuss with some folks who are so inclined.

Thrash:
https://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/thr ... e.1731062/

Death:
https://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/thr ... e.1735061/

(Un)Black:
https://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/thr ... e.1735760/

I can list and describe some of these bands here if you have any problems accessing those threads. Let me know if there's anything you like.

I'm not religious in any way, and Wytch Hazel's latest is one of my favourite albums of the last decade.

Great guitar, kickass drums. Any other questions?

From what I posted above, I'd like to highlight Evroklidon whose album "The Flame of Sodom" is a masterpiece of Ukrainian (Un)Black Metal (and largely unknown).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkLekhw ... x332R1J6JE

What about Resurrection Band?

They have heavy metal elements & harmonies….they could be worthy to be put on the archives

I was listening to best of earlier…it sounded like deep purple or heavy 70’s sound or classic rock sound

Cool band…might listen to some more

Tourniquet has fev good albums.

Trouble

Opprobrium and Mortification are sick you should check them out

My favorite has always been Embodyment. What an interesting career they had. Going from Brutal Death Metal>Deathcore/Death Metal>Alternative Metal>Alternative Rock>(borderline)Pop Rock. I personally enjoy all their music. As far as metal goes, I don't see anything wrong with their demo stuff that is above average BDM. Their 1998 album is hard to pinpoint but it's an interesting hybrid of Deathcore/DM/Metalcore. I've noticed that Christian bands tend to have very good drummers and the performers in Embodyment hold true to that.

Reverorum ib Malacht

Vials of Wrath, Christian Black Metal/Ambient from the USA.

I like to call them "Christian Agalloch" because the band is fully Agalloch worship. Really good stuff.

My knowledge of Christian metal is pretty limited, but I'm gonna give both of these recommendations my support. Theocracy is beyond amazing, one of the better power metal groups I've ever come across. Mirror Of Souls or whatever that one album of theirs is called is fantastic.

There's one other group called Emerald from California I'd like to mention here, I'm pretty sure they're Christian.

Wow, I've been a Opprobrium fan for quite a while and it's only today I'm learning they're a Christian band.

I don't think I'd call Incubus/Opprobrium a Christian band. They have a small handful of songs with those lyrics in their catalog, but I do remember one song with an f-bomb on their first album (when they were still known as Incubus), which actually has the most pro-Christian albums.

Here is one other song on the debut album, "Underground Killers".

They kill for a reason
They'll strike anyone
Doesn't matter how old or young
Pay 'em big cash, they'll give 'em a slash
Explain how it should be done
A shot in the head
The man cut in half
Tortured 'till death
You'll never see him back

Underground killers
They are everywhere
Killing for money
They don't care
Leaving their victims covered with blood
Underground killers
Will make a mess
Whose killing plans have been set
Murdering their victims without mercy
They promise to make it worse
Tell 'em their next mission
And they'll give 'em death
Burn him alive
A high voltage jolt
A stab in the back
They promise you'll see him dead

Slay the victim to death
Dead bodies everywhere
Brutality is their authority
Killers are not afraid of death

Underground killers
They are everywhere
Killing for money
They don't care
Leaving their victims covered with blood
Underground killers
Will make a mess
Whose killing plans have been set
Murdering their victims without mercy
They promise to make it worse
More massacre for the long future generation
Their customers are the only police source of information
You've paid 'em in full
For the dirty job they've done
Now you must die
Like the other ones

Not really something I'd expect to see on a Christian album.

Also, the most recent album by Opprobrium, their 2019 album The Fallen Entities, didn't have any Christian/religious content at all.

Extol

Guess I’ll have to drop their album in the bathtub to see if it sinks or floats, like the Christianfinder General.

I listen to a ton of Christian music (choral, classical, early, etc). Don’t think I have any obviously Christian metal. Well, or I didn’t notice it at least.

Dark Funeral.



...I'll see myself out.

The first three tracks on Barnabas' '86 record are absolutely incredible. The rest is meh.
The most recent Elgibbor record is high-quality black metal.
Saint's mid-late eighties output was really good. Like a crunchier Judas Priest.
I like Mortification's demo tapes but once you get to Scrolls of the Megaloth they kind of start to lose their aggressive edge, in my view.

Scrools of the Megiloth by Mortification is a classic of early 90s death metal. Steve Rowe nailed it on capturing the vibe of the current death metal of the time. It's a bit by numbers for death metal, but it's well done, very professional, and I'd even say a sort of classic of the genre. Possibly the best christian death metal album?

They have other interesting albums, although i'd say that their catalogue is inconsistent after the first couple of albums.

I used to like Believer as well, and Incubus/Opprobium also play an interesting type of death metal, very thrashy and brutal. Good 80s/90s stuff.

On a Christian metal related note, Scott Waters is a metal YouTuber who is also the vocalist for a Christian metal band called Ultimatum.

Today he uploaded a video on his YouTube channel. He opens a parcel I mailed him as a birthday gift (the first parcel he opens in the video is the one I mailed him). There is no Christian metal in the parcel, but I thought I'd post it here, since he is the vocalist for a Christian metal band.

Oh wow. I've watched some of his videos before and never realized he was the singer of Ultimatum. I've had Puppet of Destruction in my collection for at least 15 years.

What makes it "shit"?