Yeah, abundantly so. A lot of their lyrics are and if you go on bandcamp you can see how the band describes itself and the views of the lead songwriter Colin. Very Christian.

You can't go wrong with Wytch Hazel, Deliverance and of course Stryper!!

Good to know I'm not the only person on this site who loves Stryper!

I always thought Michael Sweet and Oz Fox were both great guitarists. They do a lot of impressive harmony soloing. The first album reminds me a lot of very early Motley Crue. Always enjoyed their first few records.

Stryper hold up surprisingly well, even now. Glad there's lots of mentions for Wytch Hazel - the Christianity there comes largely from the vocalist / songwriter, so there's plenty of room in the band's setlist for standard songs / ballads / etc. that aren't so themed.

Back to Stryper though - their cover of "Carry on Wayward Son" is absolutely one of my favourite things ever

So nice to see some Stryper love on here! As much as I thrive from Black Metal, I do hold still a special love for these guys, not going to lie! Stryper was my first Metal show ever, 1988 - the IGWT tour w/Hurricane, and then saw 'em again with their Murder by Pride tour! These guy's music still holds up immensely well today!

A small handful of other christian bands I listen to on occasion are not so much the bands themselves, but just a few albums...
Trouble's full-length s/t album from 1990 (US band)
Mass' New Birth album from 1985 (US band)
and, Kryst the Conqueror's Deliver Us from Evil album from 1990

And, that's pretty much it. With Stryper's music, I can pretty much listen to the majority of their discography at any given time... I used to have all 3 of the above albums on cassette, a long time ago; I seriously need to get 'em again, as it has been so long.....

I have very few experiences with Christian metal bands, but I was considering going through a handful of them on here just to assess the quality of Christian thrash or heavy metal as a whole.

I bought two albums unaware that they were Christian bands. One was good and the other was bad.
Armageddon - The Money Mask was pretty good. I owned a copy for a short while before I sold it on Discogs.
https://www.metal-archives.com/bands/Ar ... _USA/16326
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwW8vdQA2Ck

The other was this laughably bad death metal band Metanoia. I only listened to their album Don't Walk Dead, but their debut album might be worth checking out though.
https://www.metal-archives.com/bands/Metanoia/3275

One band I have never ever heard mentioned is Stongarm. Their first album Atonement is hardcore metal (a guess), bordering on thrash at times. This album is fucking thunderous, especially blasted through the headphones. It sounds like they turned their stacks up to ten. Some seriously fucking heavy guitars. I also have no idea how the vocalist did this live. Had to blow his voice out every night. Probably the limit for me on preachiness, but I honestly can’t understand most of what he is yelling anyway.

https://youtu.be/sL8Vgbcmghg

This one gave me some Anacrusis feels, specially the parts with clean vocals

Wytch Hazel for sure. In fact their album was my numer one album last year.
I remember buying an album called Atomic Arena in the late 80's from a band called Barren Cross that was pretty good.
Trad Heavy Metal with good hooks.

I've did a quick listen at Slechtvalk's discography and i've been impressed with their album A Forlorn Throne: it's a well written melodic black album with decent production values, not the most innovative stuff around but i enjoyed it!

Woah, I'd forgotten all about Slechtvalk. At the Dawn of War was a pretty cool album.

Not sure if you guys are familiar with Extol but they're one of my absolute favorite Christian metal bands and I haven't seen them mentionned in this thread. Here are a few cuts from their last 2 albums that I really love.





I also enjoy Stryper a whole lot. I think Michael Sweet is one of the greatest and most powerful singers in metal today. I'm not a religious man but these bands along with all the satanic black metal shit I listen to shake my atheist foundations from both sides.

I was surprised to learn Antestor have been recording material since 1994 and are considered Norwegian "unblack" metal. In tape trading days someone sent me a tape of theirs. It only said Antestor on it. I was surprised to later learn that they were Christian dudes. I am not the biggest black metal fan, but do listen to it now and again. Antestor is a decent band. They actually improved with later material.

Sacrament's 2nd and final album is my favorite Christian Thrash album of all-time and I love listening to Believer, Deliverance, Detritus and Living Sacrifice's debut.

LOVE the tight, intricate rhythm guitars on this album, the leads are competent, the drumming is solid and I like the vocalist because he's not a singer but not over the top Death, just good late 80's style Thrash vocals.

Hah. I saw that tour as well. In Cincy.

I'm the same as you. I might not listen to them much anymore, but Stryper will always have a place. Oz Fox is a great player, very underrated in my opinion.

Would anyone here consider Kings X a Christian band, or a metal band? They completely deny it now, but their first few albums are all based off CS Lewis novels. They also do a lot of metaphors for God. Always thought they started as a Christian band, but for reasons I won’t get into here they distanced themselves from that label. Either way it’s fine by me. Their earlier stuff isn’t preachy at all and I always liked their music. I know people that practically worship these guys. I never got into them like that. I just like some of their music. If by some chance you have never heard them, I would give them a listen. I would say they are progressive metal.

I know they were taken off the archives, but yeah, they're a metal band to me. And there's no doubt that the first albums are heavily Christian. There's hardly any fire and brimstone* and the message is largely life-affirming and positive, so I don't mind. There's some anti-abortion stuff, however, which is very unfortunate.

Let me just add that I admire Doug Pinnick immensely for finding the strength to do what must have been some difficult personal reflection and consequently deciding to distance himself from the community/environment that was not exactly willing to welcome him with open arms. I love the band so much, this just makes it that much easier to love them.

*For fire and brimstone, early Trouble is unbeatable. I know they denied it at some point too, but those early albums are insane in how fanatical the lyrics are. It is a testament to the band's immense talent that they managed to pull it off.

Damn (pun not intended), I'm now facing up to the fact that some of my favorite metal is pretty Christian.

If that was kong's blood I think there label covered up all the christian stuff because they thought it would hurt record sales.
I actually like that album and think it's one of there best.

I wish they would put out something new.

Yes, and Schaliach, previous band of riff cleric Ole Børud, great ecstatic solos on this album

Gotta go with Theocracy. Mirror of Souls rips.

Christian metal is my jam. Here are some of my favorites and IMO are more than just "Christian alternatives to ________" and/or just make stellar music. (Some have already been mentioned.)

Antestor (black)
Becoming The Archetype (proggy death)
Classica (classic/heavy/prog)
Crimson Moonlight (black/death)
Dalit (doom/death - also check out related bands Stronghold, Cloth, and Aspiration)
Death Therapy (industrial/groove/progressive)
Epta Astera (black/doom/post-rock - fans of later Kauan may find much to like here...)
Forsaken (epic doom, the one from Malta)
Hesychast (black, did the Batushka thing before Batushka)
Holy Tide (melodic power)
Kreyson (power)
Leonov (post-rock/avant-garde)
Lo-Ruhamah (black/death)
Nomad Son (epic doom)
Pantokrator (proggy death)
Place Of Skulls (trad doom)
Pylon (trad/epic doom)
Reflection Of Glory (melodic/symphonic power)
Renascent (symphonic death)
Sawol (doom/death/rock)
Schaliach (melodic death)
Skald in veum (black)
Slechtvalk (black/folk/death)
Theocracy (proggy power)
Under The Sun (trad doom)
Vials Of Wrath (black a la WITTR, etc.)
Virgin Black (gothic/doom)
Warlord (epic)
Wytch Hazel (heavy)

And not metal, but 16 Horsepower and Wovenhand have overtly Christian lyrics but their dark and brooding music appeals to a pretty broad range of folks, particularly metalheads.

If it hasn't been mentioned yet,the first two Sacred Warrior albums, Rebellion (1988) and Master's Command (1989), are strong and robust US Power Metal with strong, emotional guitar solos, and passionate, operatic (but not weak) vocals.

Rebellion opens up with fast-paced and hilarious song "Black Metal" ("hair parted between the eyes", say the lyrics and you immediately think of the ridiculous early BM photos - this is 1988 remarkably enough).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNmt2oUFQVo

Second up is "Mad Mad World", which is medium-paced, and we get a ballad ("He Died") and another faster one ("Children of the Light"). There are similarities to Maiden "Beast" and "Piece of Mind" era.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8kCgCJLQNg

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

A more madcap all-female-plus-male-drummer thrash band is Ordained Fate, check out their 1992 self-titled album - in your face lyrics ("take off your gold cross if you don't believe") and very dark and gothic band pictures for the Christian scene of the time.

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

Absolute brillance indeed briz. An album that's ahead of its time.

I'm really into Opprobrium and the first Trouble album lately, and just recently discovered the Christian references on the first Hirax record, I didn't expect that one at all...
I don't usually give a damn about lyrics (outside of Mgla, the only ones I take any interest in) but I do try to avoid reading Christian preaching, even if it's written in a cool, 'metal' way...

The Jesus Metal Explosion is way better :

Hesychast before anything else

https://hesychast.bandcamp.com/album/ageless

Wow that's actually not a bad song for the genre. I wonder if the lyrics would work better not written in English ?

"Jeesusmetalliräjähdys" sounds even more awful to a native ear.