Christian Metal

I’m just going to come right out and say it--I don’t get Christian metal. Maybe that’s just because I’m Jewish. Either way, why do religion and heavy metal need to be associated with one another? How does screaming, shrieking, howling and growling about Jesus seem like a good way to honor him? Heavy metal has always been a genre of music about evil, anger, frustration and coldness. I don’t understand why anyone would want to associate such a dark genre of music with their religion (unless their religion is Satanism).

Nevertheless, Christian metal is a real thing, and I’m going to tell you, my adoring readers, a little bit about it.   

Christian metal is not united by any specific musical traits, except for lyrics, which are of course about Christianity. Christian metal is usually spread amongst religious groups as well as Christian music networks of various kinds. Therefore, the music doesn’t usually get that much distribution. But there are a few more widely known Christian metal acts that have made their way to the mainstream. The lyrics of the music also generally tend to be more uplifting than that of traditional heavy metal.

Christian metal was created in the 1970s, but the first band to make it popular was Stryper in the 1980s. Combining a glam metal image with Christian lyrics, Stryper was not initially well received by critics of Christian music. Nevertheless, the band’s accessible musical style managed to strike a chord with audiences around the world, propelling them to sell millions of records. To this day, there is no Christian metal band who has received more success than Stryper.

After being rather popular in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s, Christian metal began to lose popularity during the 1990s. Stryper had broken up, and heavy metal in general was exiting the mainstream, thanks to the introduction of grunge. Christian metal became a more underground subgenre of metal, and musically started to vary more in musical extremity. 

Christian heavy metal even started to mix with black metal, in order to rival the NSBM black metal scene in Norway. This style of Christian heavy metal was called unblack metal. The scene was short-lived and now the backlash against Satanic black metal bands isn't very strong.

Christian heavy metal reentered the mainstream with the band P.O.D. The band's style of nu metal was focused on combining rap and heavy metal, and the band took lyrical inspiration from Christianity. P.O.D.'s 2001 album Satellite propelled them to success, allowing the band to achieve very high record sales. 

Since the 2000s, Christian metal has been most popular amongst the metalcore scene. Bands such as Underoath, The Devil Wears Prada, Norma Jean, As I Lay Dying and Blessthefall have all achieved a great amount of success, even with audiences outside of Christian metal. 

As years have passed, some of these bands (Underoath and Norma Jean in particular) have managed to disassociate themselves from the Christian metal scene. Many of these bands have had revolving line-ups with some musicians not even being Christian. The lyrics of many of these groups also have taken less and less influence from Christianity. 

There are also some Christian metal groups who achieve the “Christian” label just because their members are all Christian, not because their music has anything to do with the religion. These groups usually try to defend their image, denouncing the Christian metal categorization, and wishing to not be associated with the scene.

Today the Christian metal scene is still fairly active and new bands within the subgenre pop up all the time.