Christian Rock-The thread

Looking at the Steve Taylor thread, it made me wonder why we dont have a Christian rock thread here, so i figured i'd start one. Despite the name of the thread, you can also talk about Christian rap, techno, goth, country, industrial, even classical music. I'll start by posting one of my favorite current Christian metal bands, Theocracy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lF5x2XzLSzk

(on a side note, anyone know how to embed videos on this forum?)

to embed youtube video, check the markup that appears on the left side of the screen.

Christian and Industrial seems to me to be something mutually exclusive.

edited 11th May '13 8:58:53 AM by Quag15

You'd think that, but Argyle Park and Woven Hand made it work.

I didn't write any of that.

I've pretty much abandoned Christian music, but Living Sacrifice is a good Christian metal band. Here's a couple of theirs: "Reject", "Reborn Empowered"

Would mentioning the Danielson Famile get me shoes thrown at me...? OK, not from Meta, but still.

Also, strictly speaking Current 93's David Tibet is a very devoutly Christian industrial musician. His take on Christianity just happens to be a bit off the beaten trail, as it were.

I'll hide your name inside a word and paint your eyes with false perception.

A lot of Christian music that I've heard has ridiculously bombastic production and gruff yet strident vocals. In other words, a mix of Rascal Flatts and Nickelback.

Either that, or it's like, four or five lines repeated a billion times with more Truck Driver's Gear Change than you can shake a stick at.

However, there is some good stuff I've heard. Francesca Battistelli's "Free to Be Me" was quite enjoyable. And one of the churches I play for absolutely loves Andraé Crouch's "My Tribute". (Good thing our hymnal has the full version — most have only the refrain.)

Old-timey gospel stuff tends to be quite enjoyable too. Things like "It Is No Secret", "I'll Fly Away", etc.

Mainstream country with religious themes can be very enjoyable, too. One of my favorite obscure ones is "Cain's Blood" by 4 Runner.

edited 13th May '13 11:08:33 AM by Twentington

For reasons I don't quite understand, the only Christian bands that cross over to the mainstream seem to be Post-Grunge or metal / nu-metal. (Or in the case of Switchfoot, their sudden mainstream popularity coincided with them injecting a bunch of post grunge into their music. To steal a turn of phrase from JHM, they got boring before they got famous.) Which is an unfortunate misrepresentation, but not without its silver linings: if Carman were more widely known, Christian rock would be mocked even more than it already is.

From what I've heard, most of Woven Hand's fans are just people who have been following David Eugene Edwards since his old band Sixteen Horsepower. Not me, though. I was looking up information about Danielson Famile online, found the website for their record label and started listening to the other musicians featured there—Woven Hand was one of them.

Incidentally, that was also how I got into Sufjan Stevens. (Oh, for the days when Tooth & Nail Records signed artists like Danielson.) There's something sad about the way Daniel Smith boosted Sufjan to indie fame, but remains obscure himself.

edited 13th May '13 1:48:43 PM by MetaFour

I didn't write any of that.

It is unfortunate, but not entirely surprising. At the stage in Sufjan's career when Smith gave him his backing, the disparity in accessibility between the two was pretty broad; while I would never say that the former has compromised his vision, I wouldn't call him "uncompromising" in the same way that I would the latter, if you know what I mean. Sufjan Stevens can be quite formidable at his strangest, he can also be extremely immediate, whereas Danielson are quite consistently somewhere between "somewhat quirky" and "fairly weird" with the occasional spike of "say what now..." thrown in for good measure.

Which is why I love their work, really, but it's certainly not everyone's cup of tea.

I'll hide your name inside a word and paint your eyes with false perception.

If Daniel Smith really wanted to be more famous, he'd ask his wife Elin to sing the lead more often. She has a lovely voice.

I didn't write any of that.

Christian rock as a genre would be great if more songs like like Within Temptation's and less like "I Have a Friend in Jesus". It's like people are so utterly desesperate to please their god that they need to reassaure themselves by inserting "Jesus" every two stanzas.

Come Now Sleep by As Cities Burn is a great indie/post-hardcore/post-rock hybrid that I can enjoy despite being way outside the lyricist's target audience. It's more on the spiritual side from what I can tell, so that helps me take it more seriously.

Behold, Demon Hunter.

No regret shall pass over the threshold!

I feel the same, even though I am a Christian I tend to prefer(with the exception of some hyms and sincere songs) stuff that's more subtle about it.

I don't mind it at all. It's their band after all so they can sing it however they wish. I listen to plenty of christian rock that doesn't mention Jesus and/or is so subtle that most don't even know they're listening to a christian rock band.

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edited 21st Jan '15 4:07:36 PM by BobMoran

I like P.O.D. and King's X, and that's about it, and the last one don't usually even call themselves Christian Rock- they like to think of themselves as "A Rock band who happen to be Christian"...

Well, I guess I like a few Christian Ska Punk and Pop Punk bands, too- Mx Px come to mind, as do Five Iron Frenzy come to mind immediately, but still, the number's pretty small, for the various reasons mentioned in the thread and as a result of my views on organized religion...

If at first ya don't succeed, try a bit more, then give up or cheat... ;) -Myself Nothing can stop me now! -Piggy by Nine Inch Nails

I pretty much follow Peter Furler wherever he goes, which is why I should probably pick up The Perfect Foil one of these days.

Also I am very fond of Burlap to Cashmere. I'd gladly wait another ten years for an album on par with their first two.

Some months back, my dad and I were discussing how much we wish there were more songs by Christian songwriters that dealt with more than just "worship". Which is what I like about Furler, and Burlap to Cashmere. I want to hear songs about everything in life, all the sticky and difficult and beautiful stuff, just from a Christian perspective.

Yes, Goliath was an amazing album. One of my top three of 2014.

As I've said elsewhere, I've always been wary of musicians whose fans praise the lyrics more than the music—and that's why I never checked out Steve Taylor sooner. But on Goliath, the music totally holds its own. Love it.

They're out there. See Wovenhand, mewithoutYou, Danielson Famile, Sufjan Stevens, Gileah Taylor, Bill Mallonee, Other Desert Cities. I also really freaking love Starflyer 59 and Joy Electric, but they're not bands you listen to for the lyrics.

It's just that the Christian rock scene has scattered since its heyday in the 90s and 00s. So the bands that want to sing about a wide variety of topics—without getting held to a "Jesuses per minute" standard—are just signing to mainstream labels and playing in bars and clubs. And the bands that haven't abandoned the "Christian rock" distribution channels (which are mainly subsidiaries of mainstream labels, oh the irony) are the praise-and-worship groups or the explicitly evangelizing ones.

I didn't write any of that.

The other day I got thinking about Christian versions of heavier music (e.g. white metal, life metal, etc.) and I really want to start the Christian equivalent of powerviolence and call it something like Righteous Anger.

That would actually be awesome- I'd listen to Christian Powerviolence for the sheer insanity alone...

Never thought of Stevens as a Christian musician, for whatever reason. Also, now that you mention them, never really put Starflyer there either. Joy Electric are pretty solid though, modern Synth-Pop ftw! Wonder how I forgot about 'em earlier...

Also, I agree- it's kinda fragmented, to the point where a lot of bands may have members who are Christian and occasionally mention those themes in their lyrics, but don't identify as Christian Rock to avoid the stigma of being associated with bands who are all preachy about it, which is kinda what's associated with the term... I have no problem with a band or artist touching on it or whatever, as long as a) they're clever or thoughtful about it and b) it's not ALL they sing about.

Seems to me that Neal Morse, keyboardist and lead singer of Spock's Beard, is Christian and has done some solo albums addressing the subject matter, and they were quite well-done and thoughtful. Another one worth mentioning. Also, the last SB album he played on (Snow) was kinda about his conversion, so there's that, too.

edited 26th Jan '15 7:54:30 PM by sharkcrap11

If at first ya don't succeed, try a bit more, then give up or cheat... ;) -Myself Nothing can stop me now! -Piggy by Nine Inch Nails

The funny thing about Starflyer and Joy Electric is that neither of them has any problem wearing the "Christian rock" label, even though they may go whole albums without mentioning God outright in their lyrics. While other musicians may identify with Christianity and mention God a lot in their lyrics (I'm specifically thinking of Danielson) but say that they don't consider themselves "Christian music".

It makes it hard to talk about this music, since everyone has a different definition of what does or doesn’t count as Christian music.

I didn't write any of that.

I'm gonna take some of these posts as recommendations. Thanks, guys!

I wish we could get rid of the "Christian Rock" label entirely. For one thing, we get bands with wildly different styles being lumped together. For another, yeah, there's plenty of musicians who "happen to be Christian" and aren't in the Christian scene at all. (Which is fine by me.) But I doubt we'll ever get rid of this easy way for over-concerned/under-involved parents to decide whether or not their kid should listen to So-and-So. (Or lazy/legalistic people in general deciding whether they themselves should listen to So-and-So.)

I admit, I'm interested in the worldviews of the people I listen to. I'm interested in who considers themselves Christian, whether or not their lyrics mention God. But this genre wall we've built is not actually helping.

@Finger Puppet "Righteous Anger" would be a great name for a powerviolence band. Kinda reminds me of a Christianity Today article awhile back about how rap was well-suited for expressing Reformed theology.

I generally don't care for Christian rock. Most of it is so boring and toothless. For that same reason, I don't like Christian rap either. I find most Christian music is just repeating the same messages over and over again. Me being agnostic, I don't agree with the messages at all.

When you say "Most of it", what exactly have you listened to? There is (or at least used to be) lots of meaty Christian rock groups, but for some reason it's always the blandest that wind up the most successful.

edited 16th May '17 11:59:35 AM by MetaFour

I didn't write any of that.