by Justin Luther

Created on: October 06, 2009

Looking back at when Stryper was throwing Bibles into the crowds of angry metal heads, who would have thought that Christian metal would have exploded in the way that it did? It seems unlikely that that a scene dominated by atheism and negativity would be the birthplace of hundreds of Christian bands. Yet, against all odds, Christian metal is rising to the top. For those who do not listen to metal it may not seem as prevalent, but there are few metal heads out there that have not heard of such bands as As I Lay Dying, Underoath, Haste the Day, or the Devil Wears Prada.

One of the first straight up metal bands that came onto the Christian music scene was Living Sacrifice. They were considered the pioneers of Christian metal and are still together to this day. Some of the other "founding fathers" include Zao, Embodyment, and Training For Utopia.

Most of the Christian metal bands fall under the classification of metalcore. Metalcore is an evolved sub-genre of metal that infuses breakdowns. Just take a stroll through Cornerstone festival and you are likely to be bombarded by multiple Christian metalcore bands all playing at once. New bands are getting signed all the time. Some of the latest include Earth From Above, Wrench in the Works, and The Crimson Armada.

Christian metal's journey to where it is today was not an easy one by any means. Receiving heavy criticism from both the Christian community and the metal community, it seemed like it was just going to be a short lived trend in the early 2000s. Christian's rejected Christian metal because they saw it as a bad representation of God, and metal fans rejected it because they saw it as a bad representation of metal. Yet the scene is somehow still expanding to this day. "How?" you may ask. Some may argue that it is God's will. Christian metal reaches youth in a way that regular Christian music can not.

Thousands have come to Christ at Christian festivals. Bands like For Today and Sleeping Giant treat their tours as ministry. Some of the most well known Christian metal bands today are Demon Hunter, As I Lay Dying, Norma Jean, August burns Red, and Haste the Day. There are even Christian metal exclusive record labels like Solid State, Facedown, Flicker, and Intense Records. However Christian metal came to be, one thing is certain, it is here to stay.

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