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CARLOS RAMIREZ STRIKES AGAIN! POSTS LIST OF TOP TEN CHRISTIAN METAL BANDS

 Wednesday, January 13th, 2010 at 4:30pm by

christian-death-metal

We had quite the debate about Christian metal and being pro-life versus pro-choice yesterday, and just in time to keep the vitriol flowing comes yet another list from our pal Carlos “I Must Really Enjoy Pissing People Off” Ramirez. He’s posted his picks for the top ten Christian metal bands of all time over at Noisecreep.

I wish I could get the ball rolling on this little argument y’all are surely about to have, but I literally have never heard of at least half the bands on this list. But there are at least three (As I Lay Dying, Zao and Believer) that I think are really good bands, so maybe I should check out some of these others.

Read the list here, then bitch and moan in our comments section below.

-AR

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  • John

    Strongarm didn’t get good until they turned into Further Seems Forever.

  • Ziltoid

    Mortification
    Extol
    Believer
    Theocracy
    Antestor
    Crimson Moonlight

    That’s pretty much all you need.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Anthony-Showalter/100000592087843 Anthony Showalter

      Yeah, Antestor rule. And Trouble is classic stuff.

    • http://thenumberoftheblog.wordpress.com/ groverXIII

      I came to make sure Mortification was on the list. They were my introduction to metal. I’m leaving satisfied.

      • your idol

        I got all I need. nothing. 0 christian metal albums and proud. can I get a hail Satan!

        • Chief.

          HAIL SATAN!

  • Dwarfskeet

    I always liked Demon Hunter a bit, especially towards the beginnings of my traversing through the world of metal. My friend introduced me to em, though now they aren’t heavy enough, and sound very generic, I still like em alright. Plus their logo is pretty badass.

    • Andy Synn

      I also love them, and bear no shame for doing so.

      We all have our vices.

      • msv81

        Wow, dude. If listening to one Christian metal band is a vice for you, consider yourself lucky. Between smoking WAY too much weed, being horribly addicted to cigarettes, being a total lush, and delving into all sorts of self-destructive behavior, I simultaneously envy and pity you. LOL.

    • DemonicLemming

      I was surprised they weren’t on the list….not really great music, but pretty good and definitely listenable.

  • Andy Synn

    Slayer? Megadeth… ok, all joking aside, no to As I Lay Dying.

    Becoming The Archetype to replace them. With some Living Sacrifice thrown in.

    Extol are ace.

    • Mike the Mike

      Becoming the Archetype are amaing – one of the better bands I’ve heard recently.

    • Pete

      Living Sacrifice all the way. Can’t wait for the new album.

    • tinlunchbox

      you said it with becoming the archetype. Great band and great dudes. I might have the good fortune of playing sitar on their next album, I’m pumped!

  • http://wordsforguns.com Matt DeBenedictis

    Zao’s inclusion is very questionable as two members have stated numerous times that they believe in no god.

    • timmah

      Yeah…however!

      Early Zao lyrics are as cliche as the lyrics from yesterday’s underoath post. Read the lyrics from the album “The splinter shards the birth of separation.” Good stuff.

  • bobovdeath

    the only christian death i know of is the one rozz williams sang for

    • treble67

      And the only one worth listening to!

      • http://www.facebook.com/people/Anthony-Showalter/100000592087843 Anthony Showalter

        1

  • ebennett

    Extol is very good out side of that, meh.

    • builtforsin

      Extol shreds.

  • Ben

    Extol and Mortification are awesome. List is missing Living Sacrifice and Becoming The Archetype.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Anthony-Showalter/100000592087843 Anthony Showalter

      If anyone has seen the BME Pain Olympics, Mortification is the band playing in the background. The song is called “Livi’n Like a Zombie”

      • http://lavidastrangiato.blogspot.com/ Jake Strangiato

        Are you serious? That’s awesome!

  • Cisco

    Hands should be included on there as well, but they are a fairly new band. If anyone is curious, they should definitely check them out.

    • http://www.gravatar.com/avatar/46e389eb8b79606050d3d447431ff6ac?s=80 Nate

      cisco… you are an idiot. That is all.

      • Cisco

        Hey, thanks for the compliment.

  • treble67

    The emphasis is on “with” not “hell”. To Hell WITH the devil. Stryper are satanists in disguise. Get a clue and stay away from that crap.

    • http://jas09.deviantart.com JAS09

      LOL, looks like we got a fundie on here. The funny thing is, you sound like the kind of person who wouldn’t even touch the kind of music we cover. You obviously don’t belong here.

  • Jason S.

    Although never really claiming to be “Christian” and have since denounced God, King’s X should’ve been on that list somewhere. I mean they’re heavier (and better) than Stryper.

  • Natalie

    Extol is pretty good.

  • Taleim

    Has there ever been a feature on extol on here? They’re a really good band, though their last album was shit. Undecieved is a fucking great album.

    • http://www.myspace.com/thestarsthrewdowntheirspears Tim

      Seriously. Undeceived is why I got into extreme metal. I vaguely recall a post on here last year saying that a few members of Extol were starting a new band…

      Becoming The Archetype definitely deserves some mention here! Terminate Damnation is incredible, and has some of my favorite cover art ever, and the Devin Townsend-produced Dichotomy is an essential.

      • orbital

        did not find Dichotomy that great. I actually deleted it off my iPod

      • alliaphagist

        that ex-Extol band is Mantric and they have new album coming out very soon

  • SP420

    NO ROB ROCK?!? WTF CMON

  • Octillus

    The only valid answer is Trouble, always been Trouble and always will be Trouble.

    • bearbomb

      Took a long time for somebody to mention Trouble! Shame on the rest of you. +1 for you sir.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/David-Hulsey/653830783 David Hulsey

    Extol
    Believer
    Tourniquet
    Trouble
    Becoming the Archetype
    Living Sacrifice (only certain albums)
    Mortification (only the first three albums)
    Vengeance Rising
    Jacobs Dream
    Biogenesis
    Human Paradox
    Narnia (for guitarist ONLY)
    Bride (early)
    At The Throne of Judgment
    King’s X

    I have more but all of these are worth a shit, I promise. One of my friends is the singer of Jacob’s Dream and we used to trade albums all the time…Christian for Secular…in an effort to find new bands.

  • http://www.myspace.com/thestarsthrewdowntheirspears Tim

    http://www.metalsucks.net/2009/10/22/ok-so-this-band-mantric-pretty-much-rules/

    There’s the post… new band with former members of Extol.

  • yetzer hara

    there are tons and tons of metal bands with christian members that do not invoke christian themes in the music/lyrics… that being said, i don’t believe there is any room for christian themes in metal.

    although i will say that i was tricked by breach and only realized that the lyrical themes were christian after i’d already fallen in love with their album, “venom.”

  • iolanach

    Nice to see Tourniquet there. They’re pretty damn good.

  • bobovdeath

    fuck christian “metal”

  • Facebook User

    Wow! You guys aren’t as pissed as I expected. Great to see people enjoy Extol as much as I do!

  • Matt52

    August Burns Red ftw

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Keith-Brown/537636633 Keith Brown

    MOTHERFUCKER TROUBLE ISN’T CHRISTIAN METAL

    For fuck’s sake, Trouble sang about christianity the same way Sabbath sang about Christianity. Is Sabbath considered a christian metal band? No, so why is Trouble? They even fucking SAID in a Decibel article about Psalm 9 that being labeled as “white metal” was Brian Slagel’s idea.

    rage abounds…

    • Trux

      dude check the lyrics off albums like The Skull and then tell me those are not christian lyrics….

      Glad to see all those bands in the list…… all bands are really amazing and worth checking out…yeah, including Stryper…

  • needly needly doo

    try for today that may be a little up front with the jesus bullshit but they get me movin every time i listen to them. They also put on an excellent show. August burns red too

  • mike

    Becoming the Archetype. Enough said.

    • Dwarfskeet

      I had completely forgot about them for some reason. They are very good. I like them quite a bit.

  • pariah

    zao, extol and living sacrifice is where it’s at as far as i’m concerned. zao is by far the best metalcore band out there imho.

  • Rachel

    And they aren’t Christian emo/metalcore/The Devil Wears Prada. I’m impressed.

  • Chris Berseth

    Becoming the Archetype, Extol, Living Sacrifice and Tourniquet all completely own.

  • NoNameNoSlogan

    “All the best bands are affiliated with Satan” – Bart Simpson

    • Biff Tannen

      My thoughts exactly.

  • Jason

    No Living Sacrifice? Weak.

    Remove As I Lay Dying and put LS in there and that list owns.

  • alliaphagist

    Extol is my absolute favorite band. And we need some Drottnar love here too.

  • Goatboy

    “Human Sacrifice” by Vengeance (Rising) is one of the best metal albums of all time. Not many bands were putting out albums as heavy as this baby in 1988!

  • Grymmbear

    NO LO-RUHAMAH?!??!!?!?

    http://www.myspace.com/loruhamahofficial

    Quite saddened, but hey, at least we got Zao and Believer on there!

  • Jason

    Vengeance Rising is ridiculously awesome.

  • Experienced

    When I was in high school in the early ’90 a friend turned me onto a Christian thrash band called Detritus. I was — and still am — a huge fan of Xentrix and they share a lot of similarities in style, a la the sounds of Testament and Metallica at the time. http://www.myspace.com/detritusfan

  • http://folkblackdeath.tumblr.com jc

    Drep de kristne

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Robert-Livingston/25310975 Robert Livingston

    I’m calling bullshit on this list for it’s lack of Living Sacrifice.

  • AATHD

    Faith + 1 owns them all! None of these bands will gea a mirh (or however you spell it) album.

    • Alex_P

      We should not forget Multiple Godgasm. Burn in Heaven indeed.

  • Alex_P

    For funny Christian metal, try Faith Factor. I love the fact that they’re all 40+ year old Maiden fans making fools of themselves for the hell of it, and their lyrics and delivery are uproarious. Definitely they are the band I ironilove the most.

  • villanj1

    I haven’t seen the list yet. I haven’t read any comments yet. If Extol isn’t number-fucking-one…

  • Deathexplosion

    LET JESUS FUCK YOU!

  • http://themetalgrinder.com M Kraatz

    WHERE’S TDWP???!

  • Carbonthief

    i loves me some antestor. just something about the idea of christian black metal, just seems so metal. i mean, that’s just like saying fuck you to everyone, what is the target audience? it’s the ballsiest thing i’ve ever heard of.

    • Biff Tannen

      It’s not balsy…its fucking stupid. They are a joke. Black Metal, by definition is SATANIC themed music.

  • dot

    christian metal — talking about god — ergo fantasy metal

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/William-Morley/618112437 William Morley

    I picked up a Mortification LP for £4 at a used record store down the road from where I live, it was pretty sweet, but not sweet enough to keep when I found out it was worth at least £30.

    • http://thenumberoftheblog.wordpress.com/ groverXIII

      Which one? They changed their sound pretty regularly from record to record.

      • Jared may

        Yeah, I guess that’s pretty awesome but I was looking for a christian thrash metal band
        quite relevant to Slayer Testament and early Metallica.

  • http://www.masterful-magazine.com/ Choronzon

    The most ridiculous thing with Christian metal is that they are also moving into black metal territory, Antestor is pretty much an institution on that end. The last good thing I heard was a Swedish band called Shadow Of Paragon, who pretty much play melo-death like At the Gates, circa “With Fear I Kiss the Burning Darkness” and “The Red In the Sky Is Ours”.

  • Patton

    Stryper is on that list. Fucking terrible.

  • http://lavidastrangiato.blogspot.com/ Jake Strangiato

    AILD and Zao suck beyond belief, Vengeance Rising and Tourniquet were pretty damned good. I’ve been meaning to get stuff by Trouble and Extol, but can;’t ever find any albums in my local stores.

    • Biff Tannen

      A lot of the Trouble albums just got re-released. Try again, you may have better luck. Or just order them online.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Zach-Gates/14209777 Zach Gates

    Sorry, but “positive” metal doesn’t work. Aggression + uplifting message = weird.

    I have nothing against music with an optimistic theme, but you can’t juxtapose abrasive sounds with happy words. It comes across as terribly forced and awkward. A guy angrily yelling at me that Jesus loves me is a surefire way to get me laughing my ass off.

    Far as I’m concerned, Christian metal works about as well as Satanic bluegrass.

    • xilpx

      I might as well write an evil lullaby
      then we’ll call it even

    • http://thenumberoftheblog.wordpress.com/ groverXIII

      You just nicely summed why Hatebreed sucks, too… Aggression + uplifting message = weird.

    • http://jas09.deviantart.com JAS09

      Uh, excuse me Mr. Generalizer, but not all Christian metal has “uplifting” lyrics. Soul Embraced is Christian, and their lyrics are as dark as any secular death metal band (never mind Evanescence’s butchering of their song “Tourniquet). There’s also Circle of Dust, Klank, Antestor, and Eulogium are all considered Christian, yet their lyrics make you wanna stick your hands into a box of glass shards. The point is, not all Christian music is positive. There are some bands who look at the dark realities of life and filter it through a Christian viewpoint.

  • Eric

    Stryper is on the list but not Living Sacrifice? Other than that, the list is pretty decent. Good to see Strongarm on there..

  • http://reaper-x.deviantart.com/ Reaper-X

    No.

  • http://thenumberoftheblog.wordpress.com/ groverXIII

    I would make an argument for self-titled-era The Crucified (crossover thrash), and a few of the other industrial bands that got me into extreme music, like Circle Of Dust, Argyle Park, Chatterbox, and Klank.

  • grammartwo

    i’m listening to Craft’s Fuck the Universe right now. fuck christian “metal”.

  • kenny powers

    I had to make sure Zao was on here. They were definitely my introduction to metal. Just throw in Living Sacrifice, Soterios, and Training for Utopia and it will be complete.

  • Ajax

    I dunno, I think my favorite Christian metal band is Paramaecium. The Birth and the Massacre of the Innocents is an awesome song.

  • towdnd

    Erm…. Underoath and Oh! Sleeper. Both bands made some awesome stuff. Feel free to disagree but be nice :)

  • Primateforever

    I did not take the liberty of reading any of the proffered justifications for favoring ANY ‘christian’ metal albums as ‘good metal’ records. I denounced this action for one simple reason… ‘Christian’ metal only exists to dupe retarded metal fans into believing that Jesus likes harsh vocals and ripping guitar solos.

  • Gado the Lion

    i can’t believe august burns red isn’t in this list.

  • Fuck All of You

    Black metal is not defined as Satanic metal. It is defined as anti-religious metal. Get it right dumbass