As you might guess from the header image, I am anything but a Christian. That said, I’ve always been a huge fan of both Christians and their music — the vast majority of them are genuinely nice, thoughtful, considerate people who are great to be around and a positive influence on everybody. I love them! And when it comes to music, for whatever reason, they’ve always been a little ahead of the curve — I can only assume it’s because they had wealthy, supportive parents, unlike those of us who were raised by broke, alcoholic losers who ‘didn’t believe in organized religion.’ Thanks, mom :/ #losing

Anyhow, the truth is that many of the best metal and hardcore bands of the last 10-15 years are Christian, and I think it’s time we gave them the credit they deserve. Let’s put aside the dull, redundant debate over whether Christianity has a place in music or not (hint: the correct answer is “who gives a fuck”) and focus on what is important: these bands rly know how to MOSH 4 CHRIST!

In this post, I will list a few of my favorite Christian bands. I will skip many of the obvious, big names that all of us know about and focus on the older, smaller bands that haven’t gotten enough props- and as always, there will be a few bands who probably should be on here, but couldn’t be included because I ran out of space and/or my memory failed me.  Thanks to Christian Hardcore Records blog for refreshing my memory on a lot of this stuff– check it out if you are into any of these bands!

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This week sees new releases by Believer, Between the Buried and Me, Indian, Last Chance to Reason, Pentagram, Red Fang, Young Widows and more. MS new release expert Vic Vaughn takes a looksee at each after the jump!

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I was recently very surprised to learn that Believer are an amazing band, and not at all what you might expect them to sound like; they’ve been around since 1989, I know, but have just now made it onto my radar through their reunion and subsequent two Metal Blade releases. I made good on my promise of listening to their new album Transhuman last week, and I was so taken by it that I’ve since listened to it several times through… in a row! It’s worked its way onto my “favorite of 2011 so far” list, and I could definitely see it staying there all year. This album is worthy of the attention of just about any metal fan. It’s all over the map stylistically, but it’s got a unifying musical quality that ties it all together… its Believer-ness, if you will.

Transhuman comes out today; order a physical copy here or a digital copy here (only $7.99!). But first, jam these three tunes that’ve already been released so you know I’m not full of shit:

Believer “Mindsteps” by Metal Blade Records

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MetalSucks is oh-so-very happy to be teaming up with RED Distribution to bring you, our most beloved readers, the MetalSucks Fan Pack, which will be available exclusively at all FYE stores starting this Tuesday, April 12. Not only does this limited edition box full o’ metal come with a CD featuring twenty brootal tunes by twenty brootal bands (including Kvelertak, Trap Them, Believer, Napalm Death, TesseracT, Thomas Giles, Deicide and a bunch more) but it also comes with that HOLY SHIT THAT IS SO KILLER t-shirt you see above, which was designed by our friend Rodney Githens from Vertebrae 33 (you might also recognize his work from this sexy t-shirt and this Louvre-worthy poster that he did for us).

How much would you expect to pay for this incredible package? Twenty bucks? Fifteen bucks? Try $9.99. That’s right, gang — twenty songs from twenty bands and that guaranteed-to-get-you-laid t-shirt for under ten bucks.

But wait! There’s more! If you act now and head over to the official MetalSucks Fan Pack web page, you can get a coupon for 30%, which brings the price down to a mere seven dollars. Holy crap, that’s a metsieh if ever there was one.

So go here to get a complete track list of all the bands on the comp, and to use the nifty store-finder to locate the f.y.e. nearest to you. And, oh yeah, you can also enter to win this custom guitar:

So, yeah, that’s pretty fuckin’ bad-assed.

-Axl & Vince

I will listen to the new Believer album. I will listen to the new Believer album. I will listen to the new Believer album. I will listen to the new Believer album. I will listen to the new Believer album. I will listen to the new Believer album. I will listen to the new Believer album. I will listen to the new Believer album. I will listen to the new Believer album. I will listen to the new Believer album. I will listen to the new Believer album. I will listen to the new Believer album.

Every song I’ve heard from the new Believer album Transhuman has rocked my balls off and completely shattered my expectations of what I thought this band was all about. Yet I still haven’t sat down with the full record yet. Why? I do not know. I hereby pledge to do so. Today’s subway iPod music is going to be Believer. I’ll even forego Angry Birds to focus on the music! That’s big, people, big.

In early March the band gave you “G.U.T.” and now they’re giving you two new Transhuman jams, the epic Faith No Morian “Mindsteps” and proggy thrashsterpiece “Ego Machine.” Jam with me:

Believer “Mindsteps” by Metal Blade Records

Believer “Ego Machine” by Metal Blade Records

I mean… right???

Transhuman drops April 12th on Metal Blade. Pre-order it here.

-VN

I was never into Believer; I was too young to appreciate or even know about them during their late ’80s / early ’90s prime. While I was aware of their 2007 reunion and subsequent 2008 album Gabriel ’cause I write for a metal site duh, I only gave it a couple of listens and couldn’t really get into it. I subsequently kinda forgot about it, writing it off as a one-off reunion album that wouldn’t amount to much in the longrun. But this here new Believer song “G.U.T.” is the absolute bee’s knees:

My gut (rimshot!) was that older Believer, including Gabriel, was way thrashier than the above new song — and a quick listen to the latter confirms I am not wrong — but Gabriel is definitely a unique snowflake that extends far beyond thrash, and is way more interesting than I remember it being. Maybe it’s time to revisit that one. New album Transhuman comes out April 13th via Metal Blade, and based on the above I’m definitely stoked to hear it. Maybe I should revisit that entire back-catalogue too.

-VN

You can’t talk about 90′s hardcore without devoting a substantial part of that conversation to the boys who put the sleepy town of Syracuse, NY on the map: Earth Crisis. For anybody who wasn’t in the hardcore scene back then, it’s hard to describe the impact they had or how controversial they were. You either loved them or hated them for bringing both metal and veganism into the hardcore scene, and I definitely loved them. I’ll save the discussion of their politics and all that for another time, and focus on what’s more important to me these days: their music.

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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

Some of you seem to find it shocking that we actually read your comments (and often reply to e-mails, for that matter). To which I say: why the fuck else would we even have a comments section? We love to read the comments. To wit:

• Daisy May Tinklepants accused us not once but twice of giving positive reviews to artists who granted us interviews. I guess poor David Bee Roth didn’t get the memo when he interviewed and then reviewed Believer. In any case, both of those interviews were actually offered, not granted, but we appreciate the conspiracy theories.
• disappointed called us “dickless jew faggots” because I apologized for a swine flu joke (but not really). We don’t mind being called “Jew faggots,” but to suggest that we have no penises is just uncalled for. Also, the word “Jew” is generally capitalized, you wide-set vagina’d Goy retard.
• teaches of peaches says that no one cares about Dallas Coyle’s column “The Hard R” now that he’s not in God Forbid. Comments left by 114 other people would suggest otherwise, but just to be safe, Dallas is joining the latest touring incarnation of Sha Na Na so that he can continue to write for us.
• Revealing themselves to be the anti-Matt McChesneys, the dudes from YEAH! Destroyer spent more time writing for the site this week than anyone on the MetalSucks staff did. Whatever keeps them from playing music…
• Cahiers du Cinema contributor CrapMcPoopin announced that he’s leaving us for our friends at Metal Insider. Then he left 13 more comments over the course of the week.
• Conduit is having a hard time reconciling the fact that we like “commercial crap” and “random bands from Europe/elsewhere.” Sorry, Conduit. But, yeah, we liked the most recent Slipknot album. Shrug.
• Ricky doesn’t like the fact that Dope are basically paying us to talk shit about them. Ricky, have you spoken with Daisy May? ‘Cause in reality, we only hate Dope because they won’t grant us an interview.

And next week we’re gonna try to really piss you cats off.

-AR

Now it seems to me that Believer have done it all wrong. We’ll get to the actual content of the album later, but for now let’s just talk about band reunions for a minute. What we’ve seen over that last couple of years especially is that metal bands usually reunite for the purpose of touring only; the bands do a couple of tours state-side, play top slots at European festivals where they get to rock the biggest crowds of their careers, prove that they’re not too old and that their music is still relevant even to a new generation, and then they slip off the face of the earth again after being handsomely rewarded in cold hard cash. Touring is hard work for old farts, you didn’t think they’d do it without some financial compensation, did you?

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I’ve been trying to download the new Marilyn Manson mp3, “We’re From America,” but navigating that guy’s website is more difficult than getting Rob Halford hard with a naked photo of Christina Scabbia . So, whomever designed that site… fuck you, and fuck your mother.

In other news, here’s what happened in the world of metal this week:

• We spoke to Believer’s Kurt Bachman and Nashville Pussy’s Blaine Cartwright.
• We listened to new releases from Malefice, Millions, I Killed the Prom Queen and Corpus Christi.
• Is this the worst music video of 2009 so far?
• We really like the new Isis song! Seriously!
• The screamo-crunk explosion has begun… and now we wish it would end.

Alright everyone. I know we’re all excited for the weekend, but try not to die of alcohol poisoning. See ya Monday.

-AR

Believer have made a downright biblical return from the dead this year with the release of Gabriel, their first album since 1993’s Dimensions. If you were still stomping and screaming at your parents for attention in the line for the Peter Pan ride at Disneyworld (and I know I was) you might not have been listening to Believer back in the day. However, you may have heard of one of their better known cohorts such as Atheist and Pestilence and much like those bands, Believer were experimenting with a lot of technical brilliance and progressive depth to make some very impressive metal. The day after Gabriel’s March 17th release, vocalist/guitarist Kurt Bachman was kind enough to talk to me about the making of the new record, kids these days, reunion mania and how they never really wanted to be known as a Christian band.

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