Welcome to the History section! Here I list groundbreaking events, albums and bands in the history of Christian Metal. I don't
however include all bands and albums but I try to focus on the groundbreaking and most influential bands and events.
Feel free to mail any comments to johannes@metalforjesus.org
  Resurrection Band also called REZ released Awaiting Your Reply heavily influenced by a Led Zeppelin style of blues-based hard rock. Resurrection Band came from the Jesus Movement in the 70s and wanted to spread the good news about Jesus to young people that liked hard music. Their groundbreaking release Awaiting Your Reply opened the way for christian hardrock/metal bands to come. 
Swedish band Jerusalem also saw the need to spread the word of Jesus through Hardrock/Metal music to a lost world. Their debut album Volume 1 was very groundbreaking and sold very well and people in Swedish gospel stores got very amazed that heavy music like this could sell so well. The album also got airplay on national Swedish Radio and caused lots of interest, but also controversy especially among older Christians that couldn't understand that heavy music could be used for God's glory. Many of the young folks however were totally thrilled and excited to finally hear heavy music with a positive message. 
 Jerusalem's second album follows up the debut with more great Hardrock for Jesus. It was released both in English and Swedish. Album features some of their timeless classics like Gethsemane, Rock-n-Roll (Bara Rock'n'Roll on Swedish version) and Bye Bye World (Adjöss Med Dig Värld on Swedish version).   This groundbreaking and heavy release from Jerusalem instantly became a classic among hardrock/metal fans. Musically this is much much heavier than their previous albums. It was released both in English and Swedish. The Swedish title of it is Krigsman. 
 DANIEL BAND from Canada release their first album On Rock showing that Canada too is a force to be reckoned with in Christian Hardrock. Musically the album has a progressive rock sound in the tradition of Boston and April Wine, but with a harder edge.   STRYPER forms this year changing their name from Roxx Regime to Stryper. Besides the namechange they also adjusted the lyrics to point to Christ full on.  
Stryper's groundbreaking album that truly made Christian Metal came up from the underground and put it on the map for all the world to see. People were amazed that there was a christian band throwing out Bibles to the audience while at the same time playing real metal music. Stryper showed the world that it is possible to combine Jesus and Metal and opened the way for all the christian metal bands to come. 
This year also marks the birth of the term Christian Heavy Metal. Many Christian Metal bands were coming up from the underground and there was a need for a term for this new movement and as a result the term Christian Heavy Metal was born.  Saint enters the scene with their bonecrushing Heavy Metal and shows the world that there are Christian bands that can rock just as hard as Judas Priest. Typical for Saint is besides their heavy music also their dark apocalyptic imagery that they use to warn people for evil and to point to the Master of Light, the Lord Jesus Christ. 
Numerous people came to know Christ through Christian Metal. Unfortunately though they were not welcome in many churches but were kicked out because their long hair and different style. To help these folks Pastor Bob Beeman started up the ministry Sanctuary. Through Sanctuary christian rock'n'rollers finally had a home and a church that understood and not condemned them. First worship leader in Sanctuary was Michael Sweet of Stryper. Then Jim LaVerde, the bassplayer of Barren Cross took over as worship leader and lead the worship in Sanctuary for many years. Throughout the years thousands of metalheads have come to know Christ and grown in faith through the ministry of Sanctuary. www.sanctuaryinternational.com 
Daniel Band's heaviest and best release shows them at their best with catchy choruses, edgy guitars like AC/DC and vocals reminding of Rush.  
With an ever growing christian metal scene there was a big need for a Christian Metal Magazine. Heaven's Metal filled this need and has meant a lot for the christian metal scene throughout the years. http://www.hmmag.com/heavensmetal
Leviticus critically acclaimed 2nd album was released. British Metal Magazine Kerrang called it "One of the best records of the year" 
With a heavier sound Stryper's popularity increased and this album even become one of the 100 best selling releases in the USA! Soldiers Under Command stayed on the Billboard top 100 chart for nearly 36 weeks! Fantastic album and a Melodic Metal classic.   Very successful album that has sold over 1, 5 million copies! The cover shows how Satan one day will be thrown into the lake of fire. Stryper shot some videos for this album which became very successful on MTV. The videos for Free, Calling On You and Honestly were all on the MTV's top ten list, at the same time!! No other band had ever had three videos in the top ten at the same time, none! Each one of these three videos also topped the MTV's top ten list, Free stayed number one for 12 weeks straight! Needless to say Stryper's popularity skyrocked and on the upcoming world tour they sold out venues with 10 000 seats. Fantastic album and a Melodic Metal classic.  Bloodgood entered the scene lead by bassplayer Michael Bloodgood and singer Les Carlsen. Michael's real surname is Bloodgood and he thought it would fit perfect as bandname, that's why they chose to call themselves Bloodgood. Bloodgood's debut contains a mix of styles and even has a thrash track called Black Snake.  This was also the year when the first christian metal label "Pure Metal" was formed. Many christian metal bands were signed to this label including Saint, Bride, Messiah Prophet and Whitecross.  Great Classic Metal release with a very cool cover from this underground band from USA. The band unfortunately broke up some time after the release of this album.  Apocalyptic Heavy Metal with Heavy guitars and lyrics from the book of Revelation made this a really cool album. Fans of Judas Priest especially will enjoy this classic Heavy Metal album.   The first big christian metal festival called "The Metal Mardi Gras" was held in Long Beach California. The festival was sponsored by the metal church Sanctuary. Over ten bands shared two stages. Metal Edge and Kerrang, two of leading metal magazines at that time wrote about the festival and solidified this new movement.  Regency Records soon thereafter released the first christian metal compilation called California Metal. All the bands featured on this album attended the metal church Sanctuary in California. This album was very groundbreaking and introduced us to great bands like Deliverance, Barren Cross, Guardian and Mastedon.  A christian guitar hero was born and his name is Rex Carrol. His blazing guitarsolo on the track Nagasake is an all time classic. The combination of Rex's guitarplay and Scott Wenzel's raspy voice immediately set Whitecross as one of the top bands in the christian metal scene.  This is the album many Bloodgood fans hold as their best featuring classics like The Messiah and the anti-suicide song Alone In Suicide.   The title says it all. Stryper are not ashamed to stand for Christ. The cool thing with this album is that the band used the text on american dollars which is something we meet everyday to remind people about a spiritual truth. Actually this album is almost like a theme album with many lyrics talking about not to trust in money and things of this earth but instead keep your trust in the One who will never let you down, God. Musically this album features a more commercial sound than other Stryper releases.  Saint's heaviest and best album. Great Heavy Heavy Metal and one of the all-time-classics. Fans of Judas Priest especially will totally enjoy this classic Heavy Metal album.  This was just as groundbreaking for the christian thrash scene as Stryper's The Yellow And Black Attack was to the Heavy Metal Scene. An album showing the world that christian thrash is just as good if not better than the satanic thrash bands. The album has a megacool cover showing how Jesus became a human sacrifice when he took our sins and died for us on the cross. A fantastic album and definately the classic of classics in Thrash.  An album showing Jerusalem at their best with heavy tunes mixed with ballads and loud'n'clear lyrics. The cover of the album is a picture of an army boot kicking Satan's head. Very cool cover but it caused plenty of controversy when it came and the album was banned from many gospel shops in Sweden because of it.  Another great release with more cool metal from the Sanctuary bands. This release introduced us to great bands like Recon, Soldier and many more.  The debut of this great progressive heavy metal band that's always been very Christcentered which clearly shows, especially in the fantastic track He Died. Typical for Sacred Warrior is also Rey Parra's vocals that reminds of Geoff Tate.  Joshua's classic release featuring guitarist Joshua Perahia and singer Rob Rock. Great melodic metal with plenty of hooks.  Many of the seculars labels didn't want to sign any christian metal bands because of the christian message while many christian labels didn't want to sign christian metal bands because the music was too hard. To overcome this problem a christian metal label called Intense Records was started. This label has meant more than any other label for the christian metal scene. Many of the best bands like Sacred Warrior, Vengeance Rising, Deliverance and Bloodgood has released albums on Intense Records.   Dennis Cameron on guitars & Rob Rock on vocals made this album a melodic metal masterpiece.  Deliverance took christian metal to a new level with their bonecrunching speed metal. Their selftitled album was a big success right from the start and took the world with storm delivering a bold christian message with real speed metal. They are also known for their motto Faster For The Master!  Commercial Metal was growing and one of the best bands in this genre was Rage of Angels. This is an excellent Melodic Metal album and it sounds really heavy with the double guitars. Unfortunately they only released this album before they broke up.  X-Sinner's amazing debut was very groundbreaking and they blowed AC/DC away offering a faster, crunchier and heavier sound than AC/DC ever have had.  For this album the band got help with the production by John and Dino Elephante. They did a great job with the production and the result was a melodic metal album with plenty of hooks, harmonies and a sound in the vein of Europe.  Commercial Metal at it's finest. Incredible hooks and singalong songs with Ken Tamplin and the other members in Shout.  Much heavier than their debut and one of the all-time-classics in christian heavy metal.  Wellproduced album showing progressive Heavy Metal band Barren Cross at their best with many hits like Crying Over You, Out of Time and the title track. This is Barren Cross most successful album when it comes to album sales. The Crying Over You video was also played on MTV. A really cool album that fans of Iron Maiden will really enjoy.  A classic album showing Whitecross at their best filled with melodic guitar leads, flashy solos, catchy harmonies and Scott Wenzel's cool raspy voice. The guitar solos are really something extra on this fantastic metal album.  Bloodgood's heaviest album and one of the best christian heavy metal releases ever. Great guitarplay, catchy harmonies and heavy noncompromising sound made this album a Heavy Metal classic.  The Progressive Thrashers Believer became wellknown to the public through this release.  John Elephante (known for his days in Kansas) and has brother Dino Elephante had a studio of their own and wanted to help promising christian bands to release their albums, so they started up their own label called Pakaderm Records on which they released bands like X-Sinner, Guardian, Mastedon and many more.   Recon's debut album filled with great Heavy Metal with plenty of crunchy rhythmes and guitarsolos.  This is a real classic combining speed metal and strong spiritual lyrics or as the band said themselves "Bible study with music". A very strong release both musically and spiritually. A video was also made with the title track, which became successful and even made it to MTV! The cover of the album is one of the coolest ever done picturing the apostle Paul and behind his back the raging fight between an angel and a demon.  Commercial Metal with plenty of hooks. A glam metal masterpiece.  Melodic Metal with a bluesy feel and some of the very best ballads ever done made this album to an outstanding release.  The Elephante brothers entered the scene with a boom. John Elephante that previously sang with Kansas had some tunes ready and he got help by his brother Dino and plenty of guestmusicians to do two albums under the name Mastedon. The result is two critically acclaimed commercial hardrock/metal albums that got plenty of fans. Eventhough Mastedon was a studioproject they played live once, at the festival Cornerstone in 1991.  Believer's second album filled with Technical Thrash at its finest. Extremely tight album by great musicians.  The groundbreaking debut of this brittish thrash band known for their heaviness and their to-the-point-lyrics.  Tourniquet hits the scene with an unique mix of progressive thrash and classic music. Lead by drummer extraordinarie Ted Kirkpatrick their unique sound broke new ground and the band immediately got thousands of fans all over the world.  Vengeance Rising's 2nd album taking off where their first release Human Sacrifice left us. Very brutal cover but extremely good music eventhough it's slower than their debut. The lyrics are like Bible studies and there are references to over 100 Bible scriptures!  Fantastic guitar metal album with Ken Tamplin. For this project he got help from people like Ken Mary, Lanny Cordola, Joey Tafolla and many more. 
Crystavox is latin for the voice of Christ and their lyrics are really Christcentered. Crystavox's selftitled debut is filled with great commercial metal with tons of hooks and singalong songs.   First Christian Death Metal album. This album was extremely brutal when it came out and far more brutal than any other christian releases ever released at that time. Australian band Mortification is truly the pioneers of Christian Death Metal.  Tourniquet thrash's on with their progressive thrash. Many fans hold this album as their favourite Tourniquet album.  The pig thrashers third and best album. With an unique mix of thrash and punk topped with Carey "Kosher" Womack's characteristic screaming voice this is a band that truly stands out from the rest. 
Deliverance's third album is even heavier than their previous and has more of a Thrash than a Speed Metal feel to it. What A Joke contains many short tracks with humerous lyrics but also several classics like the title track, Pseudo Intellectual, It's The Beat and the excellent cover of After Forever. Another highlight is the fantastic Speed Metal version of Silent Night! I would even say this album is worth having for this tune alone. It is amazingly good. Overall this is a good and cool album, I just wish they had included more long tunes and not so many short ones.   Very brutal death album and still unto this day considered a classic in Death Metal.  Bride's most popular album to this date. The dirty groovy sound Bride has on this album immediately got plenty of fans especially people into bands like Guns'n'Roses and Skid Row took this album to their hearts. An outstanding release of dirty groovy metal.  Veni Domine enters the scene with their slow majestic heavy metal sound containing a great deal of doom metal influences. Caracteristic for their sound is also Fredrik Ohlssons high pitched vocals that many say reminds of Geoff Tate. With an unique and heavy sound Fall Babylon Fall is truly a timeless classic.  A really cool metal album from Deliverance with an unique style. Although it's not speed metal like their early albums it's definately heavy and melodic and overall one of their best albums.  HEAVEN'S METAL COLLECTION - Heaven's Metal CollectionA megacool Christian Metal box that Doug Van Pelt, the legendary editor of Heaven's Metal Magazine put together. Inside the box there are two cds covering christian metal classics chronologically from Christian Hardrock pioneers like Rez and Jerusalem to the brutal grinders of Mortification. But the coolest thing with this box is the big booklet that contains interviews from Heaven's Metal with all the featured bands. Definately a must have for anyone that want to know more about the Christian Metal bands and the early history of the genre.   A fantastic live album showing Mortification at their best. This show was also released on a fullength video. Live Planetarium was the last release where excellent drummer Jayson Sherlock played the drums.  Tourniquet's heaviest album. Full on progressive thrash with lots of variation of heaviness made this album a winner.  Bluesy melodic metal with Jamie Rowe's raspy voice made this album a winner.  Guitarist Björn Stigsson from Leviticus teamed up with talented vocalist Sonny Larsson and released three albums with XT. This is their 2nd release and in my opinion also their best filled with harmonies, hooks and guitarsolos.  Outstanding Doom / Death Metal release with drummer extraordinarie Jayson Sherlock from Mortification. Slow, very heavy, solid drum and bass play and excellent growls by Andrew Tompkins (one of the the best growlers ever!), makes this album a classic.  Great release with this melodic metal band hailing from Germany. Superb production and tons of hooks and hittunes. Truly melodic metal at its finest. Unfortunately though, this is the only album the band released before it disbanded.   Cool mix of 70s and 80s Metal. Vocals were done by Christian Rivel who a few year's later would be one of the forming members of Narnia.  First christian black metal album. Extremely raw, brutal and groundbreaking when it came. All the tracks were made by one person called Anounymous. Later on it was found out that the drummer Jayson Sherlock (Paramaecium, Mortification) was the man hiding behind the name Anonymous.  Steve Rowe from Mortification wanted to help all the up'n'coming christian hardrock/metal bands in Australia, so he decided to form the label Rowe Productions.  A good collection of brutal Christian Metal bands in Australian featuring bands like Metanoia and Ethereal Scourge. 
Groms was a shortlived Death Metal band from Norway that released this excellent wellproduced album. Unfortunately this is their only release and that is a shame, cause with such a Heavy and catchy quality Death Metal release you really want to hear more. I just wish that someone would re-release this classic. It has been out of print way too long.  David Benson's cool debut cd that combines Biblical truths with a doom metal sound a la Ozzy Osbourne.  Another cool album with Veni Domine filled with mighty choirs and plenty of heaviness.  One of the best christian metal collections ever filled with lots of guitar solos and great tunes. But that is not all, cause what makes this cd outstanding is that a special tablature book with all the tunes also was made to this disc. So with this disc and booklet you can jam to some of the best christian metal tunes. Truly an excellent tool for all guitarplayers out there.   Classic Metallers Seventh Avenue from Germany enters the scene and release their first fullength album.  Lightmare, another cool Classic/Power Metal hailing from Germany shows their talent in this 4-track EP. One outstanding track is Bachtro that sounds like Bach on electric guitar. Lightmare truly gives the term Classic Metal a new defination.  XT's heaviest album. Björn Stigsson's guitarplay has never sounded this heavy before.  A Melodic Metal release that gave some fresh air and hope for all starving metalheads longing for some real metal. 
Cool Death Metal from Australia with plenty of influences from Thrash and Classic Metal.   A very groundbreaking album from the Norwegian masters of Melodic Death Metal. The combination of the brutality and heaviness of death metal with the harmonies of classic metal makes this album to a timeless classic. One of the members Ole Borud would a few years later be a part of the band Extol.  Very good collection with four brutal bands from Norway. It contains the first and very rare tracks of Extol as well as tracks with Antestor, Groms and Schaliach.  Impellitteri's best release. The combination of Rob Rock's great vocals and the megafast guitarshredding of Chris Impellitteri made this album to a melodic metal paradise.  This is 70's Metal to the bone. Anyone into bands like Uriah Heep, Sweet etc shouldn't miss this quality release.  Seventh Avenue's second album that among other hits also contains the tune Time, a megahit that really opened the eyes for me and many others of how talented this melodic metal band is.  A really cool release from the Swedish hardrock pioneers featuring unreleased tracks from back in the day. It was first released in the Swedish language only but later on the band also released an English version titled Those Were The Days.  Heartcy, that like Jerusalem also hails from Sweden has been together for many years. This album is their best with plenty of melodic hardrock tunes to enjoy. |
 This was kind of a lost year in metal with very few good releases. It felt like a long wait for better things to come.  Deuteronomium, hailing from Finland released this 4-track debut cd filled with enjoyable Melodic Death Metal.  Lightmare's first fullength cd filled to the bone with classic/power metal.  American band Eternal Decision's debut cd. Crunchy heavy metal and vocals reminding of Metallica made this album a winner.  This was the big comeback year for metal with lots of great releases by bands like Treasure Seeker, Narnia, Extol, Crimson Moonlight and Boanerges. It was also the year when two of the most influential Christian Metal Labels were started.  This is an excellent cover album with classics from Stryper, Jerusalem, Bloodgood, Leviticus, Bride and many others. The covers are close to the originals but still has a personal touch to them. The band consists of members from Seventh Avenue, Lightmare and Chrystyne.  Talk about good cover albums. Guardian has managed to cover the original 6-tune version of Stryper's first album. Musically it is very close to the originals but also has a definite Guardian influence over them. Besides being a great cover album it's also one of Guardian's best cds. Definately a must have for all fans of Stryper and Guardian.  Norway's new leading Christian Metal band Extol now entered the scene releasing this classic album of progressive death metal.  Vocalist Christian Liljegren from Modest Attraction teamed up with extraordinairie guitar shredder Carl Johan Grimmark and formed the band Narnia. Christian & Carl Johan has a great sense of writing quality melodic metal tunes and the title of the album Awakening was very fitting, cause this was both the Awakening of Narnia and also the year when Metal was about to wake up again. With Christcentered lyrics, amazing guitar solos and great melodies Narnia immediately got lots of fans and also gave new hope to many starving metalheads. 
A new Christian Metal label in Finland called Little Rose Productions was started. This cool label meant a lot for
the Christian Metal scene in Finland and has released albums with great bands like Immortal Souls, Mordecai and Deuteronomium.
 This was also the year when the new Metal label Endtime Productions started in Sweden. This cool label has released albums with great bands like Extol, Antestor, Anaemia and many more and the label is still active to this day. http://www.endtimeproductions.com  Christian Black Metal was starting to rise and get more popular. One of the groundbreaking bands in this genre is Crimson Moonlight from Sweden that instantly got many fans with Eternal Emperor, their first release on cd. Musically it is filled with atmospheric black metal that is both brutal and harmonic and lyrically it's full on for Jesus, clearly showing that it works great to combine Jesus with Black Metal music.  The metal scene is global and there are great metal bands all over the world. A good example of this is Boanerges, a very talented band from Argentina. Senáles Antes Del Fin is their debut cd and it definately shows how much talent they possess. Cause what we have here is a quality Classic Metal release filled to the bone with hooks and amazing guitarsolos.  Excellent collection with great Finnish Metal bands like Deuteronomium, Mordecai, Cruciferae, Immortal Souls, Hallowed and more.  This has to be one of the most diverse metal albums ever. The band is mixing so many styles on this cd that it is simply amazing. Although it is diverse, the base is still melodic death metal and highlights like Spell of Hell and Northern Praise definately makes this a solid buy.  Extreme metal from Indonesia is what Kekal offer us on this album which is also their debut. Something cool with the cd is all the 80s metal influences they have spiced up their extreme metal with.  The fathers of Christian Hardrock released this live double cd in their native language Swedish. It was recorded on their recent successful comeback tour with their original setting and clearly shows that they still know how to rock.  A really cool mini album filled with praise tunes in real metal style.  Antestor is along with Crimson Moonlight one of the best Christian Black Metal bands, something they really showed on this release with megaclassics like A Sovereign Fortress and Kongsblod.  German Metallers Seventh Avenue beefed up the production and gave us one of their best releases in pure Power/Heavy Metal style.  This was the year when Narnia got the opportunity to tour with some wellknown metal bands. They toured both with Dio and Stratovarious.   On this release Narnia added more heaviness to their sound and more boldness to their lyrics. The result is an astonishing melodic metal album filled with guitarsolos, hooks, singalong songs and uplifting lyrics. Their best album and a Melodic Metal classic.  Anaemia's first and only album. Musically it's filled with cool experimental Thrash.  Seventh Avenue excellent farewell album dedicated to long time member William Hieb.  Two of the very best brutal bands from Finland share the space on this split-cd.  Vaakevandring's 3-track cd is an excellent introduction to this cool band that mix black metal with influences from Norwegian folk music. 
 This was the first year of this legendary Christian Metal Festival in Sweden. The name Bobfest was taken after the Metal Pastor Bob Beeman of Sanctuary International in USA, that has been the mainspeaker of Bobfest all 7 years it took place.
The combination of Pastor Bob's great teachings with some of the best Christian Metal bands all over the world showed to be a very successful concept. First year the festival was held bands like
Extol, Crimson Moonlight, Narnia and many others played and throughout the years great bands like Tourniquet, Leviticus, Immortal Souls, Seventh Avenue, Pantokrator, Kekal, Veni Domine and numerous other bands have played. Many have also been blessed
by this festival and several have found Christ through it. Bobfest was also the festival that paved the way for other Christian Metal Festivals in Europe like Elements of Rock in Switzerland and Nordicfest in Norway. www.bobfest.org
   Sanctifica's first fullength album. An album cd filled to the bone with atmospheric, brutal, fast and progressive black metal. Sanctifica also has a connection with Narnia since the vocalist/guitarist in Sanctifica, Hubertus Liljegren also is the brother of Christian Liljegren/Rivel, the vocalist of Narnia.  The Metal Praise band's first and best fullength album. Sons of Thunder continues to deliver more praise tracks in their noncompromising heavy metal style.  Stryper, the groundbreaking Christian Metal band had not been playing together for almost ten years. The band's fans however had not forgotten them and many Stryperfans really wanted to see the band live again. The interest grew and Rich Serpa, a Stryperfan got the great idea to put together a Stryper expo where the band would play and the fans would be able to meet. Rich asked the band members and they all agreed to play. Then in May 21, 2000 in Parsippany, New Jersey, USA the first Stryper expo took place. The event was a great success and also made the band members aware of the impact the band had had also that the interest was still big there Stryper. The Expo was also documented on the vhs titled Stryper - Expo 2000.  The talented dudes of Extol truly knows how to make great albums that is both technically advanced and brutal. This album is by most fans considered the peak of Extol's career and if you are into progressive death metal this is an album you don't want to miss.  Scandinavia is the leading region of the world when it comes to quality extreme metal. Endtime Productions in Sweden is focusing on brutal metal and they really did a great work on this compilation that covers bands like Vaakevandring, Lengsel, Extol, Antestor, Vardöger, Sanctifica, Crimson Moonlight and many more.  Hallowed was a cool Power Metal band from Finland. End of the Age has five crunchy Power Metal tracks filled with plenty of hooks, guitar solos and straightforward Biblical lyrics. Unfortunately this talented band quit some time after the release of this EP.  After some more mellow album Tourniquet finally found their way back to their thrash metal roots. Microscopic is a cd that shows Tourniquet at their best with plenty of variation, speed and classical influences.  
After the successful Expo in 2000 Rich Serpa, the organizer decided to do a new Stryper Expo. This time not only Stryper played but also
some newer Christian Metal bands. The event was very successful and many Stryper fans had the time of their lives. The Expo was also documented on two vhs tapes titled Stryper - Expo 2001.
 Cornerstone is a huge Christian Music Festival near Chicago, USA that features all kinds of Christian Music. In 2001 they decided to do a special metal evening where bands like Recon, Guardian, Deliverance, Bride, Trytan and others reunited and played. The gigs were also recorded and released on the cd serie Live at Cornerstone 2001. Besides this special metal night Stryper also played on the mainstage this year. www.cornerstonefestival.com  Exousia from Mexico deliver crunchy thrash at its finest on this album. Full speed, brutal vocals and evangelistic lyrics make this album to a must have to all thrashers out there.  On this rare album X-Sinner have collected some unreleased tracks as well as demo versions of tunes that later appeared on their first two studio albums. The sound however is not demo quality but sounds more like a regular studio album. A cool cd with this talented band. Fans of bands like AC/DC and Def Leppard will definately enjoy this album.  A classic brutal release with two great bands. Sanctifica plays Symphonic Black Metal & Pantokrator plays Crunchy Death Metal. Really cool stuff that shouldn't be miss if you are into brutal metal.  This is Stryper's official biography written by Dale Erickson and Jesse Sturdevant. The authors have interviewed all the band members to get the truth story about the band's history from the beginning until now. The book is very interesting and contains plenty of details. Definately a must have to all Stryper fans and also to anyone interested in Christian Metal history.  Finland is a metal country and this cd features bands like Immortal Souls, Oratorio as well as more unknown talented bands like Tinnitus and C-Force. All in all a really nice collection of Finland's Christian Metal bands in 2001.  Deliverance reunited to play at Cornerstone and they played plenty of classics, mostly from their speed metal years. A really good cd that shows that Deliverance still can do their fast and heavy tracks, although they hadn't played them for years.  Bride also reunited on Cornerstone to play classics from their first three albums, and they do it very well. So good to hear that Dale still can scream as he used to back in the 80's.   Many Christian Metal releases got out of print since they were released in small quantities and not reprinted. To help to solve this problem Matthew Hunt started up Retroactive Records. On this label he has rereleased albums with Seventh Angel, Believer, X-Sinner and other classic bands in Christian Metal. Retroactive also focus on more unknown quality bands like Eden and Regime. This label is more active than ever today and is one of the leading Christian Metal labels. www.retroactiverecords.net  Paal Daehlen of Nordic Mission, a Christian Metal distro in Norway got inspired of Bobfest and thought about doing something similar in Norway.
So he spoke with Oddmund Solheim and other friends and they started up Nordicfest, a Christian Metal Festival that has been held every Autumn since 2002.
Over the years great bands like Divinefire, Rob Rock, Harmony, Narnia, Antestor, Pantokrator and Horde have played. Metal Pastor Bob Beeman
has been one of the festival's speakers. www.nordicfest.no
 15 years ago the classic Christian Metal Festal called Metal Mardi Gras was organized by Sanctuary, the legendary metal church. To celebrate this event a similar festival named Extreme Mardi Gras took place. On the festival some bands like Barren Cross and Neon Cross that played on the original Metal Mardi Gras reformed and the lineup also included newer bands like Ultimatum and Disciple. This cool festival took place 17 August 2002 in Anaheim, California, USA.  German Power Metal is a style many love. Seventh Avenue is one of the best Christian bands in this genre. On Between The Worlds the band gives us a a real metal feast with tons of hooks, guitar solos and high pitched vocals. Definately their best album to this date in my opinion.  Slav Simanic is one of best guitar shredders around and he truly let loose on this album that is filled with guitar solos, hooks and harmonies. Slav's guitarplay has often been compared to Joe Satriani so fans of him will definately enjoy this cool album.  Classic Metal band Bloodgood released two live videos many years ago. These are now available on this double DVD. What truly makes this DVD to stand out are all the actors that participate on the DVD. Actors that truly brings Bloodgood's message to life showing Christ's crucifixion, resurrection and other themes in Bloodgood's tunes while the band is playing their tunes. A phenomenal DVD showing Bloodgood at their best.  This was a great metal year with outstanding releases of bands like Theocracy, Harmony, Crimson Moonlight and Leviticus. This was also the year when two new labels and a new festival saw the light.  Matt Smith is the man behind this band and album. It's very impressing that one man can do such an excellent album all by himself! He plays all intruments and does all the vocals. The result is an astonishing Power Metal album with tons of catchy hooks and guitar solos. It is also very varied. Fans of Power Metal rejoice, this is an album you can't afford to miss.  This year also marked the arrival of Harmony. As many other talented metal bands they are hailing from Sweden. With outstanding guitarsolos, great vocals and very varied tunes this is truly a classic from the first tune to the last. A brilliant album and a timeless classic.  Leviticus, one of the groundbreaking Christian Metal bands took a long pause, but after 13 years they reformed to play on Bobfest. The gig was recorded and released on cd and dvd. The sound is brilliant (studio quality) and the band sounds better than ever. The cd and dvd contains classics from their whole career and is actually the best album they ever put out, truly showing Leviticus at their best. A phenomenal live album that Melodic Metal fans really will enjoy.  Inspired by Bobfest some friends in Switzerland decided to start their own Christian Metal Festival. So they did and they still do it every Spring. Over the years great bands like Crimson Moonlight, Tourniquet, Pantokrator and many more have played on this cool festival. www.elementsofrock.com  This was also the year when the masters of brutality, Crimson Moonlight released their first fullength album. The Covenant Progress contains a great mix of brutality and harmonies at full speed, as always with lyrics that glorify the Master & Lord, Jesus Christ. Truly a classic in Christian Black Metal. 
The folks behind Nordic Mission and Nordicfest felt the need to pursue and help Extreme Christian Metal bands in Scandinavia, so they
started up the label Momentum Scandinavia. Through the years they have released albums with great bands like Antestor, Pantokrator and
Schaliach. www.momentumscandinavia.com
Talking about record labels, Christian Rivel of Narnia decided to change the name of his label from C.L. Music & Publishing to Rivel Records.
The recent years Rivel Records have released plenty of quality Christian Metal releases and is today the world's leading Christian Metal Label.
Divinefire, Pantokrator, Crimson Moonlight and Parakletos are some of the bands that have released albums on this label.
 Retroactive Records has really managed to dig up a treasure when they released this album. Cause what we got here is some really good melodic metal with plenty of guitar solos and catchy hooks. The guitar solos are done by no other than Rex Carroll of Whitecross. A great album for anyone into the melodic metal sound of the 80s.  A really good instrumental death metal cd with a cool mix of brutality and harmony.  Finnish Power Metal is growing and Oratorio is one of the newer bands in this genre. They have a promising sound and lots of talent which truly shows on this album, that especially will appeal to fans of Stratovarious. If you like to go to the gym etc this is also a perfect cd to have as background music when you exercise.  This is the best of Endtime Productions compilations and features the bands Extol, Anaemia, Antestor, Lengsel, Vaakevandring and Vardoger. Great bands and great tunes. Truly Christcentered brutal metal at its finest. The album that was released on both cd and LP also has a very cool cover.   After many years absence the legendary Christian Metal Magazine Heaven's Metal is now back again. The editor Doug Van Pelt woke up one night with plenty of ideas in his head concering Heaven's Metal and he really felt God's calling to restart the magazine again, and so he did. Check out the result on http://www.hmmag.com/heavensmetal  After many years Stryper finally reformed full on with the original setting and did a successful tour all over USA. During the tour this live cd was recorded. All the classics are included and it really gives us an idea of what a Stryper gig can be like, very tight, energetic and full on for God. Michael can still hit the high tones and the band is tighter than ever. To say it short this is a fantastic live album that I highly can recommend to all you Stryper fans out there! Truly melodic metal at its finest.  As you can see this was the year when some of big names in Christian Metal picked up their axe again to play Metal for the Lord. Legendary Heavy Metal band Saint is one these bands. With Richard Lynch on bass and Josh Kramer on vocals Saint gives us real Heavy Metal just as it should be done with heavy rhythmes, blazing guitarsolos and that noncompromising attitude. A very cool comeback album that shows that Saint is back in the battle against the forces of darkness.  Saint not only returned with a brand new album this year, but they also took the chance to use modern technology and rerecord the Warriors of the Son album. The result is a great sounding album with much better production than the original. Besides the original tracks that band also added two previously unreleased tracks from back in the day.  Brazil has a very huge christian metal scene with 100s of Christian Metal bands! One of the best ones hailing from this country is Divine Symphony. Reject Darkness is their debut album filled with symphonic black metal. What's really cool with Divine Symphony is their variation and mix of different metal influences. While the base of the band's sound is fast and brutal black metal it also contains plenty of symphonic and melodic influences from 80s metal etc that gives them a sound of their own. A cool album from a promising band.  As you may have guessed these dudes are singing in Swedish. They are not from Sweden however but live in Osterbothnia in Finland, which Sweden owned for a long time, that's why so many speak Swedish in Finland. Anyway, Parakletos is one of the best metal bands to ever emerge from Finland. Like Divine Symphony they mix their black metal sound with plenty of melodic rhythmes which makes their sound very interesting and varied. Their cool Swedish accent also fits very well with the music and gives them a signature sound. Lyrically I really want to give Parakletos credit for their Biblebased and Christcentered lyrics. All in all this is a very cool black metal album with melody that definately will appeal to fans of Antestor and Vaakevandring.  Hailing from Sweden Narnia really knows how to make good melodic metal. Featured on this DVD is a really cool gig in Germany with most of their best tracks from their first four albums so it's kind of a best of DVD with the best of Narnia. Visually the show really stands out with an amazing light show! Performance is also professional and soundquality is really good. To sum it up it's an excellent DVD and definately something Narnia fans don't wanna miss.  Sweden Rock Festival is one of the biggest Metal Festivals in Europe with ca 20 000 - 30 000 headbangers gathered. This year Narnia entered the stage as the first Christian Metal band ever to play on this festival where bands like Europe and Judas Priest headlined.  Another good album from Seventh Avenue. Although not as good as Between The Worlds still a solid release.  This year marks the start of Bombworks Records, a really cool American label that has released albums with bands like Seventh Angel, Adiastasia and Holy Blood. www.bombworksrecords.com   Rex Carroll and Scott Wenzel, the founders of Whitecross finally decided to reunite the band again. But before giving us a new album they decided to rerecord their selftitled debut album. Back in the day when it was first recorded they had very little money and therefore couldn't afford to give it the production they wanted, but now with improved technology and some more money they could finally give it the production it deserves. Besides great production Rex Carroll's amazing guitarplay actually sounds better than ever and he even adds extra guitarsolos. Whitecross fans will love this cool release.  Stryper's comeback album! Musically it sounds quite different than previous albums and I would describe it as a mix of Against The Law and Michael Sweet's solo album Truth. Usually I don't like modern rock but Stryper makes it good since they have incorporated many melodic harmonies and hooks. After repeated spins the album grows and now I think it's a good solid album,although not in the same caliber as the 80s albums.  A cool album that will appeal to fans of early Veni Domine. Great vocals and lots of doom influences.  New Swedish metal band with a sound of their own. Their mix of power metal, traditional heavy metal and some progressiveness makes this album a winner and gives good hope for the future.  Thrash is one of my favourite genres and no one does it better than Vengeance Rising. Once Dead consists of former members of Vengeance Rising/Die Happy + Scott Waters from Ultimatum on vocals. The band did a gig on 29 August 2004 and played tunes from the first two Vengeance albums. The gig was recorded and released on DVD. I really enjoy to once again hear the classic Vengeance tunes! Once Dead has also added a track of their own that also sounds promising. Fans of Vengeance Rising should definately check out this limited DVD.  Divinefires debut album features a groundbreaking new sound incorporating both influences from both the melodic and the extreme, presented with plenty of symphonic aggression. Excellent album that appeal to both fans of extreme metal and melodic metal. Lyrics are very Christcentered and uplifting. Love it! Great music, great lyrics and metal to the bone.  Another masterpiece from Divinefire. An excellent mix of melody and brutality at full speed. Lots of hooks and heaviness to enjoy and lyrics as always very Biblical and uplifting. Divinefire is without a doubt one of the best metal bands ever and I can't say enough good about them. They are just too good to be missed.  Influenced musically by Black Sabbath F.O.G. still has a sound of their own and gives us a nice piece of hardrock/metal appealing to fans of 70s Metal.  Looking for some fine old school thrash? Then this can be something for you. Vocals are highpitched, reminding slightly of Guy Ritter of early Tourniquet. A solid thrash release worthy checking out.  Christian Rivel of Narnia and Divinefire called his friends and they agreed to play on this album featuring a mix of 70s and 80s Metal. Bruce Kulick, Mattias IA Eklundh, Mic Michaeli, Lars Chriss, Jeff Scott Soto, Tommy Denander and Thomas Vikström are some of the wellknown persons featured on this cool album.  Ultrafast and brutal release from Crimson Moonlight, truly an album that sets the standard for this genre.  Sardonyx comeback album featuring praise songs in real Heavy Metal style. A cool album, I just wished it was a fullength and not just four tracks.  Good metal bands are popping up all over the world, even in Ucraine. Holy Blood has a cool brutal sound with plenty of Viking influences. Compared to their first album this is so much better in all ways showing that they are a band to count on.  Saint gives us a cool live album featuring their best tracks from both past and present.  Classic Heavy Metal band Barren Cross did a reunion show On Elements of Rock, the Christian Metal Festival in Switzerland.  Heavy Metal to the bone, that's what Tykküs gives us and they do it well on this their first release.  On Lorca Rock Festival in Spain, Stryper played with famous bands like Iron Maiden and Dream Theater! The cool thing was also that Stryper played last so you can even say that Iron Maiden opened up for them!  Guitarshredder Niclas Buss is one of the up'n'coming guitar shredders and he really let loose on this EP called White Winternight. If you love guitar solos, this is a cd you shouldn't miss.  The classic setting of the 80s Glam Metal band Holy Soldier reunited on a festival called Up From The Ashes.  Heed The Warning is the name of one of Seventh Angel's demos. All tracks from this demo as well as live tracks are featured on this special cd, which makes it a cool addition to fans of this Brittish Thrash band.  Cool melodic 80s metal album with unreleased tracks from guitarshredder Rick Hunter from Soldier.  This was also the year when the first edition of the Metal Bible was released (in Swedish). The Metal Bible is a special Bible edition for us that love metal. It contains the New Testament in the middle and is done in real metal style. What makes it special and cool is that it both looks and feels 100% Metal on the cover and inside with Old English font and plenty of Metalheads in it, that talk about what God and the Bible means to them. It features persons like Nicko McBrain (Iron Maiden), Tommy Aldridge (Whitesnake), Peter Baltes (Accept), Brian Welsh (ex-Korn), Michael Sweet (Stryper), Rob Rock, Pastor Bob Beeman (Sanctuary International), Simon "Pilgrim" Rosén (Crimson Moonlight), Matt Smith (Theocracy), Steve Rowe (Mortification), Christian Rivel (Narnia, Divinefire), Ulf Christiansson (Jerusalem), Richard Lynch (Saint), Carl Johan Grimmark (Narnia), Batista (Antidemon), Gabriela Sepulveda (Boanerges) and many more! The purpose of this special Bible edition is to break down misconceptions and show people that the Bible is a cool book also for people that like metal and that its message is relevant to us today. Read more about this megacool special Bible on www.themetalbible.com   The metal scene is Brazil is huge and has hundreds of Christian Metal bands. One of them is Adiastasia. This album is their first one and it's a really cool album filled to the bone with pure symphonic power metal. 
Horde, the legendary christian unblack metal band has did two gigs only. The first gig took place the Fall 2006 at Nordicfest in Oslo, the capitol of Norway.
Norway was also the perfect place to play at since Horde were threaten to death by the Norwegian Black Metal mafia years ago, because they couldn't
stand that Horde stood up for Christ in the black metal scene. But as Mortification says in one of their songs God is the one that truly rulz and an example of this
is this gig that Horde did in Norway. As one of those that had opportunity to be there I can say that their gig was one of the best gigs I have ever seen!
Extremely fast, furious, brutal and megaintense.
 With this album Divinefire conquered new ground. The album was even voted as best metal album of the issue in Sweden Rock Magazine, which is the leading Metal Magazine in Sweden. And I do think it's well deserved since the cd features a great combination of brutality and melody with a healthy dose of symphonic influences.  Stryper, the melodic metal masters finally released their first DVD! It features many of their classics from their long career, making it a must have to any fan of Melodic Metal.  Filled with crunchy and catchy hooks a la AC/DC X-Sinner definately shows that they are back to stay with this rerecording of their Peace Treaty album. Besides having more guitars and a heavier sound than the original, the album also has one previously unreleased track.  Stryper is one of the best live bands and to see and hear them live is definately something extratordinary. On this cool live cd Stryper has included 9 of the classic live tracks that was on the 7 weeks album plus the tune My Love I'll Always Show.  Jerusalem is one the pioneering christian hardrock/metal bands. To celebrate their 30 years anniversary they did 3 special gigs, where each gig was over 3 hours long! This fantastic tour was recorded and is now released on DVD featuring classics from the band's whole career. It also includes plenty of interviews, videos and other cool stuff, making it to an absolute must have to all Jerusalem fans.  This album was voted as best metal album of the issue in Sweden Rock Magazine. And it's definately a melodic metal album of high caliber with outstanding production and Christian singing better than ever. The album was voted as best metal album of the issue in the album review chart of Sweden Rock Magazine. Narnia also did a sold out tour with Sonata Arctica and they also played at Gates of Metal Festival in Sweden along with bands like Hammerfall and Helloween.  This DVD was filmed during Mortification's peak and features a fantastic gig both musically and visually and is definately a must have to any fan of Death Metal. |
 
Horde, the legendary christian unblack metal band has did two gigs only. The first gig took place the Fall 2006 at Nordicfest in Oslo, the capitol of Norway.
Norway was also the perfect place to have Horde play since the band were threaten to death by the Norwegian Black Metal mafia years ago, because they couldn't
stand that Horde stood up for Christ in the black metal scene. But as Mortification says in one of their songs God is the one that truly rulz and an example of this
is this gig that Horde did in Norway. As one of those that had the opportunity to be there I can say that their gig was one of the best gigs I have ever seen!
Extremely fast, furious, brutal and megaintense. Wow, definately a highlight for me and many others who were there.
The gig was recorded and is now available on both cd and dvd, picturing the raw and noncompromising sound of these
unblack metal pioneers.
 Deliverance is back again! This is their comeback album featuring a combination of their early speed metal sound and their later more progressive sound. A really cool album showing that these speed metal pioneers are still a band to count on.  This was also the year when the Metal Bible saw the light in the Dutch language. As the Swedish edition it contains both the New Testament and plenty of testimonies from metalheads that share their life stories and what the Bible means to them. More info about this megacool special Bible can be found at http://www.metalbijbel.nl and http://www.themetalbible.com  Before the band changed name to Stryper, they were called Roxx Regime. Under this name they released a demo that got them signed. With modern technique the sound of the demo have now been greatly enhanced and it sounds tons better now than it did then. The result is a bit raw but still really cool album that mostly contains tracks that would later appear on Stryper albums. The highlight of the album is the fantastic rock version of the ballad My Love I'll Always Show.  With this album Rob Rock really shows that he is one of the best metal vocalists out there. He is often called the voice of melodic metal and he surely is. With this album he has managed to do his best solo album to this date. While his previous solo cds have been somewhat inconsistent this album just rocks all the way through. Garden of Chaos also features a heavier yet very catchy sound. There are also plenty of hooks to enjoy as well as wellwritten lyrics. All these things together makes Garden of Chaos to one of the best metal albums this year. 
Wow, what an album! This albums stands out in all ways. Musically it's filled with bonecrushing Melodic Death Metal. Fans of secular band Children of Bodom will be knocked to the ground
when they hear this excellent album. If you ever wanted a quality Christian Metal band in this genre Hilastherion is what you have been looking for. What really stands out is the heavy rhythms and the tasty guitar solos.
If you enjoy the melodic harmonies of Schaliach you will also greatly enjoy this, although Hilastherion's sound is much faster. Lyrically, this is also one of my favourite albums, since the lyrics are both very honest and Christcentered, and you can really see that the band cares for people and wants their best.
An outstanding album in all ways that you can't afford to miss if you are a fan of Heavy & Melodic Death Metal.
 These American Thrashers have greatly improved over the years and this is definately their best one so far. With great production, plenty of guitar solos and crunchy thrash rhythmes Ultimatum shows that they are a band to count on.  During the 80s Eternal Ryte was one of the bands reigning in the underground glam metal scene. They released only one album, titled World Requiem. This cd is included in its entirity on the double cd Anthology. Besides this it also contains their demos as well as some live tracks. Really cool album overall with bold lyrics and cool music. If you enjoy 80s metal this is definately a band worthy checking out since they not only have the sound but also the look with big hair.  Finally a official DVD with Stryper! Great DVD with plenty of hits from their whole career in front of an enthusiastic audience. They also have plenty of yellow and black on the stage and a big drum set, so it's kinda like a flashback to their live videos Live In Japan and In The Beginning. Stryper is also one of the best live bands in the world and it's always a pleasure to see them live and this gig is no exception. A difference between this release and the limited version is that this edition also contains some really cool live videos from the 80s.  Narnia is one of the best metal bands and they have always delivered albums of great quality. On this megacool double cd they have compiled their best tracks. Besides album tracks it also contains rare tracks from their Japanese releases as well as the covers In His Majesty's Service (Jerusalem) and Sunrise (Uriah Heep). A really cool thing that makes this album to a must to any Narnia fan is also the booklet that contains plenty of interesting facts about the band's history as well as lots of pictures. An outstanding album that also works fine as introduction to this talented and professional band.  The masters of technical Thrash has returned! After many years absence Kurt Bachman (vocals/guitars) and Joey Daub (drummer) decided to put the band together again. As usual they deliver technical & experimental thrash metal. |
  With this release Theocracy really sets a new standard and show that Christian bands can rival also the best Secular bands in the Power Metal genre. Fantastic album from the beginning to the end filled to the bone with crunchy rhythmes and catchy hooks. Production is also of the highest caliber. There is also plenty of variation and no fillers on the album. Just quality Power Metal through and through. This is a phenomenal album and a must have for anyone into melodic metal overall and especially for those into Melodic Power Metal!  Harmony has a sound somewhat similar to Theocracy, but much more progressive. Their sound on this album can be descibed as a mix of Yngwie Malmsteen and Dream Theatre. Interesting is also that Harmony just as Yngwie are hailing from Sweden. Markus Sigfridsson is a very skilled and talented guitar player and his solos is definately a big part of Harmony's sound. Compared with their debut the sound is now heavier and more progressive. Production has also been greatly improved. Highly recommended to fans of Yngwie Malmsteen and Dream Theatre.  Ever longed for a Christian band in the veins of Nightwish? Then HB is what you are looking for. This female fronted band from Finland delivers plenty of symphonic and catchy tunes similar to Nightwish. I really like the heaviness some of the tracks have as well the worshipful Biblical lyrics. Fans of Nightwish will definately have plenty to enjoy on this cd.  Rob Rock is a busy and talented man. This is another quality release from him. This time he goes for the classic 80s Heavy Metal sound, and he does it well! The album is filled with catchy hooks and shredding guitar solos. A really cool album and also one of Rob's best.  Yes, finally this classic Speed Metal album has been rereleased! Retroactive Records is really doing great job with remastering and rereleasing of the classics. CD also contains the bonus tracks A Space Called You and Attack. Music is ultrafast, heavy & melodic and lyrics are really to the point. Fans of early Metallica will definately enjoy this cool album.  This album is a classic and one of the best Metal albums ever done! Besides the original tunes it also contains the bonus track "Rescue". Fans of early Bay Area Thrash are gonna drool when they hear this quality release. A classic and one of the best Metal albums ever done.  This German Power Metal band has really improved! Especially Herbie Langhans voice now sounds better than ever. The production is also excellent this time. Typical of this release is also that almost every track has really catchy and memorable hooks. To sum it up this a really cool album (with a total time of over 70 minutes!) for all you power metal fans out there.  This is the band's last album, aptly titled Farewell. As always the band does a wonderful job with combining the melodic with the extreme. Their style can also be described as Heavy Extreme Symphonic Power Metal with a mix of both of clean and growling vocals. Typical for their sound is also the catchy hooks and choruses. I have greatly enjoyed Divinefires previous albums and I enjoy this as well. I will really miss this band and its unique sound.  X-Sinner is back with a brand new studio album. This time the band wanted to do an album where the band's energy really shreally shone through. The result is a crunchy sound with loud guitars and tons of energy. As always X-Sinner manages to get that catchy gritty sound and the cool raspy vocals. Highly recommended to fans of early AC/DC and Def Leppard.   This was one of the best releases this year and I was very positively surprised when I heard it. These classic metallers from Czech Republic has been around for 20 years and I have heard some of their tunes before, but it has not been anything that has knocked me to the ground. With this cd however they have managed to pick out their best tracks and rerecord them and the result is an astonishing good classic Heavy Metal album. Wow! Plenty of great hooks, tasty guitar solos and very catchy 80s Metal. Also love their Christcentered lyrics. Fans of Classic Metal bands like Bloodgood are definately gonna love this album!  Venia hails from Finland. Like many other bands from this country they have a girl that handles the vocals (and she does it well). Musically speaking it's like a combination of Heavy Metal and Thrash with plenty of symphonic influences thrown in. Really like that the album is so variated and that it's full of guitar solos and catchy hooks. Lyrics are Christcentered and they are both inspiring and encouraging as well. This album definately shows that the band have improved much from their previous EPs and Victory By Surrender is one of the best releases this year. I can highly recommend it to anyone into Heavy Metal, Thrash and Symphonic metal.  The masters of Melodic Metal is back on track again! The album is filled to the bone with catchy harmonies, high screams and great guitar solos a la the 80s. The title track sounds just like something that could have been released on To Hell With The Devil or Soldiers Under Command. Forget about Reborn. This albums shows a comeback to their classic 80s sound while still having a modern edge. Great album through and through and definately the best album of 2009!  On the original release of this album the singer Josh Kramer only sang on 3 tracks. This was a big minus since Josh's vocals is one of the trademarks for the band's characteristic sound. Since neither the band or the fans were really satisfied with the original release the band decided to rerecord several of the tracks and to have Josh singing on all tunes. These changes have really improved the quality of this album and made it to one of band's better after they reformed. Musically it's classic Heavy Metal that will appeal to fans of Judas Priest. In fact they have even covered Invader. Lyrically speaking the album is talking about getting prepared for the end of times is getting near.  Amazing Metal Praise album at full volume! If you want to praise God with real Metal this is the album to check out. It totally blows away all other metal praise albums that have been released previously. The only problem with this fantastic album is that the tunes are all in Swedish so it could be difficult to understand if it is not your native language. The music on this album is played at the Metal Mass events thare are held in the Lutheran churches in Finland. More info about it can be found at http://www.myspace.com/metallmassa  Stryper headlined one of the days of the 3rd annual Rocklahoma in Pryor, Oklahoma, USA. Other bands appearing at the event were: Anthrax, Twisted Sister, Skid Row, Great White, Kix, Jackyl, Warrant, Night Ranger and several others.  Immortal shows a big improvement, especially when it comes to the vocals. You can really hear that Michael Hero has taken song lessons. Besides the vocal improvements, the band has also incorporated more catchy hooks to their tunes. The album has a really heavy and groovy sound and the more you listen to it the more it grows on you. Fans of bands like Him will definately enjoy Hero's heavy and melodic sound. Really cool stuff and definately one of the better albums this year.  German Pascual is the new vocalist of Narnia and he does a great job taking care of the vocals on Narnia's new album. Musically this is heavier overall than previous albums with a somewhat different sound. It's still very melodic and catchy but it is also much heavier. Production is excellent and overally this is one of Narnia's absolute best albums. A great cd that I really can recommend!  Mastedon is back! Fans of commercial hardrock/metal will definately rejoice to hear that John & Dino Elefante is finally back with a new album. Production is most excellent and the album is filled with hooks. Cool stuff, reminding of their previous albums, just wished there were some more heavy tunes.  Hailing from the North of Sweden ReinXeed gives us a really cool album filled with symphonic power metal. The vocalist Tommy Johansson has a fantastic voice and a great range. Another big strength are the amazing guitar solos. While the sound is not the heaviest, this is so extremely catchy and melodic. A phenomenal commercial metal album!  Do you like bands like AC/DC and X-Sinner? Then this album is definately something for you. Catchy melodic metal with raspy voice is a great combination and this album is no exception. Cool stuff.  Antidemon from Brazil is back again with a new release filled with brutal Death Metal. With improved production and much more variation this is by far their best album. They have also made the tunes more catchy. It is still very brutal, but now it's catchy as well. A really cool brutal Christcentered album and definately one I can recommend.  The punk thrashers The Crucified is back again! Not with a new album, but at least they are touring again. The cool thing is also that they compiled their career so far with this megacool box containing two cds and a dvd! The box contains ALL their tunes, including their two albums as well as demos and unreleased tracks. It's also cool to see the band live on the dvd. Besides great music it also contains the complete history of the band. All in all a great collection and definately a must have to all fans!  After years of abscence the progressive thrash metallers are back again with a new album! The album is very diverse musically and more experimental than ever. Some fans totally love this album and some doesn't like it at all, so to each own.   For many many years the classic Christian Metal releases on Intense/Frontline records have been out of print. But not any longer! Cause this year a new record company saw the light and bought all the rights so they now can rerelease the classic metal albums by Bloodgood, Vengeance Rising, Deliverance, Sacred Warrior etc.  Outstanding debut album! This album is filled to the bone with tons of melodic hooks and fantastic guitar shredding making it a fantastic metal release not to be missed! Definately the Metal album of the year and already a classic.  Great metal album with lots of hooks and a cool mix of 70s and 80s metal featuring members from Narnia, Modest Attraction and Veni Domine! The cd also features a fantastic cover of Stryper's classic "The Way".  Really coool release with one of the finest melodic metal bands from the early 90s. Many of Crystavox classic tracks from their two albums have been remastered giving them a clear crisp production and more punch. The box also includes a DVD with unreleased videos and interviews. Cool stuff and definately a must have for all Crystavox fans.  Thundering Heavy Metal and great production makes this release one of Saint's very best! This is true Heavy Metal just as it should sound.  This was also the year when one of the greatest melodic metal bands of all times called it quits. :-( Ever since its inception Narnia has been one of the very best metal bands, Christian and Secular, always giving us quality albums and great live shows. But this year the band decided to quit. Thanks for a job well done, you will be greatly missed!  This talented Finnish Metal band follows up Frozen Inside with a new album filled with symphonic metal and beautiful female vocals. I really enjoy the heavy tracks but unfortunately the cds also contains too many ballads for their own good. Still a cool album though.   Sweden Rock Magazine - the leading metal magazine in the Nordic countries (Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Iceland) did a 2-part special article about Christian Metal with a total of 17 pages! The wellwritten articles were published in the December 2010 and January 2011 issues and contained lots of interviews and history about the most important events in Christian Metal.  Excellent symphonic power metal with tons of hooks and fantastic guitarshredding makes this album ReinXeeds best so far. Power Metal fans should definately check this out. 
This is really cool high quality book covering the 25 first years of Stryper. The book contains 200 pages filled with great pictures from Stryper's career. An outstanding book and a must have for any Stryper fan!  Finally this classic Thrash album has been rereleased! This is the classic of classics and definately Thrash at its finest. Fast, intense, varied, brutal but yet melodic and with amazing guitar shredding and drums this album just rules from the beginning to the end! Every musician in this band just shreds and the commanding razorsharp vocals just fits perfect with their noncompromising radical Biblical lyrics. The remastering also makes the album sound even better than when it was originally released back in 1988. If you claim to be a Thrash fan and still are missing this outstanding release you are definately missing the diamond of Thrash!  Another great thrash album that has just been remastered and rereleased.  Bloodgood's groundbreaking debut album remastered and rereleased. Great album with Heavy Metal and even some Thrash Metal.  Bloodgood's 2nd album and the one that many considers their best is now remastered and rereleased.  The band's first album is now finally remastered and rereleased. Really cool heavy metal album with guitar solos and instant hooks that stays in your head.  Finally this apocalyptic heavy metal band releases a DVD! The DVD features two videos from Hell Blade as well as live gigs from 2010, 2005 1985 and 1986. Cool stuff and definately a must have for all Saint fans. 
A really cool ebook featuring in depth interviews with over twenty Extreme Christian Artists, including, Becoming The Archetype, Corpus Christi, Grave Robber, Drottnar, Fearscape and many more.   Fantastic Power Metal release! Varied, progressive yet melodic and also with thrashy influences this album just simply rules. This time the band has also got a new guitar shredder that gives us plenty of solos to enjoy. Lyrics are as always when it comes to Theocracy inspiring and very well written. This is quality Power Metal and any band of this genre will definately enjoy this fantastic album. Definately the best Metal album of 2011.  Talking about Theocracy, this was also the year when they released their 2nd album on a really cool digibook. As bonus track they also added the single Wages of Sin, previously released in Japan only.  A really cool cover album where Stryper shows that they can pull off tunes like Heaven and Hell, Highway Star, The Trooper and Breaking The Law. The cd also contains an brand new track God, filled with great guitar solos and great vocals, a track that really makes me hungry for a new album with own material!   THE METAL BIBLE RELEASED IN ENGLISH AND GERMAN!This was the year when the Metal Bible finally saw the light in English and German. The response has been amazing and 12 000 copies of it was distributed at the German metal festival Wacken Open Air (The World's biggest Metal Festival)! Soli Deo Gloria. More information about this megacool Bible edition that contains the New Testament and life stories/testimonies from metalheads like Nicko McBrain (Iron Maiden), Dave Ellefson (Megadeth), Peter Baltes (Accept), Michael Sweet (Stryper) can be found at www.themetalbible.com  The Melodic Metal masters from Sweden are back again with a new album! It is filled to the bone with great hooks, amazing guitarplay and encouraging Christcentered lyrics. Compared to the band's first album the music is now much more symphonic, sounding like a mix of Glory To My King and the band Flagship.  Tommy Johansson, the guitarshredder and vocalist of ReinXeed is definately one of the most talented and productive persons I know of. The quality of what he releases is also very good. This album is no exception. Great melodic and symphonic power metal with plenty of hooks and amazing guitar solos.  Finally this classic Heavy Metal album has been rereleased! It has also been remastered which makes it even more enjoyable. Fans of Judas Priest will eat this up.  This is one of the best Heavy Metal albums ever done! Great guitar solos, heavy riffs, great vocals and lyrics mainly from the book of Revelation makes this an incredibly good album. The remastering also makes a fuller and more crispy sound where more details can be heard. This is a fantastic album from the beginning to the end and definately a Heavy Metal classic! Fans of classic Heavy Metal bands like Judas Priest will be amazed when they hear this excellent album.  Divinefire is back! Yes, after years of abscence the band is now back again with a brand new album. Like their previous releases this is a great mix of the melodic and extreme mixing clean and growling vocals in a symphonic layer and spiced up with plenty of hooks and Christcentered lyrics. Great to have this quality band back again. They have been greatly missed!  This was also the year when Stryper played at Sweden Rock Festival which is one of the biggest metal festivals in Europe where over 30 000 metalheads gather every year. They played along with bands like Judas Priest, Whitesnake, Ozzy Osbourne, Saxon, Accept, Crashdiet, Rhapsody of Fire, Helloween, Iced Earth, Rob Zombie and many more.  Really cool rerelease of the band's debut album. Classic Melodic Metal with plenty of hooks that stays in your head. 
This is one of the classic Bride releases! After being out of print for years it has finally been
rereleased. It has also been remastered which makes it so much more enjoyable with a more clarity in the sound
and more punch in the drums. Silence is Madness contains some of Bride's very best tracks like their
fantastic rocker Until The End We Rock. A fantastic track that makes you wanna cruise down the streets with
the windows down and the stereo on full volume. This is what a rocker should sound like!
Some other great tracks are Fool Me Once,
Evil Dreams and Under The Influence. Singer Dale Thompson has a great voice also does plenty of really amazing
high pitched screams on this cool release. Really cool Heavy Metal album spiced up with some speed metal and even some blues influences thrown in.
After 10 successful years the Christian Metal Festival Nordicfest has called it quits. :-( The festival took place every year in Fall in Oslo, Norway.
During the years great bands like Divinefire, Golden Resurrection, Horde, Extol, Lengsel, Mortification, Rob Rock, Narnia, Antestor, Crimson Moonlight,
Vardoger, Antidemon, The Crucified, Theocracy, Leviticus, Harmony and many more have played! Legendary Metal Pastor Bob Beeman from Sanctuary International
has also been teaching there on many of the festivals. A really cool thing with this festival has also been the cave deep in the mountain were most people slept.
This is a festival many will miss and I really want to give a big thank you to Pål, Oddmund and everyone else that has organized this great festival.
You can feel proud of your hard work in spreading the Kingdom of God in the Metal world.
http://www.nordicfest.no
 Rerelease of their ep Love Through Blood. Also added the live tracks Wartime and Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood as extra bonus. Really cool Doom Metal with Christcentered lyrics.  Another cool Bride release that has now been remastered and rereleased. Includes the fantastic track Heroes that contains one of the longest screams I have ever heard. Great to hear this album again! I'm really thankful for labels like Retroactive Records for rereleasing and remastering classic albums with Saint, Bride etc so they get available again.  Crossforce was one of those promising 80s metal bands that never was signed. Roxx Productions has however succeeded to find recordings of their demos and live shows and have now compiled them into this cd. Cool stuff with that true 80s melodic hardrock/metal sound and some really cool guitar shredding.  Looking for some intense, brutal and noncompromising Death Metal of highest calibre? Then this album is what you are looking for, cause this is quality Death Metal! Fans of Scrolls-era of Mortification will totally enjoy this release! Although the music is brutal to the bone it still has catchy harmonies and guitar shredding thrown in that makes music varied and really memorable. Production is excellent as well. Lyrically the band tackles many different areas from the crucifiction to abortion to politics, from a Christian point of view. The cool thing is also that almost all instruments and vocals are done by one person only - Michael Jelinic that is. Really amazing that one person can do such a great album! Any fan of Death Metal should definately check out this quality release.  Vinyl has come back! Vinyl Remains has released the progressive Thrash band's Tourniquet's first two albums on coloured vinyl! They look really cool and it's great to see good looking covers on BIG vinyls rather than small cds.   After years of wait finally Tourniquet strikes back with a new album! This time they managed to do one of their best albums ever. The album is filled to the bone with Thrashy rhythmes, timechanges, variation and progressiveness in true Tourniquet style. Any fan of this band will definately enjoy this excellent album.  Wow! Saint delivers again with a fantastic album with True Heavy Metal. In fact this is in my opinion their 2nd best album ever only next to the classic Too Late For Living. Production is excellent and the tunes are both heavy and catchy and lyrics are as always Christ centered. If you claim to be a true fan of Heavy Metal this album should not be missed in your collection. Fans of Judas Priest especially will totally love this classic album.   THE METAL BIBLE RELEASED IN SPANISH AND POLISH!This was the year when the Metal Bible finally saw the light in Spanish and Polish. More information about this megacool Bible edition that contains the New Testament and life stories/testimonies from metalheads like Nicko McBrain (Iron Maiden), Dave Ellefson (Megadeth), Peter Baltes (Accept), Michael Sweet (Stryper) can be found at www.themetalbible.com  The classic metal band Driver headed by Rob Rock is back again with another great Heavy Metal album. Besides Rob Rock the band consists of the great musicians Roy Z, Reynold "Butch" Carlson, Ed Roth and Aaron Samson.  Remember the Intense Defense album by Joshua? This album is in many ways a follow up to that Melodic Metal classic. Joshua Perahia has such a great feel for making catchy hooks and shredding on the guitar, which he clearly shows on this release called Resurrection. Compared to Intense Defense this album also has a heavier, yet melodic sound. Production is excellent. Great to have Joshua back, you have been greatly missed!  This is a must have if you are into Progressive Metal in general and especially Dream Theatre. Fans of Progressive Metal will definately enjoy this quality release. Lyrically Harmagedon is a concept album about the book of Revelation. If you have been looking for a quality Christian band in this genre this is the band/album you have been looking for. Highly recommended.  This is David Benson's third release that originally saw the light in 1997. It has been out of print for a long time, but thanks to Retroactive Records Premonition of Doom is now remastered and rereleased. Compared to the original the production is so much better on this one, making it sound like a new album with a thick, full and heavy sound. Musically this is Heavy and cathy Doom Metal all the way that will appeal to fans of Ozzy Osbourne. Lyrically however, this is full on for Christ. All in all a great album and definately an album to check out if you are into Doom Metal.  Antestor, the classic Norwegian black metallers for Christ have finally returned with a new album! This time they explore new ground musically on the brutal side.  American thrashers Ultimatum celebrated 20 years with a very special box containing lots of music and rare merchandise. This mega cool box was limited to 100 copies only. Sadly the German Power Metal band Seventh Avenue has decided to call it quits. The band started back in 1993 and has released the albums Rainbowland, Tales of Tales, Southgate, Goodbye, Between The Worlds, Eternals and Terium.  This was an excellent year in Christian Metal featuring great comeback albums with Extol, Sacred Warrior and Bloodgood! Many quality worldclass releases saw the light this year and this was, in my opinion, in fact, one of the best years ever in Christian Metal! But all was not good and happy though, since 2013 was also the year when we saw some real persecution against Christian Metal when an angry mob of satanists attacked the band Antestor.  The masters of Technical Death Metal have returned! Extol from Norway are back again with a really cool release featuring their classic sound from their first two albums.  Finally after years of absence Classic Metal band Sacred Warrior have returned! Their comeback album is a solid mix of Classic and Modern Metal. New vocalist is Eli Prinsen from The Sacrificed.  2013 was the year of great comebacks in Christian Metal. One of the most anticipated was Bloodgood's return to the scene. They have not rest on the laurels but managed to do one of the best albums this year with really catchy Christ centered Melodic Metal. Great stuff and highly recommended release.  We are definately living in the end times and soon Jesus will return. A sign of this is that persecution against Christians will increase. Legendary Christian Black Metal band Antestor from Norway had to face this first hand when they were touring Brazil. Afte the band left a successful gig in Belo Horizonte, Brazil a mob of very angry and violent satanists bearing banners with anti-Christian and anti-Antestor messages, attacked the band, spat on them, beat them and kicked them. According to Antestor, if it had not been for the timely arrival of the Brazilian police, things might have gotten worse. This shows how important it is to keep the Christian Metal bands that are on the frontline in prayer, especially those that reach out to the extreme metal fans into death and black metal.  This is a really cool Melodic Metal album made for evangelization! It has tons of hooks and Christ centered lyrics. Musically it contains some of the very best of the Swedish Metal scene with bands like Golden Resurrection, Narnia, Audiovision, Divinefire and Modest Attraction, making it a great introduction to Christian Metal. Lyrically it also sums up the Christian message in a nutshell, making it a great album for evangelization. This album is one of a kind and definately one to check out if you are into Melodic Metal. http://www.metalforjesus.org/metalforjesus.html  Have you longed for a full comeback of Stryper's classic sound in the 80s? Well, now you don't have to wait any longer cause Stryper is back with their strongest album since To Hell With The Devil! The catchy hooks and amazing guitar solos are all back again. So is Michael Sweet high falsetto screams! Actually he pulls off some of his best screams ever on this album. Lyrically several tunes are picked from the book of Revelation in the Bible. Production is excellent and it is an amazing album with no filler tunes at all. No More Hell To Pay has also been selling very well and took place #35 on the Billboard Top 200 chart (the 200 most sold albums in USA). Besides CD it is also released on double LP on yellow and blue vinyl. To sum it up it is a Melodic Metal master piece and definately one of their very best albums ever. Check it out, you won't be dissapointed.  What a great album this is! Melodic Metal at its finest with tons of hooks, amazing guitar solos and Christ centered lyrics. An excellent album and definately one of the very best this year. If you like guitar shredding metal this is the album to get.  10 years after this classic album was originally released it has finally been reissued. It has been completely remixed but the most important improvement is that all drums have been rerecorded by a real drummer. This is a phenomenal album, but one of the few weak moments on it was the programmed drums. However, with a real drummer instead this weakness is now no more and what we have here is an excellent and varied quality Melodic Power Metal album for all fans of this genre.  Grave Declaration are now out with their anticipated full length album, and it has definately been worth the wait! Cause here we have an excellent Atmospheric Black Metal Praise album. Not for the faint of heart, but for those that want to praise God loudly with brutal music. Excellent album both musically and lyrically and definately a most have for anyone into atmospheric black metal that glorifies Christ.  Finnish Death Metal pioneers Deuteronomium that has been around for 20 years are back with their best album ever! They have returned to their roots and done an amazing album filled with Heavy and catchy Death Metal with praise lyrics. Great album and definately one of the best this year.  The masters of Speed Metal is back again with a final album and the band goes out with a bang with their best album for years featuring music that kinda sounds like a combination of their first Speed/Thrash albums and Learn. Cool stuff and definately the best Deliverance album for years. Drummer on this release is the legendary Jayson Sherlock from early Mortification, Horde and Paramaecium.  Swedish band Hero have found an unique and cool style of their own and done a really cool and Heavy Gothic Metal album filled with catchy rhythms.  Stryper have created so many excellent tunes. On this special release many of their best tracks from their first 3 albums have been rerecorded. The result is simply amazing and several of their classics actually sounds better than ever! The improved production makes the sound fuller and heavier. Great album all the way through and definately a most have for any Stryper fan. Besides CD it was also released on double LP on yellow vinyl.  Classic Metal band Leviticus from Sweden have now rereleased their 2nd album on Ektro Records. It has been remixed and sounds better than ever. Back in 1985 British Metal Magazine Kerrang called it "One of the best records of the year".  This album is the classic of classics in Thrash Metal! To celebrate its 25th anniversary Roxx Productions did a special release of it on picture disc vinyl. With such a cool cover like this it looks amazingly good on Picture Disc Vinyl and looks fantastic on the wall. The LP was printed in a limited edition of 300 copies only.  This was the year when the Metal Bible saw the light in Danish. It was released just in time for the festival Roskilde and the interest was huge. In just a few days 9 000 Danish Metal Bibles were distributed! Hordes of people came to get a copy of it with many interesting talks about faith as a result. The Metal Bible is now released in 7 languages, besides Danish it is also relased in Dutch, German, Swedish, Polish, English and Spanish. More information about this megacool Bible edition that contains the New Testament and life stories/testimonies from metalheads like Nicko McBrain (Iron Maiden), Dave Ellefson (Megadeth), Peter Baltes (Accept), Michael Sweet (Stryper) and many more can be found at www.themetalbible.com  This was a happening year with many great and cool releases including several LPs! This was also the year when Narnia and Barren Cross reunited, Veni Domine quit and Saint got a new vocalist. 
Yes, the lion has awakened from the dead with a roar and are ready to once again Rock The World for Jesus! Narnia celebrated the reunion by playing on festivals like Metallsvenskan and Gullbranna. They are also working with a new album. More info to come... 
First 3 albums of this Classic Christian Hardrock band are now available again in this cool box. They tunes have been remastered making them sound better than ever. 
Deliverance second album is a Speed/Thrash Metal Classic that now has been rereleased on LP! This got to be one of the coolest covers ever made. It was released in a limited edition of 300 copies. 100 of them on blue vinyl. 
Mortification's selftitled album has never been released on LP until now! Soundmass from Australia has done a really cool LP version of this classic Death Metal album that paved the way for Christian Death Metal. 
American Thrasher's Ultimatum continues to celebrate 20 years by releasing Heart of Metal on green vinyl. 
After serving the Lord for many years the band had called it quits. :-( Before they disbanded they however released their last 7th album called Light. They closed the circle by ending the album with a remake of their classic Oh, Great City from their debut Fall Babylon Fall. Veni Domine will be greatly missed. 
Legendary Christian Hardrockers Jerusalem has been one of the bands that has stand in the frontline of Christian Metal ministry ever since they started the band in the late 1970's. Ulf Christiansson also the frontman of the band and in this biography (in Swedish) he shares openly what his happened in his own life and with Jerusalem over the years. Very interesting and inspiring book with lots of spiritual insights. 
Messenger hails from Sweden and plays Melodic Metal. They are a young and hungry band that just get better and better which really shows on this very enjoyable Melodic Metal EP. It's both catchy, melodic and Christ centered. Last track is a fantastic and very rocking Swedish version of How Great Thou Art!! Wow, this is definately worship at full volume! Messenger is a great talented band. Make sure you don't miss the new wonder of Swedish Melodic Metal. 
After years of absense the band is now officially back together again with all the four original members: Michael Drive (Lee) - Lead Vocals & Guitars, Jim LaVerde - Bass, Keyboard Pedals & Backing Vocals, Ray Parris - Lead Guitars & Backing Vocals and Steve Whitaker - Drums & Backing Vocals. To celebrate their reunion the band has released a brand new live album featuring 3 new tracks! The live CD is called Birth Pangs and contains 16 classics + 3 new tracks. 
Barren Cross has reformed and re-released their debut Rock For The King. The remaster has improved the sound making the tunes sounding better than ever. 
Michael Sweet, the vocalist of Stryper has taken the time to write his biography. He has a lot to tell from both the good and the tough times of his life. Without candycoating anything he talks honestly about the ups and downs in Stryper and his solo career. Over it all the red line in the book is that no matter what we face God is still there for us and takes us through also the tough times. Definately an interesting read, especially for all Stryper fans. 
Long time singer Josh Kramer have decided to leave the classic Heavy Metal band Saint. New vocalist is Brian Phyll Miller, who you can hear on Saint's latest album Broad Is The Gate. 
Wow! Such a great albums this is. 100% Melodic Metal with catchy hooks and very shredding guitars (Niclas Buss guitar solos are phenomenal!) and positive Christ centered lyrics. Great stuff! Fans of guitar shredders like Rex Carroll (Whitecross) and Carl Johan Grimmark (Narnia) especially will love this. Definately a must have for all into Melodic Metal. Check out the new wonder of Christian Metal from Finland! 
This is a really cool album if you are looking for a Christian band in the veins musically of King Diamond. Horror Metal this is and it is definately not for everyone, but Dark Night is a wellneeded light shining in the darkness of this genre. 
Carl Johan Grimmark, the master shredder of Narnia is back with a new band. He has teamed up with Tobias Enbert (the drummer of Harmony) and Ricard Hulteke on vocals, Andreas Ålöv on bass and John Svensson on keyboards. Music is very enjoyable melodic metal with an own twist to it. ¨ 
In tune is a very wellwritten & practical music ministry book by Dave Williams, who is the director of Meltdown Music Ministries in the United Kingdom. With 30 years of experience of Christian Metal ministry he surely knows what he is talking about. The book features tons of practical advice and helpful information about how to use your band as a ministry to reach out to the Metal world with the great news of Jesus. I would say that if you play in a band and want your band to be a useful tool for God, then this book gives you all the practical tools to do it in real life. A true handbook for Christian Metal Ministry! www.meltdownchm.co.uk 
Harmony is a band that never dissapoints. They always deliver and new album Theatre of Redemption is no exception. Tight, wellproduced Melodic Metal with Progressive influences. New guest vocalist on the album is Daniel Heiman who does a great job. Cool stuff overall. Available on CD & LP as well as a cool box (limited edition). 
Stryper is a fantastic live band which really shows on this CD/DVD featuring both classics as well as a couple of the new tracks from latest album NMHTP. The gig was recorded on a small club which makes you come closer to the band and it almost feels like you are on the gig yourself! 
Great melodic, catchy and yet progressive Death Metal from Finland! A great Death Metal album with really cool Christcentered lyrics. 
Pantokrator is a classic Death Metal band from Sweden. With this release they have taken the step from being a good band to becoming a great band. Production is top notch and music is more catchy and melodic and also includes some beautiful female vocals which makes their Brutal Death Metal sound more variated and enjoyable, making this their best album to date. It is released on both on CD and LP. Definately a must have for all Death Metal fans.  
Classic Heavy Metal at its best and a True Heavy Metal classic! One of the best Heavy Metal releases have now finally been remastered and rereleased for all to enjoy. 
Great Classic Metal release that now sounds better than ever! All tracks have been remastered and bass tracks rerecorded (since there were severe problem with the mixer board on the original recording, so the bass tracks was never actually recorded!) But now we can finally enjoy this excellent release as the band intended from the beginning. 
Greg Bishop, the founding member and lead guitarist of X-Sinner has chosen to retire both from the band and music overall. Unfortunately this also seems to mark the end of the Classic Metal band X-Sinner :( 
Fast and catchy Thrash from Venezuela. 
Cool Christ centered Black Metal from South Corea! A must have for fans of Horde. 
Melodic Metal band Stryper released Fallen and blowed the fans away with their heaviest album so far. It went straight to the U.S Top 50 at #43, on the Billboard 200 and moving over 10,000 units in it's first week! Brilliant album with a heavy and catchy sound. 
Masked original Swedish band with a brutal blackish sound with some cool folk influences. 
The one and only Punk/Thrashers One Bad Pig has been graced by a biography! Besides telling the story of the band with some really crazy road stories it also features many fans that talks about what the band has meant to them and how One Bad Pig has helped them closer to Christ. 
METAL BIBLE IN FRENCH & BULGARIAN!
The special Bible featuring the New Testament and the life stories from many metalheads have now also been released in French and Bulgarian! With these two new languages added it has now been released in 10 languages! www.themetalbible.com  
Excellent theme album about Easter! Awesome collection from Roxx Records with tunes talking about Christ's Death and Resurrection and what it means to us today. 
After many years of wait black metallers Crimson Moonlight FINALLY released their long awaited album! And it has been worth the wait delivering a very intense and fast album in true Crimson Moonlight style. 
Outstanding Power Metal album with Theocracy filled with catchy harmonies, heavy riffs and lyrics that gives food for thought. Excellent as always, Theocracy never dissapoints! 
Marcus Moberg has made a very good comprenhensive study about Christian Metal featuring its history, ideology and how the scene works overall and also differences and similiarities with the Secular Metal scene. A cool book well worth reading! 
Classic Melodic Metal band Leviticus has been around for 35 years! To celebrate this they have released this cool box featuring all their studio albums + the DVD Live at Bobfest 2003. All their albums have been remastered. There is also a thick booklet with the band's history and photos. Very cool box and the remastering has truly made the tunes sounding heavier and better than ever. A must have for all Leviticus fans! 
Heavy Metal band Sacred Warrior is happy to announce the return of Rey Parra as lead vocalist for the band. If you are not familiar with his voice it is similar to Geoff Tate of Queensryche. 
With the release in Czech the Metal Bible is now released in 11 languages! www.themetalbible.com 
NARNIA - Narnia Swedish Christcentered Melodic Metal band Narnia is back again! They deliver one of their best albums ever with professional production and great catchy tunes with plenty of amazing guitar solos to enjoy. Excellent Melodic Metal album (released on both CD and LP) and one of their very best ever! 
Some time after the new album was released long time bass player Andreas Passmark realized that he has so much going on so the time was just not enough to be able to be in Narnia any longer, so he choose to leave. New bass player is Jonathan Samuelsson (formerly in Safemode). 
Stryper celebrated the 30th anniversary since the release of To Hell With The devil with a very cool special anniversary tour all over the USA! They even used the original cool yellow and black costumes that they used 30 years ago! Setlist included the whole THWTD album + an extra set with classics from other albums. 
Vic Cambell has done an outstanding work with putting this cool biography together. Steve Rowe, the vocalist and bass player of Mortification shares very personally about his life, Mortification, funny road stories and also his struggle with cancer, the victory over it and how the cancer treatment still affects his body today. Very interesting and touchy read from a true Metal Missionary! 
The Symphonic Metal band HB from Finland are calling it quits. :( On December 10, 2016 they played their farewell concert in Germany at Christmas Rock Night. They told the audience that they had decided to go their own ways in mutual agreement. 
The pig thrashers are back again! It's catchy, funny and full on for Christ. Great comeback album and one of their best ever! 
This Death Metal Classic is re-released on limited edition red vinyl. Cover picture has also been enhanced and you can now see more details.  This was the year when XT when finally returned with a brand new and excellent album! There were also several great re-releases by Holy Soldier, Guardian, Sacred Warrior, Guardian, Vengeance Rising and more. 
Classic British Thrashers Seventh Angel have dug up their demos, so we can enjoy different versions of album tracks and also some rare unreleased tracks! All tracks have been remastered making them sounding better than ever. Cool album and a must for all Seventh Angel fans. 
Melech is cool new band featuring Karl Walfridsson and Rickard Gustafsson of Pantokrator. Stylewise it is brutal but more catchy and more folk influenced than Pantokrator. Lyrics are sung in Swedish and are translated to English in the booklet. The album is released on both CD and LP. Very cool and professional album for all into stuff that is both brutal and melodic. 
Cool DVD featuring plenty of interviews with metal musicians about the concept of Christian Metal - why we are doing this and how it works to combine the radical message of Jesus with brutal metal music. Cool documentary and well worthy checking out. 
Fire and Love is a classic melodic hardrock album with some of the best Power Ballads ever! Originally released 1990 all tunes have now been remastered making them sounding better than ever. Jamie Rowe has a cool raspy voice fitting the bluesinfluenced commercial hardrock sound well. Excellent album highly recommended for all melodic rockers. Rereleased on CD and orange and black vinyl. 
Deliverance's selftitled album originally released 1989 stands the test of time as one of the best Speed/Thrash albums ever. However, in USA it was not released on LP until now. Therefore the band did a campaign to release it on both black and red vinyl. Cover has been enhanced and the tunes remastered making a fuller sound. 
Great Melodic Metal never rusts or gets old. This album is a great example of this. Plenty of great hooks and guitarplay can be enjoyed on Last Train that now has been remastered and rereleased on CD and on black and red LP.  
Timothy Gaines is no longer in Stryper. New bass player is Perry Richardson (formerly in Firehouse). 
Human Sacrifice is the classic of classics in Thrash Metal! With the remastering we can now enjoy this Thrash metal feast even more. Really cool also with the remastered demo tracks that have been added as extra bonus. If you like Thrash this is the album to get. 
 2018 was a great year featuring comeback albums with Sardonyx and Bride as well as cool re-releases by Crystavox, Seventh Angel and Jerusalem! There were also new excellent albums with Stryper, Narnia and more. 
Over to music. As always with Stryper we get tons of catchy hooks and guitar solos to enjoy. Soundwise the band goes on from Fallen, this time with an even heavier sound. Excellent Melodic Metal album with a hard hitting Bible based message. Definately best studio Metal album 2018 in my opinion. Available on both CD and on yellow, black, silver and gold vinyl. The albums has also been successful on Billboard reaching #1 on Billboard's Christian Album Sales, #2 on Billboard's Top Christian Albums, #3 on Billboard's Top Current Hard Music Albums, #5 on Billboard's Top Independent Current Albums, #7 on Billboard's Top Current Rock Albums, #12 on Billboard's Top Current Physical Albums, #14 on Billboard's Top Current Albums, #21 on Billboard's Top Current Digital Albums and #77 on Billboard Top 200. In addition, God Damn Evil soared to #1 on the iTunes and Amazon Hard Rock charts immediately upon release. 
Deliverance is back in Thrash! Yeah, most of the album is pure raw thrash sounding something like a combo of What A Joke and selftitled album. Setting nowadays is Jimmy P Brown II, Jim Chaffin (The Crucified), Victor Macias (Tourniquet) and Glenn Rogers (Vengeance Rising). With a phenomenal setting like this coming releases can be true master pieces! While this album is not a classic, it is still a good album of solid thrash that gives promise for the future. Hopefully they will incorporate more catchy memorable riffs like they had on their selftitled and Weapons of Our Warfare on next release and then we can have a new classic. Released on CD and black, red and green vinyl. 
Sardonyx is back again with more Progressive Heavy Metal to enjoy! After many year's absence the time has come for Sardonyx to once again take up the sword and spread the kingdom of God through metal music. Lyrically speaking this gives much food for thought and is truly a Bible study in metal music form. Cool stuff both musically and lyrically. 
This is cool book about the history of Meltdown so far. It is written by Dave Williams, the director of Meltdown, who has been in Metal Ministry for 30 years. Meltdown is a music and teaching weekend in Wales in the United Kingdom for fans of Hard, Heavy and Alternative music, where they can have a great time together, enjoy music and get inspired in faith. Over the years a great number of people have been both inspired and encouraged in faith and several have also been saved at Meltdown. Guest speakers like Michael Bloodgood (Bloodgood), Oz Fox (Stryper), Carey "Kosher" Womack (One Bad Pig), Tony Palacios (Guardian), Metal Pastor Bob Beeman (Sanctuary International), Michael Sweet (Stryper), Glenn Kaiser (REZ), Les Carlsen (Bloodgood), Jim LaVerde (Barren Cross), Ted Kirkpatrick (Tourniquet), Jeff Scheetz and Doug Van Pelt (Heaven's Metal) have teached there. In this book Dave Williams shares how Meltdown all started and how things have progressed and also some fun anecdotes. A very interesting read with insights from a truly Christ centered ministry. www.meltdownchm.co.uk 
Here is another cool book to check out. Pastor Bob Beeman is a true Metal Pastor that both loves the Lord and enjoys Metal. In the 80s he started up the ministry Sanctuary (now called Sanctuary International) to minister to metalhead's that have come to know Jesus through Metal Ministry. Sanctuary International is still running today, stronger than ever. In this book called Metal Devo we can enjoy daily devotionals filled with quotes from many high profile metalheads, followed by Pastor Bob’s daily insights. A cool book that both inspires and challenges you in your faith and also works great as a combo to the Metal Bible. https://sanctuaryinternational.com/
Australian Death Metal band Metanoia's 1995 release has finally been remastered and rereleased. The album is a double CD including all demos as well. Cool Death Metal with plenty of influences from Thrash and Classic Metal. 
More info to come so stay tuned... Back To Metal For Jesus Main Page
© Johannes Jonsson 2003-2019 e-mail: johannes@metalforjesus.org |