Christian/Religious Bands and Artists

**GuitarHailz** · Joined: 11 Jun 2007 Posts: 4910 Location: Austin, Texas

Yeah that's right, I did it.

I have a few favorite artists that are Christian. I know there are other fans on ScoreHero.

These are my favorites:
TobyMac - sample
Hawk Nelson - sample
Casting Crowns - sample
BarlowGirl
Newsboys
Relient K

I'm basically a huge Tobymac fan. I have every album and all the remix albums.

He's playing a show here in Evansville next Sunday, I'd love to try and go but I'm not sure if I can (or should spend the money).

My fiance has also discovered a couple of REALLY good Christian metal bands. One of them sounds pretty much like a Judas Priest clone, which is awesome. Where are these songs in Guitar Praise or whatever that GH Christian clone is!? They would be a blast to play.

Regardless of your religion, I'd hope you'd acknowledge good musicianship when you hear it. Also keep in mind that several of these artists aren't even "in your face" Christian. I would label them more as "*genre* with Christian values." At least listen to them before you knock it.

Also, if you're not-Christian and you have a problem that this music exists I will kindly show you the door.

Hopefully ScoreHero can handle this thread.

So have at it! Who are your favorites?
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**SPinD0cter** · Joined: 11 Dec 2007 Posts: 675 Location: Omaha, NE

I'm not a fan of the Christian music where every single song is about God and stuff. But bands like August Burns Red and Underoath I really do like. Oh, Sleeper just created an album basically about the fight between Jesus and Satan. Needless to say it is an epic album
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**DPooch** · Joined: 05 Feb 2008 Posts: 1649 Location: Pittsburgh, PA

Listen to The Swift's album Singing Back to You.

I love that album.

'Rain Down' may be my favorite worship song ever.
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**TheRaw** · Joined: 05 Dec 2007 Posts: 779 Location: On my throne.

**Eastwinn** · Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2010 10:24 pm Post subject:

My favorite band is Christian, mewithoutYou.

I urge everyone to look them up.
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**CleverTangent** · Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2010 11:38 pm Post subject:

I enjoy Christian music a lot; I've seen tobyMac, Hawk Nelson, David Crowder Band, and Fee (x2) live, and they were all great.

Hailz, I'd highly recommend going to the tobyMac concert, the one I went to was a free concert and it was absolutely amazing. I'm not usually a fan of hip hop but tobyMac pulls off a brilliant fusion of hip hop and rock... and can do it all live.

A lot of people don't like the "straight up Christian" songs, i.e. worship songs, and to some degree I can see why. A lot of worship songs have similar chord progressions and are often melodically uninteresting, despite the lyrics (I lead worship at my church, and more often then not I am playing a G, D, Em, C, A, Am, or F#m chord of some sort, there isn't much variety.)

A lot of modern worship bands have developed their own style reminiscent of U2: A lot of bands rely heavily on the delay effect set at dotted eighth notes to create a "bouncy" sound, and other bands just use a lot of of chorus and reverb.

However, a refreshing break from this stereotype is a guy named Matt Papa: he cleverly uses a variety of musical modes and blues progressions to create a very interesting sound without the use of too many effects. Some of his songs are straight-up rockers (Lead Me On, You Can Do Anything, We Will Shine), while he has his fair share of softer hymn-like songs (Hymn in C, In Christ Alone).

I also am a fan of Stryper, which is stereotypical old-school 80s hair metal (actually from the 80s) Christian band that has a style somewhat similar to Judas Priest. I saw them live at a really intimate venue last November, and I really enjoyed it, although I was a little deaf for a couple days afterward.
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**ganondorf901** · Joined: 28 Jul 2008 Posts: 846 Location: VA all the way

**jackmav41** · Joined: 24 Jul 2009 Posts: 275

Switchfoot and David Crowder Band.
David Crowder Band is just plain awesome and Switchfoot has really good songs. Also, of you look into some of U2's stuff, they have songs called Where The Streets Have No Name, Yahweh, With or Without You.
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**Capt.Howdy** · Joined: 01 Jul 2007 Posts: 657 Location: Richmond, VA

**JLynn** · Joined: 01 Jul 2008 Posts: 302

Where to start...I like a bunch of Christian music!

I've had more recent opportunities to see Fireflight and Thousand Foot Krutch in concert. Amazing!

Also:

Demon Hunter
RED
Skillet (although I'm waning on them somewhat)
Casting Crowns (I love what they did with "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day")
Delirious

On the progressive side, Neal Morse.
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**Vampyromaniac** · Joined: 08 Feb 2008 Posts: 1216

95% of the time I listen to music solely for aesthetics, so I'm not too concerned as to whether a band is Christian or not.

Living Sacrifice is a pretty good one that hasn't been mentioned yet... I have their 'best of' album and it's pretty solid, which is saying a lot because I'm usually not into pure death metal too much. Also, if you're into bands like Suicide Silence, which I am not, then the band Impending Doom reminds me a lot of them, and they're Christian too.

One thing I find funny about Christian metal bands is when they don't know where to draw the line lyrically between trying to have Christian lyrics and trying to sound brutal. For example, Impending Doom has a song called 'Silence the Oppressors,' which sounds real heavy, but in one song their lyrics are "This is our worship...GORSHIP!" which only serves to make me laugh.

Demon Hunter has some good songs, but they all have the property of having a good chorus while the rest of the song is unimpressive.

For non-metal, I got a free CD from blockbuster with some christian chistmas song remakes and they were surprisingly great. The singer and the guitarist in particular were both amazing, and they added a nice 80's sound to the songs, which worked a lot better than I had expected.

Creed sucks though, in my opinion.
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**MSH-Hitman** · Joined: 27 Aug 2007 Posts: 4481 Location: Florida

Lets get some better Christian Metal bands in here.

Easily the best would be Tourniquet. Some pretty epic metal over the years. Started off abit more speed metal like, then kinda thrash, then kinda got soft, but this decade it's been harder and more heavy stuff, but all good. Highly recommend them. They have a new album in the works I believe. I'm hoping this year.

Psycho Surgery
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5-14J5LHuU

Architeuthis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKie5aYrTYE

Besprinkled in Scarlet Horro
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VO1U3O5p1_Y

Perfect Night For a Hanging
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bse4HAMC1Js

Another great band is Deliverance. They aren't around anymore I think, but had a few good songs.

Weapons of our Warfare
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljPHcjhqhh8

**TerminX13** · Joined: 12 Mar 2009 Posts: 991

Kamelot is a damn good christian metal band.

Skillet & Flyleaf too. I have athiest friends who still listen to those bands, lol
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**ganondorf901** · Joined: 28 Jul 2008 Posts: 846 Location: VA all the way

**jesse0986** · Posted: Mon Mar 08, 2010 12:52 am Post subject:

I'm an absolute sucker for a good beat, and I dare anyone to listen to Kirk Franklin's "Looking for You" without tapping their foot or bobbing their head or some other shit. Not terribly familiar with the rest of Franklin's work but it's mostly gospel, which may turn some away. Still, this song is awesome and always puts a smile on my face.

Also Common isn't really marketed as a Christian artist but he focuses on Christian-related themes quite a bit. "Be" is one of my favorite tunes in the world. Another sick beat and Common's got a ton of talent as a lyricist.
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