Giant List Of Non Satanic Heavy Metal.

[Jesus_lol]

after a few requests(Gregorius and ChildOfTheCreator) i am posting this list with a few significant changes.

So most of this list has been posted before, but i have reworked it andedited it. Biggest note is i have removed all the bands i know aresatanic(there arent that many actually), and most of the more blatantlyanti religion(more of these) though i have left in bands that onlyoccassionally reference christianity or religion in a bad way, withnotes. for most of these the discography is worth listening to, afteryou delete the 3 or 4 songs that you dont like. I'm loathe to throw thebaby out with the bathwater here. If i dont specifically mentionlyrical content, then nothing jumped out at me either way.

For the most part i dont listen to or even like lyrics in any genre ofmusic, im all about the intrumentation and use of voice as aninstrument if at all, so lyrics arent very important to me. still ipick up a lot.[b]

[b]
ive also mostly alphabetized this, and given my informed guess at therelevant metal subgenre each fits into. (worth knowing, the differencebetween technical death metal and power metal is quite vast, forexample) and added a bit more relavent info to most of the bands thatare still on the list.[/b]


Amon Amarth[/b]- melodic death metal, bout vikings. fully awesome.As you might guess with a band that uses only viking history and mythfor lyrics, almost all refer to Odin and Thor etc, and a few are aboutViking invasions of Christian towns. Odinism and christianity arentreally all that compatible, and the few songs they have aboutchristianity bug me, so i deleted them, but they remain one of myfavourite bands.

[b]Annihilator[/b]- old school thrash. Interesting guitarwork, and odd singing. in the same basic vein as megadeth and metallica.
[b]
Anthrax[/b]- happy sounding thrash. really only one true Thrash album, but good in general.
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Arch Enemy[/b]- gothenburg style melodic DM.not as heavy as amon amarth. girl singer/growler and she is definitelyan acquired taste, even for death metal vocals. one i havent acquired,but again i like the melodic guitar style. Lyrics are incomprehensible mostly

[b]Alestorm [/b]- sick pirate metal, seriously check em out. Pirates are hardly ethical or modest but they are awesome.

[b]Amorphis- [/b]good melodic stuff on their latest album.
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Anata[/b] - highly technical but very melodic(if weirdly so) heavy and tight. lots of counterpoint melody
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Anterior[/b] - good metal core ish stuff. all growling, no blink 182 style singing like with metal core normally
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Anubis Gate[/b] - Progressive metal. very cool stuff, neat interesting melodies, complicated songwriting
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Arsis [/b]-fast technical death metal. somemore rockish elements in comparison with other tech death stuff. a wholehell of a lot going on at once,but awesome riffs and songs. Bit of a "wall of sound"
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Artillery[/b] - great thrash band. only done two good albums apparently. one of them is their newest one(when death comes)
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Athiest[/b] - jazzy tech death. have a few songs in fullfledgedjazz mode, incredible musicians. Despite(or perhaps because of) theirname, most of their lyrics have nothing to do with religion. looked atthe lyrics for a couple of their albums and found one or two only thatreferenced religion "no truth" being the name of the song.
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Between the Buried and Me[/b]- proggy metal. similar to DreamTheater in wide range of material drawn from, though typically heaviersongs. latest two albums are incredible.
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Black Label Society[/b]- heavy metal band, Zakk Wylde from Ozzy on guitar and vocals. pretty good
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Black Sabbath[/b]- c'mon, you know theseguys. heavy old school metal. The kneejerk reaction from many peoplewhen they came out was to label them as satanic, though i believe thatis entirely unfounded.
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Candlemass - [/b]Not a Christian band, but often uses christian imagery and themes in a good way. Check out this song [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=its-Qb7F17Q"]Samarithan[/url]from their second album, lyrics are on the right hand side. a seriouslygood traditionalDoom metal band. very heavy guitar andrhythm, typically slower tempos,though a lot of mid tempo stuff, good soloing and a talented operaticstyle singer, he is a bit of a love/hate thing. check out their lastthree albums. newest one is sick! most people(me included) cant standtheir earlier singer, so stick to the last 2 or 3 albums if you want toavoid him.
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Children Of Bodom[/b] - good melodic death type stuff, greatguitar. Not sure about these guys' lyrics and intent, but i havent seena reason to avoid them really, except there tends to be swearing a lot.(i dont normally care much about swearing but it annoys me in mostsongs, like it doesnt fit)
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[/b][b]Cannibal Corpse[/b] - crazy stuff,check outtheir stuffwith George Fisher(recent) for better production, singing,guitar, andtone. and less messed up lyrics. in general, the lyrics aremessed up, but barely legible. not religion themed, more like horrormovie stuff. but a few members of this board like em, so they get onthe list.
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Carcass[/b] - guitarist michael ammot from arch enemy. old schoolDM, started melodeath. Most of their stuff is junk grindcore(imo) buttotally changed sound in "Heartwork" which i quite like.

[b]Cynic[/b]- more guitar and instruments basedthan metal. cool jazz fusion stuff with metal influences. or the otherway around, who knows. Mostly whimsical weird lyrics, with unorthodoxinstrumentation. Not very metal, mostly, but very good.
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Dark Tranquility[/b] - gothenburg melodeath. easy to get into i think.

[b]Decapitated - [/b]One of my recent additions and favourites. Heavy,complex and fast death metal, these polish guys are most notable forhaving an average age of 14 when they started this band, and a fewyears later releasing a well produced album with advancedinstrumentation. particularily drums and guitar. 4 albums released,unfortunately the singer and drummer were in a car accident recently,drummer dead, singer in a coma, in their early 20s.
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Death - [/b]probably my favourite band here. thisband started the death metal genre although has very little to do withthe cannibal corpse type stuff. very heavy and
technical, great rhythmand good solos. lots of complicated timing and exotic sounding licks.sorta growling singer,decent lyrics, more political in later albums,horror movieish in the first few. band broke up in 2001, when theoriginal founder, guitarist vocalist and songwriter died of braintumourand surgery complications.if you like metal i endorse these guysentirely. Also, has clearly stated in an interview that he has nothingto do with satanism.
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Dethklok[/b]- fictional DM band from the show metalocalypse. good music, funny lyrics, live show is amazing if you have the chance.
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Devin Townsend[/b]-awesome metal guitarist fromvarious bands(strapping young lad) solo album. he has a band with him obviously. funnysongwriting, awesome drumming.
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Dio-[/b] classic heavy metal stuff. like a mix between black sabbath and ozzy.
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Dokken[/b] - hair metal, good guitarwork. typical 80s stuff in every way, done right.
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Dream Theater[/b]- very talented progressive metal band. greatstuff. one of the more famous metal bands, known for the very highlevel of musicianship.
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[/b][b]Darkest Hour[/b]- great band, melodic deathmetal. check out the song "the Tides" for some good riffs and one of myfavourite guitar solos, ever. [i]EVER.[/i] EVER.

[b]Disturbed[/b]- good standard metal band. youcould probably put them on at a party and have people like it. but goodriffs and choruses. intro to metal.

[b]Enslaved[/b] - interesting black metalprogressive band. nice production. Most people would say all blackmetal is anti christian, and i dont know for sure about these guys oneway or another. still like their album "ruun", though if you areconcerned about religious themes and message in music i would avoidthese guys, or at least check their lyrics first.

[b]Electric Wizard-[/b] the heaviest, trippiest, sweetest stoner doommetal band. you could do much worse in choosing a band to test out yournew subwoofers, downtuned, slow paced and heavy. repetitive though.
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Ensiferum[/b]- great folk metal. very awesome. guitarist left toform Wintersun. As with most folk and celtic metal bands the membersaffect a lot of pagan beliefs(though i suspect most if for show)

[b]Entombed[/b]- oldschool death metal/rock. i like their last couple of albums. Several older album namessuggest to me that they might have satanic themes, though they arentpresent in the recent album or two i have listened to.

[b]Exivious [/b]- great jazzy tech death metalinstrumental band. members from Cynic and Textures. Instrumental isalways good, and these guys are fun to listen to.

[b]Gnostic[/b] - killer tech death band. drummerfrom athiest. tight heavy sound, really sweet bass lines and fills.Aggressive singing style, unknown content, though perusing their lyricsturns up nothing anti religion.

[b]Goatsnake[/b] - stoner rock. like this one. lots of harmonica

[b]Gojira[/b] - sludgy and loose sounding, butalso very solid and tightly put together. Like futurama anti matter,each pound weighs as much as a thousand pounds.

[b]Gorguts[/b]- very very dark and confusingsound. tech death i suppose, but slower and more chaotic/dissonant. if im in themood these guys are great, though it kind of messes with my brain stem. talented.

[b]Hacride[/b] - melodic tech death. ear pummelingly tight and heavy. new album Lazarus is a fave.
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Himsa[/b] - epic melodic death metal. epic as in they sound killer. not like stratovarius.
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Hypocrisy[/b] - institution of heavy extreme metal. dont know very well.
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Immortal[/b] - favourite black metal band. crisp and cold sounding.
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Insomnium [/b]- gothenburg style melodeath. new album is rad.
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Impending Doom[/b] - heavy heavy mid tempo death metal. The onlyone on this list that is definitely Christian in intent and lyrics,though most others outstrip them musically.
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InFlames[/b]- good melodeath band. newstuff isnt bad, just not the same. fairly consistent though. Verypopular band even among nonmetal listeners.
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Iron Maiden[/b] you should know. good stuff. Falsely accused asbeing satanic, lyrics recently sometimes take a positive view ofchristianity(though are normally on other subjects)
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John 5 - [/b]Instrumental. formerly of marylin manson, isactually good without manson in control. good instrumental stuff, serialmurder themed country elements(
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Judas Priest[/b]- again a classic NWOBHM band.
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Kreator-[/b]great german thrash band. its likeslayer, but with talented guitarists, actual guitar solos and a lessannoying singer. thumbs up! typically anti religion if the subjectcomes up. but if you can stand Slayer these guys are worth checking out.

[b]Kalmah[/b] - Folky melodeath of an awesome variety.
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Karl Sanders[/b] - Acoustic Metal/World instrumental (if that can be said to exist). frontman and creator ofNile, doing exotic mostly acoustic melody based instrumentals. trancy,with ridiculous instrumentation. very favourite band that doesnt playwith distortion. check out both albums.
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Krallice[/b] - long meandering repetative hipster style black metal. i enjoy their stuff sometimes.
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[/b][b]Machine Head[/b] -great heavy thrash/groove metal. their new CD was thought to be the best release of the year(2007)
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Mastodon[/b]- Great live show, loose organic sound. typically do concept albums about the elements and moby Johnsonville brat.
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Megadeth[/b] - good thrash band, metalica's contempories. exceptthey are still good. Latest album "Endgame" is incredible. i thinktheir lead singer guitarist frontman turned christian a little whileago.
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Meshuggah[/b] - crazy band. super heavy, play 8string guitars, immensly ridiculoustiming and rhythm. kickbutt stuff,if you are into that sort of thing
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Metallica[/b] - duh.
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Municipal Waste [/b]- very tight thrash band, punky lyrics, funnystuff too. Occasionally very anti christian. unfortunately their songwith one of my absolute favourite guitar parts of all time is calledthe "thrashing of the Christ" :annoyed:so thats annoying. still a few obvious click with the delete button,make very listenable. a good crossover band if you are already intopunk rock.
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Mustache[/b] - stoner classic heavy metal. some arena rock style choruses. could probably pass as hard rock on most radio stations
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My Dying bride [/b]- doomish metal. very sad sound. large discography. using violin a lot for great effect.
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[/b][b]Necrophagist[/b] - crazy tech deathstuff. singer/lead/rythm guitarist is one talented dude. as can beguessed from the name, they are in similar lyrical territory ascannibal corpse, thankfully unintelligible. instruments are better"seperated" than most tech death bands, not such a confusing wall ofsound.
[b]
Nile[/b]- probably my all time favouriteextreme metal band. egyptian deathmetal. very heavy fast, varied,complicated, with slow crushingsections and acoustic segments
like inKarl Sander's solo stuff. All lyrics are about Egyptian history and myths and some HP Lovecraftian stuff too.
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Opeth[/b] - another favourite band here. melodic, heavy, growledclean, goodatmosphere, highly recommended. Apart from a coincidentally awesomesong about a guy whos love leaves him to become a nun, little religiouscontent.
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Ozzy Osbourne[/b]- good early metal/rockstuff. always has an amazing guitarist. Lots of people yelling "thinkof the children!!!" when they were popular, seems more of a typicalreaction to new exciting music with electric guitar than any actualmerit.
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Obituary [/b]- sludgy heavy oldschoolDM. mostly meh low quality older deathmetal, included for completeness'sake. they are quite popular though, so dont take my word for it.
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Obscura[/b] - Complicated Tech Death stuff, played with a fretless bass if i remember correctly.
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[/b][b]Origin[/b]- literally the heaviest fastestmost technical band i have listened to, though really only notable for that. worth a look on youtube but i find them boring.
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Overkill[/b] - underrated thrash band from the old days and until recently.
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Primal Fear[/b] - Powermetal. great songwriting, very pump up ish.
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Psycroptic[/b]- next favourite extreme metalact. tech death from Australia. completely unique riffs and sound. veryvery cool once you can pick outall the stuff they throw at you.
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Pantera[/b]- good grooving thrash. Guitarist the late "dimebag" darrel is the star of the show here. some very cool songs.
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[/b][b]QUO VADIS[/b]- probably the best melodic death stuff. Day into Night is an album that just doesnt quit.
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Rwake [/b]- black anddeath metal influenced doommetal.surprisingly talented lead guitar.lots of samples from strange movies.

[b]Racer x [/b]-paul gilberts band. incredible instrumentation, rocking riffs and solos

[b]Scorpions -[/b] great hairmetal, rock stuff.
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Slayer -[/b] good riffing, terrible solos, thrash mostly anti christian lyrics
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Solitude Aeturnus [/b]amazingly good doom metal band, same sort ofthing as candlemass, more accessible singer. i like them a lot. Song"Days of prayer" is anti religious, afaik the rest are fine.

[b]Savatage [/b]- members later formed the Trans Siberian Orchestra.
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Sentenced [/b]- good band, great songs. kinda melodeath/classic/powermetal
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Sirenia [/b]- standard gothenburg melodeth with female and male vocalists, violin melody. really nice sometimes.
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Sons Of Otis[/b] - if electric wizard is too dark for your mushroom trips check these guys out. some bluesy tunes
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Stratovarius [/b]-power metal. fast guitar andkeyboards, uplifting melodies and cleansinging. like if dragonforce wassimpler, actually had good riffs and werent butthats .
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Sylosis [/b]- metalcore/melodeath. terrific album. some solos sound very steve vai influenced
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Symphony X [/b]- progressive power metal. like dream theater, more guitar oriented.
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Textures [/b]- heavy tech death. varied styles. Jazzy and progressive.
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Therion [/b]- great band. went from looseclassic death metal to more progressivedeath to an interesting butultimately not as cool incarnation as symphonic metal. going
fromgrowling in earlier albums to dual operatic, guy and girl.
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Tyr [/b]- folk metal. 7 string heavy guitar parts. odd melodies in clean singing.
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Testament[/b]-very metallica like [ride thelightning, fade to black ish stuff] better lead guitar. i prefer thesinger here. more interesting riffwork and songwriting imo. great band
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Trouble[/b]- another great classic metalband. weird singer. i love the guitar and song feel.early albums are more doom, later are more rockish.
once referred to as "white metal" for their christian content, i wouldput them more as a positively christian themed band rather than a"christian band"
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Vader [/b]- terrific death metal band. unique growling voice, they do lots of slayer covers and write stuff heavier than antimatter.
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Warbringer [/b]-saw live, cool talented but slightly generic modern thrash
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Woe Of Tyrants[/b] - one of my favourite albums this year. heavy death metal. Christian Front man, lyrics reflect that occasionally.

[b]Wintersun[/b] -first album, folky style stuff. melodic tight rhythm and keyboarding. very highly thought of


Sorry, most of the bands listed you will not enjoy if just getting intometal. the ones labelled as "power, folk, thrash, classic, heavy" metalare generally easier to get into than the death and black metal listed.and generally the stuff listed as Technical Death metal will justconfuse you. definitely an acquired taste, one i like, some of myfavourite metal bands play tech death metal, though i definitely took along time to get into them.

I probably wasted several good hours of my life going through mylibrary, writing and editing and expanding, and checking some lyrics to come up with all this,so any responses would be greatly appreciated.

[Nihil Obstat]

Yesterday I tried listening to some famous examples of Christian metal. Mostly Christian black metal, doom metal, and death metal. I'm going to be perfectly honest with you; I found there to be zero redeeming qualities about it. It was just noise to me. I could not stand it. It's not even that I didn't like it, it's like most of it wasn't even music to me. With some of it I literally could have replaced it with white noise and not have cared either way.


I'm sorry, I just couldn't stand it, guys.

[Jesus_lol]

[quote name='Nihil Obstat' date='29 November 2009 - 03:11 PM' timestamp='1259536296' post='2011448']
Yesterday I tried listening to some famous examples of Christian metal. Mostly Christian black metal, doom metal, and death metal. I'm going to be perfectly honest with you; I found there to be zero redeeming qualities about it. It was just noise to me. I could not stand it. It's not even that I didn't like it, it's like most of it wasn't even music to me. With some of it I literally could have replaced it with white noise and not have cared either way.


I'm sorry, I just couldn't stand it, guys.
[/quote]

no problem Nihil. Black and Death metal especially are difficult to get into, and typically people who dont already like normal metal, wont be able to pick out the parts of death metal and just perceive as noise. i certainly did a while ago. after a while though once ou become accustomed to the style, then heavy stuff like death metal makes more sense to you. i still only like a couple Black metal bands, though i enjoy a lot of DM.

analogy wise, black and death metal are at the center of a very hot swimming pool. thrash(metallica, etc), classic(blacksabbath, iron maiden) and power(stratovarius, dragon force) are at the more moderately warm edges. you generally dont just do a cannonball right into the deep center unless you want to get burnt, you ease yourself in slowly.

and all the various genres? i prefer to think of metal as Beer. if made right, it is all good andwill appeal to somebody. when you first start drinking you dont knowwhat brands you like, country of origin, light or dark, lager, pilsnerale, etc. as you drink more you get a knowledge of what sets the beersapart, what you personally like and you may gain appreciation for thestronger tasting more alchoholic beers you didnt initially like.


tbh, christian metal isnt a good musical standard to judge the rest of metal by. "if you want to know what christian music sounds like tomorrow, listen to the secular music of yesterday"

and to a certain extent a lot of doom metal is just background.

Edited November 29, 2009 by Jesus_lol

[Nihil Obstat]

I honestly was looking for musical creativity. Don't get me wrong, I know music..... rather well. Maybe I listened to the wrong songs, but I found very little to approve of. Haha.

[Jesus_lol]

[quote name='Nihil Obstat' date='29 November 2009 - 03:36 PM' timestamp='1259537792' post='2011478']
I honestly was looking for musical creativity. Don't get me wrong, I know music..... rather well. Maybe I listened to the wrong songs, but I found very little to approve of. Haha.
[/quote]

well thats the thing, a first listen to extreme metal you typically cant pick out all or any of what they are doing, it is a sound rather alien to most music you have heard so far.
and yeah musical creativity in christian metal...?
try this song by opeth out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvLn8j4c5l4
these guys have much heavier songs, but i figured you would better pick up the music in these.
or this one
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UHqEi8rfJk&feature=PlayList&p=67C183B9072F0179&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=1[/media]
bit of a often misheard lyric right at the start it is "heal yourself"

maybe this one?
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7B1OKdpTJo[/media]

[Jesus_lol]

and here is an instrumental from one of my favourite death metal bands Quo Vadis from montreal. very clearly some musical talent and creativity, ask Jeff!
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqsBUFmP3cc[/media]
listen through

[KnightofChrist]

Not to burst your bubble by there are quite a few on your list which employ satanic imagery, and lyrics.

[Jesus_lol]

hmm? ok which ones? ill amend the list if your right.

[Nihil Obstat]

[quote name='KnightofChrist' date='29 November 2009 - 08:57 PM' timestamp='1259549853' post='2011622']
Not to burst your bubble by there are quite a few on your list which employ satanic imagery, and lyrics.
[/quote]


[quote name='Jesus_lol' date='29 November 2009 - 08:59 PM' timestamp='1259549992' post='2011626']
hmm? ok which ones? ill amend the list if your right.
[/quote]
I'm pretty sure Dio did.

[Jesus_lol]

Oh i totally forgot i had him on the list! forgot about that album cover "Holy Diver". looking him up now.

his invention of the "devil horns" (fist with first and pinky finger extended) is supposed to have been gotten from some old italian tradition from his catholic grandmother, to ward off evil spirits

that album cover is pretty strange, however looking at the lyrics for the title track and other tracks on that album reinforces my previous thoughts, that his lyrics dont make any sense at all. i didnt see anything objectionable in the actual music there. so i guess its up to your discretion, that album cover is weird, but its hardly his only or best album.

hmm, other album covers use similar imagery too... well, i cant edit the OP, but for the sake of being safe we could consider it not on the list, though i have yet to find anything wrong with the recorded music output of the band.


i did focus the list mainly on weather or not the members were satanists, or acted as such, religious or anti religious lyrical themes and such. i think it would be a bit much to trust that there isnt ANY imagery or reference in the list, but i personally am ok with that.

even excessive Christian imagery does not a Christian band make, so the same for having the word devil or hell in some lyrics imo.
quite willing to add or take away from the list though.

Edited November 30, 2009 by Jesus_lol

[Nihil Obstat]

I actually have never listened to him, so I'm just going off what I read once, which admittedly I hardly remember.

[Jesus_lol]

[quote name='Nihil Obstat' date='29 November 2009 - 07:23 PM' timestamp='1259551409' post='2011666']
I actually have never listened to him, so I'm just going off what I read once, which admittedly I hardly remember.
[/quote]
ah ok, i was wondering about that. personally i think most of it there is unfounded except for some imagery.

[desertwoman]

How about Nightwish?

[Jesus_lol]

i havent heard anything by them except their cover of Gary Moore's "Over the Hills and Far Away"
any good?

[ChildoftheCreator]

Yeah, Nightwish´s music is beautiful, however, their lyrics not so much. They definitely have different morals than we do. I would love to find a band that sounds like them, but has better lyrics. I had a list of the songs that I thought were decent, lyric wise, such as their cover for Phantom of the Opera, but have left it at my home a thousand miles away, so won´t be gettting to that at least until Christmas time. "Over the Hills and Far Away" as you had mentioned is also a good song.

Thanks for the list, I´m going to go through it and see if I like any of these as well as pass it along to some friends.

I also like metal and I must agree that it is an acquired taste although I am more into Symphonic metal and Thrash as opposed to classic metal. Although I must admit that I am by no means an expert and may change my mind if I listend to more.

Ok and just a question, deathrock is not the same as death metal is it?