metalmaniac777

Ask me to name my top ten favorite Christian rock/metal albums, this one will make the list every single time.

One of the all-time great Christian rock-ballads.

Really good modern hard rock with a guest vocal appearance from Kevin Young (Disciple) which just makes it that much better.

23 hours ago, auslander said:

You picked my favourite song of theirs from their best album.

I agree that it's their best album. My favorite tracks are actually a couple of the deeper cuts--"Heaven or Nothing" and "King of Kings." Really, not a bad song on there. I think the only one that makes me reach for the Skip button is "Cultic Regimes."

Barren Cross were Christian metal's answer to Iron Maiden. Oddly enough, while I never cared much for Iron Maiden, I've always liked B.C.

On 9/5/2021 at 8:07 PM, auslander said:

One Bad Pig were a truly unique band blending punk, thrash and pop to come up with their varied sound. This is a track off their best album, Swine Flew, released in 1990.

 

These guys definitely had a unique sound. Could never really get into them much, but they did have a few good songs, with my favorite being "Let's Be Frank."

On 9/2/2021 at 6:53 PM, auslander said:

Ken Tamplin (of Shout and Magadallan) with his first solo album. Basically picks up where Shout left off in 1990.

 

Yup, this solo release pretty much sounded like a third Shout album ... and I'm perfectly OK with that.

On 8/31/2021 at 6:10 AM, Mr.AOR said:

 

Skillet is arguably one of the best--if not THE best--Christian modern rock bands on the scene today (though personally I prefer Disciple, despite their lack of mainstream success).

On 8/29/2021 at 7:44 PM, auslander said:

Perfect AOR from Liaison on their debut in 1989.

 

Always preferred the slightly harder edge of their follow up albums ("Urgency" and "Hard Hitter") but there's no denying this debut featured some smooth, nicely-done AOR/rock.

On 8/28/2021 at 7:50 PM, auslander said:

A deep track off their debut, but I love it so much. Heavy as, but still with that melody we can love. Thrash from Tourniquet in 1990.

 

I never got into Tourniquet's early stuff. I didn't become a fan until "Vanishing Lessons" and "Crawl to China." By the way, their latest album ("Gazing at Medusa"), while far from perfect, has some pretty kickin' tunes on it.

On 8/28/2021 at 3:02 AM, Mr.AOR said:

KILLER!!! album...

 

He really does have a great voice. His solo stuff is a little lite for my tastes, but that debut Nouveux album is an absolute classic.

On 8/27/2021 at 7:04 PM, auslander said:

Modern melodic metal from Demon Hunter in 2010.

 

Demon Hunter is pretty much the only metalcore band I can stand these days, mainly because they maintain a sense of melody and feature plenty of clean singing, like on this track.

9 hours ago, auslander said:

Michael W Smith released an AOR album (his only rock album) in 1986 that featured (you guessed it) Dan Huff ripping it up on guitar. This is from The Big Picture.

 

His only rock album? You don't consider "I 2 (Eye)" to be rock as well? I always considered these two back-to-back albums to be Smitty's rock phase. Frankly, I wish he'd go back to this sound...

On 8/19/2021 at 1:54 AM, Mr.AOR said:

 

Definitely one of the better modern Christian rock bands out there and this might very well be their best song.

On 8/13/2021 at 7:01 PM, auslander said:

Some prog from John Elefante in 2013. The whole album is excellent and I play it often. 

 

I've never been able to get into John Elefante's solo stuff. Love his voice, love his work with Mastedon, and love his production skills, but aside from the odd song here and there, his solo albums have all missed the mark for me.

On 8/11/2021 at 6:18 PM, auslander said:

Broken Silence from 1995 with this heavy glam release. Very catchy tune.

 

I remember paying a fortune for this CD back in the day, as I believe it was a limited-run Japan-only release. It was worth the money, though, because it's a really solid album.

On 8/11/2021 at 7:13 AM, auslander said:

It was over-produced. Which is something that not many Christian rock albums are accused of doing! I much prefer the two Shout albums before it.

Yeah, the overproduction didn't help things, but I can get past that if the songs are there (like "Radio Bikini") but for the most part, the tunes just absolutely paled in comparison to Shout. There was/is also too much Lanny Cordola influence, something which also hurt Ransom's 2nd album.

On 8/7/2021 at 11:29 PM, auslander said:

I'm not sure if anyone talked about this CD in 2018, but it is better than 95% of anything released these days. For those who love sleaze metal, check out Chaotic Resemblance. It was hard to pick a song to be honest as I love the whole album.

 

I haven't grabbed this particular album yet but I did recently pick up their latest release, "Covenant." It does sound like a Christian band's attempt at the sleaze-metal genre and I appreciate the effort to bring some balls into Christian rock, but it's definitely not up to the standards of their secular peers such as Crashdiet or Hardcore Superstar. That said, it was good enough to earn a spot in my collection and I have no problem giving it the occasional spin.

On 8/6/2021 at 9:37 PM, auslander said:

Fear Not from their one and only album in 1993. Still has a fresh sound now.

 

Excellent album, one of the rare Christian rock bands to actually bring "attitude" to their sound. This was a massive step up from their former incarnation, when they were called Love Life (which was a solid album itself, by the way).

On 8/5/2021 at 6:36 PM, auslander said:

Some nice melodic hard rock from Ransom in 1991 with the beautiful Lisa Faxom on vocals.

 

This album had way too many fillers, but you could cherry-pick 3 or 4 good tunes from it, with the best probably being "Fallen Angel" or "Lasting Love." Alas, their sophomore album ("Soul Asylum") was even worse...

On 8/4/2021 at 2:16 AM, Mr.AOR said:

KILLER!! song...

 

 

Agreed, this is a great rocker. Shame the rest of the album couldn't match it...

On 8/3/2021 at 7:53 PM, auslander said:

Here is a solo song from the singer of Holy Soldier released back in 1995. Steven Patrick - Run Like the Devil.

 

Easily the best song off his solo album which, personally, I thought should have been a whole lot better than it was...

On 8/3/2021 at 2:14 AM, Mr.AOR said:

KILLER!!! album...

 

An absolute classic of the genre. One of the last gasps of Christian hair-metal and with the songwriting assistance and production of the Elefante brothers, they knocked it out of the park with incredible hooks, massive choruses, and more gang vocals than you can shake a stick at. Too bad the follow-up albums couldn't recapture the magic...

On 7/31/2021 at 2:51 AM, auslander said:

Gonna kick off with AOR from Beckett (1989).

 

I thought I had heard just about every Christian AOR/rock/metal band from the '80s, but this one somehow escaped my notice. A little lighter than my usual tastes but not too shabby, if obviously a bit dated.

I pretty much exclusively use Apple Music these days but I almost preordered this CD because their website claimed the bonus tracks would only be available on CD or vinyl. But lo & behold, both bonus tracks are available on iTunes. Good thing too, because one of them ("Love: Automatic") is one of the better tunes on the album.