Christian Metal and Screamo Part 1

With this blog post, I want to talk about some of the more controversial genres of Christian rock music, Christian heavy metal and Christian screamo in particular.

Before we can begin to dissect Christian metal, we must first look at the definition of metal music. According to the freedictionary.com, heavy metal music is, “loud and harsh sounding rock music with a strong beat; lyrics usually involve violent or fantastic imagery.” This is the definition of secular metal music, not Christian metal music. Christian metal bands do have a loud and harsh musical style with a strong beat. But the major difference is the lyrical content. Christian metal bands, in their lyrics, put an emphasis on issues happening in teenagers' lives today or they put Christ at the center of their lyrics.

Christian metal is controversial to not only Christians, but also non-Christians. Fans of metal music view Christian metal as lacking originality, or believe that the true purpose of metal music should reject religion, not embrace a religion such as Christianity. Some Christians do not believe that Christian metal, is Christian. I disagree.

If you take metal music by itself, there are no religious, Christian, or non-Christian implications in the basic definition of metal music. Some people and musicians have taken this definition a step further and made metal into a lifestyle, not just a type of music. A type of lifestyle has nothing to do with the style of music a musician plays.

As I said in my first blog post, there are three criteria to deciding whether a Christian artist, is a Christian artist. These three criteria are: being a Christian, the musician’s lifestyle, and the lyrics. The type of music a person plays should have no bearing on the validity of someone’s faith. This includes metal and screamo music.

As a Christian, we should not look at music and say, “We don’t need to take part in a certain style of music, or we don’t need to listen to a genre of music because there are immoral and evil bands out there.” Don’t get me wrong, I firmly believe there are some immoral bands out there, especially some metal and screamo bands. But as a Christian, we should not take that stance.

We should look at music, whether it is metal, pop, screamo, electronic, hard rock, etc, and say, “Here is an opportunity. How can I take this style of music and use it to bring glory to our Lord?” That is the stance we, as Christians, should take. We should look at music as an opportunity, not something we should avoid. We should look at all types of music, metal and screamo included, as an opportunity to bring praise and glory to our Lord, not view it as something we should shun.

There are all types of Christian metal today. I am going to take a look at two different metal bands. The first band is August Burns Red. They are a Christian Metalcore band that is signed with Solid State Records. They have released three albums, and their latest album was nominated for a Dove Award. In an interview with Shout online magazine, guitarist JB Brubaker said this about August Burns Red being a Christian band.

“Christian is a religion and not a style of music, however, we are all Christians so I guess some people decide to tie that into our musical style,” said Brubaker.

August Burns Red is a band that believes music should speak for itself instead of having a certain label put on it. The band openly shares their faith through their music, lifestyle, and lyrics.

The song I am going to share with you is called Redemption. This song is a heartfelt prayer and cry out to God from the band. August Burns Red is crying out to God for grace, forgiveness, and the willingness to be used by him. This video presents the song and the lyrics as well.






The second band is probably the most well known Christian metal band. Demon Hunter has released seven albums since their debut in 2002. I have included two videos of the band. The first video features each member talking about their faith and the ministry of the band.






This next video is a music video of the song called Carry Me Down. This is a ballad off their Storm the Gates of Hell album. This song has many different lyrical meanings. I will share my interpretation of the song, but you are more than welcome to have a different interpretation. I believe this song is about someone who is on their deathbed. They are speaking to a close friend. The person who is dying is comforting the friend because they believe they are going to heaven. In my opinion, this is one of Demon Hunter’s most powerful songs.






The second type of controversial music is Screamo or post-hardcore music. There are a lot of definitions, interpretations, and variations, of screamo music. Instead of going into a deep, in-depth look at the history and styles of screamo/post-hardcore music, I will give you a quick and abbreviated definition. Screamo music is a style of music that features a vocalist that screams, sometimes mixed with singing. This style of music developed from hardcore punk, which is an offshoot of punk rock music.

The screamo band that I am going to talk about is probably the most popular Christian screamo group, Underoath. Since their debut with Solid State Records, in 2002, the band has released 5 albums. Two of their albums have been certified gold.

In an interview with breathecast.com, keyboardist Christopher Dudley said this about the band’s message, lyrics, and belief in Jesus Christ.

“The issues that we tackle mostly deal with the fact that no matter who you are, and what you believe, you'll go through rough times. We're normal like everyone else, we aren't special people. We're Christian, we love Jesus and we still know hard times, but we have Jesus to help us out. There is a stigma about Christianity that says, ‘boom, everything is better when you're a Christian.' When people realize this is not the case, they need to understand that God is with us forever and he is our healer.”

The song I chose is one of my favorite songs by the band. This is probably their softest song on any of their records. Some Seek Forgiveness Others Escape is a song about a conversation between God and a person. The chorus is God speaking and the verses feature a person talking. Unlike most of their other songs, this song does not feature screaming vocals until the end. This video presents the song as well as the lyrics.






With this last video, I wanted to remind you how important the lyrical content of a song is, not the type of music played. The final video I have is from a Christian heavy metal band called Becoming the Archetype. This is a heavy metal version of the beloved hymn, How Great Thou Art. I hope you enjoy this song, and I hope you remember that what defines Christian rock music is the life of the artist, and the lyrical content, not the type of music played.