Pastor Brad's 80s Christian Metal Guitar World! CHRISTIAN METAL--A PERSONAL HISTORY |
THE DEAL--How I went about putting this
history together Metal... is a HUGE and very diverse term. When I was teen-ager in the 80s, it all seemed much simpler. There was pop, rock, hard-rock, heavy metal and thrash (or speed-metal). Sure there were lots of other genres out there too. But in the world of "rock" those were the basic ones. Today--I must confess, I can't keep up with all of it! I mean, there's white metal (which I think is positive/Christian), black metal, progressive metal, melodic metal, hair metal, industrial metal, goth metal, death metal... and I guess the terms "classic metal" ... "heavy metal" ... "speed metal" and "thrash metal" are still out there... And I'm sure I left a few out! So, what I'm going to do with this "History of Christian Metal" is go back to what I consider to be the begininngs of metal and bring it up through the decade of the 1980s. You can take it from there. If you have something you think needs to be added, email me!!!! pastorbrad@aol.com IN THE BEGINNING... It's kind of impossible to pinpoint a precise "beginning point" for Christian metal. I mean it's obvious that Christian metal was an off-shoot of secular metal... which was an off-shoot of secular pop and rock... which were off-shoots of blues and country... which were off-shoots of... see... it gets kind of Cray after a while! So, we'll start it this way... The 70s were an era of incredible musical discovery. Rock music, birthed in the 50s by fusing rhythm and blues with country music (by folks like Chuck Berry, Elvis, and lots of other folks), was evolving and attracting fans everywhere! Some of the forerunners to metal in the early days of the 70s were "acid rock"... "hard rock"... and "progressive rock". It was an exciting time, where musicians were constantly experimenting and pioneering new musical forms. It was also during this era that the foundations of CHRISTIAN METAL (granted in a very 70ish form) were laid. It all began in 1972. In... of all places... MY HOME STATE! Yep, Bob Hartman, Greg Hough, John DeGroff and Bill Glover, of Ft. Wayne, IN. felt God calling them to a very unique ministry. Their vision - to create a "Christian Rock Band" and reach the world with this radical new style of music! And so, with the birth of Petra, the first steps toward what we call CHRISTIAN METAL were taken... Other contributors to the rise of Christian rock/metal in those early days would include-- Larry Norman and Phil Keggy. It is also very important to recognize the contributions made by some ground breaking secular hard rock/metal bands/artists of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Jimi Hendrix Deep Purple Black Sabbath Led Zeplin AC/DC Kiss Judas Priest And, of course, others that you may be able to think of... Each of them made their own unique contributions to the evolution of "metal music." THE NEXT BIG STEPS... In 1978 RESURRECTION BAND aslo called "REZ BAND", released their debut album, AWAITING YOUR REPLY. Heavily influenced by the music of Led Zeppelin, Resurrection Band burst onto the scene with a killer brand of blues-based hard rock and a bold message of God's love! Their groundbreaking release Awaiting Your Reply broke new ground... attracted many more fans to "Christian Rock" and thus paved the way for many more christian hard rock/metal bands to come. Another band that sprang up around this time was JERUSALEM. This Swedish Christian Rock Band also released their debute album, "Volume 1", in 1978. Their vision was very similar to Petra and Rez Bands'... to spread the news of God's love through hard rock music. Secular bands/artists who made major contributions to the evolution of metal... and subsiquently Christian Metal--from the mid 1970s to the end of the decade include: Kiss, AC/DC, Led Zeplin, Black Sabbath and Judas Priest continued to grow and shape metal--and in addition bands/artists like... Van Halen Motorhead Rik Derringer Ted Nugent Queen ...and others...each made their unique contributions. THEN CAME "THE GOLDEN AGE" OF METAL... THE 1980s. There's just way too much awesome info from this decade to cram into this brief history... So, I'm simply going to share the highlight moments. 1981 JERUSALEM - Warrior One of Jerusalem's heaviest and most successful albums was released. 1983 STRYPER formed this year changing their name from Roxx Regime to Stryper. Along with the name change, they also began to wite lyrics that pointed straight to Jesus Christ! 1984 Stryper's groundbreaking "Yellow and Black Attack" is realeased. This album brought Christian Metal 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 KILLER 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. CHRISTIAN HEAVY METAL 1984 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 - Warriors of the Son Saint entered the scene with their melodic/aggressive Heavy Metal and added to the upswell of awesome Christian metal acts that were hitting the world's stage! These guys were sometimes labled a Judas Priest clone band (just because they have a similar sound) but they made (and continue to make) a HUGE contribution to the world of Christian Metal! HEAVEN'S METAL MAGAZINE The Christian metal scene was exploding and there was a BIG need for some kind of publication to both promote bands and inform fans--"Heaven's Metal" filled that voic...and it's meant a lot to the christian metal scene through the years. SANCTUARY - The Rock'n'Roll Refuge Praise the Lord--lots of people have found Christ through Christian metal... that's a great thing! Unfortunately, in the 80s, not all of these new converts "fit" in traditional churchs... God laid it on Pastor Bob Beeman's heart start a ministry geared directly to these head-bangin Christ-followers! He called Sanctuary International. Through Sanctuary christian rock'n'rollers found a home. The first worshipleader in Sanctuary was Michael Sweet of Stryper. Throughout the years thousands of metalheads have come to know Christ and grown in faith through the ministry of Sanctuary. www.sanctuary.ws Of course---at the same time--on the "secular" side of the music scene... bands like Ratt, Dokken, Kiss, AC/DC, Motley Crue, Iron Maiden, Ozzy, Dio, Twisted Sister, Queensryche, Metalica, etc. were running up the charts as well! 1985 LEVITICUS - The Strongest Power Leviticus critically acclaimed 2nd album was released. Brittish Metal Magazine Kerrang called it "One of the best records of the year" STRYPER - Soldiers Under Command With a heavier sound Stryper's popularity increased and this album even became one of the 100 best selling releases in the USA! Soldiers Under Command stayed on the Billboard 100 chart for nearly 36 weeks! 1986 STRYPER - To Hell With The Devil One of Strypers most successful releases. This was the height of the MTv days and Stryper shot some videos for this album which became very successful. The videos for Free, Calling On You and Honestly were all on MTV's top ten list! No one could say that Christian metal couldn't compete with the mainstream any more! Get this--at this time--NO ONE.. 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 the BIG arenas everywhere!. BLOODGOOD - Bloodgood Bloodgood entered the scene lead by bassplayer Michael Bloodgood and singer Les Carlsen. Believe it or not, Michael's last name really is "Bloodgood". How cool is that? Bloodgood was/is a great metal band! They absolutely made substantial contribution to the Christian Metal scene! PURE METAL--Christian Metal's first record label 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. MESSIAH PROPHET - Master of the Metal Great Classic Metal release with a very cool cover from this underground band. The band unfortunately broke up some time after the release of this album. 1987 METAL MARDI GRAS 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. CALIFORNIA METAL Regency Records 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. WHITECROSS - Whitecross Rex Carrol's blazing guitarsolo on the track Nagasake is an all time classic. The combination of Rex's guitarplay and Scott Wenzel's soulful/raspy vocals instantly set Whitecross apart as one of the top bands in Christian metal. BLOODGOOD - Detonation Help by many BG fans as the very best Bloodgood release ever... this release features classics like The Messiah and the anti-suicide song Alone In Suicide. 1988 STRYPER - In God We Trust The title says it all. Stryper was never ashamed to stand up tall for Christ. God used this particular album BIG TIME in my young walk with Jesus! The guitar and vocal work are superb! And the Spirit's presence is all over it! SAINT - Too Late For Living A Killer, classic heavy metal work! VENGEANCE RISING - Human Sacrifice 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 would never have to take a back seat (quality wise) to anything the world had to offer! The album has a really cool cover showing how Jesus became a human sacrifice when he took our sins upon himself and died for us on the cross. JERUSALEM - Dancing On The Head of The Serpent One of Jerusalem's best. A great mix of heavy metal thunder and ballads... coupled with bold, clear lyrics. The cover of the album is a picture of an army boot crushing Satan's head. CALIFORNIA METAL - Volume 2 Another great release with more cool metal from the Sanctuary bands. This release introduced us to great bands like Recon, Soldier and many more. SACRED WARRIOR - Rebellion The debut release of a fantastic, very Christ-centered (Queensryche like) progressive heavy metal band! JOSHUA - Intense Defense Joshua's classic release featuring guitarist Joshua Perahia and singer Rob Rock. Great melodic metal with plenty of hooks. INTENSE RECORDS 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 HEAVY. A new label INTENSE RECORDS was started. This label has meant a great deal to the christian metal scene. Many great bands like Sacred Warrior, Vengeance Rising, Deliverance and Bloodgood released albums with this company. 1989 ANGELICA - Angelica Dennis Cameron on guitars and Rob Rock on vocals made this album a melodic metal masterpiece. DELIVERANCE - Deliverance 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! RAGE OF ANGELS - Rage of Angels Commercial Metal was growing and one of the best bands in this genre was Rage of Angels. Unfortunately they only released this album before they broke up. X-SINNER - Get It X-Sinner's very cool debut. This band offered AC/DC fans an excellent Christian alternative! LEVITICUS - Knight's of Heaven Produced by John and Dino Elephante... an excellent melodic metal album with plenty of hooks, harmonies! SHOUT - In Your Face Commercial Metal at it's finest. Incredible hooks, shredding guitar solos and singalong choruses! Ken Tamplin and Co. kicked tail on this one! SACRED WARRIOR - Master's Command Much heavier than their debut and one of the all-time-classics in christian heavy metal. BARREN CROSS - State of Control A well produced release, showing progressive Heavy Metal band Barren Cross at their best! This is Barren Cross most successful album. The Crying Over You video was also played on MTV. WHITECROSS - Triumphant Return An excellent album showing Whitecross at their best... jam packed with melodic guitar leads and Scott Wenzel's raspy vocals. BLOODGOOD - Out of the Darkness Bloodgood's heaviest album... a classic Christian metal disc! PAKADERM RECORDS John and 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. 2003--Pastor Brad comes on the scene I have no idea how God is going to use my music. I don't have any pipe dreams of major deals with huge labels and world tours... or anything like that. I love being a pastor, daddy, husband etc... right where I am. But it's pretty cool to think that in this age of the Internet--I can at least get into the game and make a contribution! BOTTOM LINE: God has used... and continues to use... Heavy music for His glory! If you're interested, check this out! HOW GOD HAS USED METAL TO CHANGE LIVES! . |
Brad, Hi! Yes, i was referring to your history of Christian Metal page. There's a great web-site: www.christianmusicarchieve.com which has the most info. i have seen on early groups and little known groups. All the info. i give you on Larry Norman & Daniel Band can be found there. Larry Norman 1970 Street Level "I Am The Six O'Clock News" (also on Only Visiting This Planet) 1972 Only Visiting This Planet "Why Don't You Look Into Jesus" both are pretty progressive "hard" sounding, uncompromising Christian tunes. I couldn't find "Watch What You're Doing" which is a hard rock/rap fusion which is really, really cool & great lyrics ("you've got to love everybody but don't be blind, cuz' some types of folks they like to mess with your mind..."). Larry really is one of (if not the) first Christian contemporary artists who didn't compromise and had unashamedly Jesus-centered lyrics and themes. A gifted song-writer with a wide, wide range of styles from folk to rock to classic (ballad) to rap. Had a rough life, lots of ups and downs. Daniel Band 1982 On Rock 1983 Straight Ahead 1984 Run From The Darkness Canadian band who started out with some help from Rez. Great, great lyrics, Christ-centered. If i am not mistaken, these guys (or some of them) were high school teachers and sought to reach out through music to the kids around them. Hope this is helpful. Great to hear from you. grace & peace, jeff schaffner HERE'S A PIECE FROM "Epinions.com" on "80s Christian Rock" The Bottom Line Here is a list of the top 10 Christian Rock Bands of MY 80's. A tribute to those who began a revolution of sorts. A complete history of Christian rock music would surely need more than 1 epinion to cover it all but I wanted to share with you the portion of it that I knew about. A list of 10 of my favorites should do the trick. Most, if not all, of you will have no clue about most of these bands, yet there are a handful of us who remember the early days (late 70's early 80's) as Christians tried to make rock music without sounding like "poser choir boys". Most failed in this attempt (some miserably) and floundered into mere trivia questions, yet there are a few that helped define the genre, and provided encouragement to a generation looking for answers. A few that actually rose above the mediocrity that was (and still is for some) rampant in those days. I respect them all in their struggle against the mainstream. Most people, even today, laugh at the mention of Christian rock, those days were much worse. While Metallica, Megadeth, and Anthrax were climbing the charts, bands like Messiah Prophet Band and Saint were not-so-successful in their handy work. So with that, I now give you MY highlights of Christian rock of the 80's. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1. Resurrection Band Born out of the Chicago streets in the mid 70's, husband and wife team Glen and Wendy Kaiser along with a few close friends produced a heavy blues-based rock sound. Their lyrics captured the struggles found among the homeless in Chicago, who they actively worked with in a ministry called "Jesus People USA". The gritty guitar sounds and the unfettered driving beats were a breath of fresh air in the stuffy timid atmosphere of the churches. These guys were "street" all the way and their songs showed, through their honesty and raw emotion, that this thing called Christianity was far more than a religion, but a way of life. Rez Band really stood (and continue to stand) out from the crowd. I saw them in concert on their "Bootleg" tour, and was blown away....the best concert I've seen. Early albums include: "Awaiting Your Reply", "Mommy Don't Love Daddy Anymore", "Bootleg" and "Between Heaven and Hell". ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 2. Stryper Most of you are now saying "Oh yeah, I've heard of those guys". Yes, it's the spandex bumble bees themselves. I smirk and shake my head when I remember the days of "glam-metal", the days of big hair, screeching vocals, and guitar solos for days. Stryper was the Christian's answer to the glam-metal scene. They had the big hair, the screeching vocals and yes, guitar solos for days. But beyond the hype and fanfare, they provided us with a few great albums. These guys definitely had talent and produced a good metal sound. I saw them 3 times in concert and they put on a good show each time. Early albums include: "Yellow and Black Attack"(EP), "Soldiers Under Command" and "To Hell with the Devil". ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 3. Daniel Amos No, it's not the name of one of the members, it's the Beatlesque-vocaled madmen from SoCal, lead by the king himself - Terry Taylor. I use "madmen" as a term of endearment seeing as this is my favorite band of all time. I discovered them in the mid 80s with the release of the "Fearful Symmetry" album. It was their most keyboard oriented album and I immediately saw the quality of the songwriting and talent of the musicians. A unique blend of tight harmony with very creative lyrics along with an understated rock sound, D.A. have released album after album of quality music. Tim Chandelor, my personal favorite bass player, plays several basses including fretless, and while remaining in the "background", provides a superb performance every time. Beatles and Smashing Pumpkin fans will enjoy the vocals, while Elvis Costello fans would praise the lyrical efforts. Terry Taylor has released a couple solo albums, one of which is "A Briefing for the Ascent", a collection of songs written as his grandmother was in the hospital dying. Terry wrote songs to comfort and encourage her. This is the most powerful album I have ever heard! Do yourself a favor and check this one out. Early albums include: "Shotgun Angel", "Alarma", "Horredous Disc", "Doppleganger", "Fearful Symmetry" and my personal favorite "Darn Floor, Big Bite". ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 4. Sweet Comfort Band While only producing two albums, this "adult rock" band was the beginning of the career of a very successful CCM artist. The two albums they did release were very powerful in their message and display of talent. Brian Duncan sang lead on many of the songs and with the help of some great songwriting abilities came up with great classics like the heart wrenching ballad "Falling in Love Again" and the rocker "Perfect Timing". Albums: "Cutting Edge" and "Perfect Timing" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 5. Alter Boys Yet another band out of SoCal, the Alter Boys, lead by Mike Stand, provided a punk-rock sound to the Christian scene. All out style, with the 80's punk-rock thing, driving guitars and straight-ahead drum beats, these guys gave us something to jump around about. Their version of the Donna Summer song "Unconditional Love" on the "Gut-Level Music" album, remains a favorite of mine to this day. Early Albums include: "Gut-Level Music" and a self-titled album. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 6. Petra One of the leading forces in Christian rock, Petra was established in the mid 70's by guitarist Bob Hartman, and they are still going strong. In the 80's, lead by singer Greg Volz, Petra paved the way for many other Christian rock bands. Their style can be described as adult rock, although they jam a bit much for some adults. My very first concert, was Petra in 1983 on their "More Power to Ya" tour. Was quite fun. :^) 80's Albums include: "Never say Die", "More Power to Ya", "Not of this World, "Beat the System". ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 7. Steve Taylor It's hard to describe the music of Steve Taylor. He fits within the realm of rock music, but defies any further categorization. His early albums (early to mid 80's) were recorded with his musicians called "Some Band" which included a very talented horn section. Steve Taylor's lyrical style is quirky, sarcastic, and full of puns...quite an enjoyable experience. I saw him in concert in 1983, as he toured for his EP. He was the opening act for Petra's "More Power to Ya" tour. Steve Taylor (not related to the previously mentioned Terry Taylor) spent a short time away from Christian music in the early 90's, but returned with another awesome album, "Squint" in 1993. He recently produced Newsboys, who, in my opinion, don't nearly have the appeal as he does. Early albums include: "I want to be a clone"EP, "Meltdown", "On the Fritz". ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 8. Undercover Releasing their first album in 1982, Undercover was described (by me) as "happy-punk". High energy anthems, 3-chord, short & choppy songs. "God Rules" the title track of their second album, is the song that established them in the Christian music scene (beyond SoCal that is). This is definitely music to play if you need to wake up fast and happy. Then in 1986 they produced their 4th album, "Branded" which showed a distinct change and maturing in the band and it's songwriting. Much darker, and deeper. A great album indeed. Early albums include: "Undercover", "God Rules", "Boys and Girls", "Branded". ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 9. Bloodgood Releasing their self-titled debut in 1985, Bloodgood gave us a rough-edged excellent quality metal sound. Lead by bassist Michael Bloodgood (yes, that's his real name) the band enjoyed only limited success, but left us with some great metal tunes, such as "Crucify" and "The Messiah" from the "Detonation" album. These songs work amazing together and still brings chills to my spine just thinking about it. If there is one Christian metal album to check out from the 80's it would be this one. They are no longer together, which is sad, but I did get to see them in concert once on the "Detonation" tour. Very cool. Early albums include: "Bloodgood", "Detonation", "Rock In a Hard Place" & "Out of the Darkness". UPDATE 03/21/02 : I just found out that apparently Bloodgood is back together. Visit www.bloodgood.org ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 10. Barren Cross The release of the "Rock for the King" album in 1986 was one happy day for me. I though, "Finally! A great Christian metal album", and indeed it is. Reminiscent of Iron Maiden, BC produced a solid 80's style heavy metal sound with straight ahead lyrics. This foursome from SoCal (like everyone else it seemed) hit the scene hard and fast with a tour opening up for Stryper's "Soldiers Under Command" tour. It was a great concert! They went on to be one of the first Christian bands with a video on MTV's Headbanger's Ball. Early albums include: "Believe" EP, "Rock for the King", "Atomic Arena", "State of Control" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Conclusion Although I could only touch briefly on the contributions of these bands, I hold the utmost respect for them and their craft. They helped me through difficult days growing up, and wish I could express my gratitude to them personally. I own many of these albums, which are now out of print, on vinyl. A much treasured collection. Thanks for reading. :^) www.tortillaboy.com |
SOME ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS, etc., THAT HAVE COME MY WAY SINCE WRITING THIS ARTICLE... Christian rock sprang out of the Jesus Movement of the late 60's and early 70's when numerous hippies accepted Jesus as their own personal savior. In 1969, Larry Norman, the grandfather of Christian rock, released "Upon This Rock," arguably the first Christian rock album. Following Norman's lead came Jerusalem, the Daniel Band and the Resurrection Band. "These bands were doing sort of a 70's metal hard rock approach in the late 70's early 80's," explains Doug Van Pelt, editor of HM Magazine (formerly Heaven's Metal Magazine), a magazine devoted to covering hard Christian music. "Stryper were the first ones to say, 'Hey, we're Christian Metal.' There were a few other more obscure bands like Philadelphia and Saint and Messiah Prophet who came along at the same time. I'm not sure who was the first, but Stryper was definitely the biggest." Kris Klingensmith of the Christian rock band Barnabas explains how the history of Christian music relates to the history of secular music. "Since Christian musicians have always copied the trends and styles initiated by their secular counterparts, 'Christian metal' was unavoidable," says Klingensmith in a Christian Metal Resource interview. "If you want to know what Christian music will be doing tomorrow, all you need to do is see what the secular guys are doing today." The 80's were the golden age of Heavy Metal Glam with the big hair and the make-up. Soon after, came the golden age of Christian Heavy Metal Glam. Many blame "that one song from Nirvana" for single handedly ending Heavy Metal. In America, Metal had ceased to be cool. In other parts of the world Metal never died, it just became more extreme. Large Death Metal and Black Metal scenes blossomed all over Northern Europe. And where secular Black Metal thrived, so did its Christian counterpart, Unblack Metal, with names like Satanicide, Neversatan, and Satan's Doom. In the late 90's, hybrids like rap-metal, industrial-metal, and thrash-metal made metal, or at least some manifestations of metal, cool once again. While not Classic Metal, Christian bands like Creed and Payable On Death (P.O.D.) are popular with both Christian and non-Christian teens. Creed was featured on the cover of Rolling Stone, and P.O.D.'s song, "Rock the Party" hit the number one spot on MTV's Total Request Live. Several general market metal bands do not identify themselves as a "Christian band" but still use their lyrics to portray God in a positive light. There are some bands, Virgin Black and Klank, for example, who have Christian members but prefer to remain in the general market. Other more notable mainstream acts that feature Christian members are Anthrax (Dan Spitz), Accept (Peter Baltes), Blind Guardian (Hansi Kursch), Iron Maiden (Nicko McBrain), Avian (Lance King), Shadow Gallery, Magnitude 9, Dream Theater, Alice Cooper (who himself is a Christian), Savatage, All That Remains (Philip Labonte), and Megadeth (Dave Mustaine and David Ellefson). Other bands, such as Killswitch Engage [2] and Linkin Park [3] have members who were raised in Christian homes, thus occasionally using spiritual themes. |