Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Cream Calendar / National Skyline Holy Divers: What's the Matter With Christian Metal?
Posted by Matt Sullivan on Tue, Jan 13, 2009 at 3:25 PM
Seattle-based metal group Demon Hunter are releasing a concert album entitled Live in Nashville on Jan. 27. Recorded last year during the band's Storm the Gates of Hell tour, the band musters their best Pantera impersonation amidst a shitstorm of unrelenting hyper-melodrama--all of which begs the question: Why are so many Christian metal bands terrible? I refuse to believe that the faith of those involved is solely the reason these bands suck or is the primary source of the overblown melodrama that suffocates Christian metal. There are plenty of good metal bands writing stupid lyrics about their allegiance to the spirit of Odin, which isn't nearly as metal as a dude getting his hands nailed to a couple pieces of wood and left to die. And yet, listen to Demon Hunter and then listen to Slayer. No fucking contest. But I don't believe that Christian metal bands suck because of the influence religion has on their music. I'm also not comfortable making the generalization that indoctrinated Christian thought inhibits artistic daring (ever seen the Sistine Chapel?). Here are some sweeping generalizations I am willing to make.
In these post-Stryper times (a.k.a. End Days), Christian metal almost always means metalcore or some derivation thereof. For those of you with lives, the term "metalcore" is kinda like "emo" but not quite as universally derided. Each meant something at one point in time and are now mostly synonymous with "stupid." Metalcore originally referred to bands who first started melding metal and hardcore punk, but now the genre is rife with paint-by-the-numbers breakdowns and vocalists yelling "I wanna see a circle pit," which leads us to generalization number two: 80 percent of metalcore sucks.1 If there's a band you like who mixes hardcore and metal, just call them "crossover" for safety's sake.
But the main problem is many Christian metal bands are so unimaginative, which seems to be why so many latch onto a genre where the conventions are so defined and the audience ultimately built-in. There's no impetus to venture away from the middle of the road. Perhaps the message is just too important to worry all that much with innovation, but surely making me want to stab my ears with pencils is detrimental to the message. And even when faith-based metal does stray outside of its contrived edgyness, the primary influence is never very hard to pinpoint. Unearth are playing this Sunday at Rocketown with a slew of shopping mall bands and a gore-obsessed Christian deathcore band called Impending Doom (deathcore is the same as metalcore except the metal in question is specifically death metal). There's apparently a term for this sort of thing, gorship.2 For the three or four metalheads who might be reading this, the secular version of this would be Carcass. Even though one of the guys is wearing a Slipknot shirt in their band photo, being a Carcass fan, I don't mind Impending Doom so much. But then there's a Christian band like Trouble, who just so happened to be trailblazers. Sure, it could be argued that the early pioneering doom bands weren't doing much more than aping Black Sabbath, but even some of Ozzy's lyrics can be construed as being Christian-influenced. After all, there's fear of demons and sorcery and bad guys plotting destruction "just like witches at black masses."3
Metal in other religions:
Jewish: Burn Your Wings
Baha'i: Kaliban
Um...Zoroaster
1Encyclopedia Britannica, probably in the Ms.
2Deleted Wikipedia entry for gorship.
3Refer to Lords of Chaos: The Bloody Rise of Satanic Metal.
Comments (19)
Showing 1-19 of 19
i think, by and large, for the most part, metalcore and most metal subgenres are a safe bet in general for most musicians. if know your stock leads and scales, your drummer is competent with a double kick, you've got a decent scream, and can turn that shit up to 11, what is there really to differentiate you from a subpar metal act?
most metal bands of that nature aren't that much different than your AC/DC and KISS tribute bands. they've got the chops, but no creativity to back it up. so the logical place for them is a genre where creativity isn't that important, but rather, the lack thereof is rewarded with a built-in audience that actually expects you sound nearly identical the very bands you're copying.
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I would argue that there seems to be more terrible Christian metal bands for the same reason that people think that girls can't play guitar. It's because fewer of them try. Fewer girls than guys play guitar, so there are fewer awesome girl guitar players, even if the ratio of awesome to terrible might be equal, regardless of gender, overall.
Same with Christian metal bands. There are fewer of them to begin with, so there are fewer good ones overall. The problem here is that the market demand for Christian metal outpaces the supply of bands that don't suck, so more shitty bands hit the market.
Just a theory . . .
This is the best post I've read on here in months. Thanks, Matt.
I've always kind of considered it a lifestyle thing. If you technically can't LIVE dangerously according to your faith, how much is your music going to alter that perception? Now if there was a Christian power metal band a la Manowar writing songs about ascending on a winged unicorn made of steel to the gates of Heaven, THAT's fucking awesome and I might give it a shot.
But the musical argument holds up. I haven't heard much Christian metal where I like the music even before I hear the message. Maybe they're used to major scales in hymns instead of minor 7th runs? I don't know.
Or there's always a Marxist slant...
"Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, just as it is the spirit of a spiritless situation. It is the opium of the people."
So maybe all the Christian metal dudes are stumbling around all fucked up on God and can't notice they should be invoking demons instead of praising angels?
Some good thoughts here, guys.
Perhaps they have only scratched the surface in their listening research and therefore only copy better known bands but as mike pointed out-- maybe there aren't very many good Christian bands to draw from, as opposed to the million bands who have studied and memorized Black Sabbath albums, so the pool is much more shallow.
I had no idea Trouble was a Christian band either. I have friends who really like them a lot but I never dug in much. I liked the song that guy sang on the Probot album though, hmm...
I think the nail has been hit on the head. Across the board, because the pool is smaller in Christian genres, pound for pound you won't have as many good acts.
However, there is tons of shit out there in the mainstream world. It's just easier for people to break through in the Christian market; the demand for CCM product outweighs the amount of quality product that anything reasonably listenable is going to get some exposure. That's why it's so easy for CCM bands to get away with being formulaic and derivative... "hey, these guys sound like Coldplay but sing about Jesus, two things I enjoy" is what a consumer might say. Bands are forgiven for being just okay because they fill a need that a lot of Christians are looking for in their entertainment.
I by no means think mainstream music is that much better than the CCM genre, I just think it's easier for a band to write spiritual lyrics and let the music fall by the wayside in CCM and other Christian music genres.
All that to say, Yogi Watts, DH's drummer, is fucking awesome.
As a full fledged Christian, I wanna first say that its refreshing to read a music review of CCM music that hasnt had one ounce of bashing in it, from the main post to the responses. (which, in these days and times could be considered an easy shot) And i dont think I have much to say that hasnt already been said. Not as many bands in the scene and its easier to break into the CCM market so more mediocre bands will be found there.
I have always wanted to enjoy some dudes making music and that also have my same faith values. I havent really found a large amount. But if you look closely, they are there. The Huntingtons, Pedro the Lion and Danielson Family are a few that I really enjoy and listen too. And no, none are metal.
Although i do remember enjoying some old Vengence Rising and ZAO.
I've done my share of work within christian pop world, so i can't speak for christian metal bands, but it's not that the audience forgives the bands. . . it's that the audience won't buy it if it's not in some way familiar and safe. Most christian music is marketed to women between 30-45 years old.
The Christian subculture is largely made up by young to middle aged parents and their children. . . until they go off to college. . . . These people prefer to eat at Applebee's when they go out, and shop at Wall Mart and the mall exclusively. They like familiarity. They like safety.
Here's the opinion of an old rocker: The reason why Christian metal bands suck is because they don't actually have to be any good to sell their music. All they have to do is say that they are "Christian" and a whole bunch of people out there will buy it regardless of whether is good or not. Most other bands have to prove that they aren't awful before they can build up an audience. Not these guys: they're just following the time honored tradition of making money off of a religion.
Their music may suck, but the two of the guys in that band run a pretty killer design firm in Seattle called Invisible Creature. I know it has nothing to do with their half-assed attempt at music, but it redeems their character somewhat for me. InvisibleCreature.com, i think. It's worth a look.
could it possible be that a subpar metal band starts out looking for a secular career, figures out it's subpar, and then figures out that they can still possibly be successful in the christian music realm? i think this happens with all genres. a mediocre singer-songwriter dude with a guitar realizes that if he says he's a christian singer-songwriter dude with a guitar, he might make a living in the aforementioned smaller pond, so it's a small pond full of mediocre fish that didn't cut it in the big pond.
it also works the other way. if an artist starts out in christian music, and gets a sniff from the mainstream, they'll make that jump off the church bus lickety-split, and we never knew they were a christian act (i'm looking at you, katie perry).
"But the main problem is many Christian metal bands are so unimaginative, which seems to be why so many latch onto a genre where the conventions are so defined and the audience ultimately built-in. There's no impetus to venture away from the middle of the road."
Not to digress, but insert any number of cream approved bands in the place of 'christian metal,'
and this logic still follows.
"they've got the chops, but no creativity to back it up. so the logical place for them is a genre where creativity isn't that important, but rather, the lack thereof is rewarded with a built-in audience that actually expects you sound nearly identical the very bands you're copying."
once again, insert the name of popular,local
hipster band, and the logic still holds.
this would explain why shoot the moutain, the features, the privates, etc. sound at times indistinguishable from each other. No hatred is intended here, but face it, this dynamic exists in ALL genres of music, regardless of whether it's faith based or not...
Stryper is still alive! They had an album come out in 2005 and their next CD is due this year! Check out www.stryper.com
I agree with extrapolation. The mob mentality rules the indie kiddies as much as it does the jesus-core people. "Indie" is often an excuse for mildly talented people to sling instruments around like they're actually doing something relevant, as is 'rocking for the lord.'
Great post though. I love the part about how getting nailed to a piece of wood and left to die is fucking metal as hell. I never thought of it like that!
well, i can definitely see your point with the "hipster" bands, and while there's definitely a lot of homogenization going, i don't think there's any template you can follow to find a built-in audience with it.
for one, i think writing melody-driven music is inherently more challenging. and yes, most of these bands are just mimicking riffs and harmonies from their favorite bands, but this is more a chameleon-like appropriation than simply following a formula.
also, especially when it comes to local bands, i think it's more than a stretch to assume Nashville has any kind of built-in audience. you can definitely find some common elements in all the bands that are popular, but there are plenty of bands just as good, who get great reviews, but no one ever goes to see.
I do agree that a lot of local bands have a similar sound, but I don't think it's because they are trying to latch onto a 'formula' or anything like that. I think it's more that songwriting is affected by those around us the same way our vocabulary is.
I think that we hear things we like in local bands, and it finds it's way into our musical vocabulary as songwriters. I also think that a lot of local bands live similar lives, in a similar community, and are similarly affected by it. Every city seems to have a movement or a sound that is somewhat unique to that time and place, and i think it's the same here.
I would also like to throw out there that I think that the Features are a great band, with SOLID songs, and an exceptional live show. I think Shoot the Mountain is a band that is off to a REALLY strong start, with really fun songs and from what i hear, an excellent live show. The privates as well are a very respectable band. I think to say that these bands sound alike because they want to be successful is silly. I think to say that people latch onto them because they sound alike might make sense, but only because they're tapping into a mood that we all experience living here.
You are both right in that composers should react to what they hear around them from their contemporaries and the musical landscape. And I agree that writing melodically is the highest challange, much more so when you're not adhering to a very rigidly defined catagory of music, and I think 'indie' qualifies as something far less rigidly structured than, say, christian metal.
However, I don't buy the bit about tapping into a mood we all experience. Too many moods, and too many musicians to justify a pad answer like that.
A Very Tired Argument But Still True: There IS too much homogeneity in the bands that are most highly praised here on Cream, and I attribute it to a lack of creativity among not only the musicians themselves, but the journalists who consistantly talk about the same music over and over, as well as spend way too much time worrying about elements completely unrelated to the music itself.
The truth in Christian metal is that the whole genre is reactive not proactive. To become a succesful "christian" band you have to sound like a succesful "secular" band.
There are some bands that stood on their own, like Stryper in the 80's and P.O.D. in the late 90's into the 2000's...both of are which are still active today. The Problem is that P.O.D. has attempted to change with the times, and have lost much of their fan base. Stryper had one of their best albums in "reborn" a couple of years back, but because they sounded different...they were forced to revert back to an earlier 80's sound...and the sound to me is terrible! I am a fan...but this new stryper album reeks to me!
So...I blame the lack of quality not on the bands but on the fans for not embracing change and all too willing to settle for a decent "safe" band.
You can hear new Stryper song samples at www.Stryper.com
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