Albums/Bands You Don’t Get

What are some albums/bands everyone seems to love and you too should love, but you don’t?

To Hell with the Devil:
Stryper is insanely talented and I love most of their albums, but I’ve never been big on THwtD. It’s solid, but I prefer SuC or IGWT. Honestly, I think their last four albums have been the best of their career. I can’t believe how good they’ve been the past few years.

Vengeance Rising:
Vengeance has some fantastic riffs and solos, but I don’t get why everyone goes so ga-ga over them. I enjoy them but there are several other of the early Christian thrash bands that I much prefer. I think my problem is mainly with Roger’s vocals. I don’t usually care that much about thrash vocals, but his aren’t my taste.

Now let’s be nice here. I’m not meaning to criticize anyone so much as just give my own tastes in things.

Have at it!

I dont get the love and interest for Petra the John S Era anyway to me his vocals where on the high nasal side of things. Loved the Voltz Era best

Opeth3232 wrote:I dont get the love and interest for Petra the John S Era anyway to me his vocals where on the high nasal side of things. Loved the Voltz Era best

You, sir, are dead to me.

Just kidding. I love both eras equally. Everything from Never Say Die through Praise 2 is gold to me.

Tourniquet - I like Vanishing Lessons a bit, but beyond that, I don’t get what everyone thinks is so great.

Bride (post 2001) - people seem to love everything from This Is It all the way to their latest. I don’t get it. In the old days they were always melodic and straight ahead. I don’t find anything in the last 20 years to be interesting to me at all.

Follower of Jesus wrote:Tourniquet - I like Vanishing Lessons a bit, but beyond that, I don’t get what everyone thinks is so great.

Bride (post 2001) - people seem to love everything from This Is It all the way to their latest. I don’t get it. In the old days they were always melodic and straight ahead. I don’t find anything in the last 20 years to be interesting to me at all.

Man, I love most everything Tourniquet has done. They’re my all-time favorite thrash band, Christian or secular.

I don’t own any Bride post-Scarecrow Messiah. I’ve thought about checking out some of the newer albums, but Dale’s universalism bothers me.

Mic please...thank you... ahem...Vengeance Rising are one of the most unique thrash bands in the christian and circular world and you can't stop it. They didn't mimic Slayer or Metallica or even Pestilence. Just about every thrash band sounds like one of the big four or a combo of said four.  You can't say that about Vengeance Rising, no sir. They were their own singular and raw savage beast.  Roger had a lot to do with that. To my mind, they sounded like a band ripping out peoples throats, if not sawing through their necks.  No other thrash band has ever invoked that image and made such an impression on my mind as Vengeance rising did the first time I heard them, nor has any death metal band.

So, didn't answer question-can't think of anything just yet.  Something might pop up later though.

Dustofyears wrote:Mic please...thank you... ahem...Vengeance Rising are one of the most unique thrash bands in the christian and circular world and you can't stop it. They didn't mimic Slayer or Metallica or even Pestilence. Just about every thrash band sounds like one of the big four or a combo of said four.  You can't say that about Vengeance Rising, no sir. They were their own singular and raw savage beast.  Roger had a lot to do with that. To my mind, they sounded like a band ripping out peoples throats, if not sawing through their necks.  No other thrash band has ever invoked that image and made such an impression on my mind as Vengeance rising did the first time I heard them, nor has any death metal band.

So, didn't answer question-can't think of anything just yet.  Something might pop up later though.

Sure. I still prefer others, though.  🤪

Most of the current bands in Christian metal.

deathisgain wrote:Most of the current bands in Christian metal.

Another one:

Don’t Wait for the Movie:

I’m a MASSIVE WhiteHeart fan. I love everything they ever did and I think Freedom is the greatest album of all time in any genre. But I don’t get why everyone puts Don’t Wait for the Movie up so high on the list. Don’t get me wrong, I love the album, but it’s near the bottom of their catalog for me. I think it’s probably the weakest Florian album (aside from maybe Redemption).

Pethead wrote:What are some albums/bands everyone seems to love and you too should love, but you don’t?

Vengeance Rising:
Vengeance has some fantastic riffs and solos, but I don’t get why everyone goes so ga-ga over them. I enjoy them but there are several other of the early Christian thrash bands that I much prefer. I think my problem is mainly with Roger’s vocals. I don’t usually care that much about thrash vocals, but his aren’t my taste.

Vengeance Rising - I do like the debut and love Roger's vocals but they sound like a blues band trying to be thrash. Once Dead sounds like a mess to my ears. I've tried to go back and listen to it many times and can never get into it. Never really heard anything after because I don't like Once Dead so much.

Mortification - Scrolls - admittedly legendary with some fantastic songs but all the intros make it nearly unlistenable. After over 20 years of this album I have never sat through it end to end. I need to go in and edit those out someday.

Mortification - Post Momentary Affliction - incredibly uneven and nearly unlistenable as a whole because of that. I actually prefer the Self-titled, Blood World and Primitive Rhythm Machine to this because they are cohesive and well done.

Tourniquet - Stop the Bleeding - HUGE King Diamond fan, not a fan of Guy's vocals here.

Tourniquet - Psychosurgery - too all over the place. Some truly amazing songs though. Pathogenic is the only TQT album i played alongside my secular thrash.

Paramecium - The debut is a Doom/Death classic even in the secular scene. Everything after the debut is terrible to my ears because of Andrew's atonal clean vocals.

Frozen Fire wrote:

Pethead wrote:What are some albums/bands everyone seems to love and you too should love, but you don’t?

Vengeance Rising:
Vengeance has some fantastic riffs and solos, but I don’t get why everyone goes so ga-ga over them. I enjoy them but there are several other of the early Christian thrash bands that I much prefer. I think my problem is mainly with Roger’s vocals. I don’t usually care that much about thrash vocals, but his aren’t my taste.

Vengeance Rising - I do like the debut and love Roger's vocals but they sound like a blues band trying to be thrash. Once Dead sounds like a mess to my ears. I've tried to go back and listen to it many times and can never get into it. Never really heard anything after because I don't like Once Dead so much.

Mortification - Scrolls - admittedly legendary with some fantastic songs but all the intros make it nearly unlistenable. After over 20 years of this album I have never sat through it end to end. I need to go in and edit those out someday.

Mortification - Post Momentary Affliction - incredibly uneven and nearly unlistenable as a whole because of that. I actually prefer the Self-titled, Blood World and Primitive Rhythm Machine to this because they are cohesive and well done.

Tourniquet - Stop the Bleeding - HUGE King Diamond fan, not a fan of Guy's vocals here.

Tourniquet - Psychosurgery - too all over the place. Some truly amazing songs though. Pathogenic is the only TQT album i played alongside my secular thrash.

Paramecium - The debut is a Doom/Death classic even in the secular scene. Everything after the debut is terrible to my ears because of Andrew's atonal clean vocals.

I agree about your comment on the “blues band trying to thrash,” although I don’t think that’s inherently bad.

Every note of Scrolls is awesome, crazy person

Post Momentary is amazing. My favorite Morty album. I will say that I also love the others you mentioned. I think everything through Hammer of God is golden.

Hot take: I prefer Luke’s singing over Guy’s. But the first 3 albums are masterpieces. I love Psychosurgery. It’s probably second behind POD for me.

Horde - Hellig Usvart

This actually isn't about the music, which is "good" or "ok" in my opinion, but the lyrics/message, I don't think has aged all that well.

I feel like even some hardcore folks and traditional metalheads love this album, because (nostalgia) it was the first album of Christian extreme metal like this, and paved a way for the "unblack metal" lyric genre...

...but there's been an adverse reaction to the scene because of Horde's pioneering approach, IMO. I can't fault Jayson Sherlock or his intent from over 20 years ago, but just in the past few years, a number of "Christian war metal" bands have been born that appear to use Horde's anti-satanic sentiment as the perfect lyric template to model their entire discography after.

I know this really makes Horde a proxy, but it's really frustrated me over the years, that secular black metal has a 'crushing, slaying, violence' fiction to its themes.... And so does Horde and these other unblack war metal groups. (the difference being where they point it - Satan, demons and Satanists instead of God/Christ, angels and Christians.)

Roger's vocals are garbage in my opinion and I like some gnarly vocals. It's like he was trying too hard. 
Savior Machine is overrated, the first album is good then he did albums that all sounded the same.

Bloodgood and Barren Cross are not my cuppa.

All the metalcore as soon as the clean vocals kick in…

Raegoul wrote:Bloodgood and Barren Cross are not my cuppa.

All the metalcore as soon as the clean vocals kick in…

I don’t like most metalcore vocals, clean or harsh. Demon Hunter is the exception.

I find most metalcore vocals sound like there constipated. It's like there straining to sound angry but it comes off weak and unconvincing.

ThomasEversole wrote:Horde - Hellig Usvart

This actually isn't about the music, which is "good" or "ok" in my opinion, but the lyrics/message, I don't think has aged all that well.

I feel like even some hardcore folks and traditional metalheads love this album, because (nostalgia) it was the first album of Christian extreme metal like this, and paved a way for the "unblack metal" lyric genre...

...but there's been an adverse reaction to the scene because of Horde's pioneering approach, IMO. I can't fault Jayson Sherlock or his intent from over 20 years ago, but just in the past few years, a number of "Christian war metal" bands have been born that appear to use Horde's anti-satanic sentiment as the perfect lyric template to model their entire discography after.

I know this really makes Horde a proxy, but it's really frustrated me over the years, that secular black metal has a 'crushing, slaying, violence' fiction to its themes.... And so does Horde and these other unblack war metal groups. (the difference being where they point it - Satan, demons and Satanists instead of God/Christ, angels and Christians.)

I agree. Musically speeaking, I wasn't thrilled with Hellig Usvart when I first heard it, but over the years it has grown on me and I love it now, but I have always been frustrated with the precedent it set. But like you said, I wouldn't hold it against Sherlock...there were some songs on the album that were fine lyrically, and honestly the others were fairly tame compared to some of what you see out there today.

As for other bands...am I allowed to say that I don't like Stryper? Then again I can't say that I like the whole classic heavy metal/hard rock sound in any band really.

I'm also not crazy about A Hill to Die Upon. I don't know what it is...I just never found their music interesting.

It's been a while since I listened to Vengeance Rising but I also recall the vocals completely ruining it for me.

As a black metal fan, I've never found Antestor's The Forsaken to be quite as good as everyone says it is. Not a bad album, but the weakest of Antestor's four in my opinion. (Speaking of them, I want new music! It's been almost a decade!)

We already had this thread (also started by Pethead) called "Unorthodox Christian Metal Opinions" and there is as much heresy here as there was there.

I agree totally with Dustofyears on Vengeance Rising.

I think some of the issues are that groundbreaking albums at the time would be just average if released today (Horde, White Heart - Don't Wait for the Movie).

Specifically, Don't wait for the Movie was also a (by WH standards) hard rock shocker after the lite rock of their first three albums that ended in the Scott Douglas disaster.  It was Florian's weakest album because it was his first time ever singing professionally.  He had a lot of help from other band members.  I was too young to know or care in 1986 but I imagine that Don't Wait for the Movie was the album they needed to take them to the next level musically and lyrically (climaxing with Powerhouse, not Freedom).  That's why it's the iconic game changer.

To answer the original question, there are a few well-liked bands I can't get into.  I just don't spread my heresy publicly.

 eatbugs wrote:We already had this thread (also started by Pethead) called "Unorthodox Christian Metal Opinions" and there is as much heresy here as there was there.

I agree totally with Dustofyears on Vengeance Rising.

I think some of the issues are that groundbreaking albums at the time would be just average if released today (Horde, White Heart - Don't Wait for the Movie).

Specifically, Don't wait for the Movie was also a (by WH standards) hard rock shocker after the lite rock of their first three albums that ended in the Scott Douglas disaster.  It was Florian's weakest album because it was his first time ever singing professionally.  He had a lot of help from other band members.  I was too young to know or care in 1986 but I imagine that Don't Wait for the Movie was the album they needed to take them to the next level musically and lyrically (climaxing with Powerhouse, not Freedom).  That's why it's the iconic game changer.

To answer the original question, there are a few well-liked bands I can't get into.  I just don't spread my heresy publicly.

I’m like AC/DC. I keep making the same product under different names.

Groundbreaking isn’t a statement of quality. The Beatles’ Revolution 9 was groundbreaking. And terrible. Not that any of the artists/albums mentioned are terrible, of course!

I don’t find DWftM to rock much harder than Hotline, with the possible exception of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Christian. I don’t think Florian is the weak link here, I just don’t think the songs are quite at the level of what would follow. (Still better than 99% of other bands, though). Also, Tales of Wonder>Powerhouse. 

C’mon, bring that heresy out into the open. It’s therapeutic

This is just my personal taste.... 

Vengeance Rising - I find most of what they did after Human Sacrifice to be dull and uninspired.  Destruction Comes in particular is barely listenable.  No, actually it is unlistenable.

Tourniquet - Cannot get into Psycho Surgery at all.  Pathogenic is a little better but I just don't really enjoy their material after Stop The Bleeding.  It's got some amazing playing but too busy, too messy.   Also, cannot handle Luke Easter's vocals.  Don't get how others can, but then again I also dislike Dave Mustaine's vocals and they are similar.  However Luke is much better on his solo album.  That material just suits him better.

Savior Machine - Agree with Black Rider, everything after the debut is not as good and in fact I find it tedious, too long, and not enjoyable.

Dale Thompson - I appreciate his obvious talent, I really do....but most of the side projects he gets involved in tend to have similar-sounding material with (mostly) sub-par songwriting.   Exceptions would be some of the material from The Thomas Thompson Earth Project and Dale Thompson & The Boon Dogs.  The last Perpetual Paranoia was also a step up from their earlier material, although still not great.

Stryper - Despite all the fan-boy gushing over their last album "Even The Devil Believes," the song-writing was mediocre.  I listened to it 2-3 times and never again.  Production and guitar solos were awesome though.

Metalcore - Most of the Christian metalcore bands sound alike and the whole scene is overrated IMO.  

Wonrowe Vision, Lightforce, Horde - The music is too simplistic for the most part and not very enjoyable.  I appreciate what they have accomplished though, which is a lot in the case of Horde.   Just not a good listen for me.

A Hill To Die Upon  - Cannot get into their music at all.  Not sure what it is.

Holy Soldier - Not sure why they didn't get more props for their incredible cover of "Gimme Shelter."  It was really awesome and they gave it a real rock edge.

Saint - The 6 or so studio albums from 2004 - 2011 do not compare to their earlier or even later material.  Also, Broad Is The Gate was a very good album and I don't understand why it was so unappreciated.  I think criticism was way, way too harsh on the vocalist.  I liked him just fine.

Letter 7, Thunderchild, Angelic Forces, Faith Factor, Gloriam Dei, Place Of Skulls, The Waymaker, Messenger, Ancient Prophecy, Deth Enemy -  I don't understand why these bands are not more popular.   I find their material to be overall better than many of the more well-known bands that people tend to hold in higher regard.  That also goes for Everthrone (not a Christian band, but brilliant - but they never caught on and eventually disbanded).

...Now put those stones down....      

FAITH FACTOR should've been 10x bigger IMHO.

Did you own the EP BTW?

Constantine wrote:This is just my personal taste.... 

Vengeance Rising - I find most of what they did after Human Sacrifice to be dull and uninspired.  Destruction Comes in particular is barely listenable.  No, actually it is unlistenable.

Tourniquet - Cannot get into Psycho Surgery at all.  Pathogenic is a little better but I just don't really enjoy their material after Stop The Bleeding.  It's got some amazing playing but too busy, too messy.   Also, cannot handle Luke Easter's vocals.  Don't get how others can, but then again I also dislike Dave Mustaine's vocals and they are similar.  However Luke is much better on his solo album.  That material just suits him 

Holy Soldier - Not sure why they didn't get more props for their incredible cover of "Gimme Shelter."  It was really awesome and they gave it a real rock edge.

Saint - The 6 or so studio albums from 2004 - 2011 do not compare to their earlier or even later material.  Also, Broad Is The Gate was a very good album and I don't understand why it was so unappreciated.  I think criticism was way, way too harsh on the vocalist.  I liked him just fine.

Letter 7, Thunderchild, Angelic Forces, Faith Factor, Gloriam Dei, Place Of Skulls, The Waymaker, Messenger, Ancient Prophecy, Deth Enemy -  I don't understand why these bands are not more popular.   I find their material to be overall better than many of the more well-known bands that people tend to hold in higher regard.  That also goes for Everthrone (not a Christian band, but brilliant - but they never caught on and eventually disbanded).

...Now put those stones down....      

Human Sacrifice is the only one I regularly spin. 

Luke sounded great on The Pop Disaster. As much as I love TQT, they didn’t often utilize his strengths.

Gimme Shelter is a great cover.

I don’t think Saint has a dud other than The Perfect Life. I love everything else they’ve done. Broad is the Gate was great.

Letter 7 is great, as is Place of Skulls. I couldn’t get into Faith Factor’s Against a Darkened Sky too much, despite the obvious talent.

Destruction Comes in particular is barely listenable.  No, actually it is unlistenable.

How dare you!

Drawnsword wrote:I find most metalcore vocals sound like there constipated. It's like there straining to sound angry but it comes off weak and unconvincing.

Absolutely!