ACTIVE Classic Rock & Metal Bands????

Other than Stryper, The Union Of Sinners and Saints, and Saint, who are the current AND active classic sounding Christian rock and metal bands?  Has this genre died off?  Anyone know of anything coming out that would fit this bill?  I don't care for thrash or extreme metal and just want some NEW stuff that it old school.

Please, don't list reissues.  Reissues don't constitute a NEW release for me.  I have most of the true classics I'd want.

Are you interested in the Guardian/Whitecross Revival?

Classic bands or classic 'sounding'?  There are a number of bands out there with the classic sound.

In the spirit of classic, and I'm kicking myself for this, but I'm actually enjoying Whitecross in this video from April. Everyone here knows my dislike of Scott Wenzel's vocals but he actually sounds good here!

Active bands/artists:

Stairway
Impellitteri
Michael Sweet
Deliverance
Bloodgood
Guardian
Sacred Warrior
Worldview
GX

The above bands has released albums within the past 4 years. Bloodgood and Deliverance are working on new albums.



I'm not sure if this counts, but Rex Carroll does a few dates a year with his 2 bands King James and White Cross. Only King James has released Maximus in 2013.

I've been saying for some time that traditional Christian Metal is dying.  I can't think of any young bands coming through that play this style even in the underground.  One band that I highly recommend though would be Sweden's 'Messenger' who released 2 EPs 'Heart and Mind' and 'Perfect Storm'.  Sadly they are on hiatus right now.  What sort of metal would you say 'Worldview' is?  Do you like 'Chaotic Resemblance'?

What about 'Narnia' and 'Golden Resurrection'?

Soldier777 wrote:Active bands/artists:

Stairway
Impellitteri
Michael Sweet
Deliverance
Bloodgood
Guardian
Sacred Warrior
Worldview
GX

The above bands has released albums within the past 4 years. Bloodgood and Deliverance are working on new albums.



I'm not sure if this counts, but Rex Carroll does a few dates a year with his 2 bands King James and White Cross. Only King James has released Maximus in 2013.

The new 'Deliverance' will be pure thrash, however 'Jimmy P Brown II' is shortly releasing a solo album entitled 'Eraserhead'!!!

We tried. There doesn't seem to be much interest in this style of music anymore. Not for new bands anyway.

Not in the christian music world, in the secular world there's still some new bands coming out.

timekeeper wrote:Classic bands or classic 'sounding'?  There are a number of bands out there with the classic sound.

Classic sounding.  New stuff that has a 70s or 80s vibe.  New stuff that doesn't have hardcore vocals, overdone double bass pedal, or blast beats.  Must have solos and decent vocals.

Benny4SR wrote:We tried. There doesn't seem to be much interest in this style of music anymore. Not for new bands anyway.

Is it that there isn't much interest in the style, or do people just not BUY music anymore?  With illegal downloading and now streaming, there aren't many people that I know that would actually spend money on music.  We have a generation now that has never bought music and never will unless somehow we can make streaming profitable for everyone.

alldatndensum wrote:

Benny4SR wrote:We tried. There doesn't seem to be much interest in this style of music anymore. Not for new bands anyway.

Is it that there isn't much interest in the style, or do people just not BUY music anymore?  With illegal downloading and now streaming, there aren't many people that I know that would actually spend money on music.  We have a generation now that has never bought music and never will unless somehow we can make streaming profitable for everyone.

That's definitely part of it. But it just seems like people are not really open to new music from new bands anymore. Especially in the Classic Rock/Metal realm. But honestly I don't see a whole lot of new bands playing in that style. I'm only going from my own personal experience with Four Star Revival. I don't know. Maybe it's just us.

Wytch Hazel

Soldier777 wrote:Active bands/artists:

Stairway
Impellitteri
Michael Sweet
Deliverance
Bloodgood
Guardian
Sacred Warrior
Worldview
GX

The above bands has released albums within the past 4 years. Bloodgood and Deliverance are working on new albums.



I'm not sure if this counts, but Rex Carroll does a few dates a year with his 2 bands King James and White Cross. Only King James has released Maximus in 2013.

I wouldn't sayt most of these bands are active. they aren't either recording or making live concerts.

Just a few concerts a year, doesn't mean the band is active.

Benny4SR wrote:

alldatndensum wrote:

Benny4SR wrote:We tried. There doesn't seem to be much interest in this style of music anymore. Not for new bands anyway.

Is it that there isn't much interest in the style, or do people just not BUY music anymore?  With illegal downloading and now streaming, there aren't many people that I know that would actually spend money on music.  We have a generation now that has never bought music and never will unless somehow we can make streaming profitable for everyone.

That's definitely part of it. But it just seems like people are not really open to new music from new bands anymore. Especially in the Classic Rock/Metal realm. But honestly I don't see a whole lot of new bands playing in that style. I'm only going from my own personal experience with Four Star Revival. I don't know. Maybe it's just us.

I could see that for sure.

Even with that, some of us just gave up on that style.  I love old school 80s hard rock and metal and used to have a project I did called Mission of One.  After several less than stellar albums in the production end of things, I finally got one out that sounded like I wanted.  Sadly, I sold only dozens of albums.  It was heart breaking.  Take that and the fact that I could not find musicians to make a full band and I was just done making music.

I did get back into recording, though, after I built my first cigar box guitar.  It is a novelty guitar built to be like the old guitars that the American slaves and later the first blues artists built.  This little three stringer got the old creative juices flowing and I started recording rocked out blues.  I still can't find musicians, but at least I am making music that is high quality in the production and songwriting areas.  I'm having fun again even though I am still only selling dozens of copies.

In the " secular " scene their is a TON of great classic bands. In the Christian scene...not much.

sentient 6 wrote:In the " secular " scene their is a TON of great classic bands. In the Christian scene...not much.

I find that to be very sad.  I know a lot of bands produce their stuff themselves and even release their own material.  I think if I were some bands that I would be trying to hit up Frontier Records seeing that they carry so many classic metal bands.  While I am sure that most people aren't shopping there to find Christian metal, it sure couldn't hurt.

I think there are a lot of classic sounding Christian bands but they never leave regional status. Especially in the midwest, I see videos from time to time of bands that never do much more than play at the county park for a local festival or perhaps their local church. Occasionally these bands will sell a few self produced CDrs. I can't remember a single band name at this time though, but I know I've seen them here and there.

I think that there are a whole host of issues with why we don't see much of this. And a lot of it honestly centers around money.

1. The music industry is in it for the money. The big music companies are a machine. A greedy machine. But one that also has well worn grooves in how the system works. They are not going to put money into projects that don't make money. When we were young and rock was king, most of us weren't buying "oldies" records. The same applies today. Like it or not Justin Bieber, Beyonce, Lady Gaga, etc. are the ones bringing in the dough, and tho the Kardashians may wear Iron Maiden shirts, kids ain't buying their records. It costs way more money than the recording fee to market a record, and labels are sinking that money.

2. Not like it used to be. Big names are suffering sales, so the little labels aren't faring better. Have you looked at record sales now a days? Successful ones are measured in the thousands. That is chump change compared to the 80's and 90's. We can chalk some of that up to illegal downloading, but our money also goes to a lot of other "entertainment" these days: Movies, electronics, games, etc. Less cash to spare. Also, most people complain about how music sucks, so less people are buying it. It's also more segregated by genres. In the old days, people would go to see Metallica & Poison without thinking that either one was exclusive. There wasn't a whole hell of a lot to choose from. Now, thanks to the internet, we have thousands of bands at our finger tips.

3. Quality. Over the years the home studio has come a long way. I can make a recording that I only would have dreamed of twenty years ago when I was hammering things out on a crappy tape deck 4 track. But, it doesn't mean that it is great. Or even good. There is a lot of stuff I've passed on because the guitars were just too weak, or the vocals were off key, or the drum machine sounded like it was taken from the 80's and set on a loop. I just can't throw my cash at that. I'm not into musical welfare. I've heard complaints about the money artist like Ted Kirkpatrick or Rose have asked for, but their recordings are light years beyond others, and I think it shows. There is a reason professionals get paid what they do. Honestly, if some one told me that the quality of my music (or art) sucked (and they have) I would be right there with them handing them the stones to throw. There is a reason the big machine was great at doing what it did. I think some artist actually need some one cracking the whip and giving them direction. Some of the greatest people on an album is the producer and the engineers.

4. What a drag it is getting old. A lot of the older musicians we grew up listening to have lives now. Busy lives. I've said this before, and will repeat it: the music biz is a young man's game. A lot of these guys had to get regular jobs. They work, come home tired, play with the kids, go to games, recitals, etc. Some times they are burnt out and the last thing on their mind is sitting down and recording an album. An album mind you, that all of 15 people will buy and a hundred will download illegally. When they were young, they were full of energy and time to blow. There are young musicians now, that don't even tour because it is exhausting and after a couple of years, they have nothing to show for it while their friends are starting their careers and families. I face a similar thing with my art. I spend hours, days even months creating a piece, and then have someone scoff at how much I want so they can use it for their record. A record, that usually won't sell much and is not that great. It's frustrating.

As the years have gone on I've loved a lot of bands from each style. I progressed from classic rock, the 80's metal scene, 90's grunge and some of the Nu metal. After that I found myself adrift. I too couldn't get into screamo, hard core or black metal, which seems like a lot of what is out there. At the same time the bands with the "classic" sound do nothing for me. For me, my latest style I like is doom. And even in that, I like very few bands. Maybe my tastes have refined over the years and I'm pickier. Well this was a lot longer than I expected.

2. Not like it used to be. Big names are suffering sales, so the little labels aren't faring better. Have you looked at record sales now a days? Successful ones are measured in the thousands. That is chump change compared to the 80's and 90's. We can chalk some of that up to illegal downloading, but our money also goes to a lot of other "entertainment" these days: Movies, electronics, games, etc. Less cash to spare. Also, most people complain about how music sucks, so less people are buying it. It's also more segregated by genres. In the old days, people would go to see Metallica & Poison without thinking that either one was exclusive. There wasn't a whole hell of a lot to choose from. Now, thanks to the internet, we have thousands of bands at our finger tips.

I don't think that illegal downloading these days is that big of a deal.  Most people just use a streaming service and pay very little, if anything, for their music.  Music has always been free to this new generation and it will be hard or possibly impossible to get them to pay for something they expect to be free.  While it is near impossible to get heard if you are an indie without streaming, you aren't going to get paid from that, either.

It's not just bands that are suffering now. I just read this article about how electric guitar sales are suffering.

"The death of the electric guitar"

I have read that as well.  While you can program most anything in the studio, the coolness factor is lost if you don't have a real person playing an instrument.  That is truly what made music great.  When generic automated music is all we have left, then I will be still crankin' the old stuff because our music truly will have been better!

alldatndensum wrote:

2. Not like it used to be. Big names are suffering sales, so the little labels aren't faring better. Have you looked at record sales now a days? Successful ones are measured in the thousands. That is chump change compared to the 80's and 90's. We can chalk some of that up to illegal downloading, but our money also goes to a lot of other "entertainment" these days: Movies, electronics, games, etc. Less cash to spare. Also, most people complain about how music sucks, so less people are buying it. It's also more segregated by genres. In the old days, people would go to see Metallica & Poison without thinking that either one was exclusive. There wasn't a whole hell of a lot to choose from. Now, thanks to the internet, we have thousands of bands at our finger tips.

I don't think that illegal downloading these days is that big of a deal.  Most people just use a streaming service and pay very little, if anything, for their music.  Music has always been free to this new generation and it will be hard or possibly impossible to get them to pay for something they expect to be free.  While it is near impossible to get heard if you are an indie without streaming, you aren't going to get paid from that, either.

That's why I mentioned that some of it was illegal downloading. And I think that tends to go along the lines of the more popular stuff. You'll see way more illegal downloads for a Beyonce song than a Christian rock/metal artist. I think some of the old school guys have convinced themselves that that is why they have poor sales, not realizing that it has more to do with poor advertising, saturated market, or bad music.

You can add Crossrock from Brazil to this list.  They sing in English and have an 80's metal sound for sure!  I haven't listened to it yet, but I have downloaded their only album from 2014 called "Come On Baby".