old school Christian Metal poll!

Not including Stryper (who were technically a secular band with Christian members and we all know they would win here), which of these early Christian Metal pioneers do you vote for? Why? Let's discuss the good ole days of Christian Metal!

This is really difficult

Rez Band and Bloodgood are some of my faves ever

While technically the first Christian rock album i had was reresurrection band(8track of colors) i went with daniel band...someone made me a cassette of them when i was in high school and i liked it alot...reminded me of triumph and April wine...i now have all their stuff on cd...

I finally decided upon Bloodgood

Very difficult to pick just one, but I went with Bloodgood. Has a classic metal sound without sounding like anyone else. I could have went with BC, but they kind of were going for the " Maiden " sound somewhat. But to be fair, still pretty original regardless. Daniel Bands On Rock was one of my first introductions to Christian rock ( besides Petra ), and loved that album a lot. But it wasn't quite metal, but more along the lines of what April Wine did ( great band as well though ). Messiah Prophet and Barnabas I really didn't get into until later. But I would say that Bloodgood was probably the best Straight-up metal band at that time. For their classic metal sound and originality.

I went with Resurrection Band.  They had a huge catalog of albums that I love from that era.  I play their stuff more than I do any of those others, and I love many of those.

Saint. Too Late For Living is better than any Stryper album.

None of the above, honestly.  Other than Stryper, the first Christian Metal bands I got in to were Deliverance and Tourniquet.

REZ hands down they should have been  in the same legendary status as zep more so becasue zep just ripped everyone off I mean literally. Rez one of the best blues hard rock bands ever.

I like barnabas and some bride as well but my vote is for rez.

VERY hard choice.  I went Rez.

Bride - Snakes in the Playground is one of my all-time favorite albums, but they have also made some I don't care for.
Barren Cross - Here I AM is one of my all-time favorite songs, but they have also made some I don't care for.

Rez has been consistently good over the whole discography although I could have voted Bloodgood for the same reason.

I love Messiah Prophet too but only two albums (I don't have Colors) is not enough material to put them past Rez. 

Rez have awesome lyrics too, with more meat to them than simple happy Jesus-per-minute like some of the others listed.

I know some might laugh, but my vote goes to Stryken!!!

Back in the day I would have answered with: Bride.

However, after all these years, in my honest and humble opinion, Stryken seems to have aged the best. I know they only released the one album. But it was GENIUS!!! "Crush the Head of Satan", "Rock On" and "Young Men Had a Vision" ... complete revolutionary songs! This band was HUGELY underrated!!

One of my favorite Glam Metal albums - secular or Christian! If they had carried on ... there is no telling what they would have accomplished. They even had a very unique sound ... they had dubbed "Thunder Rock" ...

So yeah - Stryken!

I know some might laugh, but my vote goes to Stryken!!!

Seems like I read that one of the members of stryken is now a preacher who preaches against christian rock and metal and really goes after his old band...interesting..
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I never heard of alot of christian metal bands till the 90s...back in the 80s i new petra, daniel band, rez, stryper and barren cross...thats it.. alot of old bands i never even heard of till this forum... i only heard of saint, bloodgood, rage of angels and several others about 6 years ago...

I like many of those bands, but I went with Rez. They're the band that started it all for me.

(IMHO) Resurrection Band/REZ are not a metal band. No big deal, it is just an opinion.

Of those listed, I voted for Barren Cross.

Neon Cross, Holy Soldier & Gardian/Guardian were around as long as most of the bands on the list.  I would have voted for Neon Cross. When Mitch was in the band (PK Mitchell) They had a guitar tandem among the best in El Lay at the time. (IMHO)

I voted Bride, I love all of their releases, but my faves are from Heroes to Snakes

My vote was torn between Bride, Barren Cross and Rez because all 3 had a huge impact on me. I stuck with Bride as the winner.

RavenWolf wrote:Stryken seems to have aged the best.

I enjoy Stryken and think of their release as a neat collectible to have, but aged well? Out of all of these to me they sound the most dated/tin can production-ed

But I do enjoy each and every one of these bands to a certain extent

All great bands, but I agree with some others here that Rez and Bloodgood are the 2 that top the list.

Rez was a hard-rocking hard-touring ministry band with amazing talent and vision that made a huge impact in the Christian rock scene, influencing many that came after them.  In the early days they were it, and they didn't decline with age as some bands do. All their albums are classics, or at least very good. Love them!

I had to vote for Bloodgood though.  On a personal level, when I first heard their Metal Missionaries tape I was hooked.  There was some great Christian hard rock out there, but not really much true metal that had a message of Christ's love.  I'd heard Stryper previously, but it didn't rock the way Bloodgood did. Their first 2 albums are absolute classics, followed by several decent albums, but their newest one, Dangerously Close is their best to date.  Get it! Lifetime Bloodgood fan here.

James B. wrote:(IMHO) Resurrection Band/REZ are not a metal band. No big deal, it is just an opinion.

I agree 100% with you. The only reason I included them here is because they were Hard Rock and had a huge impact on the Christian Metal scene.

Hardcore Christian wrote:

RavenWolf wrote:Stryken seems to have aged the best.

I enjoy Stryken and think of their release as a neat collectible to have, but aged well? Out of all of these to me they sound the most dated/tin can production-ed

But I do enjoy each and every one of these bands to a certain extent

I know exactly what you are saying. Which is why I said "I might get laughed at for my choice". Meaning ... I know that the production on Stryken's one and only album is terrible! If you had asked me back in the day - I would have responded like you. Good band ... bad production ... so they are not a fave.



However, after aging for more than 20 years since ... I purchased one of the remastered versions of "First Strike" a few years back ... and the remastering did something AMAZING. It painted a picture of Stryken ... in a different light. The production ... after the remastering ... makes Stryken look like the band they always were (but were never appreciated enough during their time, they were a classic example of truly an underrated band). Even Stryper threatened to take them to court because of their early incarnation's name similarities. This is true. Fact. Stryper felt threatened by Stryken ... because Stryken was being launched ... and could easily have become the 'next huge thing' ... after Stryper. Their production held them back.




But with the remastering ... and some use of the imagination ... going back over "First Strike" with a fine tooth comb ... will find you dazzled. I was amazed a few weeks ago again as I did this. Even my son of 10 years old was like "WOW DAD! This band could have become the Motley Crue of the Christian Metal scene back then!". He's right. They could have. But they did not. In the end they fizzled out after only one album. But they were much closer to a breakthrough than they probably realized at the time. And with the setback of being sued by one of your favorite bands ... that probably hurt them and took some of their momentum away. Anyway ... had they endured ... I am willing to bet they would have gone on to become as well respected and huge as Stryper or at least Barren Cross (with a secular deal and what not).

Throne of thorns wrote:REZ hands down they should have been  in the same legendary status as zep more so becasue zep just ripped everyone off I mean literally. Rez one of the best blues hard rock bands ever.

I like barnabas and some bride as well but my vote is for rez.

Those are the 3 I liked the most back then too!  I voted for Bride because Live to Die is still amazing to this day, but I could have easily voted for Rez as well.

RavenWolf wrote:

James B. wrote:(IMHO) Resurrection Band/REZ are not a metal band. No big deal, it is just an opinion.

I agree 100% with you. The only reason I included them here is because they were Hard Rock and had a huge impact on the Christian Metal scene.

In the 70s they were most definitely heavy metal.  If you're going to talk about old bands, then you also need to go by the standards of the time they were active in.

I went with Saint. Like others, I found this to be a very difficult choice. But Saint just epitomized heavy metal.

I like Bloodgood, but they're nowhere near the top of that list IMO. Rez was good, but again, nowhere near the top of the list. My second choice would probably have been Bride or Messiah Prophet. Had MP put out more records, they'd have probably been my favorite, but they just didn't do enough. Bride was incredible, if poorly produced on those early records.

When I consider how early in the Christian metal scene Warriors of the Son came along, and then the greatness of Time's End in '86, I had to go with Saint.

I voted for Stryken

Just curious...who hear was an avid Christian metal listener only in the 80s and real early 90s..