Favorite Christian Themes In Genres

What are your favorite themes in musical genres? Mine are:

Thrash/Death: Spiritual warfare and struggles. I don't like the 'worship' bits in my thrash and death metal. The music is aggressive and the lyrics should match the aggression IMO. Christians are humans too after all and we do get ticked off. I for one get ticked off a lot and really easily.

Power/Symphonic: Worship and bible stories/history. The bible has some very epic things happening in it and there is so much rich history in there. Whenever I think of the books of the bible, I hear melodies and symphonies behind them.

Heavy: Spiritual Warfare/Struggle/Worship/Everything: I mean... everything fits in heavy metal.

NuMetal: P.O.D.

Black/Unblack: JESUS

What are your favorite genres and what are your favorite lyrical themes to go with them?

Even though I've experienced quite a bit of spiritual warfare and such, I find it to be a pretty tiresome theme in Christian metal.  Yes, there's nothing more "metal" (within the Christian scene) than slaying demons and such but it's gotten to the point for me that it just seems very juvenile now.

I really love when bands sing just straight-up worship.  Much of Grave Declaration's tunes are this way and I love that!  I also really enjoy the more theologically heavy stuff that makes you think.  Despite the low "JPM's," I really like when bands sing about life experiences or such but from a Christian perspective.  An example would be Aletheian's song An Open Grave which is about two young girls the bandmembers knew who had a degenerative bone disease that would surely kill them in a few years' time and how strong and faithful the girls were despite it all.  To me, that's pretty powerful stuff!

elparanorman wrote:
Black/Unblack: JESUS

Agreed. Myself, I prefer my lyrics to be TO Christ, not telling listeners what to do.
As far as struggles, that can still be a very Christ centered topic.

Spiritual warfare is a topic that no matter how it's approached, is just one chromosome away from radical Islam. (Meaning, you'd have to change the song very little to make it about that) If someone is telling a story about holy war, that's different - but promoting or suggesting it, can be damaging.

These "crush the head of satan" lyrics do not help Christianity, and like Kerrick said, are immature. Tacky.

I hafta agree about spiritual warfare.  Growing up in the 80s really burnt me out on that stuff.  I like some straight-up worship stuff, like Grave Declaration, but mostly I have to be in the right mood for it.  I like songs about life and the struggles of living in the world that point to the hope in Christ.  I've just had too much of the "life sucks, but once you come to Jesus everything will just be hunky dory!"  That always made me feel so alienated because it wasn't my experience.  I guess what I mean is the ones that say "life sucks, but God is in control and even though it may get really messy and really ugly, God will walk with you through it."  I think that's one thing I love about the new Forfeit Thee Untrue album.  It is really, really dark at the beginning, but then begins to show "the Light" as it progresses.

I know this may be weird, but I HATE political songs in metal or really any other genre except punk.

I thought spiritual warfare was about overcome addictions and life problems using faith. 

elparanorman wrote:I thought spiritual warfare was about overcome addictions and life problems using faith. 

Typically, when I hear the term "spiritual warfare," it's usually more in the context of the battle of demons and angels going on around us, demonic attacks, etc.

Personally, I prefer that ANY genre of band that claimed to be " Christian " in their worldview be informed and inspired by sacred scripture.

I personally can't stand clichés in Christian music. Especially clichés inspired by bad theology.

messiaen77 wrote:That always made me feel so alienated because it wasn't my experience.

Sir, that isn't ANY servant of Gods experience.....

I feel like anything can be done well or done poorly.

"Worship" lyrics can be trite and cheesy, or they can be thoughtful and meaningful.

"Demon's slaughtered" lyrics surely TEND toward silly and characitured (sp?), but songs of Jesus' victory or the defeat of Satan can be done responsibly and have their place.

"Jesus makes stuff better" can be campy and superficial, but "here's how Jesus is working or transforming my life" can be beautiful and glorifying.

This is kind of a non-answer, I know.

I am tired of "worship" lyrics in metal, pop, whatever.  It is so overdone because it has become a big business.  It kills creativity for the most part. 

I like lyrics that talk about Jesus.  I like themes that talk about what He is doing in someone's life.  I also like themes where the band is confessing their own shortcomings.  I also like to hear songs about social issues that just highlight what is so bad just to make you think.  Perhaps in seeing something outside your comfort zone, we will find that our "calling" will sneak up on us as something breaks and transforms our hearts.

Like any music, I like poetic themes that might take a looking into to fully understand.