Good Christian Music

[Jman]

I've been slipping into some pretty horrible stuff music wise lately, so i need some new insperations to get me back on track, i like all kinds of styles, and yes that includes hardcore

[everdred12a]

I'd suggest ZAO, The Showdown, and Showbread, if you aren't already into them. ZAO and the Showdown are Metalcore, while Showbread is post hardcore reminiscent of Refused and The International Noise Conspiracy. All of these bands are great.

[Jman]

well, i'm looking for less noisy bands at the moment, i have alota screamers, but i need some more.....like hawk nelson type stuff. ideas?

[GrubbTheFragger]

well for older stuff theres FM statics stuff and hmmm ........ all i can think of is relient K .....oh wait duh sanctus real

[FadedOne]

ok....hawk nelsonish?

Try StellarKart. They make me smile.

Switchfoot - great stuff...particularly their older CDs(though all of it is enjoyable)

Sanctus Real - the newer CD is a great ballad-rock/worship mix.

Anberlin - some of the BEST guitar-driven rock in Christian music, IMO

Five Iron Frenzy - it's ska. Horn driven pop-rock. Their music makes me happy. The lyrics vary from deep to insane, and it's all good 'cause Reese Roper(the lead vocalist) is amazing.

Lifehouse - get No Name Face. IMO, it's the better of the three

Starfield - not sure what you think about more worship based music, but I always highly recommend Starfield. The lyrics are honest and praiseful and the music defies your typical bubblegum worship crap. check it out.

Same goes for Jars of Clay. They have quite a few Cds so it's not hard to find something you like.

and hey.....i'm a music obsessed person. If you want samples of any of these groups(or have questions about others or a more specific genre) LET ME KNOW. My life's purpose is to turn people onto great music. ^_^

[everdred12a]

Well, I have no idea who Hawk Nelson is, but if you want some softer stuff, then check out Anberlin's first album, called Blueprints for the Black Market (their second album isn't nearly as good as Blueprints, IMO). Maybe check out Roper, and if you like Roper, then check out some Five Iron Frenzy.

[Nate]

David Crowder PWNS.

[GrubbTheFragger]

David Crowder PWNS.

*smacks head * i can't beleave i forgot about David Crowder. he is one of the best if not best modern worship singer/performer out there and if u want more bands like that check out Matt Redman, Chris Tomlin, and Charlie Hall.

[Zilch]

The Newsboys' earlier stuff is a blast, like Take Me To Your Leader.

[freerock1]

There have been some good ones mentioned. A few others you might like:

Last Tuesday - pop-punk
Kids in the Way - sort of emo-ish rock
Further Seems Forever - straight-up alternative
Olivia the Band - pop-punk
Number One Gun - alternative
Falling Up - labelmates of Hawk Nelson. Not as punk-leaning, but pretty good straight-up modern rock
Forever Changed - you might like them. Rock with a slight alternative bent
Demon Hunter - some of their stuff is more screaming, but they can go more melodic rock (but still with an edge) when they want to
Jonah33 - pretty straight-forward rock
Audio Adrenaline - don't just go by what you hear from these guys on the radio. They have some more rockin' tunes that you might like
Seventh Day Slumber - good straight-up rock n' roll
Thousand Foot Krutch - these days it seems almost un-American not to like TFK. Usually they're pretty straight modern rock, but they've had their almost punk moments.
Spoken - they used to be more screamcore/rapcore, but now they're pretty much straight-up melodic modern rock

Hopefully this will help...

[Steeltemplar]

Have you tried anything by Mozart?

Okay, yes, I am aware you probably meant contemporary music. I couldn't resist.

However, on a more serious note, when looking for good Christian music, one should remember how much classical music was written for religious themes. Mozart's Mass in C and Requiem in D are both examples. And how uplifting it is to hear the praise of God in such excellent and sublime composition.

On a more contemporary vein, I see people suggesting Newsboys and Audio Adrenaline. Both are great choices. Also, for some Christian-influenced metal (these guys don't use it as a ministry, but they are definitely Christians and some of their lyrics are religious) try King's X and Galactic Cowboys.

[Tommy]

If you have any interest in Christian rap I highly recommend Flame.
If you don`t like rap at all, i still recommend Flame. He`s that good.

If you like punk, I like MxPx. I`m not 100% if they are Christian but they were at Soulfest and performed at a Christian Gathering I saw. They pwn Relient K and Hawk Nelson IMO.

As for anything hardcore, every POD CD that`s not self titled unless you like Raggea and just don`t read the booklet if you do.

[Steeltemplar]

If you have any interest in Christian rap I highly recommend Flame.
If you don`t like rap at all, i still recommend Flame. He`s that good.

If you like punk, I like MxPx. I`m not 100% if they are Christian but they were at Soulfest and performed at a Christian Gathering I saw. They pwn Relient K and Hawk Nelson IMO.

As for anything hardcore, every POD CD that`s not self titled unless you like Raggea and just don`t read the booklet if you do.

I haven't listened to anything they have done recently, but when I listened to MxPX six years ago or so they were Christian.

[Kkun]

MxPx's stuff could be considered Christian, I think.

Good, new, less screaming stuff that you're after...I would HIGHLY recommend Roper, Five Iron Frenzy, Relient K, and MxPx for punk/etc. For more modern rock, go with Brandtson (who is amazing). Brave Saint Saturn, comprised of 4 members of Five Iron Frenzy, is incredible. Their CD, The Light of Things Hoped For is simply breath taking. It's so powerful. Let's see......OH. The new album by Sullivan, "Hey, I'm A Ghost" is really good. I just picked it up today. I also second everyone's suggestions about Anberlin, and I think that both of their CDs are fantastic. Blueprints is better than Never Take Friendship but I think they're both great. For praise and worship, David Crowder Band and Charlie Hall are both awesome.

Give all of those a try and you can't go wrong...

[Warrior4Christ]

Now for some Australian input. XD

Antiskeptic are awesome. And Australian. So that makes them doubly awesome.

As for praise and worship type bands, try Planetshakers and Hillsong United. The latest United CD is absolutely brilliant with flawless live performance and suberb production quality. Every song is a winner.

[Stephen]

Your Australian and you did not mention Beanbag? C'MON! They broke up a few years back, but the 2 CDs they released were awesome.

[Warrior4Christ]

Your Australian and you did not mention Beanbag? C'MON! They broke up a few years back, but the 2 CDs they released were awesome.

There's lots of Australian talent I missed out...past and present. But Beanbag were definitely worthy of not being missed out. Apologies.
Seraph's Coal (RIP)...more harder-type punk
The Frugals (RIP)....a bit like Five Iron Frenzy
Wishful Thinking....punk rock, also good
Thinktank (RIP, I think)....punk rock - a bit popish
Sounds Like Chicken (cool name +5)....ska-ish
and Beanbag (RIP)....hardcore-rap-rock-ish

[CreatureArt]

The Newsboys were originally an Australian band, weren't they? Even though Phil Joel is a kiwi. ^_^

I definitely agree with a lot of the choices up here. Anberlin, Relient K, Switchfoot...
I don't know if they've been mentioned but I like quite a bit of Kutless, Pillar and Day of Fire. Delerious also have some cool songs, too, though I haven't listened to all of their albums.

[freerock1]

I should have probably mentioned this in my previous post, but if you're just looking to explore some different bands you might want to check out some Internet radio stations.

I work with a station called ChargeRadio.com. We play a lot of the bands mentioned in this thread (Hawk Nelson, Falling Up, Relient K, Anberlin, P.O.D., Switchfoot, etc). We're going for a sound that competes with mainstream top 40 radio, so besides the rock stuff we also play quite a bit of pop and hip-hop. We don't play stuff like Casting Crowns and Third Day, so you should be able to get a good musical variety without too much of the typical Christian radio fluff .

But if you find ChargeRadio to be a bit pop-ish for your taste, there are some good Rock stations on the Net as well. I'd recommend Radio U and ChristianRock.Net.

[Rogie]

I don't think anyone's mentioned The Afters, which is one of my recent favorites. Their entire debut album is excellent, mostly rock with one really nice acoustic ballad. The album is "I Wish We All Could Win."

[Tenshi no Ai]

Spoken!!! Sorry but I really like 'em^^ Not quite like Hawk Nelson, more rockish and yet an interesting mix on their own.

I'd more suggest they're second newest CD "A Moment of Imperfect Clarity" to their last release "Last Chance to Breathe" but either will do^^ LCtB is more screamo, but not too much really :/

[GrubbTheFragger]

spoken is a very acquired taste when it comes to music they are diffently really good in my oppion and they are more on the screamo side then the punk side

[TrigunX89]

Yeah, Spoken is really good. Here are some others I can think of...

Pillar (the newer stuff is pure rock, while the older stuff has some rap)
Thousand Foot Krutch (^ditto)
FM Static
Mute Math
Earthsuit (if you can find it)
Skillet (go for the Collide CD)
Kids in the Way
Jeremy Camp (Stay is a great CD)
The Rocket Summer (probably acquired taste)

Umm... That's all that's really coming to my mind right now. I know there are more... But I can't think...

[freerock1]

spoken is a very acquired taste when it comes to music they are diffently really good in my oppion and they are more on the screamo side then the punk side

They're not really so much that way anymore. They do still go in that direction from time to time, but they also do a lot of more melodic, but still heavy, rock.

If you're looking for a non-screamer from Spoken, I'd recommend their last CD A Moment of Imperfect Clarity. What I've heard off their latest CD, Last Chance to Breathe, sort of runs somewhere between melodic hard rocker and screamer.

TrigunX89 - Good call on Mute Math/Earthsuit and Rocket Summer.

On RS, I agree that some of his stuff is a little more experimental sounding, but he has some more pop-friendly stuff as well. I thought his new radio single "Show Me What You've Got" had a bit of a Weezer "Beverly Hills" feel to it. (Note that this is not necessarily representative of his sound as a whole, just this particular song.)

[TrigunX89]

Thanks!

I forgot to mention Falling Up. I'd recommend their first CD called "Crashings."

[That Dude]

On the subject of bands from down under check out the Kiwi punk outfit called "All Left Out" I picked up their CD at the Warped Tour in Denver...Nice fun punk that sounds kinda like oldschool Green Day.

[TrigunX89]

Oh yeah, TobyMac rocks! There's a lot of hiphop influence in his CD's. I don't know if you're into that or not.

[freerock1]

Family Force 5 - Heard about these guys and they sound great. Might be worth checking out.

Good band. I'd call their style mostly rap-rock that doesn't take itself too seriously (they call it "crunk rock"). If you're familiar with TFK's Set it Off CD (their nationally distributed disc before they got signed to Tooth & Nail), it's very much along those lines. FF5's song "Kountry Gentlemen" was a fairly big hit for us at ChargeRadio.com, and it looks like their new single "Replace Me" is going to be a hit for us as well.

The Tribe - Another one that might be difficult to get outside the UK. Music's well worth it though.

Are you talking about the group that used to be known as the World Wide Message Tribe? They released a few CDs in the States during the mid-90's that you might be able to get ahold of. Most of their stuff is more dance/techno, but they started to lean more toward industrial-influenced techno rock on some of their songs.

[Sweet Mercury]

I've been listening to this band Mute Math for a year, and I just found out last week they were considered a Christian Rock band. Real good post-rock type stuff.

[freerock1]

Ooo~ didn't know they were playing them on CMRadio O_o Which channel are they playing it on?

Not CMRadio... ChargeRadio.com. Different station. I think you'd like it, too, though.