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© Paul Hebert/Icon SMI/Corbis
Stryper's Oz Fox performs during November 2009's 25th Anniversary tour
What with its dabbling in Satanic imagery and death, you could be forgiven for thinking that most metal was for atheists (or hell-bound heathens) - but why should the devil get all the best tunes?
God-fearing Christian metal generally isn’t as heavy, opting for the sort of melodic stadium-filling riffs associated with arena rock and hair metal. And lyrically, as you might guess, there’s much less blood than elsewhere in metal - and a lot more God.
Christian metal broke through in the '80s with Stryper blazing the trail. However, it has remained consistently popular and has populated a number of its own sub-genres, including ‘unblack’ metal, a response to black metal, the darkest of all metal.
They kick-started the Christian metal movement and sound a lot like Van Halen and Poison, but with a more 'positive' message.
Managing to mention hell and the devil in an album title while sticking to the path of the righteous is rather clever.
Listen to that shredding - there’s no doubt that this is metal but this is one tune that isn’t going to the Devil.
