This article was composted (censored) from Portland Indymedia.org for Christian content. Another article I posted on Indymedia Portland announcing a Demon Hunter concert was also composted. This shows Indymedia's bias against anything to do with Christian culture.
In recent years, there has been an explosion in a musical genre pioneered by groups such as Petra, Stryper and Whitecross. This is Christian hard rock, which includes subcategories like punk, metal, hardcore, rapcore and metalcore. There are even some Christian grindcore bands around. These artists have a message of love and redemption in thier lyrics. One early group is D.C. Talk, who wrote songs such as In the Light, Jesus Freak and Into Jesus. Toby Mac, who went solo, used to be one of the band members. Pillar is another group that is popular, whose CD, For the Love of The Game is available everywhere. Pillar has other CD's such as Fireproof, Where do We Go From Here, and The Reckoning. Demon Hunter is another Christian band that plays metalcore. They have CD's such as The Tryptich and Storm the Gates of Hell. Living Sacrifice is a Christian death metal band. P.O.D. is a rapcore band from the 90's. They grew popular, getting airplay on mainstream radio stations. P.O.D. had a hit titled Youth of The Nation. Among other metal bands are August Burns Red, Underoath, Decypher Down, Disciple, Flyleaf, Horde and others. Christian punk bands include Officer Negative, Lugnut, Headnoise, Squad Five-O, Dogwood, Pocketchange, MxPx, Public Unrest, I.N.C., Gel Finatic, Flatfoot 56 and Project 86. Hardcore bands include Skillet and Thousand Foot Krutch. Christian rap acts include Supernatural - who is a local Portland rapper, Grits, Flame, Da Truth, La Crae, T-Bone, who was once a gang banger and KJ-52. Lately, in 2005, Dave Mustaine, front man to Megadeth became a Christian, releasing a CD titled United Abominations. When Dave converted, he quit drinking. The only change in Mustaine's music style is that he writes Christian themes in his songs. Megadeth rocks just as hard as in the old days. Many Christian metal and punk bands rock as hard as their mainstream counterparts. Christian rappers have themes of life in the hood, poverty, gang violence and repentance and turning away from the gangbang lifestyle. Many of them were gang members themselves.
Christian culture is working its way into the larger pop culture. An example of this is Demon Hunter's videos being played on MTV 2's Headbanger's Ball. Another example is the Afters making a video that is on MTV. In this case, MTV called the band and offered to play their video. Lately, songs from Christian artists have had airplay on mainstream radio stations and bands like Demon Hunter and many Christian metal bands tour with mainstream metal bands. They also play at mainstream venues and clubs in local metal, punk and rap scenes.
