While religion and art has always been a matter of heated debate, I would risk saying that the perceived contrast between both has never been so stark as it was in the 80’s when a growing number of bands started expressing their faith and including Christian overtones (or outright evangelism) on their hard driving music, an area that had always been associated with the excesses of sex, drugs and occultism. This obviously sparked heated debate on both sides of the fence and the bands ended up getting flack from everywhere. Not for the faint of heart.
As a teenager I followed the emergence of this fairly subversive counter-culture so, when João spoke to me, I could not think of a better theme for this series than the Top 7 Christian Metal bands of the 80’s. Of course when you pick an arbitrary number of bands from a big list, you always leave out obvious (and better) choices for other people. In fact it pains me to not include a few bands myself. In my selection process I tried to find a balance between how good the band was, how early it appeared and how influential it ultimately was to the scene. But ultimately, my personal taste also had a huge impact so your mileage may vary! Also, don’t read too much on the order in which the bands are presented: it is neither chronological nor related to overall rating… it’s just, you know, "some" order.
Barren Cross were one of the earliest true Metal Christian bands. Although formed a few years earlier their first album was only released in 1986 and they gained immediate recognition due to their bass-heavy sound and especially their singer Mike Lee’s voice, uncannily similar to Bruce Dickinson's. This comparison to Iron Maiden would follow them all through their career, even if most of the song structures did not really follow Maiden’s formula (though some were indeed dead ringers for the venerable British band). After 3 full studio albums (also released on non-Christian labels) and a Live CD, the band split in 1990. They briefly reformed and released a fairly competent album in 1994 only to part again. In recent years there has been talk of a reunion of the original lignup, but that seems to have fallen through allegedly due to theological differences between Mike and the rest of the band.
So, without further ado, here’s the opening song from their debut album of 1986 "Rock For The King".
Barren Cross - Dying Day
