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A blog of the Evangelical Lutheran Liturgy

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Christian Rock

Christian rock, in general, sucks. It is bad-cubed: bad theology, bad lyrics, and bad music.

This is overwhelmingly true, but not exclusively so. There are some good Christian rock tunes out there, some intentionally so, and some that express Christian themes even if not intentionally. Again, I’m speaking in generalities, just to head off the NAXALT objection (which could well be called the Sensitive Boomer Fallacy).

So, at any rate, we Gottesdiensters often hear the canard that “You guys just like classical music.” I like some classical music. I love our Lutheran chorales and beautiful music from the ancient church. And is it even possible to be a Lutheran (or even a human) and not find beauty in the music of Johann Sebastian Bach? That said, that’s not what I usually listen to. I like rock and roll. That is what I grew up with and enjoy. I generally listen to what is called “classic rock” or “hard rock” or “heavy metal.” That’s just my personal preference.

Back in the 1980s, when I was in my twenties, my friends and I attended dozens of rock and metal concerts. It probably explains why my hearing isn’t what it should be today. My cars and motorcycles were equipped not just with a stereo, but with an amplifier and an equalizer. We had a delightful syndicated heavy metal radio station when I was growing up called Z-Rock. The tagline was: “If it’s too loud, you’re too old.” The announcer implored us to “Lock it in and rip the knob off.”

We had some friends who were kind of a big deal on the local music set: US Metal. I was working just north of New York City. Every other week, I would leave the office at 4:00 pm on Friday and drive eight straight hours to get back to my parents’ place near Akron, Ohio. But I would drive directly to the bar where the band was performing. My friends and I hung out with, and became friends with, the musicians backstage. During performances, they would occasionally pass the mic to us, and we would hop on stage and sing backup vocals. When our friend Jimmy, the lead singer, shipped off to California in search of stardom, a local younger guy took over as the lead man. His name was Tim “Ripper” Owens - who after a short stint with US Metal and a couple other local bands, amazingly went on to replace Rob Halford (see more below) to become the lead singer of Judas Priest. It was a true “Cinderella Story” - though it had nothing to do with the band “Cinderella” (whom I also saw in concert).

At any rate, some people might be shocked that our own Editor in Chief, the Rev. Dr. Burnell Eckardt, once played in a “praise band.” Editors the Rev. Jonathan Shaw and the Rev. Dr. Karl Fabrizius are longtime rock and roll aficionados, and Editor the Rev. Dr. Richard Stuckwisch has an encyclopedic knowledge of the heavy metal genre. Fr. Stuckwisch recommends a Christian heavy metal album by the Christian band called Theocracy. It is called Ghost Ship if you are interested:

Theocracy

So it’s not that we just don’t like the rock genre. It’s just that we don’t find it appropriate for the Divine Service. We recognize that not everything we personally like is appropriate for worship. We understand Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi. Entertainment is for entertainment. Worship is for worship.

So, writing based only on my personal tastes, here are some examples of good Christian rock.

Evanescence

Evanescence was formed in 1995, and the songwriter was a Christian. There were clear Christian themes in their music, and when he left the band, the quality of the writing tanked. The band was a secular success, and some Christian radio stations carried them as well, though they denied being a “Christian rock band.”

This 2003 song: “Bring Me to Life” from the album Fallen was a great commercial success. The song is like a desperate prayer to the “Lord and giver of life.” It is a plea to be awakened and brought to life. It reflects the monergistic nature of the Christian life.

Another song on the same album strikes me very much like one of the Psalms. It is called “Tourniquet.” It is also a prayer, but more explicitly so. It is prayed by the narrator in the throes of death by suicide. The refrain is a Psalm-like couplet that repeats like an antiphon: “My God, my tourniquet. Return to me salvation. My God, my tourniquet. Return to me salvation.” And the theme of the prayer is a plea for salvation even at this late hour as the lifeblood pours from the supplicant. “My soul cries for deliverance,” she cries out. “Am I too lost to be saved?” she calls out to God. She prays explicitly to Jesus: “Christ, tourniquet, return to me salvation.” Although the singer balked at being called a “Christian rock band,” when you explicitly mention Jesus in a song that is a prayer for salvation, it’s hard to miss the obvious.

This song is intense and reflects a wrestling with God that makes most CCM just seem vapid by comparison.

Kerry Livgren

Kerry Livgren of the secular band Kansas is a Christian, and again, his work reflects his faith while Kansas is not considered to be an explicitly Christian band.

In 1980, Livgren put together a solo project that resulted in a Christian rock album called Seeds of Change. He got the tremendous metal vocalist, the late Ronnie James Dio (who was not a Christian, but according to Livgren, also not a Satanist, as he is sometimes accused of being) to sing two of the tracks: “Mask of the Great Deceiver” and “Live For the King”:

Rob Halford

I earlier mentioned Rob Halford of Judas Priest. Halford confesses to Christianity after a conversion experience many years ago. He is, however, confused, as he is an unrepentant homosexual. Hopefully, the Word of God will continue to work genuine repentance in him, and the Lord will show him mercy. At any rate, he has released a couple of albums of Christmas music, including traditional Christmas hymnody. His 2009 album Winter Songs includes: “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel,” “O Holy Night,” and “O Come All Ye Faithful,” among others - as well as some more secular Christmas music.

In 2019, he released another similar album called Celestial - which includes “Away in a Manger,” “Joy to the World,” “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen,” and others.

And speaking of “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen,” our old friend Ronnie James Dio also recorded his own version in 2008:

Ronnie James Dio

Apollo 100

This one is a stretch, but I’m going to include it anyway. Apollo 100 was a short-lived instrumental project from 1972. They had a hit song based on Bach’s “Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring” - which is, of course, about Jesus, and I believe to be the most sublime music ever written. There have been many “covers” of this piece throughout the centuries, including Apollo 100’s synthesizer rock version called “Joy”:

Skillet

One contemporary (oh, how loathsome is that word!) Christian Rock band that is categorized as such, though has a lot of secular airplay as well, is called Skillet.

My wife and I took our son to see them three times. They were his favorite band. Unfortunately, they typically appeared as part of a roadshow that featured bad Christian music, including Hillsong (yuck!) and one time, Keri Jobe (again, yuck!). We had to sit through all of the bad Christian music to get to the very end, when Skillet would storm out amid pyrotechnics and showmanship that brought the crowd to its feet. They feature a husband and wife as the core of the band. They are open in their Christian confession, and have been quite critical of the mainstream Christian rock industry’s sad compromises with the world.

Their 2009 album Awake features a high energy title song called “Awake and Alive”:

The song “Monster” on the same album is a Romans 7 look at the Christian struggle with the Old Adam - not the typical stuff of the fluffy Hallmark-card like Christian rock genre:

I especially like the song, “The Resistance” from their 2016 album: Unleashed, as it confesses a militant Christian faith and life at odds with the world:

Five Finger Death Punch

OK, I’m fudging on this one. Although this is not a Christian rock song, it is a poignant repudiation of authoritarian government that seeks to lord over the Church. One of the musicians in Five Finger Death Punch grew up behind the Iron Curtain, and so is vocally critical of Socialism. So as a bit of a bonus, here is their 2020 video of “Living the Dream”:

So I do think there are good Christian rock and metal songs out there. But that said, the exceptions prove the rule. But of course, none of these songs are appropriate for the Divine Service. Nor does everything that we listen to need to be. There is a time and a place for everything. Or as King Solomon put it in Ecclesiates 3 somewhere around 1000 BC, which hit the pop charts in 1965…

The Byrds