Changes

== History ==

Because Christian metal is largely characterized by lyrical content there are various musical subgenres within Christian metal. In the 80s the Christian metal bands followed very closely with more mainstream bands producing a large amount of glam, speed, and thrash metal such as [[Stryper]] [[Vengeance Rising]] and [[Whitecross]]. In 1990 the band [[Mortification (band)|Mortification]] became the first widely recognised Christian death metal band. Though they played an old style of death metal very close to its thrash roots their 1992 release Scrolls of the Megilloth is still considered a classic Christian death metal release. At roughly the same time the band [[Living Sacrifice]] was creating thrash/death metal and [[Paramaecium]] became one of the largest Christian doom metal bands and would influence later Christian bands such as [[Pantokrator]]. [[Horde (band)|Horde]] is widely considered to be the first Christian black metal band. As a one man band with only one release (Hellig Usvart-1994) [[Horde (band)|Horde]] created relatively large controversy within the extreme metal community by breaking into a market that was largely cornered by Satanic and National Socialists bands. The cds title Hellig Usvart means Holy Unblack which is now often used as a replacement name for black metal made by Christians by those who see black metal as exclusively Satanic. The black metal band [[Antestor]] existed previous to the release of Hellig Usvart but their music was not yet musicly considered black metal. They as well as [[Crimson Moonlight]] and others make up today's more polished style of Christian [[black metal]] compairable to more mainstream high production black metal bands and sharing in their influence from various other metal genres. However, the more traditional and raw low production black metal bands such as Abdijah still exist on record labels such as Son of Man Records. There is a Christian metal band for virtually every sub-genre of metal today. [[Extol]] with their mixed and changing style is one band with signifigant popularity among both Christian and Non-Christian metal fans. [[Divinefire]] [[Narnia (band)|Narnia]] and [[Rob Rock]] are the most prominent Christian [[power metal]] bands. Rob achieved initial fame as the vocalist for guitar virtuoso Chris Impelitteri's band during the 80's and 90's and then went solo with his Rage Of Creation album. He also performed guest vocals for the [[heavy metal]] band [[Warrior]]. There are many other notable bands out there such as [[Becoming the Archetype]], Immortal Souls, Aletheian, [[Slechtvalk]], [[Crimson Thorn]], [[Saviour Machine]], [[Soul Embraced]], and [[Veni Domine]] among others.