What metal? White metal. The press dubbed all the Christian metal bands to follow in Stryper's wake as "white metal". These bands were stupid to allow themselves to be pigeon-holed in this way… if they were in any way serious about music, they should have forced the press to judge them on that, rather than discriminate against them for lyrical content. The problem with Christian metal was that it, for the most part, happened far too late, not getting rolling until 1987 or '88, and still carrying on as if grunge hadn't happened as late as '94. Of course, it's good that they ignored grunge, but they didn't do it deliberately; they did it because they were slow on the uptake. The other problem is that the first Christian metal bands were basically low rent copies of secular bands. And the second wave of Christian metal consisted of low rent copies of the first bunch, who were themselves poor copies. You can see that the quality was not good. The Christian press, however, felt it would not be Christ-like to say these bands needed to improve, so the quality continued to fall. This meant, of course, that there was no real money in the Christian industry, so the production on all the records was bad. On top of this, almost all white metal bands suffered from a dire lack of attitude as they struggled to reconcile the rebellion of heavy metal with their faith… In other words, the movement was dire. Here's a guide to it:

Angelica: Guitarist Dennis Cameron was quite a hotshot, and production came from Shout's Ken Tamplin. Vocals were courtesy of Rob Rock, of M.A.R.S. Project: Driver, Joshua, and Impellitteri, but his operatic style didn't go with the commercial sound. This didn't matter too much, because most of the songs weren't actually very good. In fact they were crap. A good producer would have fixed this, but this has long been Tamplin's problem… he writes very good songs that with a bit of work could be killer, but as he produces his own stuff, no producer is around to tell him this. Thus, when getting behind the desk for Angelica, Tamplin failed in his responsibility to make them pull their socks up. Having said that "Someone to Believe in Me" from Rock, Stock, and Barrel was actually a memorable song. Band rating: 39%

Barren Cross: BC had a sizeable MTV hit in "Imaginary Music", from their second album. As a band, Barren Cross were an altogether more accomplished and credible act than their Christian contemporaries. Initially the sound was in a Judas Priest/ Iron Maiden vein, with vocalist Mike Lee bearing, COUGH, more than a slight resemblance to Bruce Dickinson. As they progressed, however, they became more and more melodic with Def Leppard influences becoming apparent. Production on all three of their original albums was from brothers John and Dino Elefante. John, of course, is best known for his time with Kansas, but the brothers together are the closest thing to a good production team in white metal; almost anything half decent came out of their Pakaderm Studio in California. State of Control saw the band at their melodic and creative height, with "Out of Time" being a genuinely anthemic cut. Finding a copy for a reasonable price now is a task, but the band did a brief reunion in 1994 to produce Rattle Your Cage, which is probably worth the low price you should easily find it for. Barren Cross were seriously good, but their songs often needed just a little more work to make them truly great; in this respect, John and Dino failed them. Band rating: 70%

Bloodgood: Hailed as "the most credible white metal band on the circuit", Bloodgood are, unsurprisingly, overrated. The first two CDs have simply abominable production, while the latter two are more melodic and better produced. Unfortunately, in moving in style from resembling Saxon to sounding more Whitesnake-ish, Bloodgood discovered that, aside from occasional flashes of inspiration, they couldn't write songs. Without the storming aggression of the early material, the albums were simply boring, with nothing of interest in the way of musical surprises or strong hooks. Their live shows were quite theatrical however, and their best songs made their way onto a double live set, Alive in America and Shaking the World. Their better songs appear on here with greater energy and enthusiasm, and if you can find them, they're probably worth a shot. Band rating: 65%

Bride: Compared with tiresome repetition to that most over-rated of big haired acts, Guns 'n' Roses, Bride are actually a fairly good, if basic, blues-based hard rock band. Unfortunately, lead singer Dale Thompson is a screamer, not a singer, and brother, guitarist, and main songwriter Troy gives him little in the way of good tunes to work with. Still, Snakes in the Playground was an enormous success by Christian standards, and there is a high level of energy present in all their stuff. Their best moment by far was an inspired pairing with Christian rappers DOC to cover "God Gave Rock 'n' Roll to You". Troy cranked out a great riff for it, and the chorus became a soaring anthem. Better than the band's over-hyped blues-rock early 90s sound were their '80s metal days; track down End of the Age if you can. These days, however, Bride are far too intent on being really spiritual to play rock 'n' roll with any conviction. Band rating: 67%

Fear Not: This excellent hard rocking quartet came storming out with their first and only CD in 1994 -- a good five years too late. Nevertheless, they displayed more attitude than ever before heard in the world of white metal and their crunching, Skid Row/ Tesla style meant that readers of Christian rock mag Heaven's Metal voted them best new band that year. The blasting heaviness didn't mean the songs lacked anthemic choruses, though, and the band received heavy rotation on Christian radio (which isn't saying much). Production, naturally, was from John and Dino Elefante. Guitarist Chris Howell left to do a '70s style blues rock project, and the band fell apart, but it was fun while it lasted. Band rating: 87%

Guardian: Guardian burst onto the metal scene via a deal with independent secular label Enigma, home to Stryper, Barren Cross, and previously Poison. The album disappeared into obscurity but they returned in 1991, just as hair metal was dying, with a commercial pop metal record called Fire and Love, produced by the Elefante brothers. Technically the album was excellent but most of the songs really did feel unfinished, with the Elefante songwriting bug returning. Still, the album was successful and in 1993 the band returned with Miracle Mile. This album lost the characteristic over-slick production, even though it was again produced by the Elefantes. The sound was pretty dirty with kind of a beefier Tesla type sound and some of the guitar intricacies of Extreme. The choruses, however, still had that Bon Jovi/ hair metal sing-along quality, and this time the hooks and songwriting were right on. Unquestionably this was the greatest white metal album of all time. From there, the band did an almost folky acoustic album, which, although excellent, led fans to believe they had wimped out. 1996 saw them returning to a heavier sound with Buzz, but this owed more to contemporary modern rock than Miracle Mile; it was also their worst effort since Fire and Love. Bottle Rocket was a triumphant return to form, with their best album ever, but this album bore no trace of the metal they had played in the past. Guardian are now defunct but thankfully they left us Miracle Mile. Band rating: 90%

Holy Soldier: After Stryper moved from local wannabes to worldwide heroes, another white metal band stepped up to take their place in the Hollywood clubs -- Holy Soldier. When they were finally signed in 1989, their debut album received a rush of attention with hit after hit topping Christian radio charts and the Christian equivalent of the Grammies, the Doves, hurling every award they could at it. Of course, the Doves are a fairly meaningless award, set up simply because Christian metal bands are not good enough to win at the Grammies. Holy Soldier's debut contains some strong moments and their popularity in the LA clubs was unrivalled (only Van Halen could pull a bigger crowd at metal superclub Gazarri's), but really they were a lot of hype. The follow up album, Last Train was even worse, containing only a fairly good moment in "Virtue and Vice". It was rescued almost single-handedly by "Dead End Drive", a fantastic song co-written by former Bloodgood axe-slinger and producer David Zaffiro. The best thing about HS was always their vocalist Steven Patrick and although the Doves continued to rain down on them for their first album without him, Promise Man, they were long past being a hair metal outfit. Their last album was Encore, a good live album featuring appearances from both vocalists singing in harmony together, as well as a song sung by Pat Boone (!). Regrettably, the band's two BEST songs, "Dead End Drive" and "Love Me" are both notable by their absence, but it's worth getting for it's gritty and modern interpretations of their best moments. Band rating: 60%

Joshua: No point in wasting words on this one. Joshua Perahia, who lends his name to the band, is a lightning quick guitarist but his band have absolutely no redeeming features whatsoever. They couldn't produce a good tune if it was written for them and played by session musicians. Band rating: 30%

Legend (Seven): Another band who appeared far too late, Legend's debut was a bluesy and authentic collection of beefy hard rock, complete with the big, manly voice of Andy Denton. Production was good and the tunes and harmonies were quite accessible. Even the songwriting was unexpectedly good for a white metal band, although naturally they made sure that they never got really good, because that just wouldn't be Christian. They returned a couple of years later under the name Legend Seven with, essentially, more of the same. Band rating: 75%

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