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A lot of the music I listened to was in the past, I mean after all, Spotify labeled me a “Time Traveler” this year, lol? However, there was plenty of great music that released in 2023 that of which got the blood pumping and adrenaline rushing, even some songs more on the “chill” side that could cause one to contemplate the deepest complexities of life (and what that next meal will be). The past year wasn’t without challenges, more so personally and because of which I retreated more and more inward yet the music had it’s way of soothing my soul.… Continued →

This band has been around since the 90s, maybe even the late 80s, making brilliant folk/pop/rock/blues/adult alternative/whatever type music. They’re the sort of band that other musicians love to love. The core of the band is husband-wife duo Linford Detweiler on piano and Karin Bergquist on vocals. The rest of the band has been a revolving cast, and in the half-dozen times I’ve seen them live, roughly half of those have featured just the pair. They’ve always danced around the edge of whatever “Christian music” means, always dropping hints about their faith, but simultaneously distancing themselves from the industrial machinations of the Christian music industry.… Continued →

Pop punk Freshmen 15 was an early incarnation of the modern rock Wavorly. Freshmen’s music is very hard to come by, but Wavorly had a pretty good run on Christian rock radio. Check out how much their sound changed.     … Continued →

1. Lacey Sturm – Kenotic Metanoia: This November Lacey Sturm released her first album in nearly 8 years. To say it was worth the wait is an understatement. If it’s going to take 8 years to release a new album, this is the caliber release you want to shoot for. Lacey sounds as good as ever and has dropped an exceptional album here. It easily outshines her previous release, Life Screams, and is, in my opinion, her best work to date, including her material with Flyleaf.… Continued →

Spirit Filled Hardcore was a label put on early Christian metal micro genres. Saved by Grace fell into the metalcore portion. Members also played in Hopesfall & Eighteen Visions, both of whom I’ve seen live. … Continued →

This Christian modern rock band started in Washington state & relocated to Texas. They created 4 LPs & got their start on True Tunes record label. Here is also a live recording of the same SOTD, but also check out the title track to Bigger Than Ourselves & Misfits from their Thread album.   … Continued →

Lightforce was a heavy metal band from Australia, active in the late 1980s. They recorded 3 cassette demos from 1986-87, before getting the attention of US-based Pure Metal Records. The band’s label debut Mystical Thieves was a unique entry in Christian metal. While based in traditional heavy metal, it touched on speed metal and power metal without ever fully crossing into thrash territory. It was heavy, loud, and raw. In 1990 the band recorded a fourth and final demo called Break the Curse, which saw the band going in an even heavier direction, just before changing their name.… Continued →

AKFJ is a post hardcore/metalcore band that hasn’t released much new music since 2014 until now! You might remember them for Oh, Infamous City or II that I saw working their way around “Christian” metal radio shows back in the day. A video was also made for War from their 2014 release New Bodies. Check out this new one & also their prior discography along with their reimagined work. … Continued →

Remember when punk & ska music collided in the 90s? There were all these comps & tons of labels had a punk or ska band or both on their labels. N’ Soul was primarily a dance label & this L.A. band also included a member of Pax217. The demo appears to have been released in ’98 the same year as the N’Soul one. Check it out. … Continued →

Straight from obscurity is a rock band named Strangers in the World who appears to have released one LP called Transformation. I have 4 songs of theirs & I do remember a Myspace account of their backs int he day before that site went caput. Check it out if you like indie modern rock bands.   … Continued →

Blah (fka Childhood) was a punk rawk band from California that released 2 LPs on Rescue & Bulletproof after a couple demos. Bulletproof housed a plethora of great bands back in the 90s.This tune has a rockabilly sound akin to Ruby Joe & appears is drawn from Psalms 145. … Continued →

Kindred is a 4 piece Spirit Filled Post Hardcore band out of Crown Point, Indiana. FFO: Being as an Ocean, Idle Threat., and Household

Poor Old Lu are/were one of the most celebrated alternative rock bands in the Christian scene. They hit at the height of the Christian indie scene in the 1990s, and formed a core unit of alternative rock bands that included The Prayer Chain, Plankeye, Starflyer 59 and a handful of others. Hailing from the Seattle area, the band also had close ties with others in the scene like Pedro the Lion, Damien Jurado, Blenderhead, and even Sunny Day Real Estate (vocalist Jeremy Enigk provided guest vocals on one POL track).… Continued →

So my very first SOTD was from one of my fave bands DighayZoose. D.O.N. aka Degradation of a Nation was comprised of dudes who were also in Prophets on Vacation, DHZ & their later incarnation Hot Pink Turtle. DON is obviously hxc punk/thrash. Check out the webzine Christian tape underground f& Matthew Hunt’s Youtube channel for more hard to find Christian music. … Continued →

Hopesfall heralds from Charlotte, NC where I used to live. This screamo was pretty popular at the time & this tune has been a fave of mine over the years. Their style changed & I think most got into them after the Frailty record released. Check out these lyrics: Love broke me Trials are in vain I press on not knowing what there is to gain In all that I’ve failed I have come to realize Your truth shines through the pain Enjoy. … Continued →

I do these song of the days to hopefully spread the Christian music that I like  & have accumulated out into this big world. Some of this music has almost been buried into obscurity as such as this band Hearken. They are a Texan death metal band. Here’s the Bible passage where the lyrics come from. Isaiah 64:6-7 KJV But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.… Continued →

Brazilian death metallers Krig have been making Christ-centered metal since 2007. The band formed in their native Belo Horizonte in southeastern Brazil, and release their technical and brutal Feed Me independently in 2007. They proceeded to release three more albums across the next 6 years, culminating in some of the strongest Christian metal by any band from any continent, and especially from their home country. Some members have since relocated to Canada, making it difficult to keep creating music as a whole. But members have been involved in other projects as well.… Continued →

Abide in Me is one of those early screamo bands I found out about from RadioU’s metal show hoster by Jaddeus Dempsey. He had a plethora of bands I have never heard of before & this is one of them. This was the era of Myspace & Purevolume which I am pretty sure the band had pages on. It appears the band was from Louisiana per perusing Facebook & Twitter. Seems to be the same band as they call themselves spirit filled hardcore.  Check em out.… Continued →

Thumper Punk’s No Lost Cause is a skatepunk/ska band. They have been around for almost 15 years now which is crazy how time flies by. Slow it down is my theme song when I am working & realize I totally forgot where time went that day. A good reminder to spend time with the Lord before the day gets too crazy. The Crowd is about doing what is right instead of going along with, well, you know.     … Continued →

This South Carolina band has gone over a few personnel & band names. You might know them as Collision of Innocence or Hands of Elohim. This latest incarnation is a side project & ventures into the metal genre. Check it out. … Continued →

Cast in Stone was a hardcore band from California, who recorded their first cassette demo in 1998. Their early material was that old school meets new school subgenre sometimes called “tough guy hardcore.” It’s no surprise then that some of the members also did stints in Sleeping Giant, xDEATHSTARx, mainstream Bleeding Through, Point of Recognition and hardcore supergroup Dodgin’ Bullets. They recorded an EP for indie Warfare Records in 2000, a 3-way split release with Point of Recognition and Torn in Two for Facedown in 2001, and then a final cassette demo in 2001.… Continued →

Minnesota’s Ace Troubleshooter was a pretty cool pop punk band back in the day. They were very close with Relient K & vocalist John played bass with RK & RKs drummer Dave played in Ace. Check out this catchy this SOTD & those of us into Godzilla & other kaiju will did the title (although I have no clue as to why it’s included).   … Continued →

This pop rock 2 piece (Scott Riggan & Ben Bauman) had a couple songs hit Christian AC radio in the 90s. They remind me of a few bands that were big at the time including Jason Ingram Band. Their song Talk About Love was featured on a Word records comp called Mindy’s Revenge which y’all gotta check out the CD cover!. Scott became a worship pastor in Idaho & still released praise & worship music to this day. Check out this fun rare SOTD & Scott’s website. … Continued →

This hard rock band hails from Minnesota and released 1 LP back in ’03.  Took a while to track it down, but received it this past week from drummer Donn Kranz. The music has a tad of prog feel which changes it up from other similar releases. Highlights for me also include The Light and Quietly. The lyrics are very Godly. This SOTD speaks of God’s grace & mercy as we can’t please God with our sin nature. Only Jesus can per His atonement for our sins on the cross.… Continued →

Early Christian rap is a thing of beauty. Similarly to mainstream rap, early examples–though they give insight to the development of the genre–often suffer from simplistic lyrics, weak production, and/or rapping styles that are now outdated and sound lazy by today’s standards. However, we must remember that the genre took decades to develop. In fact, the early 90s were a tough era for the style. It had started to become mainstream and risked disappearing into a subgenre of pop music until it was rescued by gangsta rap and alternative rap a few years later, pushing the genre to new styles and heights, though not without controversy.… Continued →

This song is a cover of a pop punk band called S.O.K. which I am guessing was the band’s former name. I looked for this song for years as was a great pop punk tune. The lyrics reference the weight of sin that can be broken by asking forgiveness & following Jesus. … Continued →

This punk/new wave band from Alaska released one 4-song EP via 7″ vinyl in 1980, entitled Beat the Cynics for their native Unregulated Records. The band was contemporary with other punk acts at the time who had already started shifting their sound to either new wave or post-punk. The Cynics don’t sound too far off from The Buzzcocks, The Clash, The Stranglers, and at times is reminiscent of the funky approach of Ian Dury and the Blockheads. Yes, their sound is remarkably British, considering how far they were geographically from that region.… Continued →

For those that missed the news. Indie Vision Music just released a hot new digital compilation titled “Fighting From The Ground Up Vol. 3” featuring over 60 songs from a variety of artists and bands all over genre spectrum. You can download and stream over on Bandcamp right here or check it out below this post. I have also created a special Spotify playlist with all the songs that are available on that platform right here (or listen below). Look for Vol. 4 in early 2024!… Continued →

Lugsole was a noisy indie rock band from Birmingham AL with hints of post-punk and emo in their sound. Despite a significant number of releases–both independent and label-issued–they remained a fairly obscure act, whose fans were either music critics or diehard independent music aficionados. Recorded output begins in 1995 and ends in 1998, and in those four short years, they managed to release three cassette demos (two EPs and one full-length), a split 7″ with Dear Ephesus, an EP on compact disc via Daddy-O Records (who also released the first Dear Ephesus recordings), and a 3-way split CD with mainstream acts The Paper Chase and E-Class.… Continued →

Elijah Herrell’s forthcoming EP is titled Casualties, and it’s an appropriate way to describe the population of those faithful to Christ who deal with same-sex attraction. It’s a position of being caught in the middle – too religious and objective for the left; too weak or messy for the right. Many struggle in silence and carry the weight on their own, sometimes their whole lives. Others, of course, deconstruct and renounce their faith. And while there are plenty of albums in the recent years that lean toward this latter approach, Herrell offers a needed and honest perspective.… Continued →