Articles

The Christian black metal Cerimonial Sacred has released an EP titled Eternity Begins Tonight. The band has been around since 1998 but has only released a few songs. They released a full length in 2005, titled Our War Is Only Against Hell, a single in 2015 titled “The Man of Nazareth” and their sophomore album, Christ Worshipers in 2015. The band signed to Vision of God Records on December 23, 2016, and has now released their debut EP through there. Eternity Begins Tonight is two songs, being released both digitally and on 7″ vinyl.… Continued →

The Christian metalcore giants Sleeping Giant have released a new music video for “Victory”. The band is very passionate about Jesus but also about this organization they support to end Human Trafficking. The music video was shot in Cambodia where poverty is plentiful. Support this organization. Support the band. Victory to all. … Continued →

Facedown Records has been rather notorious for throwing a festival each year since the early 2000’s to give people a show and sometimes to showcase bands for the label. On December 26, Impending Doom spoiled that they would be playing, though Facedown is no longer their label. In May, the 11th through the 13th is when the festival will occur. Another interesting tidbit, each member of the defunct band A Plea for Purging also shared the dates via his Instagram. None of the members are in another band, and there wasn’t another band they were in on Facedown, so best bet is A Plea for Purging reunion.… Continued →

Facedown Records, a label that has been a home to several bands over the years including the famed Impending Doom and the now resting For Today, is hosting a Christmas sale until New Years. The label has been around for 20 years in 2017. They have hosted a number of bands over the years, many of which have gone on to have great success. The label’s offer only has a few days left. Get over there fast.… Continued →

The black metal/death metal band A Hill to Die Upon has something new on the horizon. The band teased something new on December 15, 2016, saying that in March 2017 there will be something new. The band formed in 2004 with brothers Adam (Guitar, Vocals) and Michael Cook (Drums), and Bassist Elisha Mullins. Mullins left in 2011 to pursue joining the band The Burial (Facedown Records). The band now has a full line-up consisting of the Cooks, Nolan Osmond (Guitar), Brent Dossett (Bass), and Tanner Jones (Guitar).… Continued →

The boys in Silent Planet have had a busy year. And they will probably have an even busier year in 2017. The band has just announced tour dates and bands playing alongside them on their Everything Was Sound Tour for 2017. The band formed in 2009 with a completely different lineup. The band came to fame when they signed to Solid State Records in 2013. They released their debut album, The Night God Slept in 2014 through Solid State. This year, 2016, the band released their sophomore album, Everything Was Sound.… Continued →

The Industrial/black metal band Kekal has been working on new material. Earlier this year, a little over a month ago, Jeff Arwadi, the main man behind the band (hey that rhymed), put out a post giving clarification on the band’s status and new music. Kekal started in 1995 and has gone through minor lineup changes. The band has had no official members since August 8, 2009, when Jeff Arwadi and Leo Setiawan both quit the band. All the former members have contributed to albums since the departure of these members.… Continued →

The Ohio metalcore band Settle the Sky, is about to perform in February of 2017. The band has been inactive since 2010. The band formed in 2006 with JD Merill. The band was only around for four years (2006-2010). Settle the Sky only released an EP through StandBy Records, titled Now That We’re Waiting and a Demo. The band is prepping for a reunion show in February 17, 2017 and will hopefully make this a full-on reunion.… Continued →

These are some bands that were sort of popular, but didn’t get very far. Hopefully this sheds some light to the underground SFHC Scene or more appropriately, SFMC Scene. 5. One Way/Raid Christian metalcore/hardcore One Way formed in… I don’t know when. The 80’s. The band did not have very much success or really any publications. Other than one in HM in 1991. But Raid, their next band, had a little more success. Same genre as One Way, but with a Straight-Edge message, alongside the uplifting Christian message.… Continued →

The unblack metal band, Slechtvalk are about to release the album, Where Wandering Shadows and Mists Collide on December 20th. The band will be following up with a mini-tour of the album alongside Morgarten and Nightland. The band formed in 1999 with Shamgar, the only founding member, performing as a solo project called Dommer until 2000, when he changed the name to Slechtvalk. Shamgar remained the only member until 2002 when a full lineup was added on. With a few minor changes, that lineup remains primarily intact.… Continued →

Looking to ring in the Christmas season with something a little more powerful than gramma singing Rudolf? We've got you covered.

Norma Jean has had their fill of success over the years. Wage War however is just getting off the ground, and are doing very well for themselves. Both bands have found a spot of River City Rockfest, a tour that includes bands such as Fozzy, Three Days Grace, Papa Roach, and famous Def Leppard, as well as several others. Norma Jean formed in 1997 as Luti-Kriss with Josh Scogin (The Chariot, ’68) Chris Day, Scottie Henry, Josh Swofford, Mick Bailey, and Daniel Davidson. In 2002 the band changed their name to Norma Jean and underwent some lineup changes to where now none of these members are in the band.… Continued →

Today, I’m doing something a little different. These bands are bands that people should know and that are on the rise. Check them out! And here you go! 5. Saints Can Lie Metalcore acts have become very common in the United States. But Saints Can Lie seem to be doing something sort of fresh. The band formed in 2012 with the original lineup of brothers Vocalist Jake and Guitarist/Pianist Hunter Shaw, Guitarist John McDonough and Drummer Bryce Garland. The band comes from Texas, home to many amazing metal bands including Pantera and The Famine.… Continued →

On November 23, 2016, Metal Hammer wrote an article about the top 10 essential Christian metal albums. I agreed for the most part with their list. But there were a few that I thought, “why would you pick those albums?” Read the article, and comment what albums you would vote as the Top 10 essentials and then, maybe, we’ll do an article on it, with an average of your votes. I know that I would vote Living Sacrifice’s Reborn rather than probably any other album on their list.… Continued →

Today, I am posting a list of Christian Metal bands from the old days that aren’t mentioned very often when talking about Christian metal. Most of them tend to be Nu-metal, ironically, even though the 90’s was the time for Nu-Metal/Rapcore. 5. Oficina G3 Oficina G3 is a Christian prog metal act from the late 80’s. Forming in 1987, the band began as a heavy metal/hard rock band, influenced by Stryper and Petra, but progressed into a Progressive metal/nu-metal/metalcore-ish band. This band was most likely thrown out, due to this period, when the Christian thrash scene had just hit it’s stride, with the Big 4 of the Christian scene: Deliverance, Vengeance Rising, Tourniquet and Believer.… Continued →

Recently, I discovered The Ongoing Concept. Ok, well I had heard of them before, just was never interested. I downloaded the Son of Screamfest 2016 compilation and heard “Prisoner”. I followed up with listening to “Cover Girl”, “Failures and Fakes” and “Saloon”. I did a little more research, and discovered something. It seems that Brothers Kyle and Parker Scholz and friend TJ Nicholz seem to have left the band. Leaving Dawson Scholz, the remaining brother, the main member. There was no mention of the members departure at all, but there were several pictures with another lineup.… Continued →

For All Eternity, the Christian melodic metalcore band, has started to work on the demos for their third album. After the release of Metanoia, the band hit the ground running. Scoring high in the charts, the album hit 23 in Billboard Christian Albums and 21 in Billboard’s Top Heatseekers Albums. The band teased the recording of demos on November 15, 2016. The band is currently signed to Facedown Records. Here’s a podcast episode Shane Carroll (Vocals) did with As The Story Grows.… Continued →

August Burns Red over the years have become notorious for releasing Christmas Metal songs.This years happens to be “What Child Is This (Greensleeves)”. Go listen to the song at Alternative Press. Or go purchase it here. “This song has a bit of a black metal flavor, but takes a turn in the middle,” guitarist JB Brubaker says. “We always have fun writing and recording the holiday songs and we hope you like it too.” The band is going to embark on their album Messengers 10th year anniversary tour.… Continued →

Elgibbor, an Unblack metal project, started back in 1999. The founder, Jarek Pozarycki a.k.a. Fire, has played in several bands, most notably Frost Like Ashes. Elgibbor released 5 demos, 3 EPs (two splits), and 12 studio albums. On November 17, 2016, Fire put out a statement claiming the new album, entitled The Roots of Blood will be released on CD. The CD will be released through Visions of God Records. Fire is clearly musically prolific. Considering he released Revenger of Blood and The Roots of Blood 6 months apart.… Continued →

Doug Mann, the founder and original owner of R.E.X. Records, home to several Christian metal acts, including Living Sacrifice, Six Feet Deep, Believer and Circle of Dust, was featured on the As The Story Grows Podcast for a two part interview. R.E.X. Records was a label, pre-Tooth and Nail Records, that was home to several Christian bands. Certain bands, formerly on the label, have not spoken ill about Doug Mann, but have stated that it was a bad experience being on R.E.X. As The Story Grows is hosted by Travis Turner (ex-Aletheian, Solamors, UnTeachers), but for the first part of the Doug Mann interview, Living Sacrifice Vocalist/Guitarist Bruce Fitzhugh co-hosts.… Continued →

A written review of Relient K's 10th Anniversary Tour at the Glasshouse in Pomona, CA. (Also feat From Indian Lakes and Blondfire).

What are your favorite Project 86 jams? Here are some of mine. Let the debate ensue.

Today's world has more music than ever. Are we music fatigued? Is there just too much music?

Our massive Project 86 Week kicks off today in honor of tomorrow's release of "Knives to the Future."

These are the ten faith-based bands that every hard rocker/ metalhead owes it to themselves to check out.

Apple quietly put an end to the (much loved) iPod Classic this past week. As you can see in their official store, it is no longer available for sale. That doesn’t mean you can’t find it for sale on sites like eBay, but for the rest of us I think we can safely say… RIP. I am very much still a user of the iPod Classic since that is the connection my car uses, so for me it’s just simple. What do the rest of you use for your music collections?… Continued →

Since weekends are typically slow time of posting here on IVM I figured i’d post a little something for you guys to ponder. I did post this on Facebook to generate some comments so feel free to repost those comments here and join in the discussion right here on IVM.… Continued →

I posted this on the IVM Facebook page and I am going to re-post it here for discussion purposes. View the pic below and read the text.… Continued →

In the Silence of the Mind returns from it's long and silent slumber to tackle one of the great questions of our day... will Community get a sixth season and a movie? Well, actually this is about rebranding...

In the Silence of the Mind: March 7, 2014 Being a Band – Part 2 – What’s In a Name? “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” The immortal poet William Shakespeare penned these words as a way to point to the deeper meaning that a thing (in this case a rose) was defined by what it was, not what it was called. In the same way, a band is more than the stylized font that adorns flyers and album covers in their honor.… Continued →