Top 50 Christian Metal Albums of the Eighties

In order to celebrate the New Year I decided to put together a compilation of what I feel are 50 of the top Christian Metal & Hard Rock Albums of the eighties at Angelic Warlord.  Following is the link: http://www.angelicwarlord.com/articles/topalbumsoftheeighties.html

Keep in mind the list is a compilation of my favorites from the era- so I hope I do not generate too much controversy.  Also note that since the site does not cover thrash I did not include Vengeance Rising, Tourniquet, etc.

I am looking forward to reading everyone's feedback.

Also, should I consider doing something like this for the 90's and subsequent decades?

Thanks,

Andy

Oh, we'll all quibble over the order, like why the heck is Atomic Arena not top ten, but it's a good list.

Quote :

Oh, we'll all quibble over the order, like why the heck is Atomic Arena not top ten, but it's a good list.

I skip over a couple of tracks on "Atomic Arena" ("Heaven Or Nothing" & "Cultic Regimes") while production is a bit too polished for my taste.  Still, a great album.

Great list! Substantially more progress heavy than I would have picked myself, but not at all surprising given your taste.  I certainly agree with a lot of your picks, but would have loved to see Red Sea on the list (or was it a 90's band).

Quote :

Great list! Substantially more progress heavy than I would have picked myself, but not at all surprising given your taste.  I certainly agree with a lot of your picks, but would have loved to see Red Sea on the list (or was it a 90's band).

Thanks- glad that you enjoy the list and agree that my tastes trends more towards the progressive than some.  I believe Red Sea came out in 1994- so if I did a list for the nineties Red Sea would rate very high (perhaps top 5).

Nice list!

Dynamis wrote:

Quote :

Great list! Substantially more progress heavy than I would have picked myself, but not at all surprising given your taste.  I certainly agree with a lot of your picks, but would have loved to see Red Sea on the list (or was it a 90's band).

Thanks- glad that you enjoy the list and agree that my tastes trends more towards the progressive than some.  I believe Red Sea came out in 1994- so if I did a list for the nineties Red Sea would rate very high (perhaps top 5).

I expected that was the case, especially given Robin recorded both Die Happy albums before the Red Sea album.

Very good selection, some of my Top 10 albums are in that list (Barnabas, Mastedon among those).

I would agree with some and disagree with some.  But, seeing it is a personal list, I will just let it go and say, "You're wrong!"   


I don't even know how I would go about ranking albums from the 80s to be honest.

We have very similar tastes as that list would be super close to my own if I were to make one.
While I wouldn't have Livgren in the #1 spot, I don't see anything in the list that I would exclude... there's more I'd INCLUDE, but like Alldat says, I wouldn't be able to even put a list like that together. I'd spend too much time arguing with myself as to what should be included and in which order.

All in all it's an excellent list that I would agree with mostly. And yes, I'd love to see a 90's list too !

Quote :

I would agree with some and disagree with some.  But, seeing it is a personal list, I will just let it go and say, "You're wrong!"

My initial thought was to instead rank the list alphabetically by artist to avoid controversy- but then again what would a list of this sort be without some type of controversy...

Quote :

I don't even know how I would go about ranking albums from the 80s to be honest.

...but like Alldat says, I wouldn't be able to even put a list like that together. I'd spend too much time arguing with myself as to what should be included and in which order.

Well, what I did was initially create an Excel worksheet of all possible albums I would consider for possible inclusion on the list and started ranking them 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.  If in doubt I simply trusted by gut.

Quote :

While I wouldn't have Livgren in the #1 spot, I don't see anything in the list that I would exclude

The Kerry Livgren solo album has a lot of sentimental value dating back to the eighties- I even remember where and when I purchased the vinyl copy (and besides it is one of only a couple of reviews at the site to receive a perfect score.

Quote :

And yes, I'd love to see a 90's list too !

Yesterday, I put together a similar Excel worksheet and made a list of potential candidates and had over 100- so it will be difficult to narrow it down to 50.  However, I do have close to the first 15 done.  With the nineties you get prime Bride and Deliverance, at least three albums from Impellitteri and several 'one shot' bands that released one great album and then disappeared (Red Sea, Recon, Fear Not).

All in all, thanks everyone for the feedback and input- it helps inspire me to begin work on the 90's list.

Quote :

Very good selection, some of my Top 10 albums are in that list (Barnabas, Mastedon among those).

I am glad that someone sees eye to eye with those selections, very underrated.  Mastedon has some of the best AOR I have heard (right up there with Novella).

Quote :

Quote :While I wouldn't have Livgren in the #1 spot, I don't see anything in the list that I would exclude
The Kerry Livgren solo album has a lot of sentimental value dating back to the eighties- I even remember where and when I purchased the vinyl copy (and besides it is one of only a couple of reviews at the site to receive a perfect score.

If I were to put together a Top 50 list of my own, I can guarantee I'd list some in the top 10 that would leave people scratching their heads... and the reason being is, they'd be albums that had extremely strong sentimental value to me.  There were quite a few albums I got as a new believer and just loved them for their strong lyrics and honesty.. not so much for their popularity or talent.

Quote :

If I were to put together a Top 50 list of my own, I can guarantee I'd list some in the top 10 that would leave people scratching their heads... and the reason being is, they'd be albums that had extremely strong sentimental value to me.  There were quite a few albums I got as a new believer and just loved them for their strong lyrics and honesty.. not so much for their popularity or talent.

I feel this is the why each list of such kind put together would look substantially different-each person's tastes vary.  I was a Christian not much more than a year when the Kerry Livgren solo album was released.  Likewise, if I had included albums from the 70's then Rez Band's "Rainbow's End" would have ranked highly.

This is a top 10 thread I had a while back… lots of similarities. Barnabas, Armageddon, Mastedon, Saint.

http://www.christianhardmusic.com/t5979-top-10-christian-rock-metal-albums

Dynamis wrote:

Yesterday, I put together a similar Excel worksheet and made a list of potential candidates and had over 100- so it will be difficult to narrow it down to 50.  However, I do have close to the first 15 done.  With the nineties you get prime Bride and Deliverance, at least three albums from Impellitteri and several 'one shot' bands that released one great album and then disappeared (Red Sea, Recon, Fear Not).

All in all, thanks everyone for the feedback and input- it helps inspire me to begin work on the 90's list.

Very cool, looking forward to seeing that.

^ me 2 !

Now I want that Arkangel album that I used to have on cassette.

Motherlode!! Oooh, there's a nice rarity to the list.

Cool. More music to check out.  Thanks for the list and please do a 90's version.  Love your website.  Have found a lot of great Christian metal there.  Really appreciate the time you put into it.

Oh and what?  No Phil Keaggy?  J/K I know that he's not metal.  Ph'lip Side though man.  Come on!!!

Quote :

Ph'lip Side though man

Ph'lip Side is a great album ! Got it on vinyl

Quote :

Cool. More music to check out.  Thanks for the list and please do a 90's version.  Love your website.  Have found a lot of great Christian metal there.  Really appreciate the time you put into it.

Oh and what?  No Phil Keaggy?  J/K I know that he's not metal.  Ph'lip Side though man.  Come on!!!

Glad that you enjoy the site- it always makes my day to hear someone discover new music from reading the reviews.  Yes, I am hard at work on a 90's list- have roughly the top 30 outlined but still have a lot of work to do.  I kind of feel like a head coach of a football team trying to decide upon the final roster for the season- in the end I am going to have to make some very tough cuts!

I am not going to leak too much information, but I hope nobody is going to mind having two Veni Domine albums in the top 5 (that is the 'prog' fan in me!).  Also, I am sure there are going to be some out there upset that I have not rated "Weapons Of Our Warfare" higher...

Also, a few 'sleepers' that many might not be expecting: Lightmare - "The Fool" and 20/20 Blind - "Never Far".

I like Phil Keaggy but he is not quite heavy enough to have made the list.  I agree with you about Ph'lip Side though, the second half of the album includes some of his heavier moments (Royal Commandment, Sunday School, Pulling Down).  Also, I have a double CD that includes both Ph'lip Side and Town To Town.

The Fool is a great album.  I'll be playing "Rebellion" on my show tonight.

Just want anyone to know that I have finalized the top 50 albums from the 90's.  Yes, it was an arduous task, but hope I have a fairly accurate list that will not upset too many people.

At this point I need to add the 2 to 3 sentence description to each album and then come up with all the images.  The problem is that my old scanner will not work on the new Windows 7 computer (I think it might have something to do with the scanning software being designed for Windows 98, which while worked fine on XP has 'compatibility issues' with a W7 environment).

So looks like I am going to have to fire up the old XP computer and hope for the best...

Yes, the wonderful new Windows 7