Christian Nu Metal Actually Slaps

Added: 2026-05-21

[00:00:00]Hello, hello, and welcome back to DFT's Dungeon. I'm Daniel Terry, and like a lot of you guys watching, I wasn't born listening to extreme metal, right? I didn't I didn't come out of the womb listening to black metal or grindcore or death metal, right?

[00:00:22]We all had a gateway that got us into heavy music, and the gateway that got me into heavy music when I was a teenager was nu metal. And what do I mean by nu metal? Obviously, I mean bands like Korn, Limp Bizkit, Slipknot, Staind, you you name it. Like like these bands that just play down-tuned riffs. Sometimes they wrapped, sometimes they didn't, but my parents didn't like their music whatsoever. What that person on your tape has is a medical disorder. And there was one huge catch to my enjoyment of nu metal back in the day. See, in the early 2000s, I was a Christian youth group kid. And if you know anything about Christian music in the early 2000s, you know, if you've watched my channel, you probably know a thing or two, then you would know that Christian nu metal was kind of like the white whale for youth group kids like me that wanted heavier music but didn't want all the cuss words and all the things that would make your parents really upset and your Christian friends give you the side eye. And there was a period of time where I had just kind of given up on listening to heavier Christian music.

[00:01:21]Like I'd heard Christian rock bands, but they didn't have the heaviness that I was necessarily looking for until I met this dude named Buddy at my youth group who not only went on to become a best bud for life, introduced me to a large portion of the bands that are in this video. And together, him and I would go on to discover the rest of the bands in this video. And I think a lot of you guys probably have a very similar story when looking for heavier Christian bands. So, I want this video to celebrate that as I list off a lot of the Christian nu metal bands that I know about, and I'm sure I'm going to miss a bunch of bands in this list, so make sure to shout those bands out in the comments. And like I always say on all of my videos, I made this video purely for fun, so please try not to take it too seriously. And I've divided my topics in this video up into four categories. So, let's get into the first one now. Number one, the real deal, y'all. These are bands that are up most commonly associated with Christian new metal. And a lot of these bands got so big in the post 9/11 Christian rock boom that they crossed over into mainstream music. And the most famous example of this is obviously P.O.D.

[00:02:24]>> [music] >> Although P.O.D. didn't necessarily come up in the Christian music industry as we know it today, their 2001 album Satellite definitely blew open the doors for other heavy Christian bands to be taken more seriously. And other bands that were prominent in this scene around that time were PROJECT 86, >> [music] >> BLINDSIDE, East West, >> [music] >> Thousand Foot Krutch, >> [music] >> Bean Bag, >> [music] >> Justified, Everyday Life, >> [music] >> AND ROD LAVER.

[00:03:41]OR dot Rod Laver. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to pronounce the dot. Let Let me know if I'm supposed to pronounce the dot. And if those bands weren't quite heavy enough for you, there were some heavier, less known Christian new metal bands active in the late '90s and early 2000s. Wow, this is heavy. These would be bands like Hospital, Grip, Broken, >> [music] >> THIRD ROOT, LO-FAT, >> [screaming] >> AND MY PERSONAL FAVORITE OF THESE, TRAVAIL.

[00:04:40]THESE GUYS WERE LIKE SO HEAVY. There's that word again, heavy. I think Travail was one of the first bands I ever heard where I was like, I finally became okay with the vocalist just screaming the entire time and not doing much else. And some slightly more modern examples of Christian new metal would be BANDS LIKE RELENT, >> [screaming] >> ISLANDER, AND LOVE AND DEATH, >> [music] >> featuring Korn's Brian Head Welch to give it that like extra layer of legitimacy, right? These are the bands that I think most people will go to immediately when you ask about Christian new metal, but it's not as clear-cut as all of that. That's why there's three other categories, right? And so for category number two, we all start somewhere, we're going to talk about bands that started off as new metal, but wouldn't really stick with that style for long, and they would mostly become known for playing different styles altogether. The first example I have of this is the band Dead Poetic. You guys probably know these guys as more of a post-hardcore band or even a modern rock band in their later material, but originally these guys formed under the name Mindset until they changed their name to Dead Poetic. That's Dead with D E D, by the way. And they released an EP called Invasion that featured rap vocals and throat-shredding screams.

[00:06:09]>> [music] >> The next example would be a band you've probably heard of if you watch my channel called Ludicrous or their alter ego Norma Jean. And even though you know them as more of a mathcore band these days, their original five EP featured turntables, screams, and chugging NU METAL RIFFS.

[00:06:28]>> [music] >> EVEN THEIR DEBUT ALBUM THROWING MYSELF, which I did an entire video on, also features a lot of nu metal elements with the band's mathcore sound starting to brim to the surface. The next example is the band Spoken, who's a little bit more well-known as a post-hardcore heavy rock band, but the band's first three releases feature a heavy Rage Against the Machine inspired nu metal sound.

[00:06:53]>> [music] >> THEIR ALBUM ECHOES OF THE SPIRIT STILL Dwelleth Still Dwells in my regular rotation to this day.

[00:07:04]And then lastly, there's a band called Pillar who started off playing nu metal on their first two releases before they transitioned into more of a radio-friendly hard rock band.

[00:07:21]And Pillar's kind of an interesting example. I wasn't sure which category to put them in because they easily could have fit into the next category as well.

[00:07:28]Number three, So Close to New. These are bands that get frequently lumped in with Christian nu metal or they're recommended to me constantly as examples of Christian nu metal, but honestly, I don't quite hear it. IT'S A NO, GUYS.

[00:07:42]LIKE, I FEEL LIKE SOME OF THESE BANDS had new metal elements, but weren't quite heavy enough. These would be bands like Falling Up, >> [music] >> 38th Parallel, >> [music] >> and Pax 217.

[00:08:04]>> [music] [singing] >> And on the flip side of that, you'd have bands that were legitimately heavy and had like screaming and had new metal elements, but I felt like were overall more hard rock focused. And this would be bands like Flyleaf, >> [music] >> The Letter Black, and Red.

[00:08:36]>> [music] >> Now, of course, this is just for fun. I don't think any of the bands in this category are bad. They're just bands that I wanted to mention because they are often mentioned when talking about Christian new metal or everything around it. And if you guys haven't clicked off of this video yet, we have one more category to go. And that is number four, the toe dippers. These are bands that didn't start off as new metal bands and most of their category doesn't [clears throat] fall under that umbrella, but these bands still ended up dipping their toe into the genre for at least one album. And these would be bands like Disciple, and more specifically their album Back Again.

[00:09:11]Disciple started off as more of like a heavy metal like like almost groove metal like almost Pantera-ish type of band. And later on in their career, they transitioned into more of like a hard rock, you know, melodic metal kind of sound. But right smack dab in the middle of their discography, you have Back Again, which features loud screams, new metal riffs, and just new METAL SONG STRUCTURES.

[00:09:37]BACK AGAIN IS SUCH AN INTERESTING discography but I actually still listen to it a lot to this day. It's it's actually one of my favorites by them. I got to see them perform a whole bunch of songs from this album at Cornerstone one year and I'll just never forget how much sweat was on the stage whenever they were done. There was so much energy in these songs live. The next band in this category would be Living Sacrifice which you know like before you guys all get your pitchforks out hear me out. Their album The Hammering Process which came right after Reborn.

[00:10:04]Reborn was like more of a thrash oriented album and I felt like Concealed in Fire after The Hammering Process was a little bit more metalcore focused. The Hammering Process though was the first one where they incorporated quite a bit of melodic singing at least for Living Sacrifice. They had some new metal style songs like on their song Perfect is like the closest thing to an actual like new straight up new metal song you're going to get from Living Sacrifice.

[00:10:27]>> [music] >> They didn't stick with this but it was an interesting chapter in their discography. And the next band to fit this criteria would be Embodiment who I've also talked about just a little a little tiny bit on this channel with their album The Narrowscope of Things which was a major departure from their more like proto deathcore sound on the previous album Embrace the Eternal. This album featured a little bit more like hard rock modern rock almost has a little bit of like a Seven Dustish new metal sort of sound.

[00:11:02]>> [music] >> And this album for whatever reason it always gets miscategorized as emo core and it sounds a whole lot more new metal to my ears. Let me know what you guys think about The Narrowscope of Things if you think it's more emo or new metal. I definitely obviously think that it's more new metal. And the band would end up drifting more into their hard rock direction after this. And the next band cuz you know obviously I can't make Christian music video without talking about Skillet at least once. I am shocked shocked. Well not that shocked.

[00:11:30]Skillet significantly beefed up their sound on the album Collide. Because if you don't know this, if all you've listened to is modern Skillet, Skillet went through a lot of sound changes over the years. They started off as more of like a grunge band, and then they went into more of like an electronic, like almost industrial, little tiny little bit of new metal in there. But on Collide is whenever I feel like they went full new metal, started playing heavy riffs, started screaming.

[00:11:56]>> [music] >> Started really beefing up their sound.

[00:12:01]Collide was like the first Skillet album that I actually liked cover to cover.

[00:12:05]And lastly, probably the strangest entry in this list is Solemn Embrace on their album Immune. Now, these guys were definitely more well-known for playing death metal and metalcore later on. But Immune features quite a bit of new metal riffs, melodic choruses, and this verse-chorus-verse song structure that you would get from more mainstream new metal. But it's mixed in with like the Solemn Embrace like metalcore vocals.

[00:12:30]He's like snarly Carcass or Zeo-styled vocals.

[00:12:36]>> [music] >> It's a really rad record and is truly unique compared to the rest of their output, which is also really, really good. And that's my list of Christian new metal bands and Christian new metal albums. Guys, let me know down in the comments what bands that I forgot. I probably don't even have to tell you to do that, but I just want to take a minute and say thank you guys so much for helping me grow the channel so much over the past year. Uh it's been an absolutely insane journey, and I'm so happy that I'm still talking to you guys about these Christian bands, and I like it when you guys share stories about how these bands have affected you. So, thank you so much for watching, and I will have way more stuff coming up this year.

[00:13:16]I'll see you on the next one.