Jesus and Metal?

For years, I played in a band at a local church, occasionally leading worship. But I felt creatively stifled.


I’ve always loved “intense” music, the kind that turns people off with loud drums, louder guitars, and screeching vocal histrionics. Somehow, I had come to believe this kind of music was incompatible with worship, and I felt guilty for my own personal tastes. But then I realized God is intense.


Throughout biblical history, God controlled the nations: Israel, Egypt, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome. He still does. He puts to death, and he brings to life. No one can deliver from his hand. He'll destroy evil with only the word of His mouth.


That doesn't make me think of soft acoustic guitars.


When I think of God commanding the heavenly hosts, storing up lightning, pouring out fire on Mount Carmel, or speaking in a voice of rushing waters, I want to express awe in like terms: thunder, roaring, pounding, blinding. It's beautiful (and unsettling) to me.


But then again, the act of salvation was unsettling, to say the least. The Messiah willingly allowed his body to be broken, enduring insults and whips, spears and nails, biting words, and demoralizing betrayal. And while his return will bring ultimate glorification, it will not be beautiful to human eyes. It will mean God’s enemies shedding rivers of blood, their flesh becoming a feast for the birds of the air. It is only by God’s divine providence that anyone will escape.


There are moments of peace in life, and I enjoy them peacefully. But to me, sin, atonement, and redemption are violently beautiful. That is why Under the Rose attempts to be loud, epic, and at times, unsettling.


So yeah, metal for Jesus. It's what we do. Not because we're trying to be gimmicky, but because we love metal, and we think Jesus is the only thing that really matters in life.