Christian Alternative Rock

Get set to bang your head until it's sore, plug into some raw rock 'n' roll power, and get on the good foot, all in the service of the Lord. Here's your Christian Alternative hymnbook for today, packed with pulse-quickening punk, metal, indie rock, and more. When Hawk Nelson shouts out "Friend Like That," revealing some sharp-shooting power-pop hooks beneath those tats and two-tone Mohawks, you don't need a crystal ball to guess which Friend they're talking about. Red grafts a grungy guitar roar onto an airborne, epic cry that soars like the very spirit they're searching for in "Mystery of You." And synth-funk with a Beck-like bite is Family Force 5's weapon of choice when they bust a move for the Lord on "Dance or Die." In Next Steps, find out why quiet is the new loud for Christian rockers.

Don't let all the punk and metal mayhem give you the wrong idea: Christian alt rockers aren't always loud about it — sometimes their voices sneak into your ear, whispering words of faith. Adam Young's one-man band Owl City stirs up a subtle blend of bubbling Eurodisco beats and synth-pop snap-and-crackle like a Christian Postal Service delivering the Good News on "Fireflies." And if you've ever longed to learn what a Christian Coldplay might sound like, let Seabird's piano-gilded ballad "Falling for You" fulfill your fantasy. Ivoryline, on the other hand . . . well, just crank up the Texan outfit's "Days End" — the thunderous opener from 2008's There Came a Lion — and you'll feel the sheer awesome power of Christian alt-rock at its most intense. Listen in as the faithful find their boogie shoes, in Deep Cuts.

This is where our Christian alt-rock adventure takes a turn toward the dance floor. New Hampshire band And Then There Were None, who started out in metalcore before peppering their mix with electronica, summons up a supercharged, euphoric beat-storm capable of sending any warehouse of ravers into a fine frenzy with "Reinventing Robert Cohn"; Jason Martin pilots Starflyer 59's "Automatic" over the kind of groove that centres its get-down power right at the spot where "simmer" meets "boil"; and — keeping it in the family — his brother Ronnie Martin, a.k.a. Joy Electric, brings us back to the days of Soft Cell and the Human League with the beep-and-bump synth-pop boogie of "I Recall the Telephone Booth."

Ready to find out what Christian alt rock's all about? That means covering a lot of ground, so if you really want to get in on the action, you've got to come along for the whole ride. On the way, you'll discover that there's more to metalcore than meets the ear, when you mosh along with As I Lay Dying and the Devil Wears Prada. You'll stand spiky-haired and Doc Marten-clad alongside a positive-thinking pack of pop-punks like Mxpx and Children 18:3. And you'll find out that you don't even have to be a Christian to turn out tunes that give glory to God — just ask the Weiss brothers of quirky indie-folk outfit Me Without You. So strap yourself in and pump up the volume for a wild, tire-screeching trip through the most cutting-edge tunes to ever rock our world with a message of faith.