Christian Alternative Rock

Get set to bang your head until it's sore and have your soul rocked like a Category Five hurricane — all for the glory of God. Here's your alternative-rock 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 grungy guitar thunderclaps 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, for Christian rockers, quiet is the new loud.

Don't let all that in-your-face punk and metal mayhem give you the wrong idea: Some Christian alt-rockers get up close strictly for the purpose of whispering their words of faith into your ear. Sleeping at Last singer Ryan O'Neal inhabits "Porcelain" with a quiet but commanding croon that conjures images of Radiohead's Thom Yorke having a Jeff Buckley hallucination. On "Fireflies," 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. And when the Lone Star State’s own Leeland leaps into falsetto and flies up to those high notes in the chorus of the Britpop-y ballad “Brighter Days,” you can practically see that sunny vista glowing just beyond the horizon.

Discover the darker side of the spiritual journey with the uncompromising rockers tearing it up in Deep Cuts.

Singing for the Lord isn’t always all smiley-faces and hallelujahs — faith is far more complex than that, and Christian alt-rockers aren’t afraid to tackle the tougher side of being a believer. The Fold drops some weapons-grade guitar riffs on “Catastrophe!” to clear the way for a story of struggling to find inner strength when life brings a beat-down to your soul. Cody Bonnette’s angst-filled voice trembles like a leaf in the wind when As Cities Burn confronts the baggage humanity leaves at God’s doorstep, on “Made Too Pretty.” And I Am Empire frontman Austin Lions’ surname starts to make sense when you hear the big-cat roar he unleashes on “You’re a Fake!” to bring a darkened soul closer to the light.

Christian alt-rock covers 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 your journey, when you mosh along with As I Lay Dying and the Devil Wears Prada, you'll discover that there's more to metalcore than meets the ear. You'll stand spiky-haired and Doc Marten-shoed alongside a positive-thinking pack of pop-punks, like Mxpx and Hawk Nelson. 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 turn the volume up to ten — no, 11 — for a wild, tire-screeching trip through some of the sharpest tunes ever to rock our world with a message of faith.