Posted on 06/12/2009 2:28:39 PM PDT by WesternCulture
God-fearing heavy metal fans in Sweden now have a place to go to bang their heads and worship Jesus at the same time.
The church was formed from an ever-expanding network of Christians who “love hard rock and want to see the metal world transformed by God’s power,” according to a statement by the church’s founders.
“We want to be a safe-haven for Christian hard rockers where they can feel at home and grow spiritually, and where newly-converted hard rockers can develop their faith and be protected,” said the group.
The idea for Sweden's Metal Sanctuary came to life following a 2003 trip to the United States by “hard rock pastor” Göran Jacobson, who hails from Norrköping in eastern Sweden.
During the visit, Jacobson stumbled upon a metal church outside of Los Angeles
“The psalm singing was great, there were distorted guitars, double bass drums…it was just rocking and I just…I was blown away, like they say over there. I almost fell over backwards,” Jacobson told Sveriges Radio (SR).
Currently, the Metal Sanctuary lacks a permanent physical sanctuary in Sweden. Instead members meet in small groups at people’s homes, which are spread around the country.
But the group hopes to eventually secure a permanent location where it can stage hard rock church services.
“We have a place here in town which would work pretty well, with four chimneys and that people refer to as a church. I think it would be a great place for a metal mass,” said Jacobson to SR.
“We could put up black curtains, have a metal band lead the singing and instead of an organ we’d have a distorted guitar, bass, and drums and a gravely-voiced singer.”
A big part of Metal Sanctuary’s mission is to spread the Metal Bible to secular metal heads, something which they did at the recent Sweden Rock Festival in Sölvesborg in southern Sweden, and plan to repeat at other similar festivals and metal shows.
The Metal Bible is a special edition of the Bible for metal fans which contains the New Testament and testimonials from metal heads in which they discuss the importance of God and the Bible in their lives.
According to the Metal Bible’s website, Nicko McBrain of Iron Maiden and Tommy Aldridge of Whitesnake are among the contributors to the book, which has sold around 40,000 copies in Swedish.
An English version of the Metal Bible has been completed and is due to be released in the autumn of 2009.
Also planned for the autumn is Metal Prayers Day 2009, a September 19th event to be held in Kumla in central Sweden and which the Metal Sanctuary claims will “make Swedish church history”.
Plans call for a day filled with focused prayer, songs of praise led by heavy metal bands, as well as Bible lessons.
“We encourage prayer warriors, pastors and spiritual leaders, and everyone else interested in bringing about a religious revival in the metal world to unite with us on this day,” said Metal Sanctuary.
“Nothing like it has ever happened before in Sweden.”
OK. Wow. Thank you for the leads. A few minutes with Google has been extremely instructive. The Nordic Metal movement is much nerdier than I would have guessed.
I’m a huge Within Temptation fan. Absolutely love ‘em.
It’s only logical that Scandinavian Christians, who grew up on bands like Arch Enemy, Opeth, Celtic Frost, and Emperor, are seeking to worship God in a context they understand. More power to ‘em.
In fact, where can I buy some?
Oh... and to all the Swedish metal haters... check out Yngwie Malmsteen - here’s one for you:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aS_IYe5JTZ4
Yngwie goofing off at his breakfast table, playing stuff most of us would only dream of:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lwp4jN6TGYM&feature=related
It’s not really fair to mention Celtic Frost with those other bands. CF is actually listenable.
Replacing “baby” with “Jesus” isn’t exactly the best way to create christian lyrics.
- I won't have that!
Their song “Teacher's Pet” inspired me to hit on my high school Psychology teacher, a pretty but also exceptionally nice lady in her 30s all of the male part of my school dreamed of, through writing some ambiguous stuff in an examination paper (I think I wrote something about the fact that in most cases, men take the initiative).
As I view things, she gave me the green light by later on telling all of the grade how much she appreciated a certain student of hers who fully understood how important it is for a young man to be full of initiative.
Nothing happened though. She made me feel I already had won the race.
Today, I sometimes regret that I didn't follow through.
Thanks for linking and God bless rock’n’roll!!
I thought Celtic Frost was Swiss, not Swedish.
They are.
That's the old joke about the difference between blues and gospel. Here's some Christian rock lyrics for you:
Walk by faith, not by sight
Strengthened by His glorious might
Walk by faith, not by sight
Heading for that land of light
Walk by faith and not by sight
Sometimes we ain't so sure
He sees us when we're kneeling
Sometimes we forget salvation ain't a feeling
We know that Jesus died for our justification
We grow in His image by suffering tribulations
Not by Sight, by Petra
Just saying that some of those “old tyme beloved hymns” we used to hear in church growing up may have started out as the 18th Century Rock Music. I do know the tune to The Star Spangled Banner was “Ode to Anacreon” (an English drinking song that celebrated drunken dissipation).
The music of “Amazing Grace” also came from a drinking song.
This isn't enemy territory. Historic Christendom made this soaring operatic grandeur, and rock can only return to the well.
My favorite Death Metal band is Ace of Base.
Abba doesn’t make me headbang like they used to.
What about Blue Swede, “Oooga oooga oooga shaka....”
HEY!!!
Keep mocking us Swedes if you wish, as long as you keep in mind that 1/3 of this band is Swedish:
As long as Lemmy and good ol’ Chuck are alive, there will be at least someone on this planet who knows what real rock’n’roll is all about.
Cheers/Skål from Gothenburg, Sweden, a city built on true rock’n’roll like this (a classic sing-along-song originally from the 1970s featuring lyrics most would deem banal as they simply just salute Gothenburg as a whole as well as different residential areas of it, but to me these words and the way they are sung remind me of the fact that I live in a city where people are honest, hard working and friendly like in few other places here on Earth:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKtIuxIZq0M
You think that’s mocking, you should see what we do to the Norwegians, because of a-ha.
BUT Texas isn't all about the world's leading steakhouses and proper music like ZZ Top (I often have the speakers of my Volvo V70 bumping with their great tunes by the way)!
“You think that’s mocking, you should see what we do to the Norwegians, because of a-ha.”
Big hrrm.. :D
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