Here’s a note I composed as part of an email thread / discussion group I’m part of. The group is called the “Heaven’s Metal Karew.” I named it and spelled “Karew” based upon an old joke David Bach told about his sports heroes growing up in his long-ago-shutdown “Inside-Out” column in the pages of Heaven’s Metal Magazine (back in the ’90s). ANyway, the karew and I have been arguing over the “Top 100 Christian Metal Albums of All Time” list we’re composing for Heaven’s Metal Fanzine (a little 20-24 page black&white fanzine that we print and put out every two months in between issues of HM Magazine. The main focus is metal and hard rock – both classic and modern day/current). The fighting has gotten crazy and passionate. It’s actually been quite fun and taxing at the same time.
One of the problems we’ve had is some of the great bands that were quite historical and seminal and foundational in the formation of what we now call “Christian heavy metal” or “Christian rock” are coming up short on our list. We’re finding that, although they are great bands and worthy of honor, some of their albums don’t quite cut the mustard – especially over the test of time. Maybe a really good song or two, but we’re talking complete albums here. We feel kinda bad for excluding them, but what can you do when you’ve got something great competing for that spot on the list?
One of the guys gingerly suggested an idea: “Why not have a Christian metal Hall of Fame and induct one or two artists per year?” My response is pasted below:
i’ve long wanted to have a legitimate ROCK AWARDS for Christian music, where someone like Terry Taylor could get a lifetime achievement award and real Rock albums would get an Album of the Year award (maybe it could be the BAT AWARDS, playing on Batman, playing off the Dove Awards, and having it in Austin, where the largest North American bat population is, and is a tourist attraction. there’s already a giant bat statue in downtown austin by the congress bridge where they sleep under. this sort of thing could actually MAKE money, but it’d take someone with deep pockets to start (we’re talking hotels, convention center rental, advertising, flying in speakers like Brandon Ebel, Tom Jackson, etc). we’d want people to show up. but, short of that dream (we should forward this idea to others to see if anyone ever wants to help see it come true. i think Rock and Metal could be side by side (diff categories) along with, maybe INDIE ROCK …i don’t know about all that, but… anyway, short of that dream, we could do the hall of fame thing in the pages of Heaven’s Metal. if we do, why not put them on the cover? make it look rockin’ cool.
Anyway, that is a crazy dream I’ve had for awhile. I’m so very busy managing HM Magazine that I can’t even consider devoting time to an event like that, but it’d be cool, huh? “…and this year’s Bat Awards for Extreme Metal album of the year goes to…” I envision it happening in Austin, because this city is used to events like this (with SXSW and ACLFest happening here). We could have seminars/workshops/panels in the day; parties and showcase concerts at night. Make it last a couple of days. Have a non-profit organization membership voting on the awards. Just a thought.
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