There was nothing particularly striking about the debut from Christian hardcore act Leaders, Now We Are Free back in 2012. It was a pretty standard metalcore/hardcore effort that you’ve come to expect from Facedown. However, on the follow up, Indomitable, California’s Leaders, after a significant lineup shuffle, have taken a page from label mates Those […]

Teethofthedivine along with fellow webzines Metal Injection and Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles are proud to partner up with Facedown Records and provide the premiere of lyric video for Extol’s latest track, ‘Betrayal” — taken from their excellent self-titled album which was released earlier this year. The video is the second single from the band’s first album after an eight year downtime.

Norway’s Extol seemed to be that rare Christian metal band that were saved the usual ridicule and cries of “Get God out of my metal!” from knuckle dragging satanic metal heads when they surfaced in the late 90s. Whether it is because like thrashers Believer before them, they played a ‘real’ brand of metal (a […]

Facedown records was in a bit of a slump in late 2012 and early 2013, but responded recently and mightily with Hope for the Dying‘s Aletheia, the heavier than thou release from Those Who Fear, Christian metal’s possible savior in the new Extol reunion, and this, the almost as punishing but slightly more experimental second […]

What happens if you take the devastating, brown note heft of The Acacia Strain and mix with Christian ideals? You get Pittsburgh’s Those Who Fear, that’s fucking what. So now let me continue and  tell the three of you that will actually read this even more. Ive said for a few reviews now that Facedown […]

I’ve long championed Facedown Records and their oft maligned Christian metal, but of late other than  Your Memorial, Hands and A Home for Home, the label seems to have really fallen into a rut- with the likes of For Today, Gideon, Altars, War of Ages, Leaders and Onwards to Olympas, they seem to basically be […]

Last year, Minnesota’s Your Memorial dropped one of the year’s best metalcore records, Christian or otherwise.  And since then Facedown Records has struggled with a bit of staleness with their subsequent releases and even lost one of their best bands, Sleeping Giant, to another label. Well, Your Memorial is here as the savior to Facedown […]

For four albums I reviewed and extolled the virtues of War of Ages as a top notch Christian, melodic death metal/ metalcore act who were deserving of As I Lay Dying type attention, peaking with 2008s Arise and Conquer. However, with 2010s Eternal, the band shifted into more commercial territory morphing into a more predictable […]

It’s actually been a couple of months since I reviewed some Christian metal core on Facedown Records, so why not get back into things with the debut album from a band whose introductory EP last year grabbed my attention with its no nonsense, almost All Shall Perish styled delivery  of brimstone, metallic sermons. Unfortunately though, […]

In the Midst of Lion have been busy little bees since I reviewed their 2009  Strikefirst records debut, Out of Darkness. They of course moved on and up to Facedown Records and  some time in 2010, released Heart of Man, which I never got around to reviewing, and then in late 2011 released album number […]

A Hope For Home‘s last record, Realis was a decent, if slightly whiny visage of shimmery Christian post-rock. So here they are with album number three, and it’s a vast, beautiful improvement that’s on par with Hands‘ Give Me Rest — as far as gorgeous, introspective Christian metal goes. Now that almost everyone has left or […]

Still a musical anomaly residing on Facedown Records , Finland’s Immortal Souls are four albums in to their career and have yet to truly impress me. Their form of melodic “wintery” death metal has always been solid, but I’m never craving this band. So I’m not sure what’s more impressive, the fact they are still […]

Reviewing a Christian metal album is always like swimming in shark tank with a chum jockstrap on. Well…IT’S FEEDING TIME BOYS!!! But I try to stay the course and be objective as I can, and most readers probably don’t realize that I’m actually a devout (?) atheist, so my many Christian reviews aren’t some thinly […]

Man, after the bands 2009 self titled debut EP, I said I’d keep an eye on these Christian shredders in hope they would deliver something better. And boy did they ever! I didn’t quite see anything this good coming though. Adding a dramatic symphonic element to their early A Plea For Purging/ Woe of Tyrants […]

Onward to Olympas are back yet again with another dose of Christian metalcore on their second album for Facedown Records, The War Within Us. Adding much more melody and an onslaught of solos, one can tell the band has stepped their game up…big time! “The Continuance” is a short filler intro before the first tune […]

To make this easy and let you decide whether to finish reading this review or not — I’ll lay it out right away: Alabama’s Gideon are essentially a typical Facedown Records band. They are Christian and they play metalcore. There. While not as impressive as label mates Your Memorial or the new Hope for the […]

I know it may seem this site has turned into metalcoreofthedivine.com as of late, but in all fairness we are A) trying to clean out the backlog of 2010s releases, and B) we are traffic whores and the ‘core be bringing the traffic, yo. In all seriousness, just click on the review of Hate‘s Erebos […]

As much as I like Facedown/Strikefirst Records and their quality―consistent Christian metal―none of the 2010 releases have blown me away. Sure, the likes of Impending Doom, In the Midst of Lions, As Hell Retreats, Onward to Olympas, Letter to the Exiles and The Burial are all solid, but I have to go back to the […]

Like their label brethren, A Plea for Purging, Impending Doom are at that “difficult stage,” in their existence―namely that all important third album―which, as stressed in the APFP review, can be the first step to greatness or to decline. The progression on There will be Violence, is in ways similar to that of The Marriage […]

It’s more than common knowledge that the third album is one of the pinnacle pressure points of a band’s existence. Getting the balance right is so important in avoiding to take that wrong turn to the inferno of decline and instead ascending to the heavens of greatness. The immortal list of the eponymous third album […]

In the tradition of other Facedown/Strikefirst releases, North Carolina’s Onwards to Olympas deliver solid Christian metalcore/ hardcore/ deathcore that straddles the line between burlier, heavier acts like label mates Earth From Above and slightly more melodic styled stuff like For Today and such. Now most of you have left, I’ll continue… There’s nothing to earth […]

I’ll admit, even I have been a bit burnt out on Christian metal of late, and when I initially started listening to the debut from Fargo’s Hands I was pretty unmoved, as the rumbling opener “Hurricanes” didn’t do much for me and I simply classified it as yet another group of uppity noisy Christians spreading […]

The 2007 debut, Dread Champions of the Last Daysfrom this So-Cal hardcore band was an impressive mix of fervent, righteously rumbling hardcore and more hymnal, sermon-ish, prose that resulted in an aggressive but at times graceful album in the Christian metal genre, and at the time was one of the heaviest Christian metal albums I […]

First and foremost, massive improvement from their debut Ekklesia and whilst For Today show growth in their musical capabilities they are some way off the top of the mound in the metalcore circles, even the Christian ones.They continue to build on their solid foundation of choice influences, taking the stutter and lurch of most modern […]

With 2007s debut, Nailed. Dead. Risen, California’s Impending Doom rustled some feathers and raised some eyebrows with their attempt at  pure, brutal death metal from a Christian viewpoint. On some levels it succeeded, but it also felt a bit forced and gimmicky. So here is the follow up, and I’m glad to say, that for […]