Christian screamo doesn't have to suck.

You probably hate this article already, don't you?

Back in the day, I had a pretty high tolerance for bullshit like singing about Jesus. Ugh. Do you think I want to know what the bands I listen to are singing about? I DON'T. It's never any good. Do you like LED ZEPPELIN as much when you realize they're singing about hobbits? Do you think it's okay for someone to listen to MASTODON and understand what the deal is with all those czars?

It's not.

If you love metal for the lyrics, I will never understand you. I love a good scream, of course...but its actual content is secondary to the texture it adds to the music. I'd much rather ignore the lyrical content, as so much of it is just a waste.

Sometimes the lyrics can be hard to ignore. It's especially hard with Christian bands, as you'll hear things like the number 3, and things about 'the light' and sacrifice and all that; and it comes in ways where you can't interpret it any other way. I wish THE SPIRIT THAT GUIDES US would just concentrate on putting together noisy, catchy screamo. Most of their older music is weak, but sometimes they unleash something primal, showing what they're capable of:

The Spirit That Guides Us - 24 Winters (2002)

01 - Hopeful Forever
02 - Among All Barren Heights (epic dissonance)
03 - Deep and Unanswered (best song)
04 - 24 Winters (instrumental)

Seriously, spaz metal bands like THE #12 LOOKS LIKE YOU or FEAR BEFORE could take a lesson from these guys. They incorporate screaming, spoken word, heavy dissonance, and MESHUGGAH syncopations into something resembling your typical verse-chorus pattern. I love it. They're a lot more evil these days, too - they're promoting their newest album "Innocent Blood" as 'hardgazer', which is a pretty fucking stupid genre name. And I say that as someone who has used 'dreamsludge' and 'metalgaze' in all seriousness.

24 Winters - emo.as.fuck. You've probably lived through 24 winters. Imagine what would happen if you had to live through 24 winters IN A ROW. That's 6 years of winter. 6 years of isolation, 6 years of misery. Could you take it? 6 years, it's not even that long in the grand scheme of your life. In the grand scheme of all the misery in the world. In the grand scheme of how long this universe has been around. It's not even that long compared to how long I have to wait between each new Tool album.

If you lived through 24 straight winters, could you write the coldest, darkest metal album of all time?