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From Mocking Faith to Belief | THE FORERUNNER & TAKE
28 oct. 2026
01:05:23
What is anger costing you? John Gagnon shares how following Jesus changed his relationship with anger and the kind of father he wants to be.
John first attended a Bible study to make fun of the worship. Months later, he realized he believed what he was hearing. Some changes came quickly, but learning to control his anger took years. “I don't want to raise him that way at all,” he says of his son. We talk about slowing down, accepting correction and finding freedom in Christ.
John fronts two separate Las Vegas bands: TAKE, which combines hardcore and metal, and The Forerunner, which makes heavy worship music. He shares how a family country-music catalog helped TAKE keep going, why he plays for an audience of one, and what church looks like around a shared table.
ABOUT THE FORGIVEN The Forgiven is a community and ministry for artists making heavy music for Jesus. We share their music, tell their stories, pray with them and support the work God has placed in their hands.
The show is hosted by Bill Branstetter, creator of Out of the Depths (a project setting every Psalm to metal, word for word), and Kate Nardone, host of Rock of Ages on AscendFM.
CHAPTERS 0:00 Opener 0:33 The Forerunner performs Manifesto 0:59 Meet John from The Forerunner and TAKE 1:50 Two Truths and a Lie: singing with Deftones 5:30 How John met Jesus 8:47 What is anger costing you? 10:59 Church around the table 20:37 Serving and worshiping through hard seasons 22:26 Hard conversations and accountability 26:41 Faith, politics and Golden Calf 34:23 What forgiveness means to John 35:48 Two bands, two names 41:02 Country songs and an audience of one 43:19 Lightning Round 53:07 What is next for both bands 57:47 Prayer for John and the bands 1:00:38 John prays for Bill and Kate
Opening music: This Is Heavier Than I Thought, licensed through Soundstripe. Clearance code: JJYZYGZEI8Y0SNRF.
#TheForerunner #ChristianMetal #TAKE #TheForgiven
Learning to Trust God as Father | XIII MINUTES
21 oct. 2026
00:55:44
Can you trust God when life has taught you to rely only on yourself? For Jamie Kucinski of XIII Minutes, learning to know God as Father meant learning a kind of trust he had never known growing up.
Jamie shares how he met Jesus, walked away from faith, and eventually returned. After his little sister was murdered, grief and depression brought him to the end of his self-reliance. He describes what he encountered in Jesus: “He didn’t judge me. He didn’t condemn me. In fact, quite the opposite, he sat with me.”
Jamie is the drummer and founder of XIII Minutes, an alternative metal band from Tulsa, Oklahoma. We talk about the mentors who saw something in him, the church community he calls home, and why the band’s ministry often happens in conversations after the show. We also discuss finding truth in secular music, the meaning behind XIII Minutes, and what it means to Jamie to be forgiven.
ABOUT THE FORGIVEN The Forgiven is a community and ministry for artists making heavy music for Jesus. We share their music, tell their stories, pray with them and support the work God has placed in their hands.
The show is hosted by Bill Branstetter, creator of Out of the Depths (a project setting every Psalm to metal, word for word), and Kate Nardone, host of Rock of Ages on AscendFM.
CHAPTERS 0:00 Opener 0:44 Two truths and a lie 2:32 Where Jamie met Jesus 9:23 Walking away from his old life 12:21 Can you trust God as Father? 25:04 A church home and a place to rest 27:25 Ministry beyond the stage 34:15 Why XIII Minutes does not preach onstage 39:43 The missing puzzle piece 42:18 Finding truth in Metallica 45:57 What it means to be forgiven 46:53 Why the band is called XIII Minutes 50:54 Lightning round 53:45 How to pray for XIII Minutes
Can church become an idol? Joel Piper asks what happens when worship becomes a show and a church's identity takes the place of Jesus.
“I left everything to find Christ again.” Joel shares his account of leaving a Disney deal, becoming homeless and rebuilding his faith. We talk about inner healing, the difference between a gift and a calling, and why worship reaches far beyond the songs we sing.
Joel is the singer, multi-instrumentalist and producer behind Avery Pkwy, his faith-driven rock project. Raised by missionaries in Mexico, he started Avery Pkwy in Orange County in 2007, two years before joining Confide. His music includes the album Walk With You. Here, he explains the stories and intentions behind Fear Has Lost, Tear Down the Idols and Chainbreaker.
ABOUT THE FORGIVEN The Forgiven is a community and ministry for artists making heavy music for Jesus. We share their music, tell their stories, pray with them and support the work God has placed in their hands.
The show is hosted by Bill Branstetter, creator of Out of the Depths (a project setting every Psalm to metal, word for word), and Kate Nardone, host of Rock of Ages on AscendFM.
CHAPTERS 0:00 Opener 0:29 Inner healing and missionary childhood 9:01 A deliverance encounter 13:54 Growing up around healing ministries 17:03 Ministry, money and discernment 20:08 Can church become an idol? 26:26 The Bible as a love letter 30:20 David, suffering and a tested heart 42:27 A letter to the American church 48:42 Worship beyond the music 54:15 Revival, reformation and church culture 58:51 Your gift is not your calling 1:02:06 Fear Has Lost and the message behind Avery Pkwy 1:10:22 Songwriting and Jack Tempchin 1:12:50 Avery Pkwy, rock bottom and rebuilding 1:16:17 Beyond Confide and the drums 1:21:23 The secret place and New Together Inc 1:27:06 The lightning round 1:38:32 How to pray for Joel
Music licensed through Soundstripe: 7SI3YNS72E2RUMWG
Former Army Ranger Goes Full EPH 6:12 | TONY VEDA
30 sept. 2026
00:46:52
Tony Veda grew up with witches in his family. He says witchcraft actually works, and that's the problem.
His family held séances to protect him while he was deployed to Afghanistan. Years later, he and his wife ran a consulting company that taught business owners to use "the elemental spiritual forces of the universe" to hit their goals. He'll tell you it got results. He'll also tell you why it never filled him: "The nature of witchcraft is not necessarily presenting an untruth. It is presenting the truth untruthfully." What happened when a client walked into his studio is the rest of the episode.
Tony grew up in Denver and lives in Lubbock, Texas. He went through Ranger selection, deployed to Afghanistan in 2012, and got out after three near-death experiences. He writes and produces his own songs and has been putting out metal versions of worship songs like Oceans and So Will I.
ABOUT THE FORGIVEN The Forgiven is a community and ministry for artists making heavy music for Jesus. We share their music, tell their stories, pray with them and support the work God has placed in their hands.
The show is hosted by Bill Branstetter, creator of Out of the Depths (a project setting every Psalm to metal, word for word), and Kate Nardone, host of Rock of Ages on AscendFM. This episode, we had a special guest co-host – Liv from Cuz’ God Made Music.
CHAPTERS 0:00 Show opener 0:46 Meet Tony Veda, with guest co-host Liv 1:45 Raised in a pagan household 2:06 What he saw at fifteen 4:15 Ranger selection and Afghanistan 4:39 Three brushes with death 5:54 Selling the spiritual forces of the universe 7:52 The client who walked into his studio 9:25 Googling "What is the New Testament?" 10:35 A mission trip to Thailand 13:12 Ayahuasca and "be ready to receive" 16:01 Does witchcraft actually work? 20:50 Why he won't join the worship team 22:15 Missionary training and the road to Portugal 25:37 Finding a church that teaches the Bible verse by verse 28:05 What God is teaching him about prayer 32:52 Fan question: the worship song that means the most 34:48 What success means for a Christian musician 35:25 What the church needs from Christian artists 37:17 Lightning round 41:44 New music on the way 42:56 What they'll do in Portugal 44:03 How to pray for Tony 44:38 Liv prays
Andrew Schwab spent four years writing a novel about a tech company that offers to upload your soul and let you live forever. He thinks most people would take the deal.
The question in the book started during COVID, watching the world his kids were going to grow up in. Take digital salvation with a guarantee, or trust a God you can't taste, see or touch. "I think most people would sign up for the first thing because it's guaranteed. And what if that is the great delusion?" He also told us something that didn't show up anywhere in our research. He isn't part of a local congregation. He leads a church on Discord every Sunday, and it doesn't even have a name. Why he built it that way is the rest of that conversation.
Andrew started Project 86 in Orange County in 1996, signed with Tooth and Nail, and put out the first record in 1998. Ten albums later he announced a final chapter and wrote I Need Truth, a memoir about the whole run. Then came P86:OMNI, a darker, heavier double album with electronic elements, seven music videos and a companion novel. He's also 426 episodes into the band's podcast.
ABOUT THE FORGIVEN
The Forgiven is a community and ministry for artists making heavy music for Jesus. We share their music, tell their stories, pray with them and support the work God has placed in their hands.
The show is hosted by Bill Branstetter, creator of Out of the Depths (a project setting every Psalm to metal, word for word), and Kate Nardone, host of Rock of Ages on AscendFM.
Explore every episode, meet the artists and shop The Forgiven:
Someone in amen's church was uncomfortable with a pastor who screams. He doesn't think screaming is a sin. He gave it up anyway.
Caleb makes music as amen, and he is on staff full time at his church as a pastor. When the call came, he didn't ask who had raised it or what they said. "All I needed to know is that they were uncomfortable with the fact that I would be in the pulpit." He told us he would have rather never made another song again than lose the ability to pastor the people in that church. Then he tried yelling instead of screaming, and that got him called into a second meeting. What his pastor told him in that room is the rest of the episode.
This is Caleb's second time on the show. amen is a Christian metal project built on scripture, and he told us it turns one year old on October 8. He says he is too Christian for metal and too metal for Christians, and that both sides have a problem with what he does. He also says the conviction was never his: "I do not think the screaming's wrong. I was just trying to be obedient to the other person's conviction."
ABOUT THE FORGIVEN
The Forgiven is a community and ministry for artists making heavy music for Jesus. We share their music, tell their stories, pray with them and support the work God has placed in their hands.
The show is hosted by Bill Branstetter, creator of Out of the Depths (a project setting every Psalm to metal, word for word), and Kate Nardone, host of Rock of Ages on AscendFM.
Explore every episode, meet the artists and shop The Forgiven:
Bullied Pastor's Kid to Pop Punk Princess | Grace Graber
17 sept. 2026
00:46:20
Grace Graber says the reason you cannot forgive someone is usually not about that person at all. It is about someone you never forgave five years ago.
She was assaulted by a group of girls in middle school, and it got bad enough that her parents pulled her out of school. What she has done with that since is the conversation. "There's been plenty of times I don't want to forgive so and so for doing that to me," she told us. "The reason why is because I haven't forgiven so and so five years back for doing the same thing to me." She walks through what therapy taught her about digging for the belief underneath the hurt, why she thinks those beliefs are less lies than things you were taught, and why letting someone go can feel unsafe.
Grace is a Christian pop-punk artist in Nashville and a pastor's kid out of Sonoma County. A Hawk Nelson song stopped her from taking her own life at twelve, and her parents started driving her to Christian rock shows because they did not know what else to do. Every poster on that bedroom wall is a person in her life now. Her manager fronted Stellar Kart, her worship pastor spent fifteen years in Run Kid Run, and the drummer she met at church turned out to be Hawk Nelson's. A car accident took her ability to play guitar. The settlement paid for beauty school, and the job she got out of it ran the songwriting contest that took her to Nashville.
We also asked how a touring artist does church, and she did not dress up the answer.
ABOUT THE FORGIVEN
The Forgiven is a community and ministry for artists making heavy music for Jesus. We share their music, tell their stories, pray with them and support the work God has placed in their hands.
The show is hosted by Bill Branstetter, creator of Out of the Depths (a project setting every Psalm to metal, word for word), and Kate Nardone, host of Rock of Ages on AscendFM.
Explore every episode, meet the artists and shop The Forgiven:
A church sign on the way to work read: the enemy cannot cross the bloodline. By the time Disciple 13 finished reading it, he had the whole band.
He was not in church at the time. August 2023, driving to work, and a sign he passes every day had just been changed. "As soon as I read that, that's when the Lord spoke to me and gave me the vision for this and to use the name." Skull masks, numbers instead of names, Ezekiel 37. He says it took two to three minutes, start to finish. Then he had to go home and explain it to his wife, who asked how that was going to work.
Bloodlined is a masked metal band out of North Carolina. Disciple 13 plays guitar and started it after a minister of music told him at fourteen to stop playing in the church band. Disciple 14 plays drums, came in to track one session as a hired hand, then called back and asked if there were more songs. Disciple 17 sings, and he is not in this one. The lore is Ezekiel 37, the valley of the dry bones. Their fans are the Army of the Awakened, the merch is dog tags, and they have four singles out, starting with a Mary Did You Know cover that first got them noticed.
ABOUT THE FORGIVEN
The Forgiven is a community and ministry for artists making heavy music for Jesus. We share their music, tell their stories, pray with them and support the work God has placed in their hands.
The show is hosted by Bill Branstetter, creator of Out of the Depths (a project setting every Psalm to metal, word for word), and Kate Nardone, host of Rock of Ages on AscendFM.
Explore every episode, meet the artists and shop The Forgiven:
Divided Me plays Christian festivals and they play bars, and they walk into both asking the same question: how do we worship here?
"When we get there, it's let's see how we can worship to bring someone closer to God." That's Spencer. Deanne takes it further. Before they play Unbound, she tells the room how many children were abused in that county, and then they play it. People wait around afterward to ask for prayer.
Divided Me is a heavy band out of Amarillo, in the West Texas panhandle. Deanne sings, and learned to scream from Zahna, who ended up co-writing the EP. Spencer plays guitar because his dad started a messianic Jewish congregation at home and needed one. Clay plays bass, trained as a drummer, and has been through two church splits. Gio plays drums, services ATMs across three states, and asked to pray about it before he said yes. Four members, four different churches.
The Forgiven is a community and ministry for artists making heavy music for Jesus. We share their music, tell their stories, pray with them and support the work God has placed in their hands.
The show is hosted by Bill Branstetter—creator of Out of the Depths, a project setting every Psalm to metal word for word—and Kate Nardone, host of Rock of Ages on AscendFM.
CHAPTERS
0:00 "I don't feel him as much as I did": the line that became Take Me Back
0:39 Who is Divided Me?
1:48 Deanne: saved at eight, surrendered at a DNow
2:47 Clay: a children's pastor's kid who walked away from the drums
4:09 Spencer: Southern Baptist, Seventh-day Adventist, then messianic Jewish
6:24 Throwing ceramic Santas in the dumpster
9:20 Clay on two church splits and where he put his focus
11:37 Four members, four different churches
15:12 The new album: someone broken, then redeemed, then back on the path
16:35 Can metal be worship? Bar shows, and reading the county's numbers out loud
17:32 Who writes the songs, and what changed when Gio joined
23:07 Blind: Zahna, a flooded studio, and learning to scream
27:42 Take Me Back, a love song about finding God again
31:21 Day jobs: APS, CASA, IT, and ATMs
33:51 How they all met, and the phone call to Gio
38:07 Superlatives
48:20 Where to start if you have never heard Divided Me
One day amen is going to stop making music. No announcement, no farewell record and no goodbye.
“One day this is gonna end, and when it does, it’s gonna happen suddenly. I’m just not gonna make another song again. I’m not gonna say bye.”
amen is a twenty-two-year-old pastor and Christian metal artist from South Carolina. Every lyric is scripture. He built more than 100,000 TikTok followers before releasing a song, left nursing school on a full scholarship to pursue music and earned a plaque for one million streams—all without ever playing a live show.
This is a conversation about calling, church, telling the truth and knowing when to let go.
The Forgiven is a community and ministry supporting artists who make heavy music for Jesus.
CHAPTERS
0:00 The day he stops making music 0:31 Who amen is 1:37 Two truths and a lie 2:09 He dropped out of nursing school on a full scholarship 4:40 Where his faith actually started 7:23 His worst years came after he got saved 10:26 Why he calls stage cues in church deception 11:19 A pulpit he knew he did not belong in 11:48 He excommunicated himself 15:45 Telling his wife the truth 18:47 How a teenager ended up on church staff 21:27 Forty-two hours preaching on a livestream 25:04 What discipleship looks like on a media team 31:06 The window, the prayer rug and the open Bible 35:24 What he would tell his eighteen-year-old self 37:44 Where the name amen came from 41:14 A plaque on the wall and three million streams 43:15 Why he will never play a live show 46:00 What his church thinks of the music 47:23 Collaborations with Tiffany Twisted and Poetry on Fire 51:50 Lightning round—and the socks 56:22 One song a month, on purpose 58:29 How he turns scripture into lyrics 1:06:52 Kate prays
Maggie Rojas spent years asking God to fix her. It took her husband to point out that she might not actually want to get better yet.
Maggie was saved at eleven but spent much of the next decade believing her problems weren’t dramatic enough to bother God with. Then Blaise told her, “I think you don’t want to get better, and I think you need to ask God to help you want to.”
What she did with that is the heart of this conversation.
Maggie fronts the Nashville Christian metalcore band Magdalene Rose. Blaise plays drums for her and for Seventh Day Slumber, whose frontman is his father. Their debut album, The Heart That Bloomed After Death, was released in 2025 after three years of work.
They talk honestly about insecurity, depression, an eating disorder and Maggie’s difficult experience coming off medication during a tour when she couldn’t reach her doctor. She doesn’t give us a tidy ending.
The Forgiven is a community and ministry supporting artists who make heavy music for Jesus.
Hosted by Bill Branstetter of Out of the Depths and Kate Nardone of Rock of Ages on AscendFM.
CHAPTERS
0:00 Who is Magdalene Rose? 2:16 Maggie’s testimony: Do you want to heal? 12:15 The lie underneath it—and love she didn’t have to earn 15:57 The master’s in crisis counseling—and why she earned it 18:37 Kate on vulnerability, shame and being seen 22:31 Why sharing your testimony matters 22:41 How Maggie and Blaise met: a washer, a dryer and a favor 27:52 Blaise on earning the drum chair in his dad’s band 32:28 Maggie on starting at five and playing her first show at eleven 36:34 Lightning round 43:35 How to pray for Maggie and Blaise 45:15 Closing prayer
Kaleb Webb and Evan Chapman have been best friends since they were five. Then Kaleb nearly didn’t survive being a teenager—and Evan refused to stop showing up.
At fifteen, Kaleb was homeless and stealing food to feed his sisters. Evan kept inviting him to church until Kaleb finally broke at an altar and heard the Holy Spirit say, “If you give Me your life, I will give you a new one.”
Now they front Poetry on Fire, a Christian metalcore band from southeast Missouri with one mission: to see the captive set free. We talk about their friendship, surrendering music to God and the unlikely road from garage recordings through a sock-wrapped USB microphone to approximately 60,000 monthly Spotify listeners at the time of recording.
Kaleb also gives us his unfiltered perspective on where AI belongs in Christian music, where it doesn’t and why other Christians have criticized him for using it.
The Forgiven is a community and ministry supporting artists who make heavy music for Jesus.
Hosted by Bill Branstetter of Out of the Depths and Kate Nardone of Rock of Ages on AscendFM.
CHAPTERS
0:00 Who is Poetry on Fire? 2:07 Kaleb’s testimony: homeless at fifteen to the altar 9:54 Evan’s story—and a friendship since age five 15:45 Sharing the stage with For Today and Sent By Ravens 21:14 From garage bands to Poetry on Fire 30:08 Who’s discipling the artists? 36:54 Their home church and community 37:55 Advice to their eighteen-year-old selves 39:54 Their honest take on AI in Christian music 47:03 Lightning round 53:07 What’s next for Poetry on Fire 55:05 Where to find and support them 55:44 How to pray for Poetry on Fire
From Occult to Christian Grungecore | TIFFANY TWISTED
03 août 2026
00:52:21
Hetti Harper of Tiffany Twisted trained as a medium at a spiritualist association in London. Then Jesus got hold of her.
During lockdown, Hetti spent hours each day meditating and traveled deep into the occult before realizing she felt trapped and couldn’t get out. She describes the night she ended up on her bathroom floor at 3 a.m., telling God He would either have to take her life or do something about it.
This conversation explores her conversion, deliverance ministry, learning to receive God’s love, her father’s recent baptism and why she deleted her entire pre-Jesus music catalog.
Now Hetti makes what she calls “Grungecore for Christ”—sonic ramblings to God, about God and for God. At the time of recording, she had released five singles and was preparing her first EP.
The Forgiven is a community and ministry supporting artists who make heavy music for Jesus.
Hosted by Bill Branstetter of Out of the Depths and Kate Nardone of Rock of Ages on AscendFM.
CHAPTERS
0:00 Who is Tiffany Twisted? 2:29 From spiritualist medium to Christ 6:35 Can Christians have demons? 9:31 Why deliverance ministry matters 13:03 Discernment, struggle and seeking freedom 18:41 Learning to receive God’s love 22:32 Her father’s journey to faith 25:16 Her daily walk with God, worship and church community 28:06 What she would tell her younger self 31:30 How Tiffany Twisted began 35:18 Deleting her former music catalog 38:42 Creating and producing music as a solo artist 39:54 Fan questions 44:54 Lightning round 48:10 What’s next for Tiffany Twisted 49:57 How to pray for Hetti
Violin Metalcore Shouldn't Work | DRIVE THRU SOCIETY
03 août 2026
01:12:50
Drive Thru Society got their name from a question: is church becoming a place you pull up to, grab a feel-good sermon, and drive away from?
Meg was driving home past a drive-thru pharmacy, a drive-thru car wash, a drive-thru beer barn, and started wondering what happens to a faith built for convenience. "The Bible literally says don't give up meeting together." The band name has been the argument ever since.
They're a Christian violin metalcore band out of Denton, Texas, and their first full-length album, Thresholds, is exactly the kind of heavy we love. Kathy has been playing violin for 27 years and runs it clean through a metalcore mix, no distortion, all in the hands. Meg went into the studio choir-trained and came out screaming. Michael was agnostic until 2017, went forward at an altar call, and Kathy proposed to him the next day. Miles lost his dad, walked away, and went looking for God on his own terms rather than taking anyone's word for it.
We also get into the honest stuff — ministry, marriage, money, and a conversation about miscarriage that neither Kate nor Meg flinched from.
THE FORGIVEN is a community of Christian rock and metal artists. We are looking for emerging artists and bringing our favorites on the show to hear about their walk with God, how they came to know Jesus, and what church looks like for them today. Discover more at theforgiven.co
Hosted by Bill Branstetter (Out of the Depths — a project setting every Psalm to metal, word for word) and Kate Nardone, host of Rock of Ages show on AscendFM.
Subscribe to hear where these artists go next.
So, is your church a drive-thru? Tell us in the comments.
CHAPTERS 0:00 Cold open 1:07 Meet Drive Thru Society 2:15 Who grew up in church? 3:04 Michael: agnostic, and the signs he kept ignoring 4:15 She proposed the day after he got saved 5:54 Leaving the worship team to start a band 7:50 Is it violin metalcore worship? 9:49 Does your church know you play metal? 10:45 27 years on the violin 12:59 Miles: losing his dad, then finding God for himself 14:46 What God is doing in their lives right now 18:08 Advice to your 18-year-old self 19:51 Where the name Drive Thru Society came from 21:49 Who else is doing violin metalcore? 26:39 From praise voice to metal voice 29:31 Michael's favorite riff on Thresholds 30:27 Who fights more on tour? 31:31 Working with Travis and Corey 36:53 How Kate found the band 44:04 Miscarriage, and the song that gave it words 52:46 Fan questions 59:49 Superlatives 1:05:58 What's next 1:08:33 How to pray for the band
Mark Randazzo set out to disprove Christianity. He was raised in it — Christian school, youth group, good parents — and in his early twenties he started asking whether any of it was actually his, or just what he'd been handed.
He never stopped believing. He just refused to take anyone's word for it. His professors called him the Inquisitor. Ask him to describe his band's sound in one word and he says "pissed."
Mark spent years in War of Ages and Letter to the Exiles, stepped away from full-time touring, and came back with Of Malice. We get into the book that brought him full circle, why he thinks the Bible's heroes were broken men rather than great ones, the two meanings behind the name Of Malice, the story behind "Spineless" and the friend it was written about, learning to scream as a frontman in his late 30s, and why he's grown wary of the term "Christian metal" after watching bands use it as a stepping stone and then walk away. Then Mark takes on the Lightning Round.
Of Malice is Mark Randazzo, James Appleton, and Andy Amato, with roots in Letter to the Exiles and War of Ages. Their debut record is on the way.
The Forgiven is a community of Christian rock and metal artists. We are looking for emerging artists and bringing our favorites on the show to hear about their walk with God, how they came to know Jesus, and what church looks like for them today. Discover more at theforgiven.co
Hosted by Bill Branstetter (Out of the Depths — a project setting every Psalm to metal, word for word) and Kate Nardone, host of Rock of Ages show on AscendFM.
Subscribe to hear where these artists go next.
So, should Christians be angry? Tell us in the comments.
CHAPTERS 0:00 "I've started to dislike the term Christian metal" 1:02 Meet Mark Randazzo of Of Malice 2:01 Where and when God met him 3:32 Trying to disprove Christianity, and The Case for Christ 7:01 The Inquisitor: questioning authority, challenging narratives 11:02 Learning to distrust the narrative 16:11 Home church, community, and heavy music 21:06 Staying close to God when church is hard 22:43 Why "Of Malice" — the name's two meanings 28:17 Inside the songwriting: building "Spineless" 32:29 Learning to scream: technique, lost voices, and coaching 38:37 The "Christian metal" label and why Mark is wary of it 46:21 Is the music Spirit-led? Faith and the creative process 47:34 The album's premise 49:20 The real story behind "Spineless" 51:16 The Lightning Round 53:44 What's next for Of Malice 57:44 How can people pray for Mark
Dana quit music. She left her band, stopped listening to anything that wasn't of God, and walked away from the thing that had been the center of her life since she was a little girl. Then a church taught her that worship was healthy and good, and she came back and made metal.
She and her husband Jason are Metal for Emmanuel, a husband-and-wife project out of Georgia. They met when he messaged her on Facebook to buy a ticket to her show, which we agree was probably about more than the ticket. Jason taught himself electric guitar, music theory, home recording, mixing, and mastering, and plays lead, rhythm, and bass on everything they release. Dana sings and does the graphic design. They have three kids under six, she is a stay-at-home mom, they homeschool, and she says the lesson planning is her favorite part.
Their song "In This Storm" came out of the two weeks their youngest daughter spent in the NICU after an emergency C-section, with breathing problems they watched her fight off a little more each day. The first line Dana wrote was "crushing winds awaken, foundations are shaken." She also talks about dabbling in the occult as a teenager after she found metal, the nightmares that came with it, and calling her dad a few years ago to tell him she forgave him for not being there.
The Forgiven is a community of Christian rock and metal artists. We are looking for emerging artists and bringing our favorites on the show to hear about their walk with God, how they came to know Jesus, and what church looks like for them today. Discover more at theforgiven.co
Hosted by Bill Branstetter (Out of the Depths, a project setting every Psalm to metal, word for word) and Kate Nardone, host of Rock of Ages show on AscendFM.
Subscribe to hear where these artists go next.
So, does music hurt your faith? Tell us in the comments.
CHAPTERS 0:00 "You've got to let that go" 0:25 Meet Dana of Metal for Emmanuel 0:48 He bought a ticket to get her number 1:28 How music took over her life 2:46 How they write a song together 3:39 Their sound: Iron Maiden, Dio, and a little black metal 4:42 What their kids think of it 5:24 The story behind "In This Storm" 7:27 The first line she wrote 8:26 Growing up in church without knowing God 10:15 The occult, the nightmares, and wanting out 11:08 Quitting the band and giving up music 11:52 What church looks like now 12:37 Who discipled them 13:20 What "born again" actually means 14:03 What she'd tell her 18-year-old self 14:25 Forgiving the father who wasn't there 15:40 Her daily time with God 16:52 Making videos with three kids underfoot 17:55 Lightning round 20:00 What's next for Metal for Emmanuel 21:17 How to pray for Dana and Jason
Mitch records Pipe Bomb in his apartment, then drives to his mom's house and reamps the whole thing in her basement. That's where Hellhole came from.
He also leads worship at his church on Sunday morning. The band is named after a line in a Unabomber documentary, and he is refreshingly unbothered about that: "I think a lot of people want the name to mean something. I would much rather it just sound cool."
Mitch grew up in the church and never left it, which he knows is not most people's story. What got him was realizing in high school that he believed everything a Christian is supposed to believe and was treating it like a pastime. We get into that, losing his dad at eleven, why becoming a member of a church felt like a bigger deal than he expected, and the conviction that came with marriage: his wife knows the Bible better than he does and he decided he needed to catch up.
We also get into the music. Pipe Bomb is a solo project with The Chariot, Norma Jean, and Nails in its DNA. He talks about humming riffs into his phone at midnight, why "Under God's Heel" is outperforming everything else and what that taught him about hope, how his wife is his barometer for when a lyric is too edgy, and the song he wrote about being caught between wanting to live and wanting to die.
The Forgiven is a community of Christian rock and metal artists. We are looking for emerging artists and bringing our favorites on the show to hear about their walk with God, how they came to know Jesus, and what church looks like for them today. Discover more at theforgiven.co
Hosted by Bill Branstetter (Out of the Depths, a project setting every Psalm to metal, word for word) and Kate Nardone, host of Rock of Ages show on AscendFM.
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CHAPTERS 0:00 "I want it to have some conviction" 0:29 Meet Mitch of Pipe Bomb 2:14 Growing up in the church 4:29 The moment it stopped being his parents' faith 7:51 Losing his dad at eleven, and the men who stepped in 9:45 Why church membership mattered more than he expected 10:26 "I need to catch up to my wife" 12:33 Leading worship on Sunday 13:02 Rereading the Bible from the start 17:27 Balancing heavy lyrics with hope 21:51 The Unabomber documentary and the name 22:51 When it stopped being just a creative outlet 24:06 A normal day 25:09 Humming riffs into his phone at midnight 28:05 Why some songs are almost impossible to play live 30:50 His wife is his edginess barometer 32:40 Fan questions: amps and dream rigs 35:42 Guitars 36:53 Four strings or five 38:51 What changed between the EP and the album 42:46 Writing "I Will Kill the Worst Parts of Myself" 43:01 Depression, and being caught between two paths 47:14 Working with a producer for the first time 49:39 Lightning round 51:37 What's next for Pipe Bomb 52:46 How to pray for Mitch