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01. Stryper-Stryper has to be at the top of this list. Not because I think they're the best, but because their contribution to Christian metal is the equivalent of Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden and Judas Priest in the non-christian metal world.  I never really got the goofy outfits that looked like bumble bees.  They are however quality musicians who brought Christian metal to the mainstream in the 1980's. Established in southern California in 1983, multi-platinum crossover Christian metal band, Stryper, continues to share their positive message and energetic stage presence with a passionate following throughout the world. Since the band’s inception over 30 years ago, the founding members have stayed true to their deepest convictions, turning from “the ways of the world” and following their hearts instead. “In the past 34 years, we’ve evolved into what we are now,” says vocalist and guitarist Michael Sweet. “This is what we always...

During the 80's glam and melodic metal ruled the airwaves. For all of the bands that made it big, there were plenty of other talented bands that got lost in the shuffle. Many of them suffered from lack of promotion in a crowded market.  By the end of the 80's and into the early 90's the genre was beginning to be flooded with so many bands that it was hard to tell who was the flavor of the week.  By the early 90's bands like Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden had completely changed the musical landscape.  The bands listed below were almost all victims of poor timing as they hit the scene just a little to late to be the next Motley Crue, Guns N' Roses or Ratt. However, that doesn't mean that they weren't great, and deserve to be heard. Many of these bands are underground favs for fans...

Over the course of the last decade, album sales have fallen sharply for the rock and metal genres, while hip-hop and rap have exploded in sales and popularity.  The interesting thing about this is that a lot of the popular rap artists today have taken a rather non-traditional approach to create their music, much like how the early metal bands separated themselves from mainstream rock by incorporating new elements of sound. Rap and rock together is not a new thing.  Run DMC were probably the first band to bring the two together for a larger audience  in the early days of rap. They were followed up by the Beastie Boys who mixed metal music sounds with their unique flavor of rap. Other bands followed with Ice-T starting the controversial band Body Count. The mid to late 80's seemed to see the two genres go their separate ways again. But in...

When I was a teenager, I longed to be a great rock guitarist. I took lessons. I studied and practiced for hours. Eventually I came to the conclusion that I did not have the talent level needed to achieve my dream of rock super stardom. Oh, sure I improved over time, but no amount of practice can give you talent for something. That's a completely different area and either you have it or you don't.   I was a huge heavy metal fan and collected every album that I could get my hands on and listened to them for hours. I wrote letters to people in the music industry that I looked up to. Most of the time I would never hear anything back from the artists that I had written to, or at best, I would receive a small black & white photo that had the autograph of the...

During the 80's hard rock ruled the airwaves. Quiet Riot's Metal Health became the first #1 metal album of all time. Soon after the scene exploded with bands like Motley Crue, Guns N' Roses, Dokken, Ratt, Warrant, Poison and many more. Unfortunately, for ever success story there were great bands that got overlooked, suffered from poor promotion or simply imploded on their own. If you're a true 80's rock fan, you've probably heard at least some of these bands, and if you're like me, you bought all of these albums. But for those of you who didn't....here's a list of some the greatest albums that you might have missed   Alcatrazz - No Parole From Rock N' Roll Notable for being the major label debut of Swedish guitar virtuoso Yngwie Malmsteen,  Alcatrazz featured former Rainbow vocalist Graham Bonnet and was an impressive debut release. Unfortunately, Yngwie left the band after...

So here's an interesting problem. AC/DC's last album was "Rock Or Bust", which was the the band's 17th studio album. As most of you know, during the tour, vocalist, Brian Johnson was told by doctors to immediately stop touring or risk permanent hearing loss. Left with cancelling the remainder of the tour or continuing on with a replacement vocalist, Angus Young chose the latter. After much speculation, Mr. Young selected what was probably the best possible choice to finish the concerts that were already booked. That vocalist was none other than Guns N' Roses frontman Axl Rose. Even though, the band had some backlash from fans who wanted to see AC/DC with Johnson, the response was split by many people. Personally, I think if Angus had chosen any other singer than Axl, most of the fans would have requested a refund for their tickets. Choosing a well known and famous...

The Most Successful Bands To Change Singers While many bands have tried, only a few have been really successful with switching lead singers after they become famous. Let's take a look of some of the best lead singer changes first.... Iron Maiden - Starting out with Paul Di'Anno, the band made a name for themselves and were poised for greatness. The band had a major label deal with EMI records in 1979. With Di'Anno at the helm the band recorded their debut album "Iron Maiden" and "Killers", but due to Di'Anno's self destructive behavior and extreme drug use, the band parted ways with him and hired then Samson vocalist, Bruce Dickinson. And the rest as they say....is history. Iron Maiden scored their first No. 1 UK hit with "The Number Of The Beast" and built one of the biggest followings worldwide with Dickinson. In 1993 Dickinson left Iron Maiden to...

Guitar Heroes Part 1 Here'a list of outstanding guitarists who are known for both technique and showmanship. These artists have inspired generation after generation of guitar players. And will continue to inspire listeners for years to come. Jimi Hendrix: James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942 – September 18, 1970) was an American rock guitarist, singer, and songwriter. Although his mainstream career spanned only four years, he is widely regarded as one of the most influential electric guitarists in the history of popular music, and one of the most celebrated musicians of the 20th century. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame describes him as "arguably the greatest instrumentalist in the history of rock music" Hendrix played a variety of guitars throughout his career, but the instrument that became most associated with him was the Fender Stratocaster. He acquired his first Stratocaster in 1966, when a...

Rock Guitar Heroes Part 2 Most rock music fans are aware of the guitar heroes like Eddie Van Halen, Randy Rhoads, Jimi Hendrix and Jimmy Page....but there are so many other fantastic guitar players that sort of fly under the radar. They are often well known to other guitar players and serious band fans, but not as well known as the guitarists listed above. If you're aware of these players already...then you'll probably agree and if you're not aware of these artists....do yourself a favor and check out their work. You'll be absolutely blown away.   George Lynch: George Lynch (born September 28, 1954) is an American hard rock guitarist and songwriter. Lynch is best known for his work with 80's metal band, Dokken, and his post-Dokken solo band, Lynch Mob. Lynch is considered to be one of the most influential and famous 80's metal guitarists. He is known for...

A BRIEF HISTORY OF JAPANESE HARD ROCK AND METAL Part One Recently, there has been a lot of publicity around the Japanese band Babymetal. This trio of Japanese teens have taken the world by storm and found international success. Now, having said that, I'm sure many metal purists would take issue with Babymetal being to referred to as a metal band. You see, Babymetal is a new hybrid, mixing metal music with Japanese pop music to create a new genre of music. With all of the attention focused on this Japanese band, I thought it would be fitting for XSROCK to do an article about Japanese hard rock and metal. Now, I'm not going to cover every single Japanese rock band here, but I do think it's important to remind the rest of the world that Japan not only has a large rock and metal fan base, but also has...