The 24th installment of the Cornerstone Festival kicked off on a farm near Bushnell, Ill., yesterday. For nearly two decades, the festival operated outside the sight of mainstream culture, but Cornerstone has recently become a place to check out Christian youth culture first-hand, with the excellent books Body Piercing Saved My Life and Rapture Ready! delving into the long weekend. After the jump, some picks from this year’s lineup.
Things have apparently changed a bit around what used to be Heaven’s Metal magazine, which used to extensively cover religious acts such as Guardian, Bride and Whiteheart (in other words, all the Christian rock I was a little too New Order-obsessed to be into in junior high). Somewhere in the 90’s, they dropped the Heaven and went to just being HM, the Hard Music magazine, but you could count on the mag for a fair amount of preachiness behind the curtain. Now, they’re using GWAR to pitch the magazine. Did I miss something? Compare and contrast, the work of GWAR and a few Christian metal acts, below the cut.
Each week, dozens of songs and albums from up-and-coming (or just plain unknown) bands debut on the pop charts. Some of these bands will never be heard from again; some may become the next little thing. That’s why every two weeks Chuck Eddy will be exploring the world of Billboard’s Heatseekers and Hot Shots, looking for diamonds in the MySpace rough. This week, his roster of up-and-comers tattoo-inspiring Christian metal, a song that may or may not be viral marketing for Chevrolet, and a remake of the Dream Academy’s “Life In A Northern Town.”
