Who is Metal Blessing Radio?
My name is Blake and I live in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. I am the founder and sole operator of Metal Blessing Radio, so no there no giant studio, and no staff…just me
I am of course a metal head, a gamer and I am engaged to the greatest woman on the planet. I love to cook although my creations tend to be on the bizarre side for some (If there was a Dr. Frankenstein of the culinary world, it would be me). I am a firm believer that you can never have enough garlic, and also a bit of a cheese lover (maybe that’s where my sense of humor comes from).
My story begins in high school…
I went to a Christian school but I didn’t really know God, I called myself a Christian by association but hadn’t really gotten serious yet. At the time I had never even listened to Christian music, and at this point I had not even heard death metal yet. Yes, I hate to say it but I was into mainstream music, and the junk they play on the radio. It was my junior year in high school and I had this fear of totally losing God. I felt that going to a Christian school was pretty much the last thread holding me somewhat close to God, and I knew that once I graduated and I was out in the real world there would be nothing there to “keep me in line” so to speak. It would be up to me to go to church and to read my Bible.
In the past I did have the desire to listen to Christian music, but I suppose I was a bit ignorant, and I had the assumption that all Christian music sounded like the Newsboys, or Jars of Clay. That’s not to say those bands are no good, I’ve actually seen them live and they were great, but I am talking about musical style here. “I mean metal is evil right? So I guess I’m just stuck…because this is the music I like…”
I was never so wrong in my life.
on a whim I decided to head over to Google and search for “Christian Metal”, what I found was the beginning of my journey. At this time there was a pretty popular site called Godcore, and stumbled onto their forum to ask some questions. I asked for some suggestions as far as some Christian bands that were similar to what I liked, which at the time I was into the typical bands like Korn, Slipknot, System of a Down, etc. Most of the bands that were suggested to me were “too heavy” to me because I had never heard pure unadulterated metal that was not watered down for the radio. But eventually I bought my first Christian album…Tourniquet’s “Microscopic View of a Telescopic Realm” which I’ll add is still a favorite of mine today. This was around 2001-2002 when I bought this CD, and after about a week or so of listening to nothing but Christian music I felt something almost indescribable. I had always heard people say that music carries a spirit, and I honestly thought that idea was a bunch of garbage to get us to live better, but today I actually agree and believe that music does indeed carry a spirit because after cutting the negative, hateful music out of my life it was almost as if a weight was lifted from me. I felt almost as if a burden was lifted from my shoulders, and I even felt happier inside.
From that moment I felt it was my mission in life to reach out to the people who may have been like me…slaves to music, and those who are tired of the negative music the music they love conveys. I had a very good friend at the time who I would always talk to about music and games, and he probably thought I lost my mind when I sold all my secular music and started listening to Christian music.
Eventually I began to acquire a taste for the finer things of life…like death metal. Once I opened myself up and began picking apart the music I finally was able to enjoy it. Around the same time I also got the idea in my head of two contrasting pictures:
The first is a typical contemporary worship band, with softly sang words, and a slow, simple drumbeat, and a repetitive guitar strum..
Then second I saw a death metal band, belting out powerful screams of worship, pushing the limits of sound with fast double-bass drumming and technical fills, and a blazing guitar striving to keep up with the fast paced music…doing all for the glory of the Lord.
In my opinion seeing both those scenarios, it begs the question “how can metal NOT be used to worship God”? Because in the 2nd example the band is not only worshipping God through the words they are speaking but they are also playing their instruments to the best of their abilities, pushing themselves to the limit and glorifying God. To me that is true worship
I finished high school in 2003 and went on to graduate from Rhema Bible Training Center in 2006. The following year I began playing the popular MMORPG known as World of Warcraft, and while I wont condemn the game I will say that all things are good in moderation, which of course I did not moderate my playtime. For roughly the next two years I pretty much spent more hours living in Azeroth than in the real world. I got my shadow priest “Mephibosheth” to the level cap of 70 at the time, and I also had a 2nd level 70 shaman. When I was bored, rather than find something else to do like most normal people would do, I would start a new character. I lived and breathed Warcraft, but in about the middle of 2008 I got burned out on Warcraft, and decided to start playing Age of Conan. Some of my friends from Warcraft followed me over to play with me and we played for about a month, and slowly they all went back to Warcraft. I was totally burned out on Warcraft, and I didn’t want to play Age of Conan by myself anymore so it was then that I “took a break” from all video games. It was during this time that I was amazed at how much free time I had after I stopped playing.
I started watching the Saviour Machine “Live in Deutschland 2002” DVD and that was what it took to rekindle that flame inside me. My passion to share Christian metal with the world had now been reborn and suddenly I looked at my collection of music on my shelf and thought “why not try to start a radio station?”
So July 8th 2008 is the day that Metal Blessing Radio came into existence, and the name was inspired by and taken from the Mortification song “Metal Blessing” because to me that song tells what Christian metal is all about. We are the church of steel, standing for God, preaching His Word
