Screaming to the heavens

Metal bands perform at Liberty to reach a particular student subculture

“Christian metal.”

Two words that could not seem more antithetical to some people. Yet three bands came to Liberty University Friday night, April 21 to break the mold of Christian culture, and to reach the unseen culture.

Liberty’s usual hipsters, preppies and bohemians were nowhere to be seen as the doors opened to the LaHaye Event Space on Friday for a concert — hosted by Student Activities — featuring metal bands The Death In Me, BoughtXBlood and Oh, Sleeper.

The crowd that gathered represented a small faction of Liberty students, a surprising and little-known subculture at the nation’s largest Christian university.

Student Activities worker Hailey Gustafson said this year’s concert comes as a result of the positive response to The Devil Wears Prada concert last year.

It is a significant deviation from the usual brand of musicians that Liberty hosts through the rest of the year.

“We typically like to bring in popular artists, but this one sticks out,” Gustafson said. “It’s for a different type of student. One of our four core values is cultural
engagement, so we like to pick something that engages a different culture that we have here at Liberty.”

Friday night’s concert proved that a genre of music can engender a culture of its own, especially if it is metal.

As he waited in line to enter the event space, student Xavier Brown said he might have never come if it were not for his girlfriend’s persuasion.

But cultural engagement proved important to Brown as well.

“I’m trying to get out of my own comfort zone,” Brown said.

“It’s about trying something new and not being ignorant in terms of my own culture. When Kirk Franklin came here, it was a different experience for people who liked rock. It’s a culture shock. Kind of like what I’m getting here.”

The concert setup was standing room only, with space provided for a mosh pit in the
center of the room.

Death In Me opened the show with highlights from their album “Evergreen.”

One particular song, “Dragging Chains,” was sung as call-and-response with the head-banging audience.

Lead vocalist Greg Johnston screamed “Move forward day-by-day.” The audience called back “Just keep dragging your chains.”

The Lynchburg-based band BoughtXBlood followed with anthems that got the audience jumping, interspersed with bits of lead vocalist Alvin Triplett’s personal
testimony of faith.

BoughtXBlood was also set to perform at Lynchstock the following day.

After the two introductory acts, Oh, Sleeper took the stage and was greeted with pandemonium from the audience.

The band performed old favorites and sampled some new material from their upcoming album “Bloodied/Unbowed.”

For lead vocalist Micah Kinard, this night was a special one that renewed his trust and faith in God and his personal ministry.

“We played a show in Texas a couple of days ago, and I didn’t think I did well at all,” Kinard said.

“My voice went about halfway through.”

Kinard had been focusing on other things professionally, such as writing.

But he had not been able to practice screaming as much as usual.

“So I was really nervous,” Kinard said.

“I didn’t think I would make it through a 120-minute set of screaming. But God was like, ‘Why are you relying on yourself here? Look at this. It’s Liberty University. You know how many people are praying for this show Let go of yourself, man.’ So I did. And that’s what tonight’s show was.And it was amazing.”

After the show, Kinard and his bandmates gathered and met fans at their merchandise table.

Though the swarming line thinned over time, several fans remained clustered around Kinard.

They all shared stories and laughed as if they had known each other for years.

“This is the most important thing,” Kinard said.

“Being around for 11 years, some of these people have been listening to the band for five or six years. Though we’ve never met, I’ve definitely been a part of their lives. Everything I write is very personal to me, so if someone finds something they like in it, it’s something we have in common.

It’s kind of like meeting old friends I never knew I had.”

Kinard tends to write non-direct lyrics intentionally.

His purpose is opening people up to a conversation, letting them ask the questions so they are open to an answer.

And for the kind of people he ministers to through his music, authenticity and openness are crucial.

“This was for the outcasts,” Kinard said.

“That’s why I love it. Like I said, I don’t like giving direct Bible-beatings because for the people who show up to our shows — it doesn’t work on them.”

Kinard said some of the best conversations he has ever had with his fans starts with them being very guarded, but also genuine in approaching him.

“They’re like ‘Hey man, I’m not a religious guy, but I want to talk about this song. It changed my life,’” Kinard said.

“It turns out being one of the most God-focused songs that I’ve ever written. So I say ‘Look, I know you don’t believe in the same god as I do, but I will say this – when I wrote this song, I was very much praying. I prayed all over it.’ Here’s a conversation no one else would ever be able to have. It’s rare that I get to see the harvest of that, but I know the seed was planted and I just pray that God waters it.”

Kinard hoped his audience would come, take part in a conversation and leave with a sense of empowerment in being genuinely understood by somebody.

“You may feel like you’re the lowest piece of dirt in the world because I do,” Kinard said.

“You may have done things that you think are unforgivable, because I have. But you have an opportunity to be somebody even if you don’t feel worthy of that position.
That is 100 percent me. So I want to get up there and tell people ‘Hey, you’re worth more.’ You can be more today. Just make the change, right now. Leave empowered. Leave understood. And come over here and meet me.”

JARRETT is a feature reporter.