Although I'm not religious, I first heard of Global Wave System (GWS) from a Christian friend of mine who amassed a huge collection of religious pop-music. I was surprised to hear what Christian "punk" and "heavy metal" sounded like. I thought it all would be constrained to boring, light-hearted "go tell it on the mountain" crap, but hearing pseudo-religious banter growled through a microphone with grinding speed metal was humorous to say the least. If there was a genre of music, apparently there is a religious version of it somewhere.
My friend then asked, since I was into Industrial and EBM music, if I heard of GWS. Give me a break - Christian Industrial? Well, there is that - GWS - but before you atheist rivetheads cringe, let me tell ya, I never heard such angst-ridden distorted tracks in my life. I listened to the band's one and only album "Life Equals Death" and I couldn't help but think of the best aspects of Skinny Puppy. GWS explores EBM, darkwave, and experimental – at times you get a comprehensible beat and catchy synth baseline, then dive right into a full on assault of distortion and noise. They have some of most creepy samples I have ever heard - especially when at one point you enjoy the sounds of terrified man pleading for his life while being tortured - and this is a Christian band? Another interesting audio is the distorted sounds of a televangelist preaching over what sounds like a dying radio signal - like what you'd hear driving in the middle of a rural hellhole at 2 in the morning.
As for promoting the faith, you might catch some lyrics mentioning Jesus – I caught what sounds like "the only thing I live for is Christ", but the vocals are just as distorted and harsh as the music – it's really hard to tell what is being said unless you listened very closely.
Anyway, it's too bad GWS remains such an obscure band - there is really enjoyable stuff here to fill the darkest moments of life. I really want to hear their other stuff, but they are a hard gem to find.
My friend then asked, since I was into Industrial and EBM music, if I heard of GWS. Give me a break - Christian Industrial? Well, there is that - GWS - but before you atheist rivetheads cringe, let me tell ya, I never heard such angst-ridden distorted tracks in my life. I listened to the band's one and only album "Life Equals Death" and I couldn't help but think of the best aspects of Skinny Puppy. GWS explores EBM, darkwave, and experimental – at times you get a comprehensible beat and catchy synth baseline, then dive right into a full on assault of distortion and noise. They have some of most creepy samples I have ever heard - especially when at one point you enjoy the sounds of terrified man pleading for his life while being tortured - and this is a Christian band? Another interesting audio is the distorted sounds of a televangelist preaching over what sounds like a dying radio signal - like what you'd hear driving in the middle of a rural hellhole at 2 in the morning.
As for promoting the faith, you might catch some lyrics mentioning Jesus – I caught what sounds like "the only thing I live for is Christ", but the vocals are just as distorted and harsh as the music – it's really hard to tell what is being said unless you listened very closely.
Anyway, it's too bad GWS remains such an obscure band - there is really enjoyable stuff here to fill the darkest moments of life. I really want to hear their other stuff, but they are a hard gem to find.