As I continue my search for positive, uplifting music, I’ve stumbled across one of the best musical discoveries I’ve made in months: “Scandinavian Metal Praise.” The name is pretty self-explanatory; Christian “Praise and Worship” songs played by Finnish metal musicians, sung in English. Overall, I love it.

I’ve never been a fan of “metal praise” in general: it just seems too forced for me, either too raw or too slick… nothing “just right.” But when I was browsing iTunes for covers of “Take Me In” by Petra, I came across SMP’s version! And guess what? It’s the best cover yet, unlike the one by Kutless, which is just way too slick-metal for me.

When I went to check out the album itself, it got better yet. As you can see, the album cover is simply a church or kingdom, perched upon a tower in the clouds or something. Now THIS is the kind of praise and worship I can get behind. The riffs run the range from fairly poppy to heavier than what I’d expect, and the vocals sound similar to Evanescence. However, the guitars and drums are mixed way up front, so they don’t necessarily drown out the vocals, but they encourage you to crank the whole thing louder, which is probably the perfect experience for listening to the album.

There are a couple songs that I don’t love, like “When the Spirit of the Lord,” which reminds me of that old metal praise standard, “Jehovah Jirah.” But the awesome songs, “Great in Power,” “Praise Adonai,” “Worthy is the Lamb” and “Take Me In,” more than compensate for any of the band’s shortcomings.

In short, give it a listen. Then get it. (Here’s a link on iTunes).

• Blogger Arni Zachariassen has a rundown of SMP and insight into some old school Christian metal. (He also has chose a handsome WordPress theme for himself).
• Here’s a write-up of a festival (RockUnited) in Scandinavia where “Scandinavian Metal Praise” performed a set of four songs. I think it might have been the only set they ever played. Know your Finnish metal? You might recognize them from the photos.
• The MySpace page for Scandinavian Metal Praise.
• Here’s the band performing “Worthy is the Lamb” from what I think is that previously mentioned festival. Apparently there were serious monitor problems, which explains the vocal lag/audio problems.