Mosh pit follows metalhead ministry

“EVIL, ungodly, profane,” was how the powers that be shot down John Derry’s dabbling in so-called Satanic music.

They were against him from the off, unable to reconcile heavy metal with his Christian faith.

A pariah in the mainstream Church, he turned to God for answers. Nearly two years ago, he felt a calling to bring the mosh pit to worship and lead his own alternative ‘metalhead’ ministry, Revolution Reality, death growls and all, in Swindon.

“The main aim was to reach a generation that the Church normally doesn’t,” says the 32-year-old from Old Town.

“The kids that are not good enough when they’re in church, people who are a little bit different but have the same faith. It’s a place where they can be themselves, where I can be myself. It was God’s vision for me.”

A devout Christian, John was raised by pastors, who at one time headed their own non-denomination congregation in Rugby.

Bullied in school and in the throes of teenage angst, he discovered metal and hardcore punk. He found an outlet in the music’s tortured lyrics, raging riffs and raw emotion.

But his newfound pastime was unequivocally condemned by his church. The tenets of his faith and ‘hardcore’ did not mesh, he was warned. The hordes of headbangers led astray by devil-worshipping music, were, in the leaders’ views, beyond redemption.

John continued to listen to Korn and other ‘angry’ seminal bands until a friend and fellow churchgoer introduced him to Christian metal.

Virtually unheard of in the UK, spiritual metal and hardcore groups had cornered a new market in America, merging what had always been seen as mutually exclusive worlds.

Along with his parents he eventually left the church and formed his own hardcore band, Rising from Death, with his brother Chris and their friends.

They began touring the UK and sharing the bill at Christian festivals. While the music was angsty at its core, the lyrics were clean and Christian in essence.

“I felt a lot of self-hate when I was 18 and heavy metal became an outlet. There was a lot of swearing and anger and as a Christian it’s probably something I shouldn’t have been listening to, but the anger and aggression was what I was feeling,” he admits.

“When I discovered Christian heavy metal and hardcore, I knew that’s what I wanted to do. By that point we had changed churches and went to the Lakeside Christian Fellowship in Cavendish Square.

“I realised I could do the loud screams and so we started a band; I was the lead singer. What we did was hardcore punk but it’s easier to describe as heavy metal.”

When Rising from Death disbanded in 2013, John was at a loss, questioning his purpose and direction in life. He briefly moved to Manchester but returned to Swindon where he joined the Vine Church, based from Commonweal School.

“I prayed about it but I didn’t know what I was supposed to be doing,” he recalls.

“One day I was cycling back from a youth prayer group at Barbury Castle and I heard God say, ‘You should start a hardcore punk church’. But I wasn’t sure if it was really God or my own thoughts.”

Two months later, he attended Meltdown, an annual Christian heavy metal conference in Wales. There he met Tommy Green, the lead singer of Sleeping Giant, and pastor of his own heavy metal church, Revolution Reality, in Salt Lake City, Utah.

“For me that was God confirming what I wanted to do,” says John, stifling a smile. “He told me to contact him and we’d talk. I went to a leadership gathering for his church in Salt Lake City that September. It’s more a ministry than a church, there was someone there who runs a Bible study group out of his tattoo shop in LA. It was just a weekend but I stayed two weeks and Tommy ordained me.”

Back home, he set out to launch a modest UK offshoot of Revolution Reality, reaching out to the hardcore crowd, either overlooked or put off by traditional churches. The first meeting was held in February 2014 out of his parents’ living room in Thorney Park with a dozen intrigued metalheads and heavily-tattooed alternatives in attendance– all Christians looking for acceptance and a sense of belonging and community.

“It was people I knew from the scene. They came as far as Birmingham and Wales,” he says. “It showed me I wasn’t alone.

“The terms Christian means Christ-like. It’s about showing Christ through your actions and being more open-minded. It’s giving people that place where they can meet with God. We provided a family environment and they felt part of something which is something they might not have felt before.”

Revolution Reality continued to worship once a month in Thorney Park, gradually attracting new members.

Eventually the 40-strong congregation moved to All Saints Hall in Southbrook Street.

The set-up is very much that of a regular Sunday service except for the singing, which turns into a full-blown concert featuring mostly traditional hymns arranged in metal and hardcore’s raucous styles. While John concedes metal’s death growls and downbeat sound may seem a peculiar vehicle for Christian praise, he insists it is simply a matter of preference.

“I think people get intimidated by the sound and the look of this genre,” he adds. “To me pop culture can have a much worse impact.

“I’m not saying there is no satanic metal out there, there are all sorts, like everything else. For the church as a whole music is a way of expressing gratitude to God.

“That’s what we do, in the style of music we enjoy. The message is the same. It still honours God. Even people who are not necessarily into the music have come along and been inspired by what we do.”

Amid plummeting church attendances across the country, he is determined to make the institution relevant to the swathes of Millennials who grew up feeling a disconnect from religion.

“There is this idea that religion is not cool, that church is all hymns and dirty old books. Church can be fun and speak to people. You have to adapt to the times.”

Bridging the gap between metal, punk and the Church, while juggling his preaching duties, responsibilities as leader of a growing congregation and the need to make his ministry self-sufficient has proved a colossal task but stepping out of the well-trodden religious path to find his own voice has brought him fulfilment beyond anything he ever imagined possible.

“I’m a completely different person,” he smiles broadly. “I’ve gone from someone who went to church and believed in God to finding myself – in this. I’m just following God’s calling. The most important commandments are to love God and love thy neighbour, regardless of how they look. It’s case of loving people exactly how they are and the Church should be representative of that.”

Revolution Reality UK will hold its first international conference at Legge House in Wroughton from March 11 to 13.

To find out more about the event or the church visit revolutionrealityuk@gmail.com or the Revolution Reality UK Facebook page.