Andrew Schwab spent four years writing a novel about a tech company that offers to upload your soul and let you live forever. He thinks most people would take the deal.

The question in the book started during COVID, watching the world his kids were going to grow up in. Take digital salvation with a guarantee, or trust a God you can't taste, see or touch. "I think most people would sign up for the first thing because it's guaranteed. And what if that is the great delusion?" He also told us something that didn't show up anywhere in our research. He isn't part of a local congregation. He leads a church on Discord every Sunday, and it doesn't even have a name. Why he built it that way is the rest of that conversation.

Andrew started Project 86 in Orange County in 1996, signed with Tooth and Nail, and put out the first record in 1998. Ten albums later he announced a final chapter and wrote I Need Truth, a memoir about the whole run. Then came P86:OMNI, a darker, heavier double album with electronic elements, seven music videos and a companion novel. He's also 426 episodes into the band's podcast.

ABOUT THE FORGIVEN

The Forgiven is a community and ministry for artists making heavy music for Jesus. We share their music, tell their stories, pray with them and support the work God has placed in their hands.

The show is hosted by Bill Branstetter, creator of Out of the Depths (a project setting every Psalm to metal, word for word), and Kate Nardone, host of Rock of Ages on AscendFM.

Explore every episode, meet the artists and shop The Forgiven:

https://theforgiven.co

Hear more emerging Christian rock and metal:

https://theforgiven.co/playlist

CHAPTERS

0:00 Show Opener

0:43 Thirty years of Project 86

1:48 Two truths and a lie

4:57 How he met Jesus

9:51 The Crucified and the Christian bookstore

14:33 What Me Against Me meant to Kate

18:25 Can a touring musician have a local church?

20:04 Why his church meets on Discord

26:27 Where his high school friends are now

27:41 The state of the music industry

34:28 "If I know it's AI, I don't consume it"

37:04 What COVID started

38:47 Chasing the Drawing Black Lines dragon

41:27 Building P86:OMNI

45:46 Why keep the 86

47:57 Would you upload your soul?

49:59 Every song is a chapter of the novel

55:52 Lightning Round

60:08 Jesus' favorite Project 86 song

62:29 What's next for P86:OMNI

64:50 How to pray for Andrew

FOLLOW

Project 86: https://project86.com

Bill Branstetter: https://www.instagram.com/outofthedepthsmusic/

Kate Nardone: https://www.instagram.com/radiohostkatehartnardone/

#Project86 #P86OMNI #ChristianMetal #TheForgiven

Someone in amen's church was uncomfortable with a pastor who screams. He doesn't think screaming is a sin. He gave it up anyway.

Caleb makes music as amen, and he is on staff full time at his church as a pastor. When the call came, he didn't ask who had raised it or what they said. "All I needed to know is that they were uncomfortable with the fact that I would be in the pulpit." He told us he would have rather never made another song again than lose the ability to pastor the people in that church. Then he tried yelling instead of screaming, and that got him called into a second meeting. What his pastor told him in that room is the rest of the episode.

This is Caleb's second time on the show. amen is a Christian metal project built on scripture, and he told us it turns one year old on October 8. He says he is too Christian for metal and too metal for Christians, and that both sides have a problem with what he does. He also says the conviction was never his: "I do not think the screaming's wrong. I was just trying to be obedient to the other person's conviction."

Stay to the end. Caleb prays for the church and the metal scene to act like one body.

ABOUT THE FORGIVEN

The Forgiven is a community and ministry for artists making heavy music for Jesus. We share their music, tell their stories, pray with them and support the work God has placed in their hands.

The show is hosted by Bill Branstetter, creator of Out of the Depths (a project setting every Psalm to metal, word for word), and Kate Nardone, host of Rock of Ages on AscendFM.

Explore every episode, meet the artists and shop The Forgiven:

https://theforgiven.co

Hear amen and more emerging Christian rock and metal:

https://theforgiven.co/playlist

CHAPTERS

0:00 A call about the screaming

1:33 Why his congregation is not every congregation

2:19 Is screaming a sin? Paul and the weaker brother

3:21 Why the stronger conscience gives way

4:40 The local church comes first

5:33 What it cost him to lay it down

6:46 He tried yelling instead

8:01 Where do you draw the line? Tattoos in the pulpit

9:54 Stop screaming and stay, or leave the church?

10:30 The final meeting

12:04 "Caleb, are you still screaming?"

13:32 What his pastor told him

15:59 The weight lifted

16:48 Too Christian for metal, too metal for Christians

17:09 "This conviction is not mine"

18:52 Sleep Token shirts and the image

19:51 Christianity is sacrifice

20:10 Revelation 2 and his first love

20:53 Elijah's cave, or keep going

21:59 Kate: let the loudest voice be the Father's

24:04 Bridging the local church and the metal scene

25:16 An apology for his first video

27:16 Caleb prays

FOLLOW

amen: https://www.instagram.com/music.amen/

Bill Branstetter: https://www.instagram.com/outofthedepthsmusic/

Kate Nardone: https://www.instagram.com/radiohostkatehartnardone/

#amen #ChristianMetal #ScriptureMetal #TheForgiven

Grace Graber says the reason you cannot forgive someone is usually not about that person at all. It is about someone you never forgave five years ago.

She was assaulted by a group of girls in middle school, and it got bad enough that her parents pulled her out of school. What she has done with that since is the conversation. "There's been plenty of times I don't want to forgive so and so for doing that to me," she told us. "The reason why is because I haven't forgiven so and so five years back for doing the same thing to me." She walks through what therapy taught her about digging for the belief underneath the hurt, why she thinks those beliefs are less lies than things you were taught, and why letting someone go can feel unsafe.

Grace is a Christian pop-punk artist in Nashville and a pastor's kid out of Sonoma County. A Hawk Nelson song stopped her from taking her own life at twelve, and her parents started driving her to Christian rock shows because they did not know what else to do. Every poster on that bedroom wall is a person in her life now. Her manager fronted Stellar Kart, her worship pastor spent fifteen years in Run Kid Run, and the drummer she met at church turned out to be Hawk Nelson's. A car accident took her ability to play guitar. The settlement paid for beauty school, and the job she got out of it ran the songwriting contest that took her to Nashville.

We also asked how a touring artist does church, and she did not dress up the answer.

ABOUT THE FORGIVEN

The Forgiven is a community and ministry for artists making heavy music for Jesus. We share their music, tell their stories, pray with them and support the work God has placed in their hands.

The show is hosted by Bill Branstetter, creator of Out of the Depths (a project setting every Psalm to metal, word for word), and Kate Nardone, host of Rock of Ages on AscendFM.

Explore every episode, meet the artists and shop The Forgiven:

https://theforgiven.co

Hear Grace Graber and more emerging Christian rock and metal:

https://theforgiven.co/playlist

CHAPTERS

0:00 Opener

0:50 Who is Grace Graber?

1:47 Two truths and a lie

2:54 Grace's testimony

3:30 The Hawk Nelson song that saved her life

6:33 Forgiveness, trauma and the roots beneath the hurt

10:42 "Mental health is a hope issue"

14:07 False beliefs, truth and healing

18:32 The car accident that changed everything

19:35 Finding her way back to music

21:39 Trusting God through changing seasons

24:54 Church hurt

25:24 How touring Christian artists do church

28:28 Finding a church community that understands

30:09 Bible study, The Bible Project and AI

31:43 What Grace would tell her teenage self

33:47 Learning guitar and becoming a songwriter

34:20 How PUNK X PRAISE happened

38:36 Social media and refusing to chase trends

40:00 How worship songs become punk

41:33 Lightning round

44:26 Jericho and what's next

45:23 How to pray for Grace

FOLLOW

Grace Graber: https://www.instagram.com/gracegrabermusic/

Bill Branstetter: https://www.instagram.com/outofthedepthsmusic/

Kate Nardone: https://www.instagram.com/radiohostkatehartnardone/

#GraceGraber #PopPunk #ChristianRock #PunkXPraise #TheForgiven

A church sign on the way to work read: the enemy cannot cross the bloodline. By the time Disciple 13 finished reading it, he had the whole band.

He was not in church at the time. August 2023, driving to work, and a sign he passes every day had just been changed. "As soon as I read that, that's when the Lord spoke to me and gave me the vision for this and to use the name." Skull masks, numbers instead of names, Ezekiel 37. He says it took two to three minutes, start to finish. Then he had to go home and explain it to his wife, who asked how that was going to work.

Bloodlined is a masked metal band out of North Carolina. Disciple 13 plays guitar and started it after a minister of music told him at fourteen to stop playing in the church band. Disciple 14 plays drums, came in to track one session as a hired hand, then called back and asked if there were more songs. Disciple 17 sings, and he is not in this one. The lore is Ezekiel 37, the valley of the dry bones. Their fans are the Army of the Awakened, the merch is dog tags, and they have four singles out, starting with a Mary Did You Know cover that first got them noticed.

The hard part of this one is the AI accusations, which they are still carrying, and which Kate has watched drive another artist off the internet completely.

Stay to the end. Kate prays over both of them.

ABOUT THE FORGIVEN

The Forgiven is a community and ministry for artists making heavy music for Jesus. We share their music, tell their stories, pray with them and support the work God has placed in their hands.

The show is hosted by Bill Branstetter, creator of Out of the Depths (a project setting every Psalm to metal, word for word), and Kate Nardone, host of Rock of Ages on AscendFM.

Explore every episode, meet the artists and shop The Forgiven:

https://theforgiven.co

Hear more emerging Christian rock and metal:

https://theforgiven.co/playlist

CHAPTERS

0:00 Show Opener

0:29 Who is Bloodlined?

1:46 Disciple 14: Stryper, and where music met God

4:04 Disciple 13: saved at seven, then kicked out of the church band

6:06 A tornado destroyed everything around the house, not the house

6:19 Driving to work in August 2023 when the whole band arrived

7:50 What church looks like for them today

14:27 Three members, and praying for the two who are missing

16:35 Mary Did You Know, and almost losing the band

18:09 The devil can make you busy

18:38 Where they want this to go, and the messages from Ukraine

20:46 Why the masks, and why no real names

23:29 Playing for thousands was easy. Church was terrifying.

23:52 Does your church know? Including the mom who does not get it

25:31 The Christian AI backlash

29:32 A pastor told an artist to stop screaming

41:14 Psalm 91 became Not Afraid, and why they changed the name

44:05 Where the name Bloodlined came from

47:18 Kate prays over both of them

FOLLOW

Bloodlined: https://www.instagram.com/bloodlinedofficial/

Bill Branstetter: https://www.instagram.com/outofthedepthsmusic/

Kate Nardone: https://www.instagram.com/radiohostkatehartnardone/

#Bloodlined #ChristianMetal #MaskedBand #Ezekiel37 #OutoftheDepths #TheForgiven

Divided Me plays Christian festivals and they play bars, and they walk into both asking the same question: how do we worship here?

"When we get there, it's let's see how we can worship to bring someone closer to God." That's Spencer. Deanne takes it further. Before they play Unbound, she tells the room how many children were abused in that county, and then they play it. People wait around afterward to ask for prayer.

Divided Me is a heavy band out of Amarillo, in the West Texas panhandle. Deanne sings, and learned to scream from Zahna, who ended up co-writing the EP. Spencer plays guitar because his dad started a messianic Jewish congregation at home and needed one. Clay plays bass, trained as a drummer, and has been through two church splits. Gio plays drums, services ATMs across three states, and asked to pray about it before he said yes. Four members, four different churches.

The hard part of this one is Clay's second split, which is recent enough that he says he doesn't want to get into it, and then gets into a little of it anyway.

Stay to the end. Kate prays over all of them.

WATCH, LISTEN AND DISCOVER

Watch the episode on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/N-Yy46E2qJk

Hear Divided Me and more emerging Christian rock and metal:
https://theforgiven.co/playlist

Explore every episode, meet the artists and shop The Forgiven:
https://theforgiven.co

ABOUT THE FORGIVEN

The Forgiven is a community and ministry for artists making heavy music for Jesus. We share their music, tell their stories, pray with them and support the work God has placed in their hands.

The show is hosted by Bill Branstetter—creator of Out of the Depths, a project setting every Psalm to metal word for word—and Kate Nardone, host of Rock of Ages on AscendFM.

CHAPTERS

0:00 "I don't feel him as much as I did": the line that became Take Me Back

0:39 Who is Divided Me?

1:48 Deanne: saved at eight, surrendered at a DNow

2:47 Clay: a children's pastor's kid who walked away from the drums

4:09 Spencer: Southern Baptist, Seventh-day Adventist, then messianic Jewish

6:24 Throwing ceramic Santas in the dumpster

9:20 Clay on two church splits and where he put his focus

11:37 Four members, four different churches

15:12 The new album: someone broken, then redeemed, then back on the path

16:35 Can metal be worship? Bar shows, and reading the county's numbers out loud

17:32 Who writes the songs, and what changed when Gio joined

23:07 Blind: Zahna, a flooded studio, and learning to scream

27:42 Take Me Back, a love song about finding God again

31:21 Day jobs: APS, CASA, IT, and ATMs

33:51 How they all met, and the phone call to Gio

38:07 Superlatives

48:20 Where to start if you have never heard Divided Me

52:02 How to pray for Divided Me

53:22 Kate prays over the band

Divided Me: https://www.instagram.com/dividedmeband/

Bill Branstetter: https://www.instagram.com/outofthedepthsmusic/

Kate Nardone: https://www.instagram.com/radiohostkatehartnardone/

#DividedMe #ChristianMetal #ChristianRock #OutoftheDepths #TheForgiven

One day amen is going to stop making music. No announcement, no farewell record and no goodbye.

“One day this is gonna end, and when it does, it’s gonna happen suddenly. I’m just not gonna make another song again. I’m not gonna say bye.”

amen is a twenty-two-year-old pastor and Christian metal artist from South Carolina. Every lyric is scripture. He built more than 100,000 TikTok followers before releasing a song, left nursing school on a full scholarship to pursue music and earned a plaque for one million streams—all without ever playing a live show.

This is a conversation about calling, church, telling the truth and knowing when to let go. Stay through the end as Kate prays over him.

WATCH AND DISCOVER

Watch the episode:
https://youtu.be/--bWYSEJyM4

Hear amen on The Forgiven Playlist:
https://theforgiven.co/playlist

Episodes, artists and merch:
https://theforgiven.co

The Forgiven is a community and ministry supporting artists who make heavy music for Jesus.

CHAPTERS

0:00 The day he stops making music
0:31 Who amen is
1:37 Two truths and a lie
2:09 He dropped out of nursing school on a full scholarship
4:40 Where his faith actually started
7:23 His worst years came after he got saved
10:26 Why he calls stage cues in church deception
11:19 A pulpit he knew he did not belong in
11:48 He excommunicated himself
15:45 Telling his wife the truth
18:47 How a teenager ended up on church staff
21:27 Forty-two hours preaching on a livestream
25:04 What discipleship looks like on a media team
31:06 The window, the prayer rug and the open Bible
35:24 What he would tell his eighteen-year-old self
37:44 Where the name amen came from
41:14 A plaque on the wall and three million streams
43:15 Why he will never play a live show
46:00 What his church thinks of the music
47:23 Collaborations with Tiffany Twisted and Poetry on Fire
51:50 Lightning round—and the socks
56:22 One song a month, on purpose
58:29 How he turns scripture into lyrics
1:06:52 Kate prays

FOLLOW

amen: https://www.instagram.com/music.amen/

Bill Branstetter: https://www.instagram.com/outofthedepthsmusic/

Kate Nardone: https://www.instagram.com/radiohostkatehartnardone/

#amen #ChristianMetal #ScriptureMetal #TheForgiven

Maggie Rojas spent years asking God to fix her. It took her husband to point out that she might not actually want to get better yet.

Maggie was saved at eleven but spent much of the next decade believing her problems weren’t dramatic enough to bother God with. Then Blaise told her, “I think you don’t want to get better, and I think you need to ask God to help you want to.”

What she did with that is the heart of this conversation.

Maggie fronts the Nashville Christian metalcore band Magdalene Rose. Blaise plays drums for her and for Seventh Day Slumber, whose frontman is his father. Their debut album, The Heart That Bloomed After Death, was released in 2025 after three years of work.

They talk honestly about insecurity, depression, an eating disorder and Maggie’s difficult experience coming off medication during a tour when she couldn’t reach her doctor. She doesn’t give us a tidy ending.

Stay through the end as Kate prays over Maggie and Blaise.

WATCH AND DISCOVER

Watch the episode:
https://youtu.be/XmKLvyyebxo

Hear Magdalene Rose on The Forgiven Playlist:
https://theforgiven.co/playlist

Episodes, artists and merch:
https://theforgiven.co

The Forgiven is a community and ministry supporting artists who make heavy music for Jesus.

Hosted by Bill Branstetter of Out of the Depths and Kate Nardone of Rock of Ages on AscendFM.

CHAPTERS

0:00 Who is Magdalene Rose?
2:16 Maggie’s testimony: Do you want to heal?
12:15 The lie underneath it—and love she didn’t have to earn
15:57 The master’s in crisis counseling—and why she earned it
18:37 Kate on vulnerability, shame and being seen
22:31 Why sharing your testimony matters
22:41 How Maggie and Blaise met: a washer, a dryer and a favor
27:52 Blaise on earning the drum chair in his dad’s band
32:28 Maggie on starting at five and playing her first show at eleven
36:34 Lightning round
43:35 How to pray for Maggie and Blaise
45:15 Closing prayer

FOLLOW

Magdalene Rose:
https://officialmagdalenerose.com

Bill Branstetter:
https://www.instagram.com/outofthedepthsmusic/

Kate Nardone:
https://www.instagram.com/radiohostkatehartnardone/

#MagdaleneRose #ChristianMetalcore #ChristianRock #Beautycore #OutoftheDepths #TheForgiven

Kaleb Webb and Evan Chapman have been best friends since they were five. Then Kaleb nearly didn’t survive being a teenager—and Evan refused to stop showing up.

At fifteen, Kaleb was homeless and stealing food to feed his sisters. Evan kept inviting him to church until Kaleb finally broke at an altar and heard the Holy Spirit say, “If you give Me your life, I will give you a new one.”

Now they front Poetry on Fire, a Christian metalcore band from southeast Missouri with one mission: to see the captive set free. We talk about their friendship, surrendering music to God and the unlikely road from garage recordings through a sock-wrapped USB microphone to approximately 60,000 monthly Spotify listeners at the time of recording.

Kaleb also gives us his unfiltered perspective on where AI belongs in Christian music, where it doesn’t and why other Christians have criticized him for using it.

WATCH AND DISCOVER

Watch the episode:
https://youtu.be/DKW_1Sbq-e8

Hear Poetry on Fire on The Forgiven Playlist:
https://theforgiven.co/playlist

Episodes, artists and merch:
https://theforgiven.co

The Forgiven is a community and ministry supporting artists who make heavy music for Jesus.

Hosted by Bill Branstetter of Out of the Depths and Kate Nardone of Rock of Ages on AscendFM.

CHAPTERS

0:00 Who is Poetry on Fire?
2:07 Kaleb’s testimony: homeless at fifteen to the altar
9:54 Evan’s story—and a friendship since age five
15:45 Sharing the stage with For Today and Sent By Ravens
21:14 From garage bands to Poetry on Fire
30:08 Who’s discipling the artists?
36:54 Their home church and community
37:55 Advice to their eighteen-year-old selves
39:54 Their honest take on AI in Christian music
47:03 Lightning round
53:07 What’s next for Poetry on Fire
55:05 Where to find and support them
55:44 How to pray for Poetry on Fire

FOLLOW

Poetry on Fire:
https://www.instagram.com/poetryonfiremusic/

Kate Nardone:
https://www.instagram.com/radiohostkatehartnardone/

Bill Branstetter / Out of the Depths:
https://www.instagram.com/outofthedepthsmusic/

#PoetryOnFire #ChristianMetalcore #ChristianRock #Testimony #ChristianMusic #TheForgiven