A few years ago Barto, 25, said he started seeing things -- a page from the Book of Psalms fluttering in his yard, an amulet on his windshield, a woman who asked if his band would play at her church and then mysteriously disappeared. 

“All of a sudden, something sort of clicked,” Barto said, and he became a Christian.  His girlfriend dumped him and all but one of his friends deserted him -- the drummer in his band.  So he and the drummer formed a new band, Alove for Enemies, which will release its second full-length album in July.

Alove for Enemies isn’t alone: in the past few years a number of hard-core Christian bands have popped up in New York City, a place usually known more for its bars that stay open until 4 a.m. than its Sunday-morning services.

Since 2001 New York City has been the No. 3 market in the country for Christian and gospel music, a genre that includes everything from Christian rap and rock to Southern gospel, according to Billboard-owned Christian SoundScan.  Only Los Angeles and Chicago are bigger markets.  And even though record sales were down 8 percent worldwide in 2005, sales of gospel music rose by more than 4 percent.

“People are recognizing music for music now more than ever,” said Jason Dunn, president of Facedown Records, the California-based, hard-core Christian label that signed Alove for Enemies.  “They might not agree with the message, but they don’t let it bother them.”  Dunn said that his company’s income has doubled every year since it opened in 1997.

Clearly, it’s not the case that only those who go to mega-churches listen to Christian music, though many holy Rock ‘n Rollers who perform in New York say they’ve had to prove themselves to their audiences.

“There’s a lot of hard-core kids open to it now, but we’ve had to establish ourselves, so they don’t look at us like some Bible-beating hard-core band. We don’t get up there and shove the word of God in their faces,” said Andy Nelson, the guitarist for WrenchintheWorks, a metal-influenced “harder than hard-core” Christian band.

“We’re always a little more nervous at the Christian venues that we’re going to scare the people,” Nelson said.

Last month WrenchintheWorks played at CBGB, the home of punk; other bands have played at the Knitting Factory and various Christian music festivals in the area.

Sometimes, though, it’s easier to play upstate – the fan base there is more solid and getting to the venue is easier.

“It took us three hours to park today, and we were in Brooklyn,” said Luke Anthony, the bassist for Alove for Enemies.  The band was in a recording studio in DUMBO last week working on its upcoming album, “Resistance.”  He added, “If we’re in Manhattan, we might as well drive into the river.”

Cut-throat parking aside, some Christian bands say they’ve been shut out by record labels and clubs for not fitting the hard-core mold and out of churches for not fitting the Christian mold.

“We haven’t been accepted really well by the church establishment, and we were never really accepted by the hard-core people because we couldn’t break into that niche,” said Mike Seven, guitarist and vocalist for Christian rock band, 7 Thunders. Still, 7 Thunders has played at the Knitting Factory several times.

Much contemporary Christian music, or CCM, is marketed at Christian bookstores, but in the hard-core world, that’s not usually the case.  Jason Dunn, of Facedown records, said that only about 5 percent of his label’s record sales come from Christian bookstores – many refuse to stock hard-core music. Most of the records sales under his label come from Hot Topic, a chain store that caters to the Goth and hard-core community, and Best Buy.

“What type of music is able to be classified as Christian music, if you look at history?” asked Austin Williams, pastor of the Lower East Side’s Underground Church, whose congregation is made up of hard-core and punk rockers, Goths, metallists and non-racist skinheads. He pointed out that many Christian hymns, including “Amazing Grace,” are to the tune of barroom songs. 

“Where do you draw that line, where that style of music is Christian and this style isn’t?  The Bible says nothing about that.”

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