I missed out on your discussion a few days ago regarding Christian MHR, and just thought I'd add my $0.02 now. I also consider myself to be a pretty huge fan of Christian MHR, and the following list indicates a lot of my faves (that I can think of off the top of my head):

David Zaffiro - "Surrender Absolute" is a gem and "The Other Side" is absolutely brilliant. I can't believe it took me 5-6 years to figure that out (back when I bought it, I wanted all of the songs to rock like "I See Red"), but I am fully aware of its quality now. It's in my top 10 of all time.

Saint - Both "Time's End" and "Too Late For Living" are masterpieces, although in terms of personal preferences, I think I'd have to give the edge to the latter. I am also a HUGE Judas Priest fan, but back in those days, I was prefering Saint's stuff to the stuff that Priest was releasing at the time ("Ram It Down," "Painkiller"). Actually, I still don't particularly like either of those Priest albums.

Mastedon/John Elefante - What can I say? The man can do no wrong. I love all of his stuff, although it did take me a few listens to get into the J.E. solo stuff. I was expecting it to sound more '80s like his Mastedon stuff.

Bloodgood - "Rock In A Hard Place" is another absolute gem, IMO. I like some of their other stuff too (esp. "All Stand Together").

Whitecross - s/t (like Ratt with the guitar quality of Dokken). I also like "In the Kingdom" a lot.

Stryper - "Too Hell With the Devil" is a tongue-in-cheek masterpiece, and "Soldiers..." totally rocks!!!

Mass - I own both "Voices In the Night" (on CD) and "New Birth" (LP). Great stuff. Kinda like Stryper meets Dokken.

Shout - "It Won't Be Long" is classic AOR/MHR. Fantastic songwriting IMO.

Rage of Angels - Their s/t debut is a very, very cool album. Why, oh why did they have to disband (I am NOT at all a fan of the result, Steelheart).

Barren Cross - I like all of their stuff. I always considered these guys to be like 70% Iron Maiden and 30% Dio.

The Brave - "Battle Cries." Thanks to Bruce for helping me realize what a quality album this is. Huge hooks and lotsa class.

Halo - I love both of their albums. In your face, totally hook-laden AOR/power pop. I always thought of 'em as being a little like Survivor.

Holy Soldier - I own and enjoy their first two albums, but I prefer the songwriting on "Last Train" quite a bit to the material on the s/t debut.

I've also heard a smattering of Impelliteri (sp.???) stuff (thanks Peter!) and I'm looking forward to getting my hands on a couple of their albums. Great stuff!!!

That's all I can think of offhand. There's probably more, but this'll do anyways. I do also enjoy some other stuff as well (Guardian, Sacred Warrior, Watchmen, Tempest, Crystavox, X-Sinnner, and Zion), but I don't personally consider any of their releases to be absolute gems and/or totally essential pieces of my collection. Take care all.
Don

p.s. - I could be wrong, but I don't think James Christian is a Christian artist. I could be wrong. I don't know if it'd be accurate to consider Creed or King's X to be Christian artists either, but if they are, then I'd have to include them in my list of stuff I really enjoy.