Contact: Todd Hertz, Ignite Your Faith, 630-260-6200 ext. 4426, thertz@igniteyourfaith.com

CAROL STREAM, Ill., April 7 /Christian Newswire/ -- Christian bands with a harder edge are the readers' top choices in the 2008 Golden Ear Awards conducted by Ignite Your Faith, a magazine for Christian teens. It represents a change in the readers' selections, which have been dominated by more traditional pop/rock favorites.

Ignite Your Faith, a 100,000-circulation magazine, announced the winners in the March/April issue. More than 5,000 readers aged 13 to 18 voted. Winners in various categories are being announced online each week throughout April and May on igniteyourfaith.com.

This year, voters looked to hard rock bands in a big way despite softer trends of the past. Case in point: John Cooper of Skillet won the Best Male Vocalist. Likewise, the Best Female Vocalist category saw its first ever frontwoman to come from a hard rock band: Lacey Mosley of Flyleaf. The trend doesn't end there. Thousand Foot Krutch won the Best Album of the Year honor for The Flame in All of Us (Tooth & Nail) and label mate The Almost won Best New Band.

The complete list of winners will be posted here.

Ignite Your Faith, formerly Campus Life magazine, is published by Christianity Today International, which was founded by Billy Graham in 1956. The publisher now produces 13 publications, an award-winning website with more than 30 online-magazine channels and 2.3 million unique visitors per month, and a wide array of internet resources for people of faith.