10. Metal Church Metal Church 1984 (Ground Zero)
Power Metal
A cornerstone piece of North American power metal.
The Lowdown
A number of years ago on this forum I criticized Metal Church as being a second rate metal band, but one of the members here The Batlord put me right on the subject and I soon realized that he was right. As Metal Church are very much a band that displays everything that is great about the metal genre, in that they display a combination of true metal credentials, a level of consistency in their releases and they constantly go on year after year, despite the fact they only have ten studio releases in their discography. In the ‘thrash intro’ that I wrote at the beginning of this year, I basically split these early thash metal bands into two categories. Firstly, there were those that would go onto fully embrace the genre like Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth and Exodus etc. Secondly there were those like Exciter, Savatage and Metal Church who kind of treated the ‘thrash boom’ as an almost transitory style, that they would adopt for a while before going onto or back to other styles of metal which usually included speed metal. Metal Church though were more focused on power metal and were a band that would always straddle the line between thrash metal and power metal, and depending on your point of view, the listener could easily put them into either camp. The reality though, is that there was actually a very thin line between thrash metal and North American power metal at this time and Metal Church captured that fusion perfectly which makes a lot of their releases prime metal material. Over the years the band like a lot of these lesser known metal bands in terms of chart success, have clearly been dented by constant line-up changes which has done nothing for their continuity, but amongst metal aficionados bands like Metal Church have always been respected. The band hailed originally from California before relocating to Washington state and the band were quickly dominated by its leader Kurdt Vanderhoof, a big guy with a bald head who kind of looks like a larger version of Kerry King of Slayer. Kurdt Vanderhoof the band’s guitarist has been the only ever present member and literally co-writes on nearly all the band’s material, making him the heart and soul of the outfit. David Wayne would be the band’s principal vocalist for their first couple of albums and would sadly leave due to drug issues after their first couple of albums before Mike Howe would take over. The album has a ****ing sweet cover that wouldn’t look out of place on an advert for an ‘Elvira Mistress of the Night’ video and makes no excuses for the insane metal riffs that lie underneath. Album opener “Beyond the Black” starts with a cryptic voice intro before embarking on an epic 6 minutes of the band’s heavy fusion of thrashy riffs, power metal ambitions, tempo changes and the evil screech of David Wayne is the icing on this cake. The song also has time to fit in a nice melodic solo about three quarters of the way through as well, which shows some variation. The title track “Metal Church” is equally as heavy, but it works at a mid-paced grind (the type of metal that I really love) the track also has a reverberating almost film soundtrack vibe in the background that gives the track an epic feel. The instrumental “Merciless Onslaught” kicks off with a double bass and is pure thrash for its 3 minutes. I often measure the quality of a band by its ability to write the odd ballad and Metal Church do this very well on “Gods of Wrath” which is a song which mixes in great clean sections and gritty power metal posturing, and the track is probably the showpiece affair on the album. Tracks like "In the Blood" and "(My Favourite) Nightmare" are just pure energy, the former with its driving riff and its catchiness make in one of the album's best, and the track owes as much to punk as it does to metal. The second track here is equally as good but more disjointed and both songs easily qualify the album as trash material. Not all the songs as expected are anything special and these include tracks like the Iron Maidenish “Hitman” but is does have some muscle power though. On "Battalions" the band cross into Manowar territory and to be fair Manowar do this type of thing better, but again the song is saved by some awesome guitar dynamics about halfway through. Finally I take my hat off to the band for attempting a difficult cover of "Highway Star" where they do a credible job, as the track feels like an extra rather than an integral part of the album. Vocalist David Wayne comes across as a mix between Savatage’s Jon Oliva and Accepts’s Udo Dirkscheneider which of course means he’s bloody epic in his vocal execution. Along with Jag Panzer’s
Ample Destruction (see review) the Metal Church debut is a cornerstone release of the North American power metal movement and these two bands remain vital for that reason alone. Fellow bands like Omen, Helstar and Vicious Rumours were also putting out debuts around this time as well and all are worth checking out.
David Wayne- Vocals
Kurdt Vanderhoof- Guitar
Craig Wells- Guitar
Duke Ericksson- Bass
Kirk Arrington- Drums
Production- Terry Date