08. Metal Church The Dark 1986 (Elektra)
Power Metal
Time is running short and the Devil takes his due. The Lowdown
Despite being one of those bands that neatly fitted into ‘the thrash metal boom’ Metal Church were certainly a perfect example of a band that straddled the line between thrash metal and power metal. At this time there was still a thin line between thrash metal and North American power metal in terms of musical approach and Metal Church captured that fusion perfectly, which makes a lot of their early releases prime metal material. The thrash connection with the band was always going to be strong anyway, especially since the band had prime touring companions in a certain Anthrax and Metallica who of course would shatter the boundaries of heavy metal in 1986 with
Master of Puppets. The Band’s second album
The Dark would crack the US Billboard 100 chart and also continue with the band’s tacky thrash looking album covers, this one was certainly less in the eye candy department than the debut imo but has a similar approach. The early Metal Church line-up is often cited as their classic and top dogs here David Wayne and the big man Kurdt Vanderhoof dominate the writing credits with a selection of consistently strong offerings. The album would be produced by Mark Dodson whose production work over the years would pretty much cover the heavy metal spectrum. The album quickly gets down to business with the frantic drumming intro of “Ton of Bricks” and then quickly goes into the ruthless sounding vocals of David Wayne and the speed metal riffs of Kurdt Vanderhoof and Craig Wells. This song then leads into the bad ass licks of “Start the Fire” and as I’ve often said numerous times on this journal, this is just the kind of metal I really dig and this track has some tongue-in-cheek nods to Metallica in its execution, and often cited as a fan favourite to boot as well. The title track “The Dark” is suitably brutish in its execution to be a title track and is interestingly placed on about the halfway point of the album. Songs like “Method to Your Madness” come across as more disjointed in their approach and I’m certain this is where critics attack the band’s musical direction at this time. Then there are tracks like “Over My Dead Body” and “Psycho” which are fairly routine thrash type offerings, while “Line of Death” is without doubt the best of these type of tracks. The album is rounded of with “Burial at Sea” a deep and more interesting track than some of the band’s more thrash orientated tracks on the album and album closer “Western Alliance” follows in much the same mold. The most epic track on the album is “Watch the Children Pray” with its acoustic intro that gradually enters into a grandiose power metal sound, with some pretty heavy sections being applied to it and it’s a track that really shows how great Metal Church were at grinding out these kind of compositions when they wanted to and imo showed that they had more depth than just offering thrash type numbers.
The Dark would be the final album without dynamic vocalist David Wayne, who I once described on a previous review as a cross between Savatage’s Jon Oliva and Accepts’s Udo Dirkscheneider in the vocal department, he would sadly leave the band due to drug issues and Mike Howe would finally take over.
The Dark is a worthy entry onto Rock Hard’s ‘The 500 Greatest Rock & Metal Albums of All Time’ and pretty essential listening from this period as well for anybody into thrash metal meets traditional heavy metal, and the album is also cited as an influence on a number of bay area thrash bands around this time as well, so it’s well worth the listen.
David Wayne- Vocals
Kurdt Vanderhoof- Guitar
Craig Wells- Guitar
Duke Ericksson- Bass
Kirk Arrington- Drums
Production- Mark Dodson