Metal Bulletin Zine: Metal Church (Washington state, USA)

Tuesday, October 13, 2020

Metal Church (Washington state, USA)

Metal Church, one could say, has four major eras: (1) the classic 1980s period that established them as an international metal act, with David Wayne on vocals; (2) then, with Mike Howe on vocals; (3) with Ronny Munroe on vocals; and (4) the contemporary period with Mike Howe on vocals again. There are more details than that, of course, but that's one way to look at the music. Below you will find some representative songs from those four periods.--Metal Bulletin Zine

This is a very brief summmary of the history of the band, taken from Wikipedia: Metal Church is an American heavy metal band. They originally formed in San Francisco, California in 1980 before relocating to Aberdeen, Washington the following year and briefly using the name Shrapnel. Their self titled debut album was released in 1984, and their latest, Damned If You Do, was released on December 7, 2018. Metal Church is credited as a formative influence on the thrash metal subgenre, melding the aesthetics of the new wave of British heavy metal and American hard rock with "incredibly tight musicianship" and "piercingly screeched" vocals.
Founding guitarist Kurdt Vanderhoof remained the group's sole consistent creative force throughout its career, despite reducing his role strictly to composition in 1986 after tiring of performing. Vanderhoof, vocalist David Wayne, guitarist Craig Wells, bassist Duke Erickson, and drummer Kirk Arrington composed the classic Metal Church lineup featured on its first two records, while later members, vocalist Mike Howe and guitarist John Marshall, also contributed to the group's sound. It was during this period that Metal Church had achieved mainstream popularity, with two of their albums—The Dark (1986) and Blessing in Disguise (1989)—entering the Top 100 on the Billboard 200 chart. Their 1991 album The Human Factor and its 1993 follow-up Hanging in the Balance also received critical praise, but did not match the success of the group's 1980s releases.
After their first break up in 1996, Metal Church reformed in 1998 with most of their classic lineup, including Vanderhoof's return to performance, resulting in the Masterpeace album. They endured numerous lineup changes thereafter, releasing three further studio albums while fronted by Ronny Munroe before disbanding once again in July 2009. The group reunited for the second time in October 2012, and released their tenth studio album Generation Nothing a year later. Following Munroe's departure in the fall of 2014, Howe rejoined Metal Church in April 2015 at Vanderhoof's request, and has since recorded two more albums with the group, which enjoyed a renewed popularity in the mid-to-late 2010s.

Metal Archives the following as the discography: Red Skies Demo 1981; Hitman Demo 1982; Four Hymns Demo 1982; Demo 1983 Demo 1983; Metal Church Full-length 1984; Gods of Wrath Single 1985; Watch the Children Pray Single 1986; The Dark Full-length 1986; Iron Man Single 1988; Fake Healer Single 1989; Blessing in Disguise Full-length 1989; '90 Demo Demo 1990; Date with Poverty Single 1991; In Harm's Way Single 1991; The Human Factor Single 1991; Operation Rock & Roll Split video 1991; The Human Factor Full-length 1991; Hanging in the Balance Full-length 1993; Live in Japan Live album 1998; Live Live album 1998; Masterpeace Full-length 1999; 2 Originals of Metal Church Boxed set 2000; The Weight of the World Full-length 2004; A Light in the Dark Full-length 2006; Dynamo Classic Concerts 1991 Video 2007; This Present Wasteland Full-length 2008; Generation Nothing Full-length 2013; Badlands (2015) Single 2015; XI Full-length 2016; Classic Live Live album 2017; Damned If You Do Full-length 2018; The Elektra Years 1984-1989 Boxed set 2020; From the Vault Compilation 2020; Return of the Fake Healer Compilation 2020.

Metal Church - Metal Church (1984)