a different metal church better sometimes but not at others - with this the player have change the singer and a guitarist both seasoned and well accomplish. mike howe from heretic and john marshal from the stage guitar tech of metallicas james hetfeild.john mashal is an excellent guitarist i have seen him with both band(when he replaced james while he was burned he player a double set beccause metal church was the onpening band if memory serves me correct.this cd had some great songs but with the loss of one of the oringinal members and songwritters leaveing. the cd suffered a loss of drive in someway and the new singe mike howe in a excellent singer with a great ability to cover david waynes old songs with ease and with great vocal ablities shown on this cd but he really shines on the human factor cd.
Sturdy as a brick wall old skool thrash - My introduction to this band came from the video clip to the track Badlands. A few laughable metal cliches (is that a plastic snake vocalist Mike Howe is wearing around his wrist), but all up a very very tasty paeon to not only life on the road but also a very powerful expression of defiance and triumph. Fine, fine work in the songwriting department and everything about it just screamed out that this was a band playing uncompromising metal. I mean check out the guitar solo - very little melody, squeeling and swooping all over the place yet totally compatible with the music around it. Everything about the song declared that this was a band to be reckoned with.By the time the punter gets to process the album in it s entirety it becomes possible to figure out why this band didn t quite crack the big time despite sallying forth with a number of releases over the years. The real problems with this album lie in a few main areas. Firstly the tracks are overlong - perhaps influenced by the success of Metallicas Master of Puppets opus. Only one track is concise enough to fit under four minutes and four of the nine tracks reach over the six minute mark. Now I m not saying that s always a bad thing, but here the tracks don t have the relentless riff changes of the aforementioned Metallica album, making some of the tracks a bit of a slog. Too many of the tracks here don t have that indefinable X factor spark.Other issues with this album are the fact that the traditional metal fare here may be a touch bland for some tastes, especially after the deluge of metal that has passed by in the years since this albums release. Having said that traditional metal will always have it s devotees and for good reason. And certainly on this album Metal Church have put together a finely played platter. In front of the strong musical attack, both in terms of guitars and rhythm section, Mike Howe is able to belt out evocatively on a range of issues, discussing issues such as mental illness, religion and war. Fertile ground indeed for many a metal band and areas the band address with aplomb. Production is decidedly late 80 s trad metal. Which to my ears is just fine but younger metal fans may be put off a touch by this. However fans of Judas Priest, late 80 s Metallica and the Bay Area thrash scene would do well to check this out. I can t give it more than a 3.5 stars as it does drone on a bit and some of the tracks are overlong but all up this is an album that stands up pretty well decades on. The band deserved to leave more of a footprint on the heavy metal world than they did. And if you don t want to take the plunge and commit to buying a whole album of late 80 s trad metal then do yourself a favour and LEGALLY download the best track here - that being Badlands, a full 7.21 minutes of metal meltdown. And if that floats your boat try Of Unsound Mind.
Metal Church Rocks - Great old fashioned metal rock. Badlands in particular is a solid listen. Love metal with clear vocals.
Kick Butt! - I had this on tape for too many years. It is nice to finally get it on Disc. If you never heard this album, then you really need to get it. This is the best of it s time. You won t be disappointed.
This album OWNS!! - Not sure what else to say, amazing thrash album, LISTEN TO IT!!