Metal Church: Metal Church & The Dark

Metal Church was an amazing band that, sadly, were far less know then they should of been. Their first album is pretty much an essential album for anyone who digs classic Heavy/Speed Metal.

Band - Metal Church

Album - Metal Church

Year - 1985

Country - USA (Seattle, Washington)

Genre - Heavy/Speed Metal

Metal Church's 1984 debut album is, rightfully, a classic. Vocalist David Wayne(R.I.P) soars on this album with his unique, badass vocal style. Its aggressive and melodic. His style is difficult for me to describe you'll just have to hear it for yourself. The riffing is also superb. Lots and lots of juicy Speed Metal riffs and plenty of slower, heavier yet melodic riffs. The drumming is excellent, its never boring but never distracting either. Lots of juicy fills after equally juicy riffs and vocal lines. I simply love the drumming on this album, especially in the title track. So many amazing fills in that tune. The lead work is, unsurprisingly, brilliant. Lots of dual guitar attacks on this one, once again the Title Track is a good example of the amazing leads you'll find on this album. The bass, well the bass does its job. There are some moments that the bass shines though. Like in Gods of Wrath during the main verses and several other places throughout the album. Speaking of Gods of Wrath, its a good example of the variety of this album. Gods of Wrath is, for all intents and purposes, a power balled. Not the really lame late 80s glam power balled though. Its the really awesome, well played clean parts building up to heavy parts and a sweet bridge section solo thing, kind of power balled ;) You also get to hear some totally clean singing from Wayne. Hes really good at that as well.

On this album, you'll find a good mix of the heavy, intense tunes like Beyond the Black and Metal Church, blazing speed metal tunes like Hitman as well as the proto power metal song Battalions. A power balled in the form of Gods of Wrath and the instrumental Merciless onslaught. The rest of the songs on the album are somewhere in between. Oh, and there's even a cover of Deep Purples highway star to boot!

Here are my four favorite songs from the album

In closing, an amazing album from an amazing band. Nearly flawless, the only tunes on this album that are particurly forgetable (and even then they're still pretty good) are Merciless Onslaught and In the Blood. The guitar work, vocals nd drumming are amazing. The bass work kicks ass too! Can't recomend this album any higher to fans of Classic Heavy/Speed metal

BUY THIS ALBUM! Its pretty easy to find online and its even not that hard to get in stores. I got my CD versions in retail stores.

Band - Metal Church

Album - The Dark

Year - 1986

Country - USA (Seattle, Washington)

Genre - Heavy/Thrash Metal

Metal Church's second album is another great release. Its starts off strong with the thrashy yet melodic Ton of Bricks. Next it goes into the mid paced Start the Fire. Wayne makes use of dual vocal tracks on a lot of the songs on this album, there are plenty of places here where he would be singing in more of a mid range and hes tracked himself singing in a high screech in the background. These songs are actually a lot more melodic then many of the songs on the first album. The riffs here are a lot more Thrash Metal oriented then the blazing speed metal sound of the first record. Not to say there aren't any fast songs of this album, there are plenty. I meant that they're more typical Thrash riffs as opposed to the sound of sped metal. As usual the guitar work and riffs are great. The vocals are amazing as ever. David Wayne wails and sings his heart out just as he did on the debut. Sadly, he left the band shortly after this album. The drums and bass take a bit of a hit from the previous album. They don't really stand out as much as they did on the previous album. The drums are a lot simpler and the bass is pretty much limited to following the guitar and getting rather buried in the mix.

Its a good release, however its not quite up to the level to the debut, however its a solid listen. Stand out tracks include Ton of Bricks, The Dark, Psycho, Start the Fire, line of Death, Burial at sea and Watch the Children Pray. I recommend picking this one if you liked the debut, its definitely different from the first but its not a bad kind of different.

Here are four of my favorites off this album

After the departure of David Wayne he was replaced my Mike Howe. I'll feature the Mike Howe era of the band another time. Damn this was a long ass post.

Happy Listening!