Metal Church - Metal Church review
| Band: | Metal Church |
| Album: | Metal Church |
| Style: | Heavy metal, Thrash metal |
| Release date: | 1984 |
| Guest review by: | Born-2rise |
01. Beyond The Black
02. Metal Church
03. Merciless Onslaught
04. Gods Of Wrath
05. Hitman
06. In The Blood
07. (My Favorite) Nightmare
08. Battalions
09. Highway Star [Deep Purple cover]
10. Big Guns [European bonus]
Metal Church's debut is more thrashy than any of their other albums (except maybe The Dark...). Metal Church is very underappreciated in my opinion. And I wish I could shout to the world how amazing this band is, but I guess when reality takes over, this band started off amazingly well, and then started dropping down and down in the ratings.
Metal Church starts off with "Beyond The Black", which has a long opening with some distorted spoken lines until the riffs and solos take over the whole fucking show. Excellent start to an excellent album. Their self-titled song "Metal Church" (which is the obvious highlight) opens with some kind of effect of wind blowing in the background, then drums get loudrer and louder, then the solos take over and then creepy laughter. Excellent riffs and solos in here as well. We get to Gods of Wrath, a gentle ballad that explodes with awesome heavy guitar playing. And simultaneously comes "Hitman", a great track which resembles Motörhead but with a high pitched vocalist. Replace Metal Church's vocals with Lemmy of Motörhead's and you'd have an excellent Motörhead-song. Skipping a few Tracks we get to another good track which is the already great Deep Purple-song "Highway Star", which has been covered on this album.
The guitars skills, the bass slays, the drumming blasts, all that makes this album truely one of the greatest in thrash. The production is mediocre though, but it doesn't really matter, it sounds good in my ears anyways.
Slightly better than The Dark, this might just be the best Metal Church-album. Get it now. You MUST own it if you're a true old school headbanger.
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 9 |
| Songwriting: | 9 |
| Originality: | 10 |
| Production: | 8 |
Written by Born-2rise | 09.02.2008
Guest review disclaimer:
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
Comments
Comments: 12
Visited by: 144 users
| Born-2rise Nayyiker Posts: 98 |
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| ponderer Posts: 153  |
I remember laughing my ass off when I first saw the cover of this album in the store. If memory serves me correctly someone else had this and let me borrow it. I was instantly blown away by the raw intensity this band once possessed. Excellent review but I wouldn't necessarily call this "thrash" per say. I think it's more raw metal almost bordering on power metal. Nice job though man!
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| Born-2rise Nayyiker Posts: 98 |
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| ponderer Posts: 153 |
I've had several reviews rejected because of length only to go and read another review twice the length of the one I submitted. Go figure 
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| Marcel Hubregtse Grumpy Old Fuck Elite Posts: 40071  |
Written by ponderer on 29.06.2008 at 17:37 Hope you're not referring to my Hollenthon one...  The long ones you read were probably by so-called official reviewers. But lemme guarantee you that I at least try to keep my own down to 500 max.
---- Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.) 05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996 
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| ponderer Posts: 153 |
I guess I forgot to word count on a few. Oopsy I just submitted a nice review for Helstar's Nosferatu (again) so lets see what happens.
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| Timelord Posts: 276  |
Written by ponderer on 28.06.2008 at 21:39 I did the same thing! This was back when stuff was still on vinyl everywhere. So here was this picture of a fungus covered guitar. I thought to myself how cheesy. To my surprise the album kicked major ass. One of the best albums put out that year. "The Dark" was good but the debut was the best. I had the chance to see Metal Church on the Operation Rock n Roll tour during the "Blessing in Disguise" era. It was a good show but I liked the original vocalist better. Would suggest this album to anybody.
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| ponderer Posts: 153 |
I actually dig A Blessing in Disguise. I think the Titanic themed song is pretty epic and there's some other gems on that one. Too bad they didn't have the original singer 
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| Born-2rise Nayyiker Posts: 98 |
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| Dangerboner Lactation Cnslt Posts: 7262  |
Written by Born-2rise on 02.07.2008 at 15:45 What about Kurdt Vanderhoof? 
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| Marcel Hubregtse Grumpy Old Fuck Elite Posts: 40071 |
Written by Timelord on 02.07.2008 at 02:24 Same applies for me about seeing the cover for the very first time it was released. But in hindsight the cover is of course way better than that of Hanging In The Balance. As for seeig Metal Church live, I was lucky enough to see them with David Wayne at the Aardschokdag 1987 where they played along Metallica, Anthrax, Laaz Rockit, Crimson Glory & Celtic Frost. The next (and last time I saw them) was in 1991 at the Dynamo Open Air festival with Mike Howe on vocals and on the back of the Human Factor album (btw that concert is now available on dvd)
---- Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.) 05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996
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| Guib Thrash Talker Posts: 3220  |
Written by Born-2rise on 29.06.2008 at 13:55 Excellent Review Born ! And that album is the work of Metal Masters ! I love it from A to Z, nothing bad about it IMO but you're right when saying they started off very good and went all the way down Its sad but they still left us a jewel which is Metal Church
---- - Headbanging with mostly clogged arteries to that stuff - Guib's List Of Essential Albums - Also Thrash Paradise Thrash Here
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