Year Of Metal #103: Metal Church - Metal Church
As we close in on the end of this project, we begin to tick off a series of lasts, starting with, I’m rather glad to say, the last thrash/speed metal I’ll feel obliged to listen to for some time. I’m pleased to say we’re ending this sub-strand of the Year Of Metal project with a pretty good effort, in the form of Metal Church’s self-titled 1984 record. Is it enough to prove to me that, beyond Megadeth, there’s a lot for me in this style of music? Alas, it is not. But this is a varied and well performed collection that seems to have made the band a bit of a connoisseur’s choice in the medium.
The name Metal Church put me if not on edge then on alert; it certainly promises quite a lot of ridiculousness. Instead this is a rather tasteful and even graceful record, which I mean in a positive fashion. These guys find ways to innovate in a pretty dogmatic style of music. My favourite track is probably “Metal Church” (the ultimate metal move), which has guitar playing like I’ve never quite heard before. The chords in the verse sound like they’re being scrubbed - there’s really no other way to describe it. It’s not just fast downpicking, it sounds like it’s being played on a different axis to most guitarists. It turns a super simple riff into something rather strange.
Metal Church have a rare sense of restraint. Even the most full throated tracks, like opener “Beyond The Black”, recognise that the heavy hitting riffs work a whole lot better if they’re not incessant. When the track hits full gallop a little before the five minute mark, the band tears it up for four bars, then sits back for the next four. David Wayne’s vocals are real goblin stuff, but he hangs back in the mix; he has free reign to shout and cackle as loud as he wants, safe in the knowledge he’s not going to be ruining anyone’s good time. Drummer Kirk Arrington has similarly laudable sensibilities; he cuts in with some fantastic fills, but they’re relatively few and far between, keeping you wanting more.
While they toured with Metallica and other acts who made up the bedrock of the thrash scene, Metal Church seem to be diversifying their sound long before Hetfield et al did so (to far greater commercial success). “Gods Of Wrath” is a particularly strange tune, with a hip shaking looseness that you’d never predict from a band in the heart of this scene. Bass player Duke Erickson gets to take himself off on some great little runs, too.
One of the only missteps Metal Church make on this record is sticking a cover of Deep Purple’s “Highway Star” in the closing spot. It’s the oft-seen pitfall of cutting a version of a classic tune that can’t help show up the limitations of your own songwriting. It’s a killer rendition, positively overflowing with energy. You can imagine this one would bring the house down in the dingy rock clubs of the band’s native Seattle. But there’s a danger in sticking something as irresistible as this on your album, even as the closer.
A little like the Sepultura album, this is a tough LP to talk about. The album is good, occasionally very good. It certainly isn’t a world beater, though I think there’s an argument to be made that they deserve to be better known off the back of this collection. A classily made album without too much daffy shit doesn’t give one too much to talk about, and if there’s a degree of faint praise here, that comes with the territory. Next time, lads, be a bit better or worse.
