Despite the fact that I have all their albums, I’ve never been
\ninto Metal Church that much. So why, you ask, do I have their
\nalbums? Some of them I got as promos when I was in college radio
\n(usually from dipping into the drawers of the metal department’s
\npromo cabinet), some were sent to me in this job, still others I
\nbought at used stores in the clearance bins. (One major find was
\nlanding the original
\nMetal Church<\/i> album autographed by some of the members – as
\nwell as a flyer in the record autographed by the whole band.)<\/p>\n
So it may strike readers as odd when I admit that
\nMetal Church Live<\/i> has an air of familiarity to it. Maybe
\nit’s because this disc is made up of concerts from 1986, when David
\nWayne and crew were touring behind
\nThe Dark<\/i>. Maybe it’s because this features the original
\nMetal Church lineup. Maybe it’s because some of these songs I
\nremember hearing on the brokered metal show in Chicago when I was
\nin high school. Whatever the case, this ends up to be an
\nentertaining disc.<\/p>\n
If
\nMetal Church Live<\/i> does anything, it reaffirms for me why
\nthis band was growing in popularity around the same time that
\nMetallica was becoming stars in their own right. Not that these
\nbands are the same, or even are polar opposites of each other. But
\neach group had their own unique markings. For Metal Church, it was
\nthe screeching vocals of Wayne (who, when the chips were down,
\ncould lay out a beautiful vocal) and the guitar work and
\nsongwriting skills of Kurdt Vanderhoof. If there was one name I’d
\nput at the top of the list of underappreciated talents of the
\ngenre, Vanderhoof would be near the top.<\/p>\n
Musically,
\nMetal Church Live<\/i> is not just a blast from the past, it’s a
\nreminder of how good ’80s metal could be. Tracks like “Ton Of
\nBricks,” “Gods Of Wrath” and “Watch The Children Pray” all speak
\nvolumes for what Metal Church was capable of, and why they should
\nhave been a bigger name in the field than they were. (Personnel
\nshifts over their next two albums and musical tastes’ constant
\nchanging didn’t help matters.) Even some of the “lesser” tracks
\nlike “Start The Fire” and “Beyond The Black” are pretty damned
\nenjoyable in this setting.<\/p>\n
Metal Church is even able to take a stale standard like Deep
\nPurple’s “Highway Star” and turn it into a barn burner. Loads of
\nfun!<\/p>\n
\nMetal Church Live<\/i> could be seen as a souvenir of days long
\npast; it could be seen as a closet-cleaning release to satisfy the
\ndie-hard fans. Or, one could look at it as a snapshot of a band
\nready to break into prime-time, hungry and eager to make a name for
\nthemselves. Had this disc come out in 1987, it might just have been
\nthe key to unlock all the doors for Metal Church. Now, it’s
\nenjoyable… but it leaves me asking what could have been for this
\nband.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25817,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6202],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-37023","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-metal-church","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37023"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37023\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37023"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37023"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}