What is the Masterpiece on Metal Church's "Masterpeace"?

Masterpeace was released on July 22, 1999. It is Metal Church's sixth album and first studio release in six years. It features the return of David Wayne on vocals who was the singer on their first two albums. It would be his final with Metal Church as he, sadly, died from complications following a car accident in 2005.

This album is really solid. Some of the tracks like "Lb. of Cure" and "Falldown" really fly. Others have slower parts like "Kiss for the Dead" and "They Signed in Blood," the latter of which really picks up and is quite a powerful track. "Masterpeace" is a nice guitar instrumental. There is a cover of Aerosmith's "Toys in the Attic." Being buried at the end of the album, it took me a few listens to realize how killer "Sand Kings" is. I really like this entire album, although Wayne's high-pitch vocals are grating on some of the songs.

The one track that grabbed me immediately and will not let go is "Falldown." From the opening guitar riff, it just kicks. Infectious! "Sand Kings" was considered, but going with "Falldown" for my vote.

They Signed In Blood. A nice epic tune. This album was a nice breath of fresh air for me back in '99. I like every song on it.

As much as I love Metal Church, this album never did anything for me. The songs are dull and David Wayne's voice was shot. I was very disappointed when I first bought it back in '99.

A lot of people felt that way about Masterpeace. I never did. I thought it was a great listen from the first time I heard it.

007 wrote:

A lot of people felt that way about Masterpeace. I never did. I thought it was a great listen from the first time I heard it.

I've actually owned it twice. Bought it when it was a new release, didn't dig it, traded it off. A few years later, found it in a used bin, figured I'd give it another shot, still didn't do it for me, got rid of it again.

Wayne's Metal Church solo album was better than this one.

wow, I am currently listening to this album.




I go with INTO DUST.

I went with 'Sleeps with Thunder', although their cover of 'Toys in the Attic' just rips.

I know it's not a particularly popular album with the fans, but I've always enjoyed it. I think it's because it was the first album from them that I bought as a new release. Up to that point, I was playing catch-up with their older albums. It's got some weird sentimental value that keeps me from disliking it.

Sleeps with thunder, only because it is the only song i am really familiar with and enjoy.

This one, along with hanging in the balance, are the only two church cds still missing from my collection.

There's a reason Kurdt has called this "Disasterpiece" in several interviews. I'm right there with him.

It's kind of strange to see so many MC fans divided on this album. There's a group that loves it and a group that hates it--very few are in between. It's fine if people enjoy it--but those fans don't seem ready to acknowledge the inherit and obvious flaws which mar my enjoyment of it, despite some fine songwriting. Those flaws are:

-Production. Ducking the mids and boosting the lows is pretty commonplace in the metal scene, but eschewing reverb in favor of instrument compression makes things just ugly and low-budget. The one area they did right was heaping reverb on Wayne's voice, because he really needed it, but it didn't fix what I'll speak of next...

-Wayne's voice. It's awful. I mean, c'mon guys that aren't willing to say it. This is nowhere near the same voice we heard on those first two albums. Gone is the grit, the screams, the gnarl. What we have here is a whiny, deadening thud of a man so coke'd up that his pitch is three cents off the tonic. How Wayne pulled it off on his solo effort is beyond me, because here he was just straining.

-Into Dust. Now, a lot of fans rather enjoy this song, but I gotta be real here...WHY. In my book it's easily their worst cut and doesn't even fit in here. It just sounds goofy and aloof.

All that aside, there are some strengths found within. The performances are quite searing, and once again we see that Kurdt is nothing but good to great ideas for riffs (save for Into Dust). The songwriting is actually top drawer. But it sure is burdened by the above.

Falldown is easily the best song, great layering on that one, and it sticks forever.