Metal Church to release a new album

Fat Freddy wrote:

OK, so I've had the new Metal Church for about two weeks now. I was gonna share my thoughts in a review on my HubPages blog but I haven't had any time to write stuff over there lately, so here we go:

First off, I'm simply glad that there is a new Metal Church album, period. After Mike H. passed away it seemed like the band's future was in doubt for a while so I'm happy that they've decided to continue.

I do like Marc Lopes' vox. Very similar to the late, great David Wayne. Judging from the live clips I've seen on YouTube, he can do justice to the old MC stuff so it sounds like they're in good hands going forward.

I do like the new album quite a bit. Obviously the death of Mike H. put Kurdt Vanderhoof in an angrier mindset, cuz this is the nastiest, thrashiest Metal Church album since The Dark.

That said... there are a few songs on here that are absolute bangers (title track, "Pick A God & Pray," "Making Monsters"), but there are also a few that needed some more time in the oven. A lot of times, the songs sound great till they hit the chorus (see: "Children of the Lie," "Me The Nothing") and then they stop dead.

I guess the main problem is a lack of hooks in many of the songs. Mike Howes' stuff always had a killer hook that you could latch onto and sing along with. Half of the tracks on Congregation of Annihilation don't really have that. It makes me wonder if they rushed into the studio to cut this record before they'd had time to truly "gel" with the new guy.

Overall, I like the new album. Not as much as I liked the last couple with Mike Howe, but more than any of the Ronny Munroe era albums, anyway.

So that's my take, for whatever it's worth. Your mileage may vary, depending on which MC vocalist you liked better back in the day (Wayne or Howe).

I’ve been torn about this album since I heard it…

At first I was skeptical of the band finding yet another replacement, because Mike had a very unique voice and most of the Ronny stuff wasn’t that great (except Generation Nothing). Then I heard some clips online of Marc and he sounded pretty good! Then I got the album and I kinda liked it… I knew the production wasn’t the greatest from the get go, but I tried to look past it. I think the bottomline is what you pointed out. Half the songs are half-baked and have no hooks.

And just for the record, I hate the chorus on the title track. It sounds like they forced it in. Bruce Dickinson can take a lyric like “Congregation of Annihilation” and make it sound catchy (for example: Out of the Silent Planet). Marc just shoehorns it in by yelling it fast like a kid with Tourettes . It’s just a case of a set of words that don’t flow right.

I just ordered Congregation of Annihilation!

The way stuff is recorded on computers nowadays makes people lazy and take shortcuts.

Melody be damned, when you can just cut and paste.