There is a lot to be said about a band that has been around for years, throughout many lineup changes and record label switchovers that stays true to the music.
Metal Church has profoundly been one of those bands with the strength to consistently perform their straight ahead metal attack, regardless of the circumstances. With
Weight of the World lacking original vocalist David Wayne it could seem like career suicide for a band with the replacement of their lead singer, especially with Wayne establishing his voice in the metal world, in fact it might be hard for some to really accept a new voice for this band that is approaching it's twenty year anniversary.
Well, without dwelling on the new ingredients,
Weight of the World shows nothing but strengths within it's thick melodic structure, filled with the typical crunch of classics like their debut, delivered with much more energy and melody than the redundant noisy disappointment
Masterpiece. With original members and co-founders guitarist Kurdt Vanderhoof and Drummer Kirk Arrington in tow along with former
Malice guitarist Jay Reynolds, session bassist Steve Unger, and the raspy vocalist, Ronny Monroe (he sounds kind of like Andi Deris and Kai Hansen); the record carries the classic metal tradition among new grounds of metal endurance.
With their musicianship way above par and songwriting skills en-tact; the riffs, the hooks, and the overall melodies are the focus of the strengths. Opening up with
"Leave the Behind," with it's changing time signatures, tempos, and Maiden-esque dueling leads, the power of this record becomes apparent, especially with other cuts such as
"Madman's Soul," "Wings of Tomorrow," and
"Bomb to Drop" that show the driving factor whether its in the discreet guitar arpeggios or the union of the tight playing, in the end its straight ahead melodic heavy fucking metal. The dark side of the record comes in the form of
"Sunless Sky," with the glistening clean guitar and the ballad,
"Time will Tell," fitting in the acoustic versus electric circle, even adding the Leslie guitar effect.
And yes, fellow metalheads, this is a guitar-based album, no keyboards, well, there is a pad used at one point to add an effect, but other than that there is no room for any, or need for that matter. The production is also fairly dense, but makes for the volume factor, with lots of layering and "live" sounding instrumentation present.
In the end, it's yet another feat for
Metal Church, whom in their twenty years have helped define the stature for underground metal and with Weigh of the World being out, the band still carries that tradition, regardless of the lineup. Most might say, it should have been called (insert band/project name here) featuring members of
Metal Church, but this offering is worthy of being nothing else but
Metal Church.
Written by
Hashman Tuesday, August 3, 2004
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