Artist: Metal Church
Title: XI
Genre: Heavy Metal
Release Date: 25th March 2016
Label: Nuclear Blast
Album Review
METAL CHURCH is a trademark for US Metal in perfection. Founded in the early 80s they had big influence on the early Speed/ Thrash scene. Although often mentioned in one sentence with METALLICA, METAL CHURCH never making the big deal in commercial ways. But they are synonym for classic and solid Metal music like the Canadians from ANVIL. Nomen est Omen. ‘XI’ is the 11th Album of the band. Vocals are by Mike Howe, returning to METAL CHURCH last year. In the past, Howe was responsible for the vocals on the band classics ‘Blessing in Disguise’ and ‘The Human Factor’.
The 11 new songs on ‘XI’ are a quintessence of METAL CHURCH’s work: fast and mid-tempo songs, sometimes in an epic length of more the seven minutes. The sound is very massive and the vocals of Mike Howe are fitting perfect into it. There are no filler songs, but sadly there are missing some hits in the manner of ‘Ton of Bricks’ or ‘Wastelands’. ‘XI’ is a very good classic Metal album with one or two hits it would be much more interesting. But it is still ass kicking without.
Tracklist
01. Reset
02. Killing your time
03. No Tomorrow
04. Signal Path
05. Sky Falls
06. Needle & Suture
07. Shadow
08. Blow Your Mind
09. Soul Eating Machine
10. It Waits
11. Suffer Fools
Line-up
Mike Howe – Vocals
Kurt Vanderhoof – Guitar
Rick Van Zandt – Guitar
Steve Unger – Bass
Jeff Plate – Drums
Website
www.metalchurchofficial.com / www.facebook.com/officialmetalchurch
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 7
Sound: 8
Total: 7.5 / 10
