Going Back To Church

Recently, I've had my attention pulled away from Metal, and have found myself leaning heavily toward early punk. Even newer releases have failed to ignite any excitement. All that goes out with the new Metal Church.

I started looking forward to the new Metal Church album when they announced that they had reunited with singer Mike Howe. I'd always been a fan of Blessing In Disguise, but since I'd started leaving Metal in my rearview mirror around 1990, I'd never bothered with the two Howe-fronted follow up albums, Human Factor and Hanging In The Balance . Sure, I'd downloaded those albums when I started to get back into Metal in the mid-00's, but I'd never really spent any time with them. With the announcement of the Howe reunion, I went back and was surprised to find that I couldn't get enough of those albums. Suddenly, my interest in the new Metal Church album shot through the roof, and it was my most anticipated release of the year.

Disgusted with the music industry, Mike Howe walked away in 1994, shortly after the release of Hanging In The Balance. Here we are, over 20 years later, and Howe's voice still sounds like it did back in the early 90's. I usually make a point of staying away from watching youtube videos prior to an albums release, but in this case I couldn't stay away, and I watched the three Metal Church videos repeatedly. I was hooked. It blows my mind that bands that I loved as a kid, can still release albums like this today.

Limited to 300 on red vinyl.