METAL CHURCH: Congregation Of Annihilation (HEAVY METAL): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

Metal Church is one of those indestructible bands you can always count on, despite more than forty years spent criss-crossing the frontiers of thrash and heavy metal. Nothing has dented their energy and willpower, not even death, which has not spared them. While the band's career has been marked by a succession of singers, it's fair to wonder how the Americans would recover from the sudden death (he took his own life) of Mick Howe, who screamed into the microphone between 1988 and 1995 and then without interruption since 2015, recording five albums, including a fondly remembered "Damned If You Do", on which we left them in 2018.

But Kurdt Vanderhoof, a long-time guitarist, could not abandon the band he has kept alive for so long. Although he will certainly have a hard time making his glorious predecessor forget him (and that's not what we're asking of him), Marc Lopes is nevertheless a solid recruit in a register similar to those that preceded him in this position, high-pitched and aggressive. Efficient, his performance on "Congregation Of Annihilation" is flawless, as is this resurrection album, which confirms the renewed vigor of a Metal Church in better shape than ever. The production certainly sounds too old-school, but the compositions are cast in the hottest steel.

The recipe is tried and tested, but opens the floodgates to a heavy thrash that's more timeless than anachronistic, with the added dark, ominous atmosphere that has always fueled the band's albums. The Americans concretize what they do best, alternating ferocious jabs ('Another Judgement Day', 'Congregation Of Annihilation') with the relentless mid tempos we prefer. The creeping 'Me The Nothing', the crushing 'Making Monsters' and, even more so, the epic 'Children Of The Lie', which gradually dies away on beautiful guitar lines, dig vertiginous chasms whose depths release black, powerful emanations.

In the end, Mick Howe's brutal death has not drained Metal Church of the vitality it has regained in recent years. Better still, it may even have made it stronger. With "Congregation Of Annhilation", the band's inspiration coupled with a tempered-steel energy, delivers a record that lives up to its reputation, carved out of the bleeding-edge tradition of heavy thrash that's as heavy as it is sharp. Metal Church is definitely not ready to give up, and that's good news! - Official website

METAL CHURCH

CONGREGATION OF ANNIHILATION

RAT PAK RECORDS

HEAVY METAL