True veterans of the heavy music scene, the San Francisco-based quintet Metal Church have proved to be indomitable survivors, persevering through changes in audience tastes, the fickle fortunes of the music industry, lineup alterations, two lengthy hiatuses and the normal rigours involved in writing, recording, and performing to carve out an impressive legacy of music.
That legacy continues with the release of their new studio album, Damned if You Do, on Rat Pak Records, on Dec. 7. It’s the 12th studio album for Metal Church and second with singer Mike Howe back in the fold.
Formed in 1980, the band was a consistent force on the metal touring scene throughout the 1980s, releasing their self-titled debut in 1984, and reaching a creative and commercial peak towards the end of the 1980s with their albums Blessing in Disguise (1989), The Human Factor (1991) and 1993’s Hanging in the Balance, the band’s third through fifth albums respectively. All three featured the vocal stylings of Mike Howe, who also greatly contributed to the band’s ever evolving sound and lyrical flourish.
But the onset of grunge music meant a peremptory end to Metal Church’s momentum for a time, as Howe and band co-founder Kurt Vanderhoof went their separate ways. Reunions of various members began happening in 1998, lasting more than a decade to a second break-up in 2009. That one lasted just three years and fan demand, and Vanderhoof’s desire to relaunch the Metal Church brand and enhance its legacy proved to have staying power this time around, as the band has continued to create new music – seven albums in all since the start of the 2000s.
Howe was convinced to return to the fold by Vanderhoof in 2014 and played an important role in the writing and recording the band’s 2016 album XI. While the frisson and excitement over the reunion with his long-time friend and bandmate is still fresh for Howe, he said it’s settled down somewhat and has been replaced by the excitement of the music that Metal Church is writing, recording and releasing, especially on Damned If You Do.
“It feels better being back in the band than the first time around. The super excitement has settled down a bit and we’re just in the pocket now. I think coming back and doing a second album, we’re a little but more focussed maybe. We were pretty high off the last album and we just wanted to go in and make another album that was as least as good, if not better. So, there was a really good reason to carry on, and that was the philosophy behind me coming back,” said Howe from his home in California.
“As a band we were very pleased to acknowledge to one another that we felt this one was just as good, if not better, than the last one. And it’s very exciting to us, and here we are today carrying on talking to people like you and feeling the love from the fans. We are just very grateful to be here today. And I think a lot of that is we’re older and more mature; we’re more thoughtful about what we’re doing, so we can enjoy being in a band and recording and making music on a much deeper level.
“And also meeting with the fans and having that connection with the fans and understanding how special this band is and how important it is to have that connection with our fans and what an honour it is to do this. I know I appreciate it a lot more and that’s why, to a man, we keep saying we’re grateful and very lucky to get a second chance at it and do things different this time, whereas we were maybe too young and weren’t in control of our destiny as we are now.”
Howe makes it clear that Vanderhoof is the captain of the Metal Church ship and is the guardian of its heritage and legacy as well as the prime mover of the band’s creative future, writing the bulk of the material for each album. But he also said that each person who has been a member of the band has made contributions to that legacy and to the band’s sound, which carries on with the rest of the current lineup. It includes bassist Steve Unger, who was in the band from 2004 to 2009 and then again since 2012, while guitarist Rick Van Zandt did a stint from 2008 to 2009 and has been a permanent member since 2013. Drummer Stet Howland is the proverbial ‘new guy’ having joined Metal Church in 2017.
“Steve and Rick have been with Kurt for a few years now and Stet stepped in and filled a big replacing [long-time skin basher Jeff Plate] but he had played with Steve in another band for a while, so they had some chemistry already. Plus, he is a great drummer, and they are all just great guys and I welcome the opportunity to play and write with them with open arms and see how it comes out,” Howe said.
“I think it’s important, especially at this stage of our lives and at this time in our careers that we get along as people as much as we gel as musicians. I think that’s very important. And once again, that translates into the music that is written and played together. I also think it’s happening because we’re older guys and each and every one of us, we’re all just decent human beings. I think that all contributes to the Metal Church feel and the way we come across.
“That’s the beauty of it and the fact that its changed and evolved over the years because individual players, be they guitarists, bassists, drummers, have their own style and sound, so bringing their individual lead playing or bass playing or drum playing into that original solid rhythm playing and the song structures created by Kurt Vanderhoof is part of the interesting changes and evolution in Metal Church that I am excited to be a part of. That’s why I am in Metal Church again, because of that same feel and sound of Metal Church, which is always going to be there as long as the man Kurt Vanderhoof is at the helm. He IS Metal Church, I have to say. He is the main songwriter, the leader of the band, and always has been. His writing and playing has always been the key to the sound of Metal Church and the feel of Metal Church and the other guys add in their talents to the band, which kicks it up a notch.”
The music of Metal Church has always been hard hitting, both in terms of the musicality, but also lyrically. The band has always understood its role of focusing the anger and frustration and angst of so many people at the evils of the world today, to provide catharsis and a release through the power and potency of their music. It is no different on Damned if You Do.
“In the past we did a lot of writing about heavy subjects that we were really passionate about. Not to say we’re not passionate about important subjects in our old age, but we just wanted to use our music and this album as an escape from things that are political and all the things going on in the world. This time around, we wrote songs that were against injustices, but which were a little more nebulous – letting the people interpret the melodies and the lyrics to what they are thinking and feeling a little more,” Howe explained.
“I write by feel – how does something feel to me; how does it move me. And that’s how we do it. We definitely put forth the metal anger and angst, but we’re not directly pointing fingers, so people can use that message for their own lives and make their own determination on what that means based on their circumstances. And then they can come to our show and get all of that angst and tension out of their system. That’s what a metal show is all about, getting it out in a healthy way.”
The title track is one well suited for the times, in that it conveys a message that is essentially like the old saying ‘no good deed goes unpunished.’ Damned if You Do represent that notion that even when you think you are doing what is right, fair, just and good, it can still come back and bite you in the ass.
“For me it’s about sincerely trying to do the right thing in your life and sometimes it slaps you in the face. And you’re like, ‘oh I thought I was doing the right thing, but it seems like I wasn’t.’ And you are also saying, ‘so this is the thanks I get for trying to do the right thing.’ I think everybody can identify with that. Sometimes you’re just damned if you do. Musically and melodically I also just loved the sound we came up and the attitude in the song. I think it’s got something for everybody in it.”
The biggest change to the writing process for Howe, Vanderhoof and the rest of Metal Church is the advent of computer programs to help edit music, and file sharing, but other than that, the process is pretty similar to back in the band’s heyday of the late 1980s and into the mid-1990s.
“Kurt comes in and puts together the basic structures of songs and I go up to his house and in his studio and we hook up a microphone and I just start screaming out some melodies and lyrics often start to stream out too. The great thing about having computers nowadays is being able to do post-production as we’re writing the songs. We can edit the songs down and it doesn’t have to take forever to cut that part of the tape out and move things around. That’s a great tool to have in the writing process that we didn’t have 30 years ago. It helps keep the creative juices flowing without all the stops and starts,” he said, adding that this is how some of the best tracks on the album, such as the incendiary and anthemic Revolution Under Way, and evocative Into the Fold came about.
As for touring plans for Metal Church, Howe said plans are underway for a busy 2019, although nothing definite has been determined for possible dates in Canada.
“It’s a difficult dance to do with everybody’s different lifestyles. We’re not young any more. We can’t just go out on the road week after week after week because we all have home responsibilities too. But there’s always a possibility to come up to Canada, we are open to anything, and I know there are great metal music fans up there. We are working hard with our booking agent to make that happen, as well as anywhere else we can play. We want to go everywhere we can,” he said.
For more information on the band, Damned if You Do and future tour dates, visit www.metalchurchofficial.com.
- Jim Barber is a veteran award-winning journalist and author based in Napanee, ON, who has been writing about music and musicians for a quarter of a century. Besides his journalistic endeavours, he now works as a communications and marketing specialist. Contact him at jimbarberwritingservices@gmail.com.
SHARE THIS POST:
