Metal Church – Damned If You Do

Reinier de Vries — Fri, 07 Dec 2018 12:50:03 +0000

Metal Church carries the same difficult legacy as most of my favorite bands, the first 3 albums are almost not to match. Slayer, Metallica, Anthrax, Exodus, Flotsam and Jetsam, Sepultura, Dream Theater, Helloween, Death, Agent Steel, and so on and so on all have these troubles when writing a new album. Sure there are songs on albums that are of the same level, but never a record long. This I can also conclude about Damned If You Do. The impact the first album made on me was big. The mighty riff of the title song has never been topped and the dark almost spooky atmosphere of the record either.

Back to the now! You can hear that the band did their best to write good songs, real Metal Church songs, with the typical riffs and drum style. The opener is an uptempo one, you surely already have been listening to on the internet. ‘The Black Thing’ starts with cymbals reminding me of their first album, it is a mid tempo track with Mike in perfect shape. ‘By The Numbers’ is also one of the best on this new album.

If the quality of the lot would have been the same level as the first three, my rating would be higher. Unfortunately there are a few average songs with names like ‘Revolution Underway’ and ‘Monkey Finger’. Especially the last one is too weak and should not have been on the album in my opinion. Lucky for us there is also a song like ‘Guillotine’, with jumpy riffs that will make every fan enthusiastic again. This is the only one in my opinion that can compete with tracks of their first records.

After listening to the album over 10 times, I am still not sure what to think about it. I miss a little bit the really heavy songs, there is enough tempo, but with the riffs a bit louder or should I say in front of the mix I would have liked it a bit more.

Now I have to find a rating for the album. Well, I would have given 75 points if possible, but I can’t so I give them 8 devils, just because they are Metal Church.

Fifth Angel – The Third Secret

Reinier de Vries — Tue, 23 Oct 2018 13:11:38 +0000

I still remember buying their first album with the flying horse on the cover. Fifth Angel from Seattle with Ted Pilot, one of the best singers in metal. The music was melodic with great guitarsolos and well written songs. This was after Metal Church’s debut one of the first albums produced by the now famous Terry Date. Somehow I did not buy the second album Time Will Tell immediately after release, but many years later. I must admit that I did not like it as much as the debut. After the second album the band stopped in 1990, did a reunion gig in 2010, but it was in 2017 that the band became really active again.

The biggest problem for the band was to find a good singer to really make the band sound again like Fifth Angel. You can hire a famous singer, but then the band lots of times will sound like the other band the vocalist sings in. So they decided that Kendall Bechtel (guitars), would do the singing part. I think they made an excellent choice. The man has a very good singing voice and a style that doesn’t immediately remind me of anyone else. Sure there are resemblances with Ripper Owens or Ralph Scheepers, but there are worse singers to be compared to.

Opener ‘Stars Are Falling’ is one of the fastest tracks on the album. It has a great melodic singing line and the heavy riffs in combination with the tight drumming of Ken Mary see to it that it is one of the best tracks. This song puts the bar high for the rest of the songs on the album. The solos are again of a high quality in every track. If I compare the entire album with their debut I have to conclude that the band sounds heavier and a lot of songs are much faster. Did the debut consist of almost only mid-tempo tracks, here the fast tracks form the majority. After the heavy mid tempo track ‘We Will Rise’, the threatening track ‘Queen Of Thieves’ follows. Here Kendall shows that he is one of the best singers already in the genre. The tempo rises again with ‘Dust to Dust’, a galopping power metal track. An album can’t be complete without a ballad, ‘Can You Hear Me’ is all a good ballad needs if you ask me.

After that it is war again with ‘This Is War’. Good heavy riffing in an up- and mid tempo song. ‘Third Secret’ has a kind of Dio vibe and not only because of the singing. ‘Shame On You’ is fast and U.S. power metal from start to finish. Bands like Vicious Rumors and Jag Panzer enter my mind. The final track is as strong as the rest and keeps me behind wanting more and more… but this was the end so I push the repeat button to listen to all again…!

After the disappointing comeback album from Heir Apparent (not enough tempo and aggression), Fifth Angel shows how to do it right. Fans of Vicious Rumors, Jag Panzer, Priest and of course Fifht Angel should try this The Third Secret out for sure.

U.S. Metal – Power Of Metal.dk

Metal Church – Damned If You Do

Fifth Angel – The Third Secret