Metal Church – The Weight of the World – Review

Metal Church

The Weight of the World (SPV)
by Martin Popoff

Seriously, I’ve played this album a lot, and although I quite dig large parts of it, I can’t help thinking people are going to look back in a couple years and start slagging it, which is what happened with Masterpeace. Press at the time, me included, thought it was pretty good. And then, prompted by Metal Church themselves complaining about it, a dark cloud slowly moved over the damn thing. Crap cover art opens this one, and then a strangely punky NWOBHM couple of songs happen quickly with “Leave Them Behind,” and “Hero’s Soul,” with another called “Blood Money” closing the album. Not crazy about the noisy production, and I find the record melodramatic in parts. Too Metal. But man, new vocalist Ronny Munroe is a corker. His performance at the BW&BK 6-Pack II was one of the most electrifying I’ve ever seen out of a frontman, and this from a new guy, an unknown, emphatically no legend. That power (and sheer will) transfers over to this varied, true metal record, the er, weight of the thing sounding like Saxon meets Annihilator and the new Death Angel, with, undeniably, many Metal Church traits included, such as huge riffs at many speeds, dark acoustic bits, and imposing, epic, thespian displays.
(www.spvusa.com)