Metal Church is back!! UPDATE RIP MIKE HOWE!

[TAC]

Hanging In The Balance is an amazing album.

And how good is Kirk Arrington's drumming (on this, and elsewhere)? Love it.

It’s a great album to air drum along too. Big time!

[jammindude]

I remember hearing Masterpeace (the brief reunion with Wayne) which I understand was a complete disaster behind the scenes. But I remember the songs being solid.

I have quite a bit of MCs discography. I may have to fill in some gaps. I think I’m just missing HITB, MP, and the Monroe material. Shouldn’t be that difficult to track down.

[jammindude]

OMG!!!! Huge shock!!!!! From the official Metal Church FB page.

It is with our deepest regrets that we must announce the passing of our brother, our friend and true legend of heavy metal music. Mike Howe passed away this morning at his home in Eureka, California. We are devastated and at a loss for words. Please respect our privacy and the Howe family’s privacy during this most difficult time.

[nick_z]

 

This is terrible...

[TAC]

Oh no!!

[ozzy554]

Man this really sucks. His first 3 albums with the band in my opinion are their best. Really shocking the dude appeared to be in great health and he still sounded fantastic. Only 55 years old

[wolfking]

Oh shit, that's horrific! 

Only 55.

[jammindude]

I’m just stunned right now.

What a monster singer. All the albums I heard from him, he nailed it every time.

I saw MC with Mike supporting BiD while opening up a New Years Eve show with QR headlining on Dec 31 1988. Mike was amazing.

Blessing in Disguise is a great album with (IMO) terrible production. The Human Factor is freaking perfect. Never heard HITB, but XI is just incredible.

They had just said earlier this month that the new album would be out in 2022. I wonder how far they got on it?

[Grappler]

Awful - I only discovered the band a few years ago.  I never really paid attention to them for a very long time and missed out on years of enjoyment of their music.  Definitely regretting not seeing them play a tiny club a couple of years ago now.

I'll be cranking Metal Church all week in his honor, that's for sure - such a badass singer. 

[El Barto]

That's a damn shame. I was always a David Wayne guy, but Howe was excellent taking over. As was said, Blessing was a great album (that sounded awful) and kept them right on going after The Dark.

[TAC]

Never heard HITB,

That is a shameful admission. Hanging In The Balance is top shelf amazing.

[bl5150]

Oh crap!  Too busy dealing with in/out lockdown to really gather my thoughts but this one is a real shock      Blessing In Disguise and Hanging In The Balance tied for a spot in my DTF Top 50.........Howe fronted Metal Church was a more important band to my childhood than Metallica, Maiden etc.....  Bloody hell.

[TAC]

Those first three albums with him are so amazing. This is really such awful news.

[jammindude]

Never heard HITB,

That is a shameful admission. Hanging In The Balance is top shelf amazing.

I just ordered it off eBay with the Live album with Wayne that I also did not own.

I really want to check out more Monroe stuff at some point. Kurdt is a good enough songwriter that I trust him to always make a great riff…or 10.

[wolfking]

My knowledge of this band on a whole is very spotty.  Hanging in the Balance is very good though.  I really loved XI too.  Great album.

[jammindude]

My knowledge of this band on a whole is very spotty.  Hanging in the Balance is very good though.  I really loved XI too.  Great album.

The first two albums (with original singer David Wayne, who died several years ago) are absolutely essential.

[wolfking]

My knowledge of this band on a whole is very spotty.  Hanging in the Balance is very good though.  I really loved XI too.  Great album.

The first two albums (with original singer David Wayne, who died several years ago) are absolutely essential.

I own the Dark and listened to it just a couple of weeks ago after years.  Was excellent.  Great album. I'll have to search through which albums I have.  Don't have many but do have a couple.

[nick_z]

Those first three albums with him are so amazing. This is really such awful news.

So true. We were just talking about Hanging in the Balance a couple of weeks ago on this thread, and how much of an underrated (undiscovered, really) gem it is. I'm going to have to put on Blessing in Disguise and Human Factor today...

[jammindude]

My knowledge of this band on a whole is very spotty.  Hanging in the Balance is very good though.  I really loved XI too.  Great album.

The first two albums (with original singer David Wayne, who died several years ago) are absolutely essential.

I own the Dark and listened to it just a couple of weeks ago after years.  Was excellent.  Great album. I'll have to search through which albums I have.  Don't have many but do have a couple.

I promise you that the debut is as good or better. The 1-2 punch of the two opening tracks….in fact, all of side 1…is one of the best “sides” (for us old foggy’s who remember sides) in all of metal.

I was just listening to HITB off YT this morning. It’s surprisingly different. I mean that in a good way. It’s still undeniably MC, but Kurdt is a big prog rock guy (see his side project Presto Ballet) and I think you can hear a bit of that in the first few tracks. Can’t wait to get my physical copy.

[nick_z]

I promise you that the debut is as good or better. The 1-2 punch of the two opening tracks….in fact, all of side 1…is one of the best “sides” (for us old foggy’s who remember sides) in all of metal.

Agreed - in fact I think the debut is significantly better than The Dark

I was just listening to HITB off YT this morning. It’s surprisingly different. I mean that in a good way. It’s still undeniably MC, but Kurdt is a big prog rock guy (see his side project Presto Ballet) and I think you can hear a bit of that in the first few tracks. Can’t wait to get my physical copy.

Absolutely. I don't know if you got through the whole album yet, but it's even more the case in tracks like Little Boy and End of the Age, and not just because they are longer songs. There is plenty of interesting stuff going on, and yet it's unmistakably Metal Church.

[jammindude]

At the risk of being “too soon”:

You have to wonder what Kurdt is going to do now. He’s got an album that’s at least partially recorded (no word on if Mike finished his parts yet). Do you go back to Munroe? Or start looking for singer #4?

I was thinking today what a great fit Todd LaTorre would be if he wasn’t deep into the new QR. He seems more of a power metal guy than a progressive metal guy anyway, and he is friends with the band. He even did a duet with Mike Howe on a re-recording of Fake Healer a little while back.  Even though I like the new QR much better than the latter day Tate material, it has ended up changing them into more of a straight forward metal band instead of the weird “thinking man’s” metal band they once were.

Since QR has kind of turned into a nostalgia act lately, I think it would be a better fit. But probably won’t happen. It would certainly put a bigger name and a big boost to the Metal Church brand, and probably a bit easier for TLT to perform day in and day out.

[ozzy554]

I remember Kurdt said that he was considering ending metal church if Mike didn't want to return after Monroe left so this might be it for the band.

As for the album it's either never going to get released or I can see it being finished with special guest vocalists as a tribute

[jammindude]

I remember Kurdt said that he was considering ending metal church if Mike didn't want to return after Monroe left so this might be it for the band.

Kurdt is moody. He tends to talk about the end of the band almost as much as Peter Steele did about Type O Negative. He said they were done after the failed reunion with Wayne. Then after 3 albums with Munroe, low sales and no record deal had him talking about throwing in the towel again. But then he got his own independent label and did Generation Zero which (I believe) faired slightly better than the previous 3 albums.

Obviously, getting Mike back was a huge boost, but I’m just saying Kurdt has called it quits just to pick it back up again a couple of times.

[TAC]

https://bravewords.com/news/mike-howe-police-say-neither-drugs-nor-alcohol-believed-to-be-factors-in-sudden-death-of-metal-church-frontman

[jammindude]

https://bravewords.com/news/mike-howe-police-say-neither-drugs-nor-alcohol-believed-to-be-factors-in-sudden-death-of-metal-church-frontman

And it’s crazy that he Joey…both too young to go from “natural causes”…just suddenly die in their sleep 24 hrs apart, with no clues as to why.

[wolfking]

https://bravewords.com/news/mike-howe-police-say-neither-drugs-nor-alcohol-believed-to-be-factors-in-sudden-death-of-metal-church-frontman

Even more tragic and unfair.

[El Barto]

https://bravewords.com/news/mike-howe-police-say-neither-drugs-nor-alcohol-believed-to-be-factors-in-sudden-death-of-metal-church-frontman

And it’s crazy that he Joey…both too young to go from “natural causes”…just suddenly die in their sleep 24 hrs apart, with no clues as to why.

Crass and uncalled for speculation on my part, but looking at pictures of Joey Jordison, I suspect that what got him was a known factor. It's merely a halfassed guess at this point, but I'd bet that he was being treated for something. Howe looked healthy as all get-out, though. More wildass speculation on my part, but I'd be thinking John Ritter.

[jammindude]

https://bravewords.com/news/mike-howe-police-say-neither-drugs-nor-alcohol-believed-to-be-factors-in-sudden-death-of-metal-church-frontman

And it’s crazy that he Joey…both too young to go from “natural causes”…just suddenly die in their sleep 24 hrs apart, with no clues as to why.

Crass and uncalled for speculation on my part, but looking at pictures of Joey Jordison, I suspect that what got him was a known factor. It's merely a halfassed guess at this point, but I'd bet that he was being treated for something. Howe looked healthy as all get-out, though. More wildass speculation on my part, but I'd be thinking John Ritter.

I only just read a little bit ago after posting what I wrote that Joey had originally left slipknot due to “illness“. But the article I read didn’t specify what that was. But I guess that unlike Mike, he had some kind of health issue.

[TAC]

I was just watching the official video of Gods Of Second Chance..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qtct_-NWNDg

Gave me goosebumps.

[TAC]

This isn't a new thought, but it's strange that (not including the most recent two albums) those three Metal Church albums were pretty much all we had from Mike Howe before the reunion. That was always a shame because he was an amazing vocalist. Really one of the best voices of that era.

[jammindude]

This isn't a new thought, but it's strange that (not including the most recent two albums) those three Metal Church albums were pretty much all we had from Mike Howe before the reunion. That was always a shame because he was an amazing vocalist. Really one of the best voices of that era.

Before Metal Church he was in a band called Heretic. They did one album with Howe on vocals in 1988 called Breaking Point. I swear I haven’t heard it in 30 years, but I seem to recall that it was a pretty decent (but typical and dated) thrash metal disc.

[TAC]

This isn't a new thought, but it's strange that (not including the most recent two albums) those three Metal Church albums were pretty much all we had from Mike Howe before the reunion. That was always a shame because he was an amazing vocalist. Really one of the best voices of that era.

Before Metal Church he was in a band called Heretic. They did one album with Howe on vocals in 1988 called Breaking Point. I swear I haven’t heard it in 30 years, but I seem to recall that it was a pretty decent (but typical and dated) thrash metal disc.

I actually wasn't aware of that until I read it on wiki last night.


Full album on youtube..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRikAw3zTZw


EDIT:
Sounds pretty good. May have to hunt this down..

[jammindude]

What I always thought was weird was that, in spite of the fact that Kurdt Vanderhoof was always the primary songwriter and leader of the band, he didn’t appear with Mike as an official member of Metal Church until XI.

The story goes that MC was his baby, but he hated touring. So after David Wayne left, Kurdt pulled a “Jon Olivia” (Savatage) and stayed on as a primary writer in the studio, but not being a listed member of the band. Obviously, he stepped back in later.

[Setlist Scotty]

This isn't a new thought, but it's strange that (not including the most recent two albums) those three Metal Church albums were pretty much all we had from Mike Howe before the reunion. That was always a shame because he was an amazing vocalist. Really one of the best voices of that era.

Before Metal Church he was in a band called Heretic. They did one album with Howe on vocals in 1988 called Breaking Point. I swear I haven’t heard it in 30 years, but I seem to recall that it was a pretty decent (but typical and dated) thrash metal disc.

And don't forget that two of the guys from Heretic ended up creating the band Reverend along with MC's original vocalist David Wayne. So in a way, it was as if the bands exchanged lead vocalists.

[jammindude]

This isn't a new thought, but it's strange that (not including the most recent two albums) those three Metal Church albums were pretty much all we had from Mike Howe before the reunion. That was always a shame because he was an amazing vocalist. Really one of the best voices of that era.

Before Metal Church he was in a band called Heretic. They did one album with Howe on vocals in 1988 called Breaking Point. I swear I haven’t heard it in 30 years, but I seem to recall that it was a pretty decent (but typical and dated) thrash metal disc.

And don't forget that two of the guys from Heretic ended up creating the band Reverend along with MC's original vocalist David Wayne. So in a way, it was as if the bands exchanged lead vocalists.

I had almost forgotten about that. And Reverend was awesome. I used to own Play God and that got a lot of play back in my cassette days.