Metal Church

Metal Church started out in San Francisco in 1980, then packed up for Aberdeen, Washington, a year later, briefly going by Shrapnel, and became a cornerstone of the Seattle area's fledgling heavy metal scene. Guitarist Kurdt Vanderhoof wrote the songs and steered the ship, and the classic lineup around him, singer David Wayne, guitarist Craig Wells, bassist Duke Erickson and drummer Kirk Arrington, made the self-titled debut in 1984 and The Dark in 1986, records that crossed thrash speed with power metal grandeur and sang about conflict and paranoia.

Vanderhoof got tired of the road in 1986 and stepped back to writing only, and by the end of the decade Wayne was gone too. John Marshall took the guitar slot and Mike Howe the microphone, and Blessing in Disguise, in 1989, didn't miss a beat. "Badlands" became one of their best-known songs, a brooding, heavyweight epic, and "Fake Healer" bares its teeth with serrated riffs. Over the years the lyrics would reach past paranoia toward politics, philosophy and society at large.

Since then the band has broken up and come back more than once, with Vanderhoof back on stage and a revolving cast of singers, Howe among them again from 2015 until his death in July 2021. Fourteen studio albums in, Metal Church keeps holding services.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.