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Metal Church > The Human Factor > Reviews
Metal Church - The Human Factor

Socially conscious - 70%

colin040, June 24th, 2023

The Human Factor is that kind of record that’s not bad on an individual level, but simply lacks something once compared to the records in between. Indeed, whereas Blessing in Disguise shows a daring side of the band, yet retains a sense of heaviness and Hanging in the Balance operates from killing hooks and a more distinctive writing-approach, The Human Factor falls somewhere in between.

You can still count on Kurdt Vanderhoof’s distinctive arrangements, but more than often, I get the idea that the band had adapted to Mike Howe rather than the other way around. Howe continues to steal the show with his thundering snarls and prominent choruses, but at times The Human Factor sounds a bit too vocal-centered for its own good. The title track reveals that Metal Church hasn’t settled for anything unrecognizable and the same counts for the slightly catchier ‘Date With Poverty’, but the guitars aren’t quite as gripping as you may expect from this band and If I had to compare Metal Church to another band at this period, Vicious Rumors wouldn’t be a bad comparison. Welcome to the Ball has its similarities in terms of in rock-fueled metal of dominating vocals and present guitars, even if the songs aren’t always too convincing.

Make no mistake, The Human Factor is superior to Welcome to the Ball. It’s just that plenty of material sounds so-so for Metal Church’s standards. ‘The Final Word’ is the first highlight on the album and might as well be the best one on the record. Like a blistering wagon of metallic fury, it’s a thrilling semi-epic that resurrects some of the heavier and meatier elements of Blessing in Disguise. Few other tracks deliver the action; like groove-meets-speed scenario of ‘Agent Green’, which alternates between some stop-go guitar riffs and a blazing second half that resembles the aforementioned highlight. Interestingly enough, the amount of variety between the thundering cuts like ‘In Due Time’, Flee from Reality’ and ‘The Fight Song’ is extremely limited; but with mean-machine guitar riffs and crazy vocals, that’s hardly something to nitpick about. At last, Metal Church often deliver superb ballads and ‘In Harm’s Way’ is no exception. From the serene verses to the emotionally-provocative chorus, it’s an incredible piece of work that reveals how down to earth the band could be.

As mentioned before, at times The Human Factor sounds a bit too vocally-orientated and as much as I love Howe’s thundering snarls, this is quite a disadvantage. Whereas Hanging in the Balance demonstrates superb writing finesse and saw the band using Howe’s vocals to their advantage, The Human Factor falls flat from time to time. The title track may work as decent background music; but with no riffs to steal the show with, it's a pretty mediocre opener from a band that's capable of doing so much better. ‘In Mourning’ certainly gets things going with yet another sentimental chorus that will haunt you forever, but since the verses lack the capacity to rock the nations, why bother? – Especially since The Human Factor follows up with the comparable, yet far superior ‘In Harm’s Way’? Arguably filler, ‘Betrayed’ shows Metal Church at their worst, as the tune sounds surprisingly tame. Like a sluggish track wreck of uninspired ideas, it plods along with no energy nor hooks in sight - not it until that brief middle section picks up with a ‘Blackened’-esque thrust to it at least.

The Human Factor isn’t great; especially once I compare it to the surrounding records, but on its own, it’s fine for what it is - even if it would have made a superior EP instead.

Very good "solid album" - 79%

gasmask_colostomy, August 1st, 2021

I actually got all of the Metal Church albums at once (very, very legally if anyone asks) and for some reason chose The Human Factor as my first one to listen to. Why, I don't know, probably because it wasn't an actual classic but had good features of their earlier and middle periods, plus doesn't present as a complicated listen. I'm writing about it now due to the sad news of Mike Howe's passing and realizing that it's a slightly more solid album than I remembered. I still feel a bit like this 1991 release might have been recorded as a reaction to its time period, not overdoing the heavy metal excess and actually playing a bit more to a hard rock sound, something that's evident both from the sonics and the song structures, which have calmed down a good deal from the explorative Blessing in Disguise, Howe's Metal Church debut from 2 years previous. Overall, I'd say The Human Factor is what happens when a band make a "solid album" very well and make it actually pretty good as a result.

So you might be eyeing those 6-7 minute tracks scattered around the middle of the record and wondering whether they would involve a lot of slower tempos or interludes, since straightforward structures tend not to need so much time, plumping more for the 4-5 minute average of the other songs. Actually, Metal Church pretty much just went for the third verse technique and didn't rely on too much limelight for lead work nor particularly convoluted progressions, so even 'The Final Word' and 'In Mourning' seem more like standard up-tempo heavy metal than those trickier, multi-part songs like 'Anthem to the Estranged' and 'Little Boy' that could be found on the albums flanking The Human Factor. It surprises me that the quintet keep the pedal to the metal most of the way through these numbers, bordering on thrash with the main riffs of several songs, the rhythm section just a bit too crunchy and beefy to make proceedings really fast. They also let a few verses breathe more, though not to the extent that Hanging in the Balance employed acoustic and balladic techniques. In many ways, Metal Church were already in the territory that Overkill would come to occupy after I Hear Black.

One other reason why I feel like The Human Factor did spell a bit of change for the Americans is that the focus falls more heavily on the vocals than heretofore. Howe was a great frontman for the group during their conversion of sound because he could keep up the assault while really diving deep into a topic, like he does for the more elaborate 'In Harm's Way', which covers the subject of child abuse and neglect. He has that nice grit to his voice, a snarl a bit like Accept's Mark Tornillo, and can belt a note if he needs to; however, his approach is more direct than a power metal acrobat like David Wayne (who he replaced), which is partly why these songs cope well at mid-pace and tend to pack a punch with the chorus. When the pace and intensity flips up a little bit for 'In Due Time', he can deal with that cut just fine but honestly sounds more like the boss of the record when 'In Harm's Way' builds through a clean intro to its storytelling detail. Hence why The Human Factor feels to me like a good album but never extremely powerful, because I'm never quite getting hit by everything all at once. Riffing and guitar solos both benefit from an even and meaty production, just never go really crazy.

I suppose that last point is one element that goes towards my slight lack of appreciation for the fourth Metal Church album, though the style being prolonged through all 10 songs certainly contributes as well. In that vaguely rockish "we definitely don't sound like hair metal" heavy not-quite-thrash manner, The Human Factor doesn't change much over the course of 52 minutes, 'The Fight Song' and 'Flee from Reality' getting closest to a sound thrashing, 'In Harm's Way' taking the softer spot, and everything else ticking the boxes in the middle. Considering that the title track here lyrically complains about a lack of talent and creativity in music...well, these guys didn't exactly just write a symphony or anything. On the other hand, I know a lot of people who want a chunky heavy/thrash album with plenty of gang vocals and chorus lines to shout along to, and that's surely the main appeal, even if the topics get a bit serious for parties at times. While it certainly can't be called Metal Church's high point - not even with this line-up - The Human Factor barely shows a dip and succeeded in shifting the focus of the group's sound.

Humanity on Parole, Sheltered in the Metal Church - 93%

bayern, May 31st, 2017

When “Blessing in Disguise” came out, I only listened to the first two songs; it had nothing to do with the previous two opuses, two of the thirty best works in the annals of metal. With David Wayne (R.I.P.) out of the picture, Metal Church were finished for me, gone… for good. These quasi-progressive power metal hymns were an entirely new direction, something outside the scope of the metal church authorities. I was sure they weren’t going to last long having in mind that American power metal was already mutating into thrash and speed faster than Death were becoming a full-fledged death metal outfit.

Some time in 1991 I go to the shop looking for a couple of albums (Pestilence’s “Testimony of the Ancients”, Dark Angel’s “Time Does Not Heal”, Death’s “Human”, etc.). To my utter disappointment, I can’t find any of those. I have to go back home with something, and I look around to see if anything at all can catch my eye. I see the album reviewed here; a very unsightly cover, the five band members stuck on it, nothing telling, but nothing promising either. “It’s quite good, actually”, the guy there says. Well, if it’s good, then let’s take it…

And it is quite good, I should tell you; and way beyond that. And I didn’t force myself to like it now that I’d paid for it and all. I simply appreciated the dynamic bouncy riffs of the title-track, a perfectly acceptable power metal anthem with a nice chorus; this Mike Howe guy wasn’t a bad singer at all; in fact, if you give him a second chance, he may even convince you that his emotional mean-ish timbre isn’t far from the one of Wayne himself. However, “Date with Poverty” begins and I start frowning a bit; these pop-ish radio-friendly rhythms don’t forebode a lot of happiness although the more dramatic accumulations and the excellent vocals save the song from being classified as a semi-filler. From this moment onward the album steam-rolls on full-throttle nearly reaching the grandeur of the first two instalments: “Final Word”, a speed metal masterpiece that keeps the high tension for over 6-min with steel sharp riffs, exemplary vocal exploits again, and tempo changes galore; “In Mourning”, a marvellous epic power metal composition with intriguing semi-balladic configurations which nicely add up to the dramatism not to mention the superb chorus (Howe is a fuckin’ vocal hero!) and the great speedy bridge in the second half; “In a Harm’s Way”, the semi-ballad to end all semi-ballads, arguably the greatest song the band ever composed, a nostalgic elegy with escalating hard riffing decisions and pathos-like vocal exploits which couldn’t have been pulled off by Wayne, requiring a more passionate singer; “In Due Time”, another notable brisk speedster with a spellbinding mellower interlude.

The rest is by no means a sloucher, but the scarily tender intro of “Agent Green” hardly draws the most headbanging pictures around, and it remains a relatively quiet piece with more virtuoso guitar strokes and a desirable faster-paced turnover. “Flee from Reality” goes back to the high speed parametres, a more immediate optimistic shredder with Howe pitching it higher to a firm positive effect. “Betrayed” is on the opposite pole the guys trying something more technical and less predictable, and also more modernized, but the slightly monotonous motif doesn’t hold water for long, especially after the arrival of “The Fight Song”, the next in line speed metal delight, the band tearing it loose at the end with uplifting roller-coaster guitars, screamy leads, and Howe completely unrestrained behind the mike, shouting his lings out in order to match the compulsively rousing melee.

A highly entertaining release which hooked me almost instantly, and not because I had nothing else new to listen to at the time. I spent a few days with it, and I was convinced that I had ignored the previous opus prematurely, and that I had to give it a thorough listen. Under the new circumstances, I did find quite a bit to like there although I found it a bit too static compared to the more or less bridled energy on full display here. On “Blessing in Disguise” the guys tried too hard to bid farewell to their speed/thrash-peppered roots by going into a much slower and more complex direction; it did work in a certain way, but it was way more effective here as the transition sounded smoother with speed metal still bouncing off, keeping the old fanbase in the vicinity. I guess the guys may have realized that straying too far from one of the greatest doubles in metal was a mistake, and had returned to the more aggressive approach thus producing a more logical follow-up to “The Dark”.

Again, of the metal heads I know not many are those who share my opinion; the preferences go to either the preceding, or to the following offering, “Hanging in the Balance”, as the album reviewed here is considered the black sheep of the Mike Howe period. It beats me why… I guess I’m one of the few left nostalgic for the heavier, more boisterous period of the band’s career which was handsomely reflected in this “Human Factor”. And we can’t possibly ignore the human factor completely, can we?

The broad range - 83%

Felix 1666, March 5th, 2017
Written based on this version: 1991, CD, Epic Sony

Forget the miserable cover, "The Human Factor" is still worth to discover. Metal Church was never the most aggressive thrash formation - by the way, was it really a thrash formation? - and their fourth full-length does not reach the highest tier of fury as well. It rather scores with its great variety. The both talented and experienced musicians do not hesitate to exhibit the broad range of their abilities. Power metal tendencies meet fragments of heavy metal and, of course, many elements of thrash metal are integrated as well.

"The Human Factor" is not flawless. Despite the compositional and technical skills of the band members, there exist two throwaway pieces that mar the overall result. They separate the opener and the closer from the strong middle part of the album. "Date with Poverty" bears its name with pride. The chorus lacks power and the middle part offers some - discrete - funky guitars, but the entire track is somewhat insubstantial and doubtlessly too long. "Betrayed" does not leave an enormous impact as well. It's just too stiff and fails to present a smooth flow or a great melody.

The peripheral location of the opening title track and the finishing "The Fight Song" is not optimal, but this does not mean that they should be skipped. The opener is a stomping number whose lyrics make a harsh verdict about computerized music, yet it is not on an equal footing with the straight, compact and thrashing closer. The final number belongs to the most vigorous tracks of the full-length and this is a good reason to call it one of the highlights of "The Human Factor". The same goes for "The Final Word". Abrasive guitars roll out the carpet for great riffs and an eerie atmosphere. A very energetic number with combative lyrics that build a bridge to JFK's famous sentence "ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country". I did not know that Mike Howe sleeps in bed linen with a Stars and Stripes design, but I admit that I also do not like people very much who live in my country while having nothing but scorn for it. Anyway, "Flee from Reality", the third thrash-drenched attack, does not stand in the shadow of the tunes with a comparable pattern. Its simple background choirs and Howe's clear singing supplement each other while shaping a typical staccato chorus and the voluminous guitars take care for the right degree of stringency.

But Metal Church manage the softer tones in a very good manner, too. The chorus of "In Mourning" almost makes my heart break. The song reanimates the spirit which was brought to life by "Watch the Children Pray". However, despite its reproachful message, this epic is founded on a heavy scaffold of steel. Further songs show a partially emotional approach, but they are all very solidly constructed. Metal Church do not shy away from great emotions and they know the kind of melody which expresses them in a great way. Nevertheless, it is also great that the relatively short "In Due Time" puts the emphasis on robustness, pressure and speed. Such a striker needs an adequate production in order to develop its strength, but rest assured, "The Human Factor" cannot be blamed for a dull, blurred or powerless sound. Howe's pronounced voice stands in the centre of a mix which finds the right place in the middle between metallic harshness and bright cleanness.

Wide parts of "The Human Factor" were written by Kurdt Vanderhoof who was no member of the line-up at that time. This is pretty unusual, but another thing is of higher relevance. As far as I can see, the ten tracks formed the last Metal Church album that really knew to impress with its metallic backbone. That's a shame. Anyway, all those who want to explore a pretty diverse and expressive, not overly vehement album, which commutes between thrash and traditional metal, will realize the quality of this output; and its intelligent lyrics are a nice add-on.

Somewhat overlooked and unsung. - 91%

Empyreal, September 12th, 2016

The second Mike Howe Metal Church album, The Human Factor, seems to be overlooked pretty easily when talking about this band's discography. But it envies nothing of its more talked-about peers. This is a seriously cool, lean and mean album of chugging power/thrash the way only they can do it, replete with the hallmarks of their sound – crunchy, crisp riffs, rocking tempos, razor-sharp rhythms and Howe's clean, powerful voice. This one isn't as epic as its predecessor or as iconoclastic as Hanging In The Balance, but for meat and potatoes heavy metal delivered with gusto, it rules.

There's not really a whole lot to glean from this beyond the rudimentary ingredients, because the album doesn't have a whole lot – it's a stripped-down, raw, powerful listen, and it works on its heavy, punchy guitars and the emotional vocals from Howe. Check out the title track or “Date With Poverty” - they just rock the fuck out with these groovy, fist-pumping heavy metal riffs done up with the band's typical thrash-style intensity. You feel every riff in your bones and while they don't cram your ears full of them, the ones they have are used with the expertise of master craftsmen. “In Due Time” - shit, even better. Speed and riffs enough to ensure you get a speeding ticket when you inevitably go over 80 mph listening to this thing in a fucking school zone. And “Agent Green” has a heavy, slow-burning Sabbathine groove like something they might have done with Dio on Heaven & Hell. Kick ass.

I'm a vocals guy myself, and Mike Howe delivers on here – he sounds more focused and intense and sure of himself here than on Blessing, and he delivers the excellent socially-apt lyrics with a venom and verve that rivals any big-name singer you can name. He sings about shitty mainstream pop music, American flag burning, drug addiction and all sorts of other shit – the lyrics are very well done; blue collar and simplistic but well written and with a good poetic voice for how rock music lyrics should sound. Certainly better than a lot of mainstream bands at the time singing about hot dates and shiny cars or something.

The best songs on here come in the middle – the heavy “In Mourning,” which has crushing riffs and really cool tempo changes that keep the song's six-minute runtime engaging, and then “In Harm's Way,” which is the typical Metal Church power ballad, done with raw emotion and power to spare. This is just a huge, instantly visceral song. The guitars are searing and Howe's piercing wails come off as achingly despairing, singing lyrics about the plight of abused children.

The Human Factor kicks ass. If you're a classic metal fan and you don't have it in your life, what are you waiting for?

It's not that mommy hits that hurts me, it's when she goes away
Get home from school all by myself and won't see her for days
A kid deprived of love in life has no alternative in sight
He throws up barriers to get him through
A human life's a gift from God
Your conscience and your heart are gone
You're much to cruel to have a point of view

Church closed for renovations - 55%

autothrall, June 11th, 2012

All but forgotten by now, and deservedly so, The Human Factor was an album to continue the decline of Metal Church into the 90s, both in quality and relevance. This is the second of the Mike Howe fronted records, and would prove their last on a major label (this time Epic), for pretty obvious reasons. It attempts to dial back the band's heavy backbone to emphasize hard rock influences and further accessibility at an age when much of metal was on the verge of being thrown to the preeminent cultural wolves, and comes up very short in songwriting endurance. The thrown together, uninteresting rhythm guitar riffs, the dull everyman lyrics (often vomiting cliches at key moments in the vocal lines), the inspiration leeching safety of the dry production: this is about as pedestrian as it got for the Californians, and while in some cases that could be regarded as a compliment for some well executed, blue collar heavy metal, this is not one of them. Let us lie among the candles, friends, as we hold a vigil for what might have been.

About the only positive I can really say for The Human Factor is that it's got a festive energy to it that sounds not so much like a band losing its steam as one desperate to remain afloat. Howe's cutting timbre seems to have less of an array of effects in the mix, and all around they seemed to be steering themselves towards a more natural tone. There are a lot of hard rock and roll fueled grooves carved into the sturdier, metallic riffing, which makes its seem like they were a little late jumping on the gravy train of bands like Skid Row, Extreme and so forth, or perhaps more accurately the British band Wolfsbane. You hear this a lot with the opening riffs of "In Mourning", or the mediocre power ballad fake outs like "Agent Green" with its punctuated verse rhythm. I realize that the membrane between the two styles has always been pretty slim, but fuck, I wouldn't care if Metal Church put out an album like Aerosmith, as long as the songs were good. For the most part it's more of the same Blessing in Disguise selection of played out chord progressions, only wimpy and unmemorable, as if they were attempting to stymy their diminishing pertinence with a friendly grab towards the far broader and stubborner hard rock crowd.

This is, of course, very much a product of its times, as you can tell in the anti-sampling lyrics to the titular opener, which seems to have some beef against electronic/pop music or sampling, because that somehow takes the 'humanness' out of music. Eye rolls. But more than that, it's the same sad story that affected so many great bands in the 90s, struggling to carve out a niche in a market that was turning to Pearl Jam. At its heaviest, the more thrash-heavy riffs are about as interesting as those on the underwhelming Anthrax or Overkill records of that decade, and the post-Zeppelin/Cream boogie blues patterns all seem to saunter along a too trodden ground. There are some decent leads scattered through the record, and it does actually seem to pace itself out evenly with some rhythmic variation and emotional contrasts, but that's the best I can say for an album whose choruses are so meek and unmemorable that I can't remember them after stirring my tea for five minutes in the kitchen. Guess I'm just not 'human' enough to appreciate it, but Breaking Point or The Dark this is not.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

They Made it Right - 92%

MEGANICK89, December 11th, 2008

With an impressive debut of new singer Mike Howe with "Blessing in Disguise," Metal Church came back in 1991 with "The Human Factor." While the last album had more of a power metal vibe with a mild thrash attack, this album has some more speed riffing and some more use of the acoustic guitar. What makes this album stand out is that Metal Church continued to expand and did not stand pat with what they had going. The combination of thrash and power in this album and an astounding performance of Mike Howe make this album an unrecognized classic.

Another major change with this album is also the topics covered in the lyrics. They are very well written and range from observations of society, politics, poverty, to even child abuse. Plus, the vocal delivery of Mike Howe helped get these subjects across and will blow the listener away. Songs like "In Mourning" in "In Harm's Way" are thought-provoking, but the music side of it is also strong.

Again, Kurdt Vanderhoof helped pen most of the songs even though he was not an active member of the band. The guitars sounds heavier and more crunchy than the previous album and the riffing attack never lets up. The full effect of this can be found on the title and opening track with a crippling riff followed by the drums and sets the tone for what is to be heard. The tempo changes are also intricate and well placed like in "Date With Poverty" with a smooth placement of the solo and nice mashing of the drums by Kirk Arrington and "Agent Green" which goes from acoustic guitar to electric riffing and then the song speeds up at the end and is one the highlights of the album.

All out thrash attacks can be found on "The Fight Song" and "Flee From Reality." John Marshall and Craig Wells again deliver great performances as the band as a whole was firing on all cylinders. The beginning of "In Harms Way" is reminiscent of Metallica's "Fade to Black" with the acoustic guitar turning into the epic riffing in the chorus, but it quickly gets away from that and turns into goes into a mid-paced thrasher which was interesting and did not seem forced.

As was said before, the tempo changes are well thought out, however Vanderhoof kind of did a little too much of that. "Flee Form Reality" slows down all of a sudden and kind of devalued the thrash attack and "Betrayed" had a nice mid-paced rocking riff that changed in the solo with some blues type soloing and it even featured clapping in the background and it felt a bit out of place.

Metal Church truly out did themselves with this record. They took what they did with "Blessing in Disguise" and amped it up with more energy and songs that grabbed you by the throat and don't let up till the final second. This album is a definite classic and will be sure to convert some people to the Metal Chruch.

Solid Album - 85%

Erdrickgr, January 2nd, 2008

The word that keeps coming to mind as I try to review this album is "solid". There are some good riffs, some memorable musical moments, some great lyrics... but in the end it's hard for me to describe the album as great. I guess the main mark against the record is that it tends to get a bit repetitive and bland by the end. Just a little bit. I think they could have cut off the last two songs and the album would have been better without them--but maybe that's just me.

The guitars have a good tone to them, being thrashy on the thrashers, softer on the ballads, and so forth. The riffage here is good, bringing a sense of old school thrash to the table, but without sounding outdated. The solos are usually spot on, and are well placed in the song structures. Actually, the song writing generally is strong. True, some might have doubts about 7 minute long ballads coming from a thrash metal band, but Metal Church does an admirable job here (In Harm's Way).

Where Metal Church really shines, though, is in the vocal department. The voice of Mike Howe soars here, and is a perfect match to the music being played. His performances on songs like In Mourning and In Harm's Way are perfect--perhaps the best performances of that year. The lyrics are also very well written, though they can be a bit heavy handed at times.

I'd definitely recommend getting this album. With the exception of a couple average songs at the end, this is a very solid thrash record.

this band can do no wrong - 82%

UltraBoris, June 12th, 2004

Another masterpiece from these guys... this is actually the worst album of their career, and the fact that I gave it an 82 should be sufficient evidence of their immense continued success. The album comes chronologically between Blessing and Hanging, and sounds pretty much like both. The two albums, on a microscopic level, sound basically the same, except Hanging is much more skewed in the direction of epic numbers and ballads. This one is just about as straightforward as Blessing in Disguise, and maybe even more so - taking the standard thrash formula, and then adding some subtle melodic parts. See, for example, the subtle key changes in "The Final Word", which then turns into a riff monster similar to "The Spell Can't Be Broken".

The absolute highlight of the album is probably the ballad "In Harm's Way" - a completely over-the-top chorus, and the sense of melody that so few bands can nail. And no, Opeth ain't one of them. So please, Mikael Akerfelt, sprout several cunts and rip your entrails out by way of them. Thanks. Then there's the all-out rocker "In Due Time", which responds to the Reverend "keep that shit away from me" with its own "don't pull this shit with me".

"Agent Green" brings to mind "Badlands" with the acoustic guitar figuring prominently even in the "heavy" sections, though it only speeds up to "Badlands" pace under the main solo. Then there's of course the title track... oh good grief, the only thing missing is a specific invective against Lars "I was too much of a pussy to be allowed to join your band" Ulrich, because the rest of the asshairs of the music industry certainly get their due. This is from 1991, no less, before Kurt Cobain ushered in the era of ass-sex and talent-free living, so I can only wonder how they'd treat the matter on a revisit. Same with "Flee From Reality", which screams MTV-peabrain Cobain-worshipping swinehunds, completely devoid of responsibility or thought, and of course this scene was just rearing its ugly head and getting out of "heavy metal parking lot" cult status when this album came out. See also: "The Fight Song". Yeah, those kids really paid, attention, huh? Cunts.

Metal Church can basically do no wrong. All of their albums are indispensable (yes, even the two that come after this, and the three songs I've heard off the brand new one also scream WINNAR in a manner that no other band has screamed WINNAR before). Perfect loud-n-proud production, smashing guitars, epic vocals by Mike Howe, what more could you ask for.