Customer Reviews

The Dark

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'm a massive Metal church fan and will always consider this one of the classic metal releases along with their first one. But, unlike the first one, the production on this one, the sound, was not up to par. The songs themselves are killer, trademark Church, no doubt. However, the sound level was low, not as clear as the first, which makes you have to hit the bass boost on the your amp, and have the volume knob higher up the dial than most CD's. Killer songs though, not to be missed. Picks are: Ton of Bricks, The Dark, Psycho, Start The Fire, and of course, Watch The Children Pray. If you want to hear some of these songs loud beyond belief, with a clear production, pick up their live import on here, Metal Church Live. Cheers from Scraggy's Tomb!

After a stellar first album released in 1985, Metal Church returned from the road and into the studio to record one of their best albums, The Dark. The music is fairly simple and catchy. Once you get to know the album it becomes hard to put down.

There are no bad songs here. Of note are energetic opener "Ton of Bricks", the extremely underrated "Method To Your Madness", which contains an uncharacteristically laid-back, commercial feel, and the ageless heavy metal classic "Watch The Children Pray."

If you're looking for a solid straight-ahead metal album from the mid 1980s, it's hard to go wrong with The Dark.

Metal Church stand as one of the most innovated- and unfortunately, one of the most underappreciated - heavy metal artists of the 1980's. And "The Dark" is, without a doubt, the masterpiece of their hard-driven air-guitar assault.

The drums are intense, seemingly keeping up a savage beat that only enhances an already ferocious metal effort. The guitars are well-worked out, and the vocals are beatifully unstable, showing melody as well as unbelievable range and power. Most importantly, the beat and melody are interlocked, not separated like oil and water (like Metallica were in their true metal days). This makes the album almost like punk -in the sense that it's free-flowing and not ridden with ponderous guitar solos (again, like Metallica).

Proving themselves totally unlike Bon Govi and Def Leppard, Metal Church offers only true heavy metal tracks on "The Dark". Songs on pure agression (Ton of Bricks, Start the Fire), mutiny and rebellion (Line of Death), an occult-oriented number (We Watch the Children Pray), war (Method to Your Madness), Hitler's impending war for conquest (Western Alliance).

In the sense of sub-genre, Metal Church lies between blues-rootled power metal like Judas Priest and Manowar and "straight" thrash like Exodus. "The Dark" is, in my opinion, the best Metal Church album and the tracks illustrate my above point. Final say: "The Dark" is somewhat similar to Anthrax's "Fistful of Metal" in terms of it's contribution to classic metal and it's genre-label defying type of music.

Some of the riffs on this album still make the hair on the back of my neck stand on end!

Infact, scratch that title - This is THE best album I have ever bought. For thrash/speed metal, I have bought the rated 'best' thrash albums of the 80s - 'Peace Sells...But Who's Buying?' by Megadeth, 'Master of Puppets' by Metallica, 'Reign In Blood' by Slayer, 'Bonded By Blood' by Exodus...oh...too many thrash albums to name.

But NONE of them compare to such a masterpiece as this.

Every song is jaw-droppingly explosive, melodic, and evil. The only niggling thing is the volume, but if you had the cassette version, then this album would be top-to-bottom flawless.

As I like to do when I occasionally write a review, I'll rate and review the songs in track listing order:

1. Ton of Bricks - 10/10 - "My World, Will Not Cave In / I Will Dare so I Will Win / Hear The Time Bombs Begin To Click / I'll Hit You Like A Ton of Bricks" - Very powerful song Metal Church have written, the sort of 'always on the go' style energy pushed through the song, and a fun song to play on a drum kit!

2. Start the Fire - 10/10 - Start the Fire is a well-built awesome song, with a bouncy powerchordy riff as the main part of the song, and, even though the lyrics might be a little too rebellious, that should never be a huge problem because of the concept of the song - rebellion.

3. Method To Your Madness - 10/10 - I see this song as a more advanced version of Iron Maiden's 'Can I Play With Madness?' with riffs that sound happy, yet with over-powering sadness. The song is about war, which is always a good concept to write a song about, and David Wayne (vocalist) describes the song very well according to style.

4. Watch The Children Pray - 10+/10 - My favourite song on this motherf**king planet!! The atmosphere is absolutely over-whelming, not to mention the feeling and passion given in by Metal Church when they recorded this phenomenon of a song. The verses in the song have the simplest, yet extremely catchy guitar and bass tunes, the chorus is so powerful, David Wayne fully gives his vocals hell in the chorus. Amazing song.

5. Over My Dead Body - 10/10 - Fast paced, explosive song to recover the heaviness from the previous mellow track. And boy, does it do the job well! Old school thrash sound, constant energy derived from all five sides of the band at all times. Once again, David Wayne's vox show how evil the song is, and Kirk Arrington (guitarist) executes the riffs perfectly.

6. The Dark - 10/10 - As I mentioned earlier on, Albums like 'Peace Sells', 'Master of Puppets' and 'Bonded By Blood' had the most awesome title tracks, and this album has no difference. The dark, pessimistic feel to this song is incredible, the solos are ripping, the riffs are pounding, the vocals are screaming...

7. Psycho - 10+/10 - No, this is not a song that System of a Down covered - those fools could never cover an amazing song like this, and do a good job of it. Psycho is the fastest-paced song on the album, and the brutalness - "Can it be what you're taught to believe / It's nothing more than your mind can conceive / He's out there waiting, he's waiting for you / The psycho is ready to kill"

8. Line of Death - 10/10 - This sounds like a typical Iron Maiden song too, but again, it's much better somehow. The actual song is about Hitler and his genocide, not some random line killing everyone. The riffs, and dual harmonies make the song amazing to listen to, the solos rip up well (by saying that, I'm saying the solos are awesome) and the breakdown is killer...

9. Burial at Sea - 10/10 - Perhaps the most evil song on the album, opening with a fade-in death-like riff, and then a killer menacingly high-pitched scream from David Wayne, the sort of one that'll make you go "Kwoar, listen to that!". The song itself is slow, yet it doesn't drag at all, it somehow keeps you gripped in like a python, and also diversifies itself from the other songs on this album.

10. Western Alliance - 10/10 - Powerful finish to the album, non-stop insanity put into an 80s thrash metal song. "Truth to falsify / Poisoning their lives / Hell is on the rise / The West must now align" with more technical vocals and lyrics, simpler-yet-cool guitar riffs, craziness at the end of the song, the album simply ends with a potential punch that leaves you thinking "that is a great f**king album..."

If this doesn't help you out with your decision, then it should be quite hard to find a more accurate review here. If you're just reading this for the hell of it, you've just wasted your time really, unless you need reassuring to the album.

G'Day!!

Those of us who were young in the eighties, and also metal fans, were blown away by this second Metal Church album. I remember listening to this for weeks after I bought it, amazed at the HEAVY production (I think by Mark Dodson) and great songwriting. Only complaint was the goofy lyrics to Start The Fire ( I just love to see my parents flee...) Even as a rebellious teen I thought that was a dopey line! Do a youngster a favor and turn them on to this real metal!

This album rocks. If you like metal at all get this album and their first self titled album because they are both great metal albums. He does thrash and melodic vocals so it's like Megadeth and Iron Maiden combined. Definately buy both albums if you love rock.

Another killer album for thrashers Metal church. This band is amazing, the riffs the vocals, they should have been MEtallica.

Very strong cd,excellent vocals. Loved this one when it came out just getting on cd for first time..still sounds cool

This is another one that's name needs to be heard. This classic eighties metal band should have waited 10 years before releasing their first album (METAL CHURCH, 1985)and maybe this album would be more well known. These guys dissapeared into obscurity years ago and this goes to show that popular music only gets that way because of the money that backs it. These guys are easily one of the most talented metal bands in the eighties. If this album was released today, it would be huge! Don't ask me about tracks because I never have bothered. I just put this one in my headphones and let it rip, YEAH BABY, YEEEAAAAHAAAAAAH! START START THE FIRE!