Cries from the Quiet World: Metal Church "XI"

sábado, 16 de marzo de 2019

Metal Church "XI"

XI is the eleventh studio album by American heavy metal band Metal Church. It was released on March 25, 2016, and is the band's first album in 23 years (since Hanging in the Balance) to feature vocalist Mike Howe. XI was considered a comeback for both Metal Church and Howe since the latter's retirement from the music industry after the band's first breakup in 1995; the album received generally positive reviews, and was their first studio album since 1989's Blessing in Disguise to enter the Billboard 200 chart, where it peaked at number 57, the band's highest chart position in their career. This is also Metal Church's final album with drummer Jeff Plate, who left the band almost exactly a year after its release.

In 2014, a year after the release of the band's tenth album, Generation Nothing, longtime vocalist Ronny Munroe announced he was quitting the band. In April of the next year, it was announced that former vocalist Mike Howe had rejoined the band. This lineup subsequently recorded and released a new version of the song "Badlands" (from the band's 1989 debut album with Howe, Blessing in Disguise).

Mike Howe spoke about his absence from the music scene for two decades before his return to the band in 2015. He said: "I dropped off the radar because the record business really disappointed me. Things were changing, grunge was coming up and we were getting ignored. We were not businessmen, we were musicians, and like a lot of [other] bands, we just wanted to write songs and play metal."

Over the course of 2015, the band announced its intention of releasing another album featuring Howe. He added - "the biggest thing for us was being able to write, record and present an album of material that represented us and who we are today from beginning to end without any external pressures, timelines or anything like that, and that's exactly what we did. We are very happy about this and it's allowed us to relax, be big kids again and enjoy the process".

In January, 2016, Metal Church released a video for a new song, "No Tomorrow" as the album's first single, with the band announcing a title and track listing for the album at the same time. Another video, for the song "Killing Your Time" was released in February. On March 18, one week prior to the album's release, the band released a lyric video for "Reset."

XI sold 11,000 copies in its first week of release in the United States, and debuted at number 57 on the Billboard 200 chart, making it their highest chart position, and their first entry on the Billboard 200 chart in 27 years (since Blessing in Disguise). It also became the band's highest-charting album in Germany, peaking at number 34, and becoming their first album to chart there since Hanging in the Balance reached number 79 in 1994.

To support XI and the return of Mike Howe, the band co-headlined a West Coast North American tour with Armored Saint in June 2016, They also appeared in multiple European festivals including Alcatraz Metal Festival, Wacken Open Air, Porispere Festival, Dynamo Open Air, Rock Hard Festival as well as the first edition of Ozzfest Meets Knotfest which took place in San Bernardino, California. Along with Amon Amarth, Suicidal Tendencies and Butcher Babies, they supported Megadeth on the latter's Dystopia arena tour in September–October 2016. To wrap up a successful year of touring and promotion, the band released a music video in December for "Needle And Suture", directed by Jamie Brown of Smokin' Gun Video Productions.

Track listing

All music by Kurdt Vanderhoof; All lyrics by Vanderhoof and Mike Howe