{"id":34796,"date":"2013-11-14T07:11:11","date_gmt":"2013-11-14T12:11:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=34796"},"modified":"2014-02-08T08:38:53","modified_gmt":"2014-02-08T13:38:53","slug":"metal-church-generation-nothing-cd-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2013\/metal-church-generation-nothing-cd-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Metal Church | Generation Nothing<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Derric Miller<\/span>
\n– Managing Editor —<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"metalMetal Church is not one of those bands you\u2019d call \u201cpolitical,\u201d at least not outright. But if you go back to songs like \u201cDeafening Hypocrisy,\u201d \u201cIvory Towers,\u201d \u201cMore Than Your Master,\u201d and even existential songs like \u201cBlinded by Life,\u201d you\u2019ll see there\u2019s a lot more to Metal Church than the groan you hear at the beginning of \u201cStart the Fire.\u201d Yes, they can be deep if they want\u2014just deal with it. <\/p>\n

On their tenth studio release, Metal Church take it upon themselves to coin a term for this generation. We have the Baby Boomers, Generation X, Generation Y or Millennials \u2026 and now, we have Generation Nothing<\/em>. Thanks for keeping it positive, gents! But who needs positivity when Metal Church is still making music, and on Generation Nothing<\/em>, this is as good as Metal gets in 2013. <\/p>\n

The new album opens with \u201cBulletproof,\u201d and if you sported Metal Church clothing mainly because of the band\u2019s affinity for massive, throbbing riffs, it seems Kurdt Vanderhoof found that fountain of sling again\u2014these riffs are simply aggressively stunning, song after driving song. Of course, replacing David Wayne is going to be something people always talk about, but here you have the criminally underrated Ronny Munroe singing in the gray area between Mike Howe and David Wayne. He\u2019s sheer METAL, he\u2019s even better than that. You have as good of a chance at hitting the notes as Munroe wails \u201cI\u2019m bulletproof\u201d in a throaty, ripping scream as the song ends without blowing your vocal chords as you do at winning a fight with Ronda Rousey. Still, if you are going to blow out your throat or lose a fight \u2026 both are great ways to go. <\/p>\n

\u201cDead City\u201d is an updated, modernized Metal Church, but the more musically inclined they are to become \u201ccurrent,\u201d Munroe takes it the other way, offering Wayne-like musical screams and shredding, spitting vocals that infuse you with rage. The screams he hits in this song are mammoth. Rick Van Zandt counters all of Vanderhoof\u2019s riffs and leads with piercing, racing solos that make everything about Metal Church so relevant today. Meaning, they do everything right. <\/p>\n

The title track is up next, a song that breathes, allowing the bass and drums to take the helm, almost tribal in its pounding fever. Yes, the crazy riffs are there, but it\u2019s the low end that forces you to bang your big fat head. \u201cGeneration Nothing\u201d is biting, sarcastic, with lyrics like \u201cGeneration Nothing, has got itself to blame. Generation Nothing<\/em> is just a video game.\u201d Jeff Plate\u2019s drumming shines on this track, with rabid fills and overwhelming power. <\/p>\n

Just when you think you have it figured out, they chuck a nearly nine-minute composition at you. \u201cNoises in the Wall\u201d is as slow as Metal Church wanted to write this time out; the rest of the album is mostly breakneck. You get a military vibe from Plate\u2019s drumming, and it\u2019s not often you use words like \u201cdeft\u201d or \u201ccomplicated\u201d when defining a Metal Church anthem, but it is what it is. You don\u2019t get straight ahead time signatures, there\u2019s vast tempo changes, but you do hear Munroe hitting his stride as Metal Church\u2019s singer; his confidence is palatable, and more so on \u201cNoises in the Wall\u201d than anything he\u2019s recorded with the band before. (Did you know he was in Lillian Axe for a brief moment in time? Nothing against Lillian Axe, who are brilliant as hell, but Munroe\u2019s voice needs to stay in Metal Church.) <\/p>\n

As the band continues to broaden their scope of songwriting matter, some metalheads might hate the term \u201cmaturation,\u201d but hey, \u201cSuiciety\u201d isn\u2019t something a dunderheaded mental blob could write. The good news, it\u2019s a frenetic Metal scream-machine, with bludgeoning drumming, with maybe the best riffs on the release. So, maybe that\u2019ll help you get by thoughts of \u201cmind-control,\u201d \u201cabsolution,\u201d and singing along to \u201cYou pay for sanity, in a Suiciety!\u201d <\/p>\n

The hits keep coming (OK, sure, that\u2019s song number eight, so what) and it all ends with \u201cThe Media Horse.\u201d There\u2019s heavy, and then there\u2019s whatever the hell Metal Church created on \u201cThe Media Horse.\u201d This galloping, harsh track is a dissection of society. Instead of riding the white horse, Americans are just staring into the endless void of \u201cTV time.\u201d The song touches on rotting brains, basically how stupid and unaware some humans are becoming because of TV. \u201cThe channels just pass you by,\u201d Munroe sings. Stupid dummies, in other words. <\/p>\n

There\u2019s always going to be fans who want to listen to \u201cWatch the Children Pray\u201d over and over and don\u2019t want to move on. They are doing themselves a disservice. Instead of being a bawl baby and hoping for what can never be a reality, move on with your life and listen to Generation Nothing<\/em> with the same reverence you hold for Metal Church\u2019s classic albums. If you do that with an open ear, Generation Nothing<\/em> stands up to everything Metal Church has ever recorded \u2026 yes, even to that groan on \u201cStart the Fire.\u201d<\/p>\n

Genre: Classic Heavy Metal<\/p>\n

Band:
\nKurdt Vanderhoof – Guitar
\nRonny Munroe – Vocals
\nRick Van Zandt – Guitar
\nSteve Unger – Bass guitar
\nJeff Plate \u2013 Drums<\/p>\n

Track listing:
\n1. Bulletproof
\n2. Dead City
\n3. Generation Nothing
\n4. Noises in the Wall
\n5. Jump the Gun
\n6. Suiciety
\n7. Scream
\n8. Hits Keep Coming
\n9. Close to the Bone
\n10. The Media Horse<\/p>\n

Label: Body of Work Recordings, Rat Pak Records<\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven rating: 8.8\/10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Derric Miller – Managing Editor — Metal Church is not one of those bands you\u2019d call \u201cpolitical,\u201d at least not outright. But if you go back to songs like \u201cDeafening Hypocrisy,\u201d \u201cIvory Towers,\u201d \u201cMore […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":34806,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8704],"tags":[2317,5315],"class_list":{"0":"post-34796","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arcrvws2013","8":"tag-cd-review","9":"tag-rat-pak-records"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34796\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}