Metal Church – Route 47 – Fridley MN – May 15th 2019

Viking Rocker and Route 47 Present Metal Church.

Metal Church does not come to Minnesota often and it was packed tonight.

Hex Vortices brought their Minneapolis thrash metal to the show. Andy, Dan, Mat and Tom have been thrashing us for years now. They are just about to release their latest cd Revival Fires. They had a shorter set due to being the first band but still brought it. Heard a lot of compliments throughout the club.

Click HERE to check them out and click HERE to preorder the new cd.

Metal Church only comes around every once in a while. Last time being 3 years ago and fore that it was 2008. They have had a huge following in the metal community since their first release back in 1984. I saw them in 86 and three years ago opening for Megadeth, so it was gonna be a treat tonight to see them.

They are in support of their latest release Damned if you Do, so tonight we get 4 tunes off the new cd. I did just pick it up and it is awesome. Mike Howe came back in 2016 to record XI and he is a fan favorite. There were several people I talked to that were waiting years to see him. He even came up and sang to a fan in a wheelchair. This guy was more than stoked. The band was on fire tonight. Kurt Vanderhoof has been there since the beginning and had a few fans on his side of the stage going nuts. So glad that he still has the band going.

The band killed it tonight and Mike Howe’s vocals are amazing. Stet Howland the drummer was the hit of the evening. Now drums solo can be very boring, not with this guy. He gets started normal solo, then with his hands and then he grabs two Bud Lights and banged away. Well I have never seen that before, the crowd loved it. The guys hit all the albums tonight but to my surprise they only played 1 from the debut album and The Dark. Being two fan favorites I figured we would get at least a couple more. Overall one of my only complaints of the night.

Metal Church has made a new album, go support your local music stores and pick it up. It is called Damned if you Do. they just finished up this leg of the tour but they said they will be back. For Metal Church’s webpage click HERE.

Review and photos by Kyle Hansen