Metal Church is an American heavy metal band. They originally formed in San Francisco, California in 1980 before relocating to Aberdeen, Washington the following year and briefly using the name Shrapnel. Their eponymous debut album was released in 1984, and their latest, XI, was released in 2016. Metal Church is credited as a formative influence on the thrash metal subgenre, melding the aesthetics of the new wave of British heavy metal and American hard rock with "incredibly tight musicianship" and "piercingly screeched" vocals. They are also known for their association with the 1980s and early 1990s Seattle hard rock and heavy metal scene, which spawned bands such as Mother Love Bone, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, Queensrÿche, Fifth Angel, TKO, Culprit, Rail, Sanctuary, Forced Entry and Q5. The band's early lyrical topics such as conflict and paranoia later expanded into philosophical and social commentary. Founding guitarist Kurdt Vanderhoof remained the group's sole consistent creative force throughout its career, despite reducing his role strictly to composition in 1986 after tiring of performing. Vanderhoof, vocalist David Wayne, guitarist Craig Wells, bassist Duke Erickson, and drummer Kirk Arrington composed the classic Metal Church lineup featured on its first two records, while vocalist Mike Howe and guitarist John Marshall later contributed to the group's sound. It was during this period that Metal Church had achieved mainstream popularity, with two of their albums—The Dark (1986) and Blessing in Disguise (1989)—entering the Top 100 on the Billboard 200 chart. Their 1991 album The Human Factor and its 1993 follow-up Hanging in the Balance also received critical praise, but did not match the success of the group's 1980s material. After their first break up in 1995, Metal Church reformed in 1998 with most of their classic lineup, including Vanderhoof's return to performance, resulting in the Masterpeace album. They endured numerous lineup changes thereafter, releasing three further studio albums while fronted by Ronny Munroe before disbanding once again in July 2009. The group reunited for the second time in October 2012, and released their tenth studio album Generation Nothing a year later. Following Munroe's departure in the fall of 2014, Howe rejoined Metal Church in April 2015 at Vanderhoof's request, and recorded their eleventh studio album XI. Another lineup change took place in March 2017 when longtime drummer Jeff Plate left Metal Church and was subsequently replaced by former W.A.S.P. drummer Stet Howland.

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