UMUR
"This Present Wasteland" is the ninth full-length studio album by US power/heavy metal act Metal Church. The album was released through Steamhammer Records in September 2008. After touring in support of the album Metal Church disbanded in July 2009, which was their second split. They reunited in October 2012. "This Present Wasteland" is the successor to "A Light in the Dark" from 2006 and features one lineup change since the predecessor as guitarist Jay Reynolds has left and has been replaced by Rick Van Zandt.
Lineup changes never had much impact on the sound of Metal Church though, and the material on "This Present Wasteland" continues the US power/heavy metal style of the preceding releases as if the band haven´t noticed that almost 25 years have passed since the release of their debut album. Metal Church are incredibly consistent in the style and quality of their material, and while there have been minor fluctuations in quality over the years, they have been just that...minor.
So once again the listener is treated to hard rocking heavy metal riffs (and the occasional more thrashy riff), brilliant lead guitar work, an organic and powerful playing rhythm section, and lead vocalist Ronny Munroe delivering both rough and more melodic and higher pitched vocals (he sometimes sounds like the US power metal version of Bruce Dickinson). Pure class on all posts. "The Company of Sorrow" opens the album and sounds a little like contemporary Metallica. Heavy metal/US power metal with thrash metal leanings. And that´s more or less how the remainder of the album continues. It´s a consistent quality release in terms of memorable songwriting, a powerful and well sounding production job, and high level musical performances. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.