Metal Church: New Congregation (2023)

By BRIAN GIFFIN

WASHINGTON metal heroes Metal Church are touring Australia this week, making a return after their triumphant first ever series of shows here in 2019.

In the intervening time, the band met with tragedy when long-serving vocalist Mike Howe took his own life in July 2021. Following a necessary period of grief and healing, Metal Church reconvened in late 2022 and announced Marc Lopes as Howe’s replacement the following February.

The band’s 13th album Congregation of Annihilation was released four months later.

“It’s been a wild ride, for sure,” admits Lopes, who is also the frontman for Ross the Boss’s band. “It’s surreal for me. I’ve been a fan since the beginning, so being able to carry on this legacy with the band and having this responsibility of this new era of the band is wild. The response has been overwhelming. The fans and all the live shows have been great. You couldn’t hope for something better for the transition.”

With about 25 different recording and tour line-ups since their earliest days, Metal Church is a band used to transition. But losing a long-time frontman as charismatic and popular as Howe in such circumstances is more than just a line-up change, especially as he was the second of the band’s singers to die tragically and had been instrumental in reviving the band’s fortunes in the wake of 2016’s XI.

“When it first happened it was a shock, of course,” Lopes says. “I had been huge friends with them for years, so I felt for them. Getting asked to do it after the fact was exciting, but also daunting. The first bunch of shows was definitely something they had to get used to – looking over, it’s different, you know? But we’re past that now, for the most part.”

As anyone stepping into well-worn and well-loved shoes should, Lopes understands the gravity of the role he has taken on. He’s not just replacing Mike Howe, but also David Wayne, whose work on the first two Metal Church albums brought them renown and whose passing in 2005 is still mourned by fans of the band.

“For me, I’m carrying the legacy of two amazing singers that have passed on and I feel a huge responsibility to respect, love and honour everything they’ve done and to try and do it the same. I’m a fan too. If I was on the other side looking in, that’s what I’d want, too, so that’s what I try to do.”

He’s also been careful to cultivate his own approach to the material, rather than just trying to be a copy of his predecessor.

“I’d be the first one to admit that I was going for some kind of emulation at first,” he says, “but I was able to put my own spin on it, which was great. In the beginning I had to find my own identity but I’m way more comfortable now and luckily the David Wayne era stuff is part of my DNA anyway.

“You have to remember that in delivering those songs live – that is where you can succeed or fail. You have to bring the essence of those songs to get them to come across live. Whether I’m doing them in my own fashion or whatever the circumstances are for anyone else in the same situation, the essence of those songs has to come across, or the fans won’t like it. They’re – I hate to say this – they’re the customer. You’re not there unless they are there. They’re the ones who will tell you one way or another.”

Songs from Wayne’s first tenure with Metal Church are taking up the bulk of the band’s current setlists. Metal Church and The Dark were Lopes’ introduction to their music and he feels more comfortable with it.

“Stylistically, the Dave Wayne era is really more at home for me. Plus it’s the anniversary of The Dark, so it makes sense to do a lot of them. The majority of those songs on this set have not been played in years and some of them have never been played.”

Bringing old songs that have rarely been played into a live show is fraught with its own problems, but Lopes says it’s been going well.

“It ended up being one of the best songs we’ve played live,” he says, without giving away which track he’s referring to. “So, you never know.”

That means that it will be almost a completely different set for Australian audiences than what they were treated to four years ago.

“The first three albums are classics. If you’re a metalhead, those first three albums should be in your collection. It’s what I feel comfortable doing, so [the set is] definitely geared toward the first couple of albums. Expect to hear a lot of that!”

CONGREGATION OF ANNIHILATION TOUR 2024

14/12: The Croxton, Melbourne

15/12: The Zoo, Brisbane

16/12: Crowbar, Sydney

17/12: Crown and Anchor, Adelaide