| Blessing in Disguise | ||||
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | February 7, 1989 | |||
| Recorded | August 29 – October 4, 1988 | |||
| Studio | Kajem/Victory Recording, Gladwyne, Pennsylvania | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 54:34 | |||
| Label | Elektra/Asylum | |||
| Producer | Terry Date | |||
| Metal Church chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Blessing in Disguise | ||||
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Blessing in Disguise is the third studio album by American heavy metal band Metal Church, released on February 7, 1989.
Blessing in Disguise was Metal Church's final release on Elektra Records, and the first album not to feature the vocals of David Wayne, due to his departure to form the band Reverend. This album marked the band's debut with vocalist Mike Howe (formerly of Heretic) and guitarist John Marshall, replacing Wayne and Kurdt Vanderhoof respectively. Vanderhoof had produced Heretic's final album Breaking Point previously. It seems that this is how Howe came to the attention of Metal Church. Wayne's new project was made up of the remaining members of Heretic.
Blessing in Disguise also marked the second and last time Metal Church had worked with Terry Date, who also produced the band's 1984 self-titled debut album. Although Vanderhoof was technically no longer an official member of the band at this point, he composed the music and lyrics for seven of the album's nine songs and appears as a guest musician. Vanderhoof would continue to compose music and lyrics for Metal Church on their next two albums before he returned to the band as an official member in 1998.
Blessing in Disguise has been seen as one of Metal Church's most diverse works, minimizing most of the thrash and speed metal elements of their first two albums and developing an experimentation with a more progressive tone, similar to those of Metallica and Queensrÿche. The album's style has also been described as power metal or simply heavy metal, [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] and it includes the band's 2nd longest track to date "Anthem to the Estranged".
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [6] |
| Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal | 9/10 [7] |
| Kerrang! | [8] |
| Rock Hard | 8.5/10 [9] |
Contemporary reviews were mixed. Don Kaye of Kerrang! judged Blessing in Disguise "a hit-and-miss affair" that does not "live up to the standards set on (Metal Church) 1984 debut", lamenting "a lack of direction, an absence of focus that causes the record to fluctuate between greatness and mere mediocrity". He cited "Anthem to the Estranged" and "Badlands" as the best songs, "providing a real showcase for new singer Mike Howe, who elsewhere on the album comes across as a dime-a-dozen screamer." [8] Rock Hard reviewer considered the album "better than the predecessor The Dark ", but "still light years away from the landmark Metal Church "; he wrote that Blessing in Disguise is largely missing "the ultimate kick, the esprit, the special", despite being one of "the best-produced albums of recent times", thanks to Terry Date's hard work. [9]
Modern reviews for Blessing in Disguise have been more positive. AllMusic's Jason Anderson considered the album "perhaps the finest Metal Church release", offering "some of the best material in the group's long career" and praised Howe for "bringing a burst of energy that the group used to create some of the best American underground metal of the decade." [6] Martin Popoff in his Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal praised Howe's performance and Date's production, which turned "the band into an updated, renovated tower of strength, a guitar-driven machine set to stun." [7] Adam McCann of Metal Digest referred to Blessing in Disguise as both "a real classic album released in 1989" and a "late 80's classic that often gets overlooked", and noted that, "This was the album which marked the debut of the late, great Mike Howe on vocals as the band moved away from the heavy metal of their first two albums and into territory more akin with the burgeoning movements of progressive and power metal, particularly the former with the band bringing in fans from both Metallica, Fates Warning and Queensrÿche with this album riding the coattails of Operation: Mindcrime , ...And Justice for All and Awaken the Guardian ." [5]
Blessing in Disguise entered the Billboard 200 chart on April 8, 1989, two months after its release. The album itself peaked at number 75 (the band's second-highest chart position to date, a record broken only 27 years later by XI , which peaked at number 57), and remained on the chart for 15 weeks. [10]
Metal Church spent most of 1989 and 1990 touring behind Blessing in Disguise. [11] They embarked a U.S. tour in the spring of 1989 with Meliah Rage, and supported W.A.S.P. on their Headless Children tour. Metal Church played one show in Germany in October 1989 with Fates Warning and Toranaga, and opened for Saxon in Europe in April 1990. They were also a "surprise guest" for Metallica's May 11, 1990 show at The Marquee in London. [11]
| No. | Title | Lyrics | Music | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Fake Healer" | Kurdt Vanderhoof | Craig Wells, Vanderhoof | 5:55 |
| 2. | "Rest in Pieces (April 15, 1912)" | Vanderhoof | Wells, Vanderhoof | 6:38 |
| 3. | "Of Unsound Mind" (based on Edgar Allan Poe's "Tell-Tale Heart") | John Marshall | Wells | 4:44 |
| 4. | "Anthem to the Estranged" | Vanderhoof | Wells, Vanderhoof | 9:31 |
| 5. | "Badlands" | Vanderhoof, Mike Howe | Wells, Vanderhoof | 7:21 |
| 6. | "The Spell Can't Be Broken" | Vanderhoof | Wells, Vanderhoof, Marshall | 6:46 |
| 7. | "It's a Secret" | Instrumental | Wells | 3:47 |
| 8. | "Cannot Tell a Lie" | Vanderhoof | Wells, Vanderhoof, Marshall | 4:17 |
| 9. | "The Powers That Be" | Vanderhoof | Wells, Vanderhoof | 5:22 |
Ride the Lightning is the second studio album by American heavy metal band Metallica, released on July 27, 1984, by the independent record label Megaforce Records. The album was recorded in three weeks with producer Flemming Rasmussen at Sweet Silence Studios in Copenhagen, Denmark. The artwork, based on a concept by the band, depicts an electric chair being struck by lightning flowing from the band logo. The title was taken from a passage in Stephen King's novel The Stand, in which a character uses the phrase to refer to execution by electric chair.
Dr. Feelgood is the fifth studio album by American heavy metal band Mötley Crüe, released on September 1, 1989. Dr. Feelgood topped the Billboard 200 chart, making it the band's only album to claim this position. It was the first album Mötley Crüe recorded after their quest for sobriety and rehabilitation in 1989. In addition to being Mötley Crüe's best selling album, it is highly regarded by music critics and fans as the band's best studio album. This was also the band's last album to be recorded with lead singer Vince Neil until the 1997 album Generation Swine.
Kill 'Em All is the debut studio album by American heavy metal band Metallica, released on July 25, 1983, through the independent label Megaforce Records. Metallica began by playing shows in local clubs in Los Angeles. They recorded several demos to gain attention from club owners and eventually relocated to San Francisco to secure the services of bassist Cliff Burton. The group's No Life 'til Leather demo tape (1982) was noticed by Megaforce label head Jon Zazula, who signed them and provided a budget of $15,000 for recording. The album was recorded in May with producer Paul Curcio at the Music America Studios in Rochester, New York. It was originally intended to be titled Metal Up Your Ass, with cover art featuring a hand clutching a dagger emerging from a toilet bowl. The band was asked to change the name because distributors feared that releasing an album with such an offensive title and artwork would diminish its chances of commercial success.
Operation: Mindcrime is the third studio album by American heavy metal band Queensrÿche. Originally released on May 3, 1988, the album was reissued on May 6, 2003, with two bonus tracks, and again in 2006 as a deluxe box set.
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. Led by guitarist and songwriter Kurdt Vanderhoof, the band has released twelve studio albums, and is often 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 considered to be an integral part of the Seattle heavy metal music scene of the 1980s, and achieved considerable popularity that decade, with two of their first three albums entering the Top 100 on the Billboard 200 chart. The band's early lyrical topics such as conflict and paranoia later expanded into philosophical and social commentary.
Empire is the fourth full-length studio album by the American heavy metal band Queensrÿche, released on August 20, 1990. The album stands as Queensrÿche's most commercially successful release, reaching triple-platinum status. The primary single, the power ballad "Silent Lucidity", reached number 1 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks and number 9 on the Billboard Hot 100. "Silent Lucidity" was also nominated in 1992 for the Grammy Awards for Best Rock Song and Best Rock Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group. The album won a 1991 Northwest Area Music Award for Best Metal Recording.
When Dream and Day Unite is the debut studio album by American progressive metal band Dream Theater, released on March 6, 1989, through Mechanic/MCA Records. The album is composed mostly of material that originally surfaced during the band's early years as Majesty, and it is the only Dream Theater album to be recorded with their full original lineup. James LaBrie replaced Charlie Dominici as the lead vocalist on all subsequent albums.
Rage for Order is the second studio album by the American progressive metal band Queensrÿche, released on June 27, 1986. The album was re-released on May 6, 2003 with four bonus tracks.
The Human Factor is the fourth album by American heavy metal band Metal Church, released in 1991. It was the band's only release on Epic Records.
Hanging in the Balance is the fifth album by American heavy metal band Metal Church, released in 1993. It was Metal Church's last album before their two-year break up from 1996 to 1998, and the last to feature vocalist Mike Howe for more than two decades until his return to the band in 2015. It is also their last studio album with longtime guitarist Craig Wells and drummer Kirk Arrington.
Kurdt Vanderhoof is an American guitarist, best known as the rhythm guitarist and founding member of the American heavy metal band Metal Church.
Metal Church is the debut album by American heavy metal band Metal Church. The album was originally released by the independent record label Ground Zero in 1984. Based on the success of the album, the band was signed to a recording contract by Elektra Records, who reissued it in 1985. The cover art depicts a cruciform Gibson Explorer hidden in shadows and smoke.
The Dark is the second full-length album released by American heavy metal band Metal Church, released on October 6, 1986. This was the last album featuring the group's "classic" lineup of David Wayne, Kurdt Vanderhoof, Kirk Arrington, Duke Erickson, and Craig Wells, until Masterpeace (1999), which reunited the four-fifths of that lineup, with John Marshall replacing Wells.
Survive is the second studio album by American thrash metal band Nuclear Assault, released in 1988 on vinyl, compact disc and cassette. As of 2012, the album has been out of print. Propelled by the single "Brainwashed", Survive was the album that broke Nuclear Assault into the thrash metal mainstream, and was their first album to enter the Billboard 200, reaching number 145 on that chart. "Good Times Bad Times" was originally recorded by Led Zeppelin in 1969.
A Light in the Dark is the eighth studio album by American heavy metal band Metal Church, released on June 16, 2006 in Germany, June 19 in the rest of Europe, and June 27 in the US. This was the third Metal Church album to feature the cruciform Gibson Explorer on a cover, as well as the last to feature Jay Reynolds on guitar. It was also the first to feature Jeff Plate on drums.
Masterpeace is the sixth studio album by American heavy metal band Metal Church. It features the return of David Wayne, absent since The Dark (1986), being the band's final studio album to feature him before his death in May 2005. All original members recorded on Masterpeace except guitarist Craig Wells and drummer Kirk Arrington. Jeff Wade filled in for Arrington on the album and on tour. This was the second Metal Church album to feature the cruciform Gibson Explorer on a cover, the first being the band's 1984 debut.
Live is the first live album of heavy metal band Metal Church. The tracks were recorded at various locations during 1986 by the first Metal Church line-up and shelved for many years with little documentation about their origin. Only the track "Start the Fire" was previously released in the late 1980s, albeit with a different mix and possible studio treatment, on a compilation album called Time to Rock.
Ronny Munroe is an American singer, most noted as the lead vocalist of the heavy metal band Metal Church from 2003 until the band broke up in 2009. His second tenure with the band lasted from 2012 when the group reunited until 2014, where he left to "pursue other interests". He also had a brief stint as the vocalist for Lillian Axe. He was also the lead singer of progressive rock band Presto Ballet. In October 2011 Munroe joined the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, as a vocalist. In 2022, Munroe became the lead vocalist of Vicious Rumors.
Mike Howe was an American heavy metal singer who performed with Metal Church, Heretic, and Snair.
XI is the eleventh studio album by American heavy metal band Metal Church. It was released on March 25, 2016, and is the band's first album in 23 years to feature vocalist Mike Howe. XI was considered a comeback for both Metal Church and Howe since the latter's hiatus from the music industry following the band's first breakup in 1996; the album received generally positive reviews, and was their first studio album since 1989's Blessing in Disguise to enter the Billboard 200 chart, where it peaked at number 57, the band's highest chart position in their career. This is also Metal Church's final album with drummer Jeff Plate, who left the band almost exactly a year after its release.
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