Review by Ben for Metal Church - The Dark (1986)

I have to say this album is a bit of a disappointment to me. After loving the debut, I figured this would be more thrashing metal goodness to bang my head to. But it turns out that Metal Church decided to tone their metal down towards stadium rock with The Dark. There are still some thrashing moments like Ton of Bricks, Psycho, Line of Death etc., but there are also a multitude a hard rock speed tracks and balladry on show. The band has taken away the riff-based metal emphasis that they had and replaced it with well...something less.

That's not to say that there are no decent moments here, as it's all mildly enjoyable, easily digested music. I still may give it a spin here and there, but I was expecting more!