Review by Ben for Metal Church - Blessing in Disguise (1989)

After loving the debut self-titled album, Metal Church disappointed me a little bit with The Dark. I figured this one was unlikely to win me over, particularly after hearing that vocalist David Wayne had been replaced for this release. As it has turned out, I find Blessing in Disguise to be a much better album than I'd expected. On top of that, Mike Howe's vocals are great, so the loss of Wayne had no effect on quality.

The album starts with the almost stadium rock of Fake Healer that can't help but get under your skin. Then the brilliant Rest in Pieces follows, leaving me with no uncertainty that Metal Church had come up with a winner. The riffs are consistently attention grabbing, the song structures highly memorable and the leads are decent too. Highlights for me are Rest in Pieces, Badlands and the instrumental It's a Secret. I do think that Anthem to the Estranged overstays it's welcome somewhat, being 9 and half minutes long without doing all that much for me. And Cannot Tell a Lie doesn't quite meet the standard of the rest of the album, so while I really like this album, I can't rate it higher than a solid 4 stars.