By JAY ROBERTS

The Cassette Chronicles is a continuing series of mini reviews and reflections on albums from the 1980’s and 1990’s. The aim of this series is to highlight both known and underappreciated albums from rock, pop and metal genres from this time period through the cassette editions of their releases. Some of the albums I have known about and loved for years, while others are new to me and were music I’ve always wanted to hear. There will be some review analysis and my own personal stories about my connection with various albums. These opinions are strictly my own and do not reflect the views of anyone else at Limelight Magazine.

METAL CHURCH – THE HUMAN FACTOR (1991)

As I await news of any potential new studio album from Metal Church, I’ve once again started to listen to their past albums. Metal Church is one of those bands whose albums always sound evergreen to me whenever I put them on.

Having written about three of their albums, I couldn’t quite remember off the top of my head if I’d written about every one of their albums that I own on cassette. So I had to go to the wall mounted tape holder and check. As you can see by the fact that you are reading this article, I did indeed have one more album that I could write about.

Released in 1991, The Human Factor is the fourth full-length studio album from Metal Church (as well as their second with singer Mike Howe). As I was looking up information about the album, it struck me a bit funny that this album was hailed as being “metal perfection” by writer Martin Popoff and yet it is one of the band’s worst selling releases.

I wondered how that could be when everything about this album is outstanding.

Take the first side of the album. The album’s title track opens things up and Metal Church wastes little time in driving home the hammer and tongs metallic stylings as Mike Howe’s vocals lay waste to the artificial nature of a lot of music being made. This is a bit more than ironic since the album was released in 1991 and music is still dealing with this issue, with AI and backing tracks in live shows being the new additions to the problem. The lyrical line “Musicians all make mistakes, who needs them anyway?” is particularly telling and still timely.

The band shot two videos in support of the album and the first one is for the song “Date With Poverty”. The video showcases the band playing in a rundown mobile home park with a storyline beginning and ending surrounding video clips of the band themselves. Of course, the video isn’t the point but I remember seeing it on TV and thought it was a great way to introduce the song. The topical nature of trying to simply get through life being short on cash rings true even now for a myriad of reasons that don’t need to be gone into here but the band puts on a stomping performance and has great lyrical timeliness once again.

The thing about being so topical in the song lyrics is that you still have to put forth a great song around whatever particular idea/concept you want to talk about. Time and time again on this album, Metal Church does it with an amazing sense of dexterity as they switch gears and topics effortlessly throughout.

Case in point, there was a big flag burning controversy that rose up in 1991 and Metal Church took on the issue headfirst with the song “The Final Word”. Unsurprisingly, the song was not in favor of flag burning and the band weren’t about to take prisoners with an opening line like “Why don’t you find a worthwhile cause to channel your energies, like finding a solution to starvation and disease.”

Essentially putting those in favor of burning the flag on blast for their support of such an action as buring the flag. No matter what side you might take on the issue, Metal Church had their viewpoint and stated it clearly with this monstrously rocking blitzkrieg.

There’s been a lot of songs taking on those who would try to ban songs, put labels on records and blame bands for actions for fans have taken. Remember Judas Priest on trial when two fans killed themselves who were fans of the band’s music?

But of all of the songs that have been done, the track “In Mourning” might be the most declarative in putting forth the notion that the people at fault are more likely the ones you see in the mirror every day. The lyric “You know the last words that they spoke were “Who loves me?” remains powerfully haunting in and of its own right. But in an off-topic way, it stands eerily on point for what would come later when singer Mike Howe took his own life.

But the whole song is chalk full of great lines and stands tall as a defense against metal music being blamed when that blame lies elsewhere, a belief driven home by the following passage:

“Think twice before you point a finger that you may regret
To clear your conscience is your goal, but that is all you’ll get
What’s done is done, you can’t bring them back, just let go of despair
You keep saying to yourself “If only I’d been there”

The first side of the album closes out with the song “In Harm’s Way”. It was the second video for the album and it is more of a straight up band performance concept in the video. But there’s a heavy subject being tackled here: child abuse. And Metal Church doesn’t shy away from being graphic in their lyrical descriptions either. John Marshall and Kurdt Vanderhoof wrote a stunning song here. They lay a false trail at first with a soft guitar opening that is soon joined by a lightly delivered vocal turn from Mike Howe. As the intensity of the music increases through the first two lyrical stanzas, Howe’s vocals increase as well. And then the band bursts out into a full on metal explosion musically. But it is the following passage that really drives the point home as the band goes for the jugular detailing the life of the child talked about in the song but their utter lack of sympathy for the abusers as well:

“It’s not that mommy hits that hurts me, it’s when she goes away
Get home from school all by myself and won’t see her for days
A kid deprived of love in life has no alternative in sight
He throws up barriers to get him through
A human life’s a gift from God
Your conscience and your heart are gone
You’re much to cruel to have a point of view”

To say this is an effective and affective song is probably putting it mildly.

On the album’s second side, things get off to an explosively charged start with “In Due Time”. Full on metal from the start, I love the way the song is just a straight forward arrow that finds its mark. I’m not sure of the exact nature of the song but I love the performance from everyone. Musically, the speed gets you amped up on a higher excitement level. And Howe’s vocals are so razor sharp, that you feel like you might just have to check for cuts as you listen.

One of my favorite Metal Church songs that I think isn’t appreciated nearly enough is the song “Agent Green”. Essentially the tale of a man without a country who will sell out to whomever pays him, this is an espionage thriller set to music to me. The brief little kind of acoustic sounding guitar in the opening quickly gives way to a more sonically intense rocker. And to say Howe really delivers in his vocal is a bit of an underplaying statement for me. He absolutely kills it on the final main lyrical passage as he sings:

“I’ll change my name, a different look, another page in my life’s book
It makes no difference just who I am, I’ll take the money from Mother Russia or Uncle Sam
I’m filled with secrets of a nation, here at your disposal to benefit my greed
I take my liberties wherever I can find them, I am protected by the crime that lies behind”

I really want to read the full story that someone could make out of this song!

For the song “Flee From Reality” you get an immediate shredding soundtrack as Metal Church races without much in the way of a breather through the song. Cutting vocals keep you on a huge adrenaline rush as well.

The issue of addiction gets addressed on “Betrayal” and I have to admit that this might be the one song on The Human Factor that hasn’t quite gotten its due with me. But as I listened to the song for the article, I really dug into the lyrics and got a new appreciation for what the band was doing with the song. At the start, it’s got a bit of a stop/start feel to it but then a mid-tempo heavy thumping pacing powers the music. I’m not sure if the song lyrics are specific to any one person or just a kind of general aim towards anyone dealing with addiction but man, this finally fully hit home with me even if I’m not specifically affected by the topic myself.

With so many darker tones throughout the album, Metal Church looks to provide at least some measure of hope and positivity with the song “The Fight Song” as the closing number on The Human Factor. Not content to provide sappy hearts and flowers though, the music bursts out of the speakers with the band firing off an intense “racket” that will hit you full force and drive you back. It’s a fiery anthemic track that features some pretty damn good lyrical expressions with passages like this:

“Endowed with a free will and thoughts for expression
Don’t let them fall by the way
Strengthen and use them but don’t you abuse them
Help build a better day”

Easily enough, it’s the perfect track to bookend the album with as the band brings things to an over-the-top ending that leaves you begging for more. I found it pretty easy to write about The Human Factor for The Cassette Chronicles this week.

Because I both love the album already and because it is one that remains in rotation for me a lot. But as I mentioned at the start, it wasn’t their most commercially successful album and for me that just makes me want to know why it “failed” the first time around. Because this is a metal album par excellence that is just begging to be rediscovered by the metal community that should never have missed out on it back in the day.

NOTES OF INTEREST: Each of the members of the Metal Church lineup that recorded The Human Factor (Mike Howe, guitarists Craig Wells and John Marshall, bassist Duke Erickson and drummer Kirk Arrington) have at least one songwriting credit spread out amongst the album’s 10 tracks.

Metal Church was part of the Operation Rock & Roll Tour with Motorhead, Judas Priest, Alice Cooper and Dangerous Toys to support The Human Factor album. They’d also tour in support of Metallica as well.