METAL CHURCH and the oath of the past… the heavy load of the first congenial albums is not easy to carry, but let’s leave past times aside and enjoy This Present Wasteland in objective manner without hastily judgment.

Singer Ronny Munroe, part of the line-up since two predecessors, performs in adept manner, but his timbre reaches my tolerance’s border concerning high-pitched voices from time to time. This is not true for the musical presentation, because competent Power Metal rules the scene. Every now and then METAL CHURCH integrate some borne parts in their compositions and capture the listener with variable arrangements. This style comes into operation during the nice arranged track The Perfect Crime. Unfortunately this tune does not offer an outstanding refrain to use the attribute of world class.
The following Deeds Of A Dead Soul holds a few felicitous guitar licks and well known musician Kurdt Vanderhoof treats his instrument in variable style, supported by his new companion Rick Van Zandt. In this case the chorus is very cool because of its multi-vocal presentation. In addition, the positive effect is boosted by the slightly threatening atmosphere, ere Mr Vanderhoof crowns the track with a virtuous guitar solo. METAL CHURCH seem to feel best when unleashed in epic and broad arrangements and therefore the longest track featuring more dark vocals is the acoustic highlight on This Present Wasteland.
In contrast, the more raging songs like Meet Your Maker offer really powerful metal in the vein of the second album The Dark, enriched by outstanding guitar work including some acoustic elements. The other epic tracks like the adeptly entitled Monster, reach the nerve centre in convenient manner, but they do not cause enthused reactions like raising one’s fist towards the sky.

Concluding, This Present Wasteland is a good release by METAL CHURCH offering not enough egregious refrains or absolute steam hammer riffs to capture the listener’s attention continuously. A few quite ineffectual mid tempo rockers like Crawling To Extinction dilute the overall impression negatively, so that my reaction is benevolence but not ardor. Appealing semi ballads like the augmenting A War Never Won, which is arranged in suspenseful style, reconcile me again and pave the way to a positive summary.