Metal, Hardcore, Indie, Rock
Metal Church is one of the most appreciated heavy thrash pioneers after 46 years in the rough and rocky music business. A month ago Rat Pack Records released 14:th full lenght album by the band, “Dead to Rights“. On one thurday night in the end of April we managed to get a chat with Metal Church mastermind, Kurdt Vanderhoof. Let’s get to find out what he has on his mind about the new record, making music and more.
Hi Kurdt and be warmly Welcome to Chaoszine interview!
Kurdt Vanderhoof: Thank You very much! Highly appreciated!
How has the beginning of the year 2026 been for you and Metal Church?
Kurdt Vanderhoof: Well, so far it’s been great, I mean having the album come out has been so warmly received. It is great, I mean it’s always really good. Especially, you know, because I was thinking it was never going to happen. You know, I didn’t plan the band continuing, but it just kind of happened to. And we got a new line-up, and everybody’s having fun and we’re booking shows and the response has been great. So as a musician after all these years it has been pretty awesome.
As you mentioned, just weeks ago you guys released a new album, “Dead to Rights”, which also in my opinion is quite a killer one. How was the writing and creative process of it?
Kurdt Vanderhoof: Well, basically, when I realised that I have a band again, I just started writing demos. And knowing that the way Brian (Allen, the new Metal Church -vocalist) sounds the way he did… David Wayne influenced him a lot… I could definitely hear it’s gonna sound like old Metal Church, mainly due to Brian’s voice. You know, so, that made the writing a little more fun. Um, but I don’t like to think about it too much. I just like to do it, and if I like it, I just keep going with it. So, you know I think for I was inspired a little more than maybe I was consciously aware of. (laughter)
You know, because again, I was kind of excited about the fact that it looked like it was going to continue. You know, when I had shut everything down for a couple of years… Yeah, um…. It was just something I just did. I didn’t really pre-conceive it too much except from that I knew that it was gonna sound like old Metal Church, mainly due to Brian’s voice.
Did the production process of “Dead to Rights” differ somehow from the previous album productions you’ve done?
Kurdt Vanderhoof: Well, this one we had someone else to mix it. So I recorded and produced it, and I wrote the songs. But in this particular case I wrote everything. But at the same time, when everybody (the new line-up of Metal Church) came together, everybody put their own stamp on it. (I said to Ken Mary:) “Do the drums the way you want to. What I had written for demos, is just the starting point. You make your own, Dave, (Ellefsson, bassist, ex-Megadeth) make it your own, and Brian, make it your own”. This is how it goes. So everybody put their influence on it, so I think it is important. And Rick (Van Zant,) always does a great job, because he is the lead guitar player. I am the rhythm guitar player. He always does his thing to it, so…
How does the guitar-team-work goes between you and Rick? How do you share parts: riffs, melodies and harmonies when conducting the songs?
Kurdt Vanderhoof: Well as I said the rhythms are pretty much me, but every once in a while a song calls for harmonies, and that just kind of writes itself. He knows what to do.
So in a way, it works like how Iron Maiden, doesn’t it?
Kurdt Vanderhoof: Well Ok, if you put it that way. (Laughing)
Do you want to say something more about the album?
Kurdt Vanderhoof: Not really. You know, there’s no message in the record. It’s just about having fun. It’s just about escapism, which is the best thing for a heavy metal or hard rock (album), you know. It’s supposed to be fun and that’s really about it. I don’t want to make any political statements, I don’t want to do statesments about anything. It’s just fun and it’s supposed to be fun. And hopefully people appreciate it if it’s good, so…
And it’s not difficult to hear that. It sounds like you have had a lot of fun in writing and recording that album. It is a really refreshing album
Kurdt Vanderhoof: Perfect! (laughing)
Related to the turn of events you mentioned earlier, it is no news that a couple of years ago you and Metal Church faced somewhat tragic mishaps. First of all Mike (Howe)’s unfortunate passing in 2022 and later on turbulence and feud inside the band, which led you to stop the band from all it’s activities temporarily. What were the necessary strengths you possessed which enabled you to tackle those hardships aside and keep going on with the band?
Kurdt Vanderhoof: Well again, couple of years ago I shut the band down, because it just didn’t work. So basically, all of a sudden these people started coming to me. I didn’t try to put the band back together. You know, I had no intention to do that. I thought that Metal Church was done… All of a sudden, I just got a couple of MP3´s through the record company of somebody singing a couple old Metal Church -songs. One was “Start the Fire” and the other one was “In Mourning“. So one was a David Wayne -song and one a Mike Howe -song. I didn’t know who he (the singer) was. And especially about “Start the Fire” I was like “Is this like some unreleased David Wayne -version or something that I hadn’t heard?” – I was blown away.
And he (Brian) did great job with the Mike Howe -song, “In Mourning“. I thought: “Wow!” I didn’t know him. Or I didn’t know that I knew him at the time. So I thought, if I ever would put Metal Church back, he’d be a singer for us. That would be great. So within matter of weeks after that Rat Pack Records was working with Ellefson-Soto -project. And Dave had extended himself to Joe at Rat Pack Records and like had said, “If Kurdt ever puts Metal Church back together, I’d be really interested doing it.” Then that got back to me, I was like “Wow, that would be great”, because Dave and I’ve known each other since way back when. – Since we were children with hair. So that was very cool and certainly of his pedigree.
And then at the time, (drummer) Jeff Plate had extended his interest in coming back if I was to do that. So here I was, sitting and going, the record would certainly gonna be involved. And all of the sudden like I’ve got a whole new band again and I didn’t even try. So I take that as a sign, you know. (laughing)
So it just ´dropped from heavens´, or?
Kurdt Vanderhoof: Yeah, and I started thinking this is pretty cool and everybody seem really cool. And I’m like “Well, I’ll just write some songs”. Ended up writing the album. And in the process of putting it all together Jeff had to back out because of Savatage re-union. And it really had taken off and I’m really happy for those guys, so good for him. But then in a matter of days I was in touch with Ken Mary (drummer previously for Alice Cooper and Flotsam & Jetsam). We both are old ´Seattle-refugees´, and we’ve known each other since the beginning of time. So it just made perfect sense. So it was like “I can’t say no to this” so I think I’m supposed to put this thing back together, and here we are.
How does the band chemistry work with the new line-up then? I suppose the band you start to tour with on one of these days to promote “the album, “Dead to Rights” is the same as which recorded the album, am I right?
Kurdt Vanderhoof: Yes, It’s a band. That’s the band that’s in the record. But we will find out about the chemistry. (laughter) We have just been making the record. W’ll start gigging in next month (May 2026).
So as we know, Brian vocal sound rseems to take us to the very roots and early days of Metal Church. How much of it is pure nostalgy trip and how much brand new era with elements from the way past?
Kurdt Vanderhoof: Well, it sounds like nostalgy, but I just find it great that David Wayne and Mike Howe were really big influences to him. It just kind of completed the circle. Yeah, I think there’s lot of nostalgy in it, but at the same time I didn’t approach the songs that way too much. I mean of being aware of how Brian sounds, you know, made me think as I’m writing and doing stuff… that it’s gonna sound like Metal Church to me and most of the people, you know. There’s always certain amount of nostalgia especially a band like us or some other that have been around so long. You know, it’s kind of fun, it’s kind of cool you still get to do this. Not only us, but bands like Anthrax, Megadeth and Metallica. all of us have it in one form or another, so…
This year also marks the 40:th Anniversary of your classic, third album, “The Dark”. Have you got any planned events to celebrate that milestone of your coureer, play the album in all in it’s entirety during some of your shows perhaps, or something else?
Kurdt Vanderhoof: Well not really other than acknowledging it’s that old, is strange. (laughing) No, not really. I don’t know. I guess I’m just proud of it. The fact that people really like it and like the old stuff too. And the fact that we still get to be here right now can be quite impressive for someone but it is quite flattering to me. All the gigs we do are based on the classic stuff. You know, you have to. (laughing)
Maybe we’ll play a few new songs but fans wanna hear the old stuff. And I’m the same way with the old bands that I like that have been around forever, you know. If I’m going to see Uriah Heep, I wanna hear songs from “Demons and Wizards”, you know, I wanna hear that stuff… Even though they have a new album out that’s great. I still wanna hear “Gypsy“, I wanna hear “Stealin’” and all that stuff, you know… so it’s the same kind of a thing, you know…
“Lady in Black”… “July Morning”?
Kurdt Vanderhoof: Yeah, Yeah! Right! Exactly! (laughing)
As you mentioned Uriah Heep here as one of your favourite bands. What kind of music do you personally listen on your free time, and has your music taste changed somehow from the days you started Metal Church?
Kurdt Vanderhoof: You know, I go through phases. My favourite music is the stuff I grew up with, like anybody. That stuff is late ´60’s, early 70’s hard rock and progressive rock.That’s my favourite stuff, always will be. You know, because that’s my era. So when I was a kid I was listening to Deep Purple, Uriah Heep, certainly before that The Beatles andThe Rolling Stones and The Kinks and all the 60´s stuff, which I love too. But the ’70’s for me – That’s it! You know, I still pretend it’s 1973 in my head. And I love the early 1970’s British glam stuff: Sweet, early David Bowie and all that stuff’s great!
You know, there’s just so much stuff that I go back and I listen to lot of stuff I didn’t have time to pay attention to. Really going back and digging into the original prog-stuff of that era that I just missed. There’s a lot of stuff that I missed, like at the time I was aware of Genesis, but I didn’t listen to ’em because I used to listen to Emerson, Lake and Palmer mostly. But I just go and re-discover these bands that I never really listened to lot of. But so, currently I go through phases. Currently I’m going back and digging deeper into 80’s pop, synth-pop stuff. Because at that time that was the enemy. That was popular in the radio, and MTV was just starting.
We wanted to see Iron Maiden and wanted to hear Motörhead, Saxon you know and all this kind of hard rock so when they would play a Duran Duran -song, we’d be like “YUCK!”… But I’ve gone back now because I listen with different ears now, as I can still continue to learn and to try to develop as a songwriter. I listen to that stuff differently now. So I have been listening to lot of the stuff I wasn’t paying attention to.
And I’m having a lot of fun listening to.. Oh God.. what was it?… (early hardcore punk band) The Fix for example. I’m like “Oh man, that is really good. No wonder the stuff was so popular!” It’s not metal. It’s a completely different thing but I listen to the songwriting, production and things like that, so It’s a lot of fun. I’m musically schizophrenic – I listen to all kinds of stuff!
That’s a perfect answer. I’m now curious to know if you have later on felt like “Damn, these new Metal Church songs include some elements of being inspired by some of your new-found-´80’s pop-songs I once hated”?
Kurdt Vanderhoof: Not on purpose and not consciously. (laughing) No, mainly now, because when I listen to music, and like I said, I’m really still working at really being a better songwriter, I’m going down that road, I think I draw from everything, you know. So it may be arrangements and being concerned with the melody and things like that, I think that definitely influences me as a musician.
And there have always been some kind of progressive elements, song structures in your music which at least I find as the trademark of classic Metal Church songs.
Kurdt Vanderhoof: Yeah! Absolutely true!
How does the rest of the year look like for Metal Church? Do you have any tour plans, festivals or something else you are looking forward to?
Kurd Vanderhooft: Oh, the first show we’re gonna do is to play a festival show in Mexico in May. That’ll be the first show. Then we’ll do a week in the North-East America just right as a warm-up to come over there to do some festivals in August. So we’ll be there for a couple of weeks. Then we come back and in September we’ve got a long weekend in the Mid-West. We’re doing Louder Than Live -festival in Kentucky. We get to play with Iron Maiden and Alice Cooper. So that will be very cool… and Anthrax as a matter of fact, which is cool.
And then a couple club dates around that. And there’s a lot of stuff that has not confirmed at the moment, but there’s stuff after that’s being sorted out right now. we just try to fill up our calendar, so… again.. we’re kind of re-building things and getting people aware that the band is still around, we’ve got a new line-up and all that kind of stuff, so things are just starting to come out. So who knows what’s gonna happen. Any day, every day is an adventure right now.
I saw you guys play at Tuska Open Air Metal Festival in Helsinki 2014, which was a great show. Do you got any plans to return to Scandinavia and Finland especially during this particular tour?
Kurdt Vanderhoof: I hope so. I mean we’re going to play in Denmark with Armored Saint in August, and then some gigs in Sweden. But nothing has confirmed yet, as we have just started (booking the tour) but I hope to… We had great time there in Finland. That was the first time we ever played in Finland, and that was a great festival. And I especially remember that festival, because the plane lost out luggage that day. So we had to go on stage in just the regular street clothes. I mean it’s not that we couldn’t prepare for the show, but it was like I just got to go on in my shoes and my shorts and I guess that’s the way it goes. (laughing)
Gosh… Sorry for you guys… this kind of shit just happens sometimes…
You and Metal Church have been around in the business for way over 40 years now. How, generally speaking, does the state of metal and hard rock look like from your perspective now in 2026?
Kurdt Vanderhoof: Well, you know the music business is… as you well know, is very different to what it was. Obviously because of the internet, streaming and downloading and bla bla bla… So I think everything is available. But because nobody really buys records anymore, some do, but not anyhing as what it was used to be, because everybody just streams it now. But, having said that, then it’s a little bit difficult because everybody’s, you know, bucking for stage time somewhere, so it’s really tough to get out there on your own terms and to perform, because the venues aren’t really paying attention.
So if you are a new bands, then it is really tough. So I mean if you don’t sell tickets and put any butts in the seats, the club owners and venues aren’t really paying attention. I definitely think, and this has been truth for a while, that metal and hard rock – metal especially is still bigger and more popular over there in Europe than it is here (in The United States). It is popular here but it’s also mixed in with all the pop stuff and rap and hip hop stuff, which is all which is all the main and the major labels deal with now.
But metal has not really gone anywhere. It seems – at least in my acknowledge – that there seems to be more festivals popping up all over the country, which is great, because we have never really have had lot of those. There’s a few now, and they’re starting to pop up. That makes me think or hope that the heavy metal scene here in America starts getting to serve us a little bit more by, you know, festivals and things like that.
So it’s a tough thing because the mainstream is still pushing pop stuff or what they call pop nowadays, which to me isn’t. You know, metal and hard rock still got a fan base. – Maybe harder to get at, but it’s still there, and I don’t think it’s really going anywhere anytime soon, obviously, so…
How do you guys find touring these days? Is it as much fun as it used to be for you and how easy it is?
Kurdt Vanderhoof: It’s basically the same. It is little harder for us physically because we’re much older now. So our approach to it is considerably different to what it used to be. So we’re more considered to make sure that we get rest. You know, there’s no drinking and drugs anymore, you know. That kind of stuff’s gone and I mean I’ve got no patience for that anyway. But you know, it is a bit different. That would be depending on the booking agent and all the people that are handling this stuff.
But it seems to be about the same. I mean again, because, you know, we’ve been out of the radar for a while and kind of re-building right now, so you know, we kinda need to go out there and prove ourselves that this is… You know, people on the album are going…Wow!, ok, cool! Now we’re gonna do that live, and so to prove ourselves as another live entity and things should pick up a little bit, so…
How do you see the future of the new line-up? Is there a possibility of you guys writing and recording another Metal Church album? If so, do you have already some demo material and ideas prepared or ready for that?
Kurdt Vanderhoof: Oh, we’re already talking about that now. I’ve got no material yet, but we’ve been discussing about how much we wanna do another album and that we wanna approach it a little differently. And this time like band used to do, we’re all gonna get to the same room and do it that way. I’ll write bunch of songs and then we’ll work as a band to record them. And that’s something that I definitely wanna do. So that’s as far as we’ve gone, but we definitely wanna do another one, so…
Please, say the last words of the interview and your best wishes for Chaoszine followers, readers and Metal Church fans in Finland and everywhere else.
Kurdt Vanderhoof: Well, I mean, I can’t tell you how much I appreciate the fact that you guys still care. And the fact that you still like what we do. You can’t really measure that. I mean, that’s great. Especially as you get older and you realise, how fortunate you are to have a coureer in music for this many years. And that’s due to you, guys. And that’s not lost on me or any of us all. That means to me an awful lot. I’m grateful, so…
Thank you Kurdt with your precious time. I wish all the best to Metal Church and hopefully we’ll see you guys play soon here in Finland.
Kurdt Vanderhoof: Thank you very much! Have a good night!
