Interview with Ronny Munroe, Kirk Arrington and Steve Unger of Metal Church
 

Masterpeace came out a few years ago and you did some touring in Europe but it's been pretty quiet since Hanging in the Balance came out - what all's been going on?

SU  Not a lot.

KA  Nothing really. The Masterpeace thing was just a thing that we decided to do back with Dave Wayne and get everybody involved, the original lineup, and actually when it came out and there was a show to do - in Germany? Was that Germany?

RM  Yeah the Wacken festival.

KA  Yeah so we got together and by that time I was detained so I couldn't go over with the band to do that show so they got Jeff Wade and anyway they went over and played that one show and things didn't go so well evidently.

RM  Yeah things just didn't work out between the band and everything and it fell apart.

KA  Basically so it fell apart and that was that, and it's been quiet until now.

RM  Until they found me.

KA  And this guy as well. (looks at Steve)
 

So how's the new lineup working out so far?

RM  Great. We're having great response everywhere we play. The album comes out July 26th and so far most places have been close to sold out if not sold out and things are going great. The chemistry between all the new members is great, we're having a good time. It's like a family. There's no hidden agendas and we're having a great time.
 

Why did you name the new album The Weight of the World?

RM  Well that was one of the song titles that I came up with and then Kurdt decided that it was appropriate because we felt that we had the weight of the world on our shoulders to put out and produce a great album, and to redeem the Metal Church name because Metal Church, it needed to be redeemed after Masterpeace, or Disasterpiece if you will.
 

How would you compare this album to all the previous albums?

RM  Different. A bit more mature I think, a little bit more melody oriented because of my vocals I think, in my opinion. Just a bit more mature but classic Metal Church is exactly what it is, classic Metal Church.

KA  I think overall it's going back. It's a little heavier than all the other ones since the first album, I think.

RM  Well the first two, ‘cause The Dark is pretty heavy.

KA  Yeah since the first two.

SU  It's heavier but more commercial at the same time, if that makes any sense.
 

Have there ever been any hidden or backwards messages in Metal Church songs?

KA  Uhm let's see what was the one we put in there. Yeah buy our record now. No we've never done it, it's crazy. You don't buy your records to go home and listen to them backwards (chants) "buy American, buy American". We don't do that.
 

I thought the classic one was Queensryche going in and recording a backwards message while drunk and then afterwards they couldn't remember what they said (for the song The Prophecy).

(massive laugher)

KA  Personally I've never even put an album on and tried to get my record to play backwards. I've heard stuff about Stairway to Heaven and whatnot - I never even gave it a try. You know, they're meant to be played one way.
 

You could put a hidden comment in the lyrics.

RM  That's true. No, we haven't done any of that.
 

Are there any plans to make new videos or release a home video?

RM  We've discussed it but I think that lies within the record company and management to produce that.

SU  I don't think we wanna release the home videos that I've got. (laughs)

RM  Possibly if we play Wacken this summer. They have a facility in the setup to record live and whatnot. I know other bands have done dvds so we possibly might look into something like that. That would be very cool for the fans.
 

Are radio and video airplay important anymore now that people can hear you over the Internet?

RM  Well radio can help a lot but also the Internet, I don't know, can be a bit evil with people downloading.
 

Like the new album.

RM  Yeah but there's nothing we can really do about that.
 

Other than that has the Internet had any effect on the band?

RM  Just on our website. People can go to it anytime and get on the discussion board. That's been going really good actually. The comments and reports that we're getting in are all pretty positive there's only a couple negative, if any.

KA  You can't please everybody all the time anyway.

RM  Well that's true.
 

Have you heard anything recently that you really like?

RM  I like the new Maiden. I'm a heavy Iron Maiden fan.

SU  The last thing that came out that I really liked was Nickleback. The old rock sound.

KA  I'd have to go with Iron Maiden.
 

How do you feel about the RIAA's sue 'em all tactics about downloading?

RM  Well you know this is how we make our living, and I guess it's cool in a way for them to do it if they really want it that bad, it shows they are fans. But then on the other hand a lot of people I guess are also going out and purchasing their albums from the store because they want the sleeve, they want the lyrics and all that, so I guess I'll stick with that. If you're a true fan of Metal Church or a true fan of any band, you're going to go out and actually buy the store bought copy to support the band and that's all we can hope for, 'cause like we said the Internet is very free and open.
 

But do you think people should get sued for downloading?

RM  I don't know if I would be that harsh. You know, that's a hard one to answer.
 

What's the most embarrassing thing that's happened to you on tour?

RM  That picture of me on a Cleveland window sill (points at picture, laughter in background), that he made me get down and then back up in the window so he could take a picture and I did it.

KA  Oh gosh there's been all kinds of things. Actually the most recent thing that was kind of embarrassing for me was we were playing this small show in the Seattle area somewhere, oh it was Studio 7. I was set up right at the very back of the drum riser and somewhere in the middle of the set my drum throne slid off the back of the risers so I almost ended up a couple feet below the drum riser. But anyway I managed to catch myself and I had to finish the song standing up, and that's kind of difficult to do if you play double bass you know. But we made it through the end of the song and no limbs were lost so it was a success, but that was kind of embarrassing.

RM  I've got to go back to that real quick too. Like I said earlier we're having such a good time that a lot of stuff just goes right over our head because we're having a really good time.
 

How accurate is Spinal Tap?

(massive laughter)

KA  Very.

RM  Cleveland cemetery.

KA  Uh yeah we were playing the Brave Words festival and right next to our hotel, in between there and Cooperstown where we spent a lot of time, there was a graveyard there and one of the times when Ronny and I were walking by the graveyard, he started walking into it and he said "hey, come here" and I'm like, whoa what the hecks going on now. We go over and we start looking at these headstones and they're rather old you know, they're 1600s, 1700s and we're just walking around brushing them off and reading them, and some of them you can't even read. But anyway we're standing by this one and we're looking at it and Ronny just starts going (sings) "since my baby left me, I found a new place to dwell, dwell, dwell, dwell". Anyways so we did the quick Spinal Tap thing and a good time was had by all. We had more of a laugh for about 15 minutes after that one. Spinal Tap is very accurate, man it's definitely...

RM  Life on the road.

KA  I guess another recent Spinal Tap incident happened to us today. We were coming across to do the show here and they had us pull over with our 35 foot RV and our trailer and had us all get out. We ended up spending about 3 hours there and if I would have had a camera it would have been a great Kodak moment. There was one time when we were all outside and we couldn't go to the RV and we couldn't go to any other place, we had to just sit and wait until they came and got us. We were all just sitting outside watching all the other people get through at the border and we're all sitting there on these railings and all of us, all the Metal Church guys in a row sitting there (with head resting on arms, crossed on railing) just watching all the cars get through as we're being detained.

RM  But they have a job to do so we understand

KA  To keep everything...

RM  And that really wasn't that funny of a moment.

KA  But it was.

RM  At the time.
 

It's just funny afterwards.

KA  Yeah

RM  Now that we're here
 

As long as you don't spontaneously combust, everything's fine.

KA  (laughs) Yeah I'm the only one who has a fear of doing that because I'm the drummer. As long as I'm not combusting I'm happy.
 

What are the future plans?

KA  Touring, more touring.

RM  The release of the album.

KA  And more albums. Or cds or whatever you want to call them.
 

Yeah of course last album you didn't really tour.

KA  Well yeah. One show and everything fell apart for that. This is different. Me being around for all the lineups, I'll tell you right now, with this group of guys and the energy that comes out every night there's hasn't been a better mixture of folks in all. So I'm quite proud of this lineup and everybody else is too. Like Ronny said earlier we're a family and everybody gets along great. We're a little older and wiser.
 

And not doing quite as many Spinal Tap Moments.

KA  (laughs) Well that's true.

RM  And if we don't we make them up.

KA  But anyway the lineup, the energy it's incredible, it's really incredible.
 

You're planning on doing more albums and tours.

KA  Absolutely.

SU  Absolutely.
 

Anything else you'd like to say?

KA  Yeah go buy the record, the cd.

RM  And if you burn well that's ok but just make sure to go out and buy the store bought copy too when it's released.

KA  And come to the shows.

SU  Yeah come to the shows we wanna see ya.
 

Check out the Metal Church website