Kurdt Vanderhoof

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Kurdt Vanderhoof: “New Album is heavier but sounds like old Metal Church with a modern production”

Posted by tarjavirmakari on May 20, 2023
Posted in: Int. News, News. Tagged: , , . 1 Comment

Canada’s The Metal Voice recently spoke to Metal Church‘s guitarist and main man Kurdt Vanderhoof 
Metal Church will release their 13th studio album, “Congregation Of Annihilation”, on May 26 via Rat Pak Records (America) and Reaper Entertainment (Europe). 

Excerpts from the interview
When asked about the making of the new album
“After the Covid stuff started lifting, I wrote a new album and sent it off to Mike (Howe) and we were going back and forth starting our process. So then it happened (Mike Howe passes). There were a few months there that I kind of figured that it was over. Both original singers are gone, am I getting the message? But then after months realizing I had an album sitting there that if nothing else maybe we can put it out in honour of Mike. When we found Marc (Lopes) we took things step by step. We didn’t want to do a huge international search for a singer and make a big production of it, cause it might not have worked. We wanted to do everything under the radar. So as things worked out with Marc because of the way he sings, (the album) started taking on a more aggressive sound, much more thrashy, back to our roots kind of thing. So half of the songs off the new album I wrote with Mike (Howe) in mind and when we started seeing there was a new direction, then I wrote another batch of songs to fit in the more thrashy aggressive style.”

When asked about their set list with new singer Marc Lopes
‘The set list is going to be mostly the first two albums, with some Mike (Howe) era stuff. So now we are going to go back and do a lot of the older stuff and we are going to pull out a few deep tracks from that era with things that haven’t been played which will be fun. And a couple of songs off the new album.”

When asked about the new Metal Church’s album musical direction
“The New Album is heavier but sounds like Old Metal Church with a modern production.”

“Congregation Of Annihilation” track listing:

01. Another Judgement Day
02. Congregation Of Annihilation
03. Pick A God And Prey
04. Children Of The Lie
05. Me The Nothing
06. Making Monsters
07. Say A Prayer With 7 Bullets
08. These Violent Thrills
09. All That We Destroy
10. My Favorite Sin (bonus track)
11. Salvation (bonus track)

METAL CHURCH’s Kurdt Vanderhoof: “Streaming is Convenient but they Don’t Pay The Artist Accordingly”

Posted by tarjavirmakari on March 30, 2020
Posted in: Int. News, News. Tagged: , . Leave a comment

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Jimmy Kay from Canada’s The Metal Voice spoke to guitarist and main man Kurdt Vanderhoof of Metal Church. Vanderhoof spoke about the bands new album From the Vault and also gave his opinion on today’s streaming services.

Metal Church “From The Vault” will be released  on April 10 via Rat Pak Records.

Tell me about Metal Church’s new release
“It’s not officially a new album, it’s has some new stuff, it’s from the vault literally that’s all it is. It’s leftover songs that we had  that did not fit at the time or songs that we never completely finished and we don’t know why that I found in the archives. Since we are not doing any touring until an actually official new album comes out, we figured we might as well use this stuff. ”

Were the new songs ‘Dead on a Vine’ and ‘For no reason’ remakes or were they actually finished unused songs?
“They were two tracks we did not finish from the last record (Damned If you Do) and I don’t know why we never finished them. I like to write a pile of songs more than we need for a new record just to fill in any gaps and make sure there is no filler on an album. So I guess that is what happened with these they were unused. However the B side songs on this album were finished tracks but we didn’t put them on the record cause maybe they didn’t fit at the time. ”

Is Metal Church planning on releasing a Live Album in the future?
“We just recorded the shows we did in Japan a few months back, so it’s recorded. The live tracks on the vault album are from that Japanese show so yes sometime in the future”

When asked if there are any unreleased songs from the David Wayne era
“There is some and I have some but they are under major label 80’s corporate contract locked down so that i can’t really do anything with.”

Have you found that streaming services have helped Metal Church ?
“Streaming is a joke for everybody, it;s a great convenience and it;s a wonderful thing but the streaming companies don’t pay for the product that they sell. They don;t pay us anything they pay us like a percentage of a cent something insane like that. All artist have to get a handle on streaming  we can start making money again. “

METAL CHURCH’s Kurdt Vanderhoof: “I really like the new music business today, there is more good than bad”

Posted by tarjavirmakari on November 21, 2018
Posted in: Int. News. Tagged: , , . Leave a comment

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Jimmy Kay from Canada’s The Metal Voice interviewed Kurdt Vanderhoof from Thrash legends METAL CHURCH. Kurdt spoke about the meaning behind the lyrics on bands new upcoming album Damned if you do, his brief encounter with Metallica‘s Lars Ulrich back in the early days, and how the band still has not recouped their expenses on their first few albums.

Watch the interview here:

When asked how their new upcoming album is different from the last album Xi in 2016

“The recording process was pretty much the same I would get everything ready, then Mike Howe and I work on vocal melodies. Then we work on the demos, then everybody else in the band comes in and puts their stamp on it. That was our process and nothing was really that different from last record. I intentionally wanted it sound old school because it is also coming out on vinyl and we wanted to produce it for the vinyl. I kind of shy away from the modern digital sound of modern metal records cause everybody is doing it and they all sound the same. ”

When asked about the meaning behind the lyrics on some of the songs on the new album

Revolution Underway- This song has a lot to do with the social political climate of the world especially in America where a lot of people are waking up to a lot of the corruption and the lying in an era of fake news, so there is a lot of waking up to the reality of whats going on.

Monkey Finger- That is a song about when you run into people that like to blame other people for their problems, playing the victim and they point their fingers at everybody else for all their own problems which are there own fault.

By the Numbers- That song was about all the numbers we have to deal with everyday, bank accounts, passwords ,logins, credit cards, etc.. all these numbers that control your life.

The War Electric- That song is about the how divided the world is and how we are are fighting everything that is online

Rot away- That’s a heavy metal song (Laughs)

When asked about his connection to Metallica’s Lars Ulrich back in the beginning days of Thrash

“We actually never played together, that was one of the rumours that started sometime ago that he was one of our drummers but that was never true. I was living in San Francisco trying to start the band and I ended up meeting him and he had just come over from Denmark and he was planing to go to LA. All we ended up doing was party and hang out and just talk about being in a band. But we were friends before he got to L.A.”

When asked about if the band was still in debt for the first few albums

“After certain amount of time on a major label like Electra you find out how the business works, which in our particular case it was not working in our favour, you learn the definition of the word recoup. And then you realize there is no way you can make any money unless you break big like Metallica but until then you are operating in Debt and you will never break out. Everybody gets paid first and the band gets paid last. I have the publishing which are not much money but no other royalties. We are still in debt on the first few albums. Not only that but it’s tough to find out how much debt or profit after all these years. They send statements that you can’t read unless you are a lawyer, so I just wrote it off. Your in debt for tour support, your in debt for videos, your in debt for everything and those are the reasons why I really like the new music business, there is more good about the new music business than there is bad. It’s more direct artists to fans and us old guys can still have a career.”

Metal Church’s 12th full-length studio album, “Damned If You Do”, which will be released on December 7 via Rat Pak Records. The album will also be available in Europe via Nuclear Blast and Japan via King Records.

“Damned If You Do” track listing:

01. Damned If You Do
02. The Black Things
03. By The Numbers
04. Revolution Underway
05: Guillotine
06. Rot Away
07. Into The Fold
08. Monkey Finger
09. Out Of Balance
10. The War Electric

METAL CHURCH is:

Mike Howe – Vocals
Kurdt Vanderhoof – Guitar
Stet Howland – Drums
Steve Unger – Bass
Rick Van Zandt – Guitar