METAL CHURCH Singer: New Album To Recapture Roots Of Band

Australia's Inside_Out666 recently conducted an in-depth interview with METAL CHURCH frontman Ronny Munroe (ex-ROTTWEILER). Several excerpts follow:

Inside_Out666: In 2004 you became the new vocalist for METAL CHURCH and released "The Weight of the World", which will be known as one of the greatest METAL CHURCH albums to date. For those fans who don't know much about you, fill us in on what you were doing up until the time you became a member of the band?

Ronny Munroe: "Well, I've been around for a longtime, in the Seattle scene, I've done a lot of different projects over the years and been in a lot of different bands but it wasn’t until 2001 that I really made a jump into the industry, I was asked to sing for ROTTWEILER, who had been around since the early Eighties; they needed a singer to play the Wacken festival in Germany in 2002. After that we were in the studio recording a new CD when I met Kurdt Vanderhoof and he asked me if I was interested in METAL CHURCH and I said, 'Hell, yeah!'"

Inside_Out666: When the guys approached you to audition for the band did you think you would get the job and what was the process like?

Ronny Munroe: "I had a pretty good idea, because Kurdt had heard my demos and friends of his also knew me and heard me sing many times before. As far as the process, we had a rehearsal, I sang one song and put the mic down and Kurdt asked me if I wanted the job and the rest is history!"

Inside_Out666: I could never imagine how hard it would be to replace a singer of any established band, the fans are always going to be the biggest critics. How did they respond to you at those first performances with METAL CHURCH?

Ronny Munroe: "It was very big shoes to fill! Both previous singers were great. But I have a lot of confidence in my abilities and I deserve to be here! As far as the first performance, there was a lot of folded arms and prying eyes, but after the first song that goes away and most of the naysayers become believers. There will always be some people who do not like my voice, because as we all know it's hard to please everybody."

Inside_Out666: Now you guys are currently working on a new album. How many songs do you guys currently have in the works and can you tell us any of the working titles you have floating around?

Ronny Munroe: "We are tossing around about twenty five songs at this time and as far as working titles, the fans will have to wait until we are further along until I can divulge any of those."

Inside_Out666: What different factors have surrounded writing the material for the new album?

Ronny Munroe: "Being on the road and just life the last couple of years, every year is another year of knowledge."

Inside_Out666: Will the new album be heading in the same direction that you guys took with "The Weight of the World"?

Ronny Munroe: "As always, we are going to keep it heavy and try to top 'The Weight of the World'. We are really going to focus on the roots of METAL CHURCH, the first two albums, and try and recapture some of that magic."

Inside_Out666: You mentioned that you guys are currently working on about 25 songs the new album. It's obvious that only 10-13 tracks will make the final cut. What I want to know is will the tracks that don't make it ever get released along with other demos etc from past albums as part of a METAL CHURCH box set?

Ronny Munroe: "We've been tossing around ideas for awhile now and I think a box set is a great idea and that's what we'll probably do, we'll keep you posted on MetalChurch.com."

Read the entire interview at Inside_Out666.