METAL CHURCH To Be Joined By Former Bassist DUKE ERICKSON On Stage In Bremerton, Washington

Former METAL CHURCH bassist Duke Erickson will join the band on stage tonight (Saturday, November 14) during METAL CHURCH's concert at Tracyton Movie House (The Redwood Theater) in Bremerton, Washington. Erickson will also join METAL CHURCH us for the pre-show VIP meet-and-greet with fans.

Duke played on the METAL CHURCH albums "Metal Church" (1984),"The Dark" (1986),"Blessing In Disguise" (1989),"The Human Factor" (1991),"Hanging In The Balance" (1993) and "Masterpeace" (1999).

Erickson originally left METAL CHURCH in 1994 in order to get a regular 9-to-5 job and support his family. Although he returned to the fold in 1999 for the recording of "Masterpeace", he ultimately chose to not tour with the band.

In a 2022 interview with VWMusic, Erickson stated about his 1994 exit from METAL CHURCH: "This could be a really long answer because the build-up to the end was years in the making. By 1990 I had a wife and a kid, so my personal experience was affected by the fact that I had a family to provide for. METAL CHURCH, for whatever reason, always had an album cycle of at least two years. That was unfortunate in the '80s because, at some point, we could have probably used some more momentum to help launch us upward. But in the '90s, it became a problem for personal finances. If we weren't working on a record or touring, I needed a day job; I had bills to pay. It was okay for a while, but I couldn't really get a good job or advance anywhere because I kept quitting to go do METAL CHURCH stuff. By '94, that was getting pretty old. It took a mental toll eventually, as it was tough to go from playing music in front of 20,000 people one day to digging ditches on a construction site the next.

"For me, what ended my time in METAL CHURCH was an opportunity that I would have been foolish to ignore," he explained. "My wife had made friends with some people that owned a company, and they needed bodies to put on job sites. If I played my cards right, I could eventually get into the union, and this could be a very lucrative career. So, I had to decide: do I embark on a sustaining career or continue to wallow in the declining world of METAL CHURCH? I did what I had to do to provide for my family, and I have to say that it was hard, but it was the right choice."

As for why he chose not to stick around with METAL CHURCH after "Masterpeace" was recorded, Duke said: "I had a very good job. There was no way I was going to jeopardize that for anything at that point. It all sounded super fun, but my family had put up with a lot of hardship in the early '90s, and we were not going to revert back to that in any way, shape, or form."

Earlier this month, METAL CHURCH joined forces with ARMORED SAINT, with support from LIVEKILL, for the "Metal Saint Tour", a co-headlining run of 16 shows across the western United States and Canada. The tour kicked off on November 2 at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano, California and will wrap up on November 21 at the Canyon Club in Agoura Hills, California.

METAL CHURCH's current lineup consists of founding guitarist Kurdt Vanderhoof alongside longtime guitarist Rick Van Zandt, bassist David Ellefson (MEGADETH),drummer Ken Mary (FLOTSAM AND JETSAM, FIFTH ANGEL, ALICE COOPER, HOUSE OF LORDS, TKO, CHASTAIN) and new vocalist Brian Allen (VICIOUS RUMORS).

The new lineup of METAL CHURCH made its live debut on May 17, 2026 at the San Luis Metal Fest at Teatro del Pueblo in San Luis Potosí, Mexico.