Metal Church announce XI

Metal Church will release their latest album XI on March 25, it’s been confirmed.

It’s the follow-up to 2013’s Generation Nothing and the first since 1993’s Hanging In The Balance to feature vocalist Mike Howe. He returned to the fold last year, replacing Ronny Munroe.

Guitarist Kurdt Vanderhoof says: “Sometimes I still can’t believe it myself. No one would have ever thought Mike would return after his departure almost two decades ago.”

Howe adds: “At first I struggled with the decision to come back, but after hearing the riffs that Kurdt was writing, I just couldn’t resist. The music called to me and I wanted to be part of it.”

The band have also released a video for album track No Tomorrow. Hear it below. Further album details will be released in due course.

Scott Munro
Louder e-commerce editor

Scott has spent more than 30 years in newspapers and magazines as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. After initially joining our news desk in the summer of 2014, he moved to the e-commerce team full-time in 2020. He maintains Louder’s buyer’s guides, scouts out the best deals for music fans and reviews headphones, speakers, books and more. He's written more than 11,000 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog and has previous written for publications including IGN, the Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald covering everything from daily news and weekly features, to video games, travel and whisky. Scott grew up listening to rock and prog, cutting his teeth on bands such as Marillion and Magnum before his focus shifted to alternative and post-punk in the late 80s. His favourite bands are Fields Of The Nephilim, The Cure, New Model Army, All About Eve, The Mission, Ned's Atomic Dustbin and Drab Majesty, but he also still has a deep love of Rush.