Check out my autographed band photo of METAL CHURCH!! From left to right: Rick Van Zandt (lead guitar), Kurdt Vanderhoof (rhythm guitar), Mike Howe (vocals), Jeff Plate (drums) and Steve Unger (bass). They signed my photo after the show! The only autograph missing is Jeff Plate, due to him being with some friends chatting.
I went to see METAL CHURCH back on September 16, 2016, at Oddbody’s Music Lounge, In Dayton, Ohio. Was an incredible night! An all-time Metal memory I cherish!!
It was the second time I saw METAL CHURCH play live. The first time I saw them was back in 1985, when they opened for METALLICA at the West Hartford Ballroom, in West Hartford, Connecticut! (The late) David Wayne was the lead singer for METAL CHURCH back in 1985.
On this night (the late) Mike Howe was the lead singer and he lit up the stage! I was chest against the front stage, living my best Metal life, that night, back in 2016! See the photo below of Mike Howe and myself, taken after the show.
Stone and (the late) Mike Howe.
METAL CHURCH on that night were so gracious and humble, signing their band photo for free, while chatting away and accepting photo requests by many jubilant fans! I couldn’t thank them enough, then and now. – Stone
L-R – Andres Martinez Torres (Drakar) – Voices, Lead Guitar, Bass – Michel Amyot – Rhythm Guitar / Photo Credit – Patrick Auger
Eternal Drak, the long‑running extreme metal force originally from Latin America and now based in Quebec City, Canada, known for its evolving blend of black, thrash, and death metal, announces the arrival of its sixth full‑length album, The Violence of Time, a work that reframes time itself as the enemy of human meaning and will be released on July 17th, 2026, on Canadian label FirstWave. Alongside the announcement, the band unveils the album’s first single, “We Force It To Speak.”
Born, as the band puts it, “in the middle of a drunk among friends,” Eternal Drak has spent years forging a sound defined by varied rhythm and catchy aggression, shaped by decades within the metal underground. With this new album, the band reaches its most cohesive and intense expression to date.
The Violence of Time is not a concept album in the traditional sense; it is a philosophical assault. Lyrically and musically, the record presents time as a hostile, eroding force that distorts memory, identity, and causality. The songs function as “violent theses,” each dismantling a human assumption about how time works.
The band explains:
“Time does not accompany human beings; it subdues them. It does not flow; it imposes. It does not advance; it erodes.”
Every track reflects fragments of a larger narrative inspired by a short story written for the album, an exploration of how attempts to understand time only warp it further.
Track Listing:
1. We Force It To Speak – 5:15 2. The Unborn Paths Rot – 3:51 3. Me Hice Simultaneo – 3:30 4. The Blasphemy of Time – 3:35 5. Chaos Is the Law – 3:34 6. Where Cause Is Buried – 3:55 7. Across the Watching Veils – 3:53 8. Breathing Once Again – 3:45 9. The Cosmos Rejects You – 4:09 10. No Direction Total War – 2:57 Album Length: 38:24
Serving as the album’s opening strike, “We Force It To Speak” captures the essence of Eternal Drak’s new era. Rooted in black metal yet enriched with acoustic textures and dense atmospheric layering, the track establishes the album’s emotional and conceptual tone.
Lyrically, it confronts the human obsession with explanation, how the act of observing or defining reality alters it beyond recognition. The band describes it as a reflection on “how the more we search for answers, the more certainty slips away.”
Eternal Drak’s evolution has been shaped by decades of experimentation, from analog distortion and classic pedals to modern digital textures. With The Violence of Time, the band believes it has finally crystallized its definitive sound: aggressive, cohesive, and uncompromising.
Listen to “We Force It To Speak” at the following links:
Influences such as Dimmu Borgir, Watain, Kreator, Motörhead, and Desaster echo throughout the record, yet the album stands firmly in its own identity, extreme metal sharpened by introspection and conceptual depth.
Album Band Line Up: Andres Martinez Torres (Drakar) – Voices, Lead Guitar, Bass Michel Amyot – Rhythm Guitar
If you’re a band or musician and would like your music reviewed or be interviewed by Stone, please click the link under the “ALBUM REVIEWS ARCHIVES” section below!
Metal Odyssey's Rock, Hard Rock and Heavy Metal Hall of Fame! These Are The Rock And METAL Legends Wrongfully Ignored By "The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame"
Metal Odyssey > Heavy Metal Music Blog 
You must be logged in to post a comment.