Metal Church is an heavy metal outfit that emerged out of San Francisco in 1980 under the name Shrapnel before relocating to Aberdeen, Washignton, adopting its chosen name and releasing its self-titled debut album, Metal Church, in 1984. With elements of hard rock mixed together with the aesthetics of the new wave of British heavy metal, the band helped pioneer the thrash metal genre. While the band has undergone several lineup shifts over the years, founder and lead guitarist Kurdt Vanderhoof has remained at the core of the project, driving Metal Church with records such as 2013's Generation Nothing.
