Dead To Rights

『Dead To Rights』は、METAL CHURCHがUSパワー・メタルの硬派な骨格と、スラッシュ寄りの鋭いリフを軸に磨き上げた2026年の作品だ。ギターは乾いた金属質の音で押し、リズムは過度に走り過ぎず、重い足取りで曲を進めていく。派手な装飾を削ぎ落とし、リフの形、ドラムの間合い、サビの威圧感といった要素を前面に据えることで、バンドが積み重ねてきた様式美を現在の音で鳴らしている。力強い歌は怒りを含みながらもメロディを保ち、楽曲に裁きのような緊張感を与える。 “Brainwash Game”“Dead To Rights”“Deep Cover Shakedown”“Feet To The Fire”“My Wrath”といった楽曲では、簡潔で硬質なリフが積み重なり、重量と緊張が確かな手応えを生む。“The Show”“Heaven Knows (Slip Away)”“No Memory”“Wasted Time”といった楽曲を含む全10曲は、性急さよりもリフの重量と構成の緊張感を優先し、聴き手をじわじわと締め上げていく。ミドルテンポで生まれる重さと、速いパートへ切り替わる瞬間の鋭さの対比が、全体に確かなメリハリをもたらす。長いキャリアを通じて貫かれてきたUSメタルの美学を、装飾を削ぎ落とした形で真正面から提示する、METAL CHURCHらしい実直で力強い一枚である。

Dead To Rights is a 2026 album on which METAL CHURCH refines the hard-edged frame of US power metal and sharp, thrash-leaning riffs. The guitars push with a dry, metallic tone, and the rhythm, never over-hurried, moves the songs with a heavy tread. Stripping away flashy ornament and foregrounding the shape of the riffs, the spacing of the drums and the menace of the choruses, it plays the stylistic beauty the band has built up in a present-day sound, while powerful singing keeps its melody even as it carries anger. On “Brainwash Game,” “Dead To Rights,” “Deep Cover Shakedown,” “Feet To The Fire” and “My Wrath,” concise, hard riffs stack up so that weight and tension yield a firm sense of impact. Across all ten songs, including “The Show,” “Heaven Knows (Slip Away),” “No Memory” and “Wasted Time,” riff weight and structural tension take priority over urgency, tightening the grip on the listener gradually. The contrast between mid-tempo weight and the sharpness of the moment it shifts into faster passages gives the whole a firm dynamic. Presenting the US-metal aesthetic held throughout a long career in a stripped-down, head-on form, it is an earnest, powerful record that is unmistakably METAL CHURCH.