Ronny Munroe

Metal Church has been churning out memorable thrash riffs since its self-titled debut in 1984. There won't be any more, however.

Vocalist Ronny Munroe, guitarists Kurdt Vanderhoof and Rick Van Zandt, bassist Steve Unger and drummer Jeff Plate played their last show together July 9 at Rocklahoma, opting to go their separate ways to create or continue their own endeavors.

Ronny joined Metal Church in 2004 for "The Weight of the World" and participated on two more albums with the band. Its latest effort, 2008's "This Present Wasteland," is a crushing display of melodic-yet- pummeling riffing as well as exceptional vocal work by Ronny, displaying a true heavy-metal spirit.

Before the last Metal Church performance, Ronny spoke about his time in the Seattle-based band, his love for music and his upcoming solo career.

Metal Mayhem: Your new solo album, "The Fire Within," is the epitome of true metal. What drove you to create the crushing monster that it is? What separates your solo material from Metal Church?
Ronny Munroe: Thank you, first off. Well, I figured it was about time to get the voices out of my head, to say, there were songs I had in there for a long time. Those are my roots, power metal, you know, Maiden, Priest, Saxon; so that's where I come from. I didn't really have to do too much thinking about that. Everything came together quite quickly as far as once we started. Kurdt co-produced it and engineered it for me, which was very cool. As far as the difference, musically I don't know if there's a huge difference between the Metal Church stuff and mine. I think mine is a bit more straight-forward, Kurdt writes very intricate parts. But I agree with you, I think it's a very solid first effort and I'm very pleased with it.

MM: After singing on the last three Metal Church albums, you definitely fit well with the band's sound. Does it feel natural at this point?
Ronny: It actually seemed natural the first gig we ever did. I sang for many, many years before I got the opportunity to audition for Kurdt. I sang about half a song and he stopped and said "Do you want the gig?" and I said "You bet." From our first gig, (it felt natural) even from right then to now. I'm more comfortable on stage actually than walking around in real life.

MM: Being a metal band from Seattle, Metal Church stood its ground through the 1990s grunge era and did what it always knew how to do, that is, continuously churning out quality metal. What was the attitude of the band, as well as your thoughts about that time?
Ronny: I am who I am, I love the kind of music that I love, and that's metal. The grunge thing to me ... other than Chris Cornell's vocals ... the rest of it I thought was crap. It killed metal in the States. With that said, that's just my opinion. Millions of people loved it and maybe it was a time for a change of the guard, I guess, I wish it wouldn't have happened because the world needs metal!

MM: Opening day of Rocklahoma 2009 has the heaviest bands in its lineup. What enticed you to play at this year's festival?
Ronny: I have a mutual friend here in Sam McCaslin at Retrospect Records who's helping out here at Rocklahoma, and he called me about playing solo this year and asked 'What about Metal Church'? So I said, 'Let me ask Kurdt' and Kurdt said 'Yeah let's do it.' And that's how the ball got rolling and that's why we're here. Unfortunately this is our last show as Metal Church here at Rocklahoma. But you never know what the future may hold, that could change. I'm excited to be here, for Metal Church and for myself.

MM: Are you planning any solo tours?
Ronny: Yeah, actually after my solo band plays here on Saturday at 12:30 a.m., I've got some people putting something together. I might start in Florida, but for me, it doesn't matter if it's in a station wagon, in a van or in a bus, I'm gonna tour because it's what I do, and I'm not going to complain about it. Because there's a lot of complaining that you do on the road, because the road is tough. But being that I'm going solo, it's kind of like a starting-over point, but I don't mind. I'm gonna go out there wherever the fans want me, and I'm gonna try to get there as quickly as I can.

Article by Kelley Simms