History & Biography USA-based power metal band Reverend (first based in Los Angeles, then Seattle and then Texas) was founded in 1989. Its claim to fame was the presence of former Metal Church singer David Wayne. The Christian David Wayne was obviously in an appropriately-named group. He had left Metal Church after acrimony and in the midst of drug abuse problems. Members came from Jonah Hexx and Heretic. Heretic singer Mike Howe had joined Metal Church first however. Metal Church guitarist Eric Vanderhoof had earlier produced a Heretic album. Like all bands, the group would disband and reform, which in this case translated to activity between 1989 and 1993, 1998 to 2003, late 2003 to 2010 and again from 2019. David Wayne died in 2005. He was 47.
The band was first heard through a three-song demo in 1989. Virgin subsidiary Caroline Records of New York City had opened a West Coast USA office and picked the band up. The Reverend EP of 1989 excluded the demo tracks. The band was David Wayne, guitarists Stuart Fuji and Brian Korban (later in Month Of Sundays with Deliverance’s Glenn Rogers), bass man Dennis Ohara and drummer Scott Vogel. Warren Croyle, who had produced the Say Uncle record of Uncle Slam for Caroline, worked on this record. He would later also produce the Metal Church album of the solo project, Wayne. The EP’s music was reminiscent of the debut Metal Church record.
The debut full-length was faster, harder and released in 1990. This appeared on the Charisma label, which was a new company unrelated to the old Charisma label. Either way, line-up changes were already underway and Rick Basha was on drums. The band was industrious here and the sophomore album was issued in 1991. Fuji was gone. Angelo Espino was on bass and Jason Rosenfeld, whose brother Ian was in Anthrax, was on drums. The band played shows with, among others, Panic. Live was released but the band split up despite recording towards a new album. Wayne relocated to Seattle in late 1992. The year 1993 brought an eventually forgotten demo called The Spirit Remains, which was dredged up out of the archives in 2015. This scarce recording was renamed Soul Eater then. Wayne rejoined Metal Church and was heard on the Masterpeace record.
The band reappeared in 1998 after Metal Church went on hiatus again. A Gathering Of Demons was a 2001 demo. This again was a new band as, aside from Wayne, members were guitarist Chris Nelson, bassist John Stahlman and drummer Todd Stotz. The song Legion is Metal Church's Fake Healer from the Blessing In Disguise record with different lyrics. After dropping out of the Abrasive Rock Festival in order to open for Judas Priest, Reverend was dropped from that slot by the organiser in 2002. Reverend was booked to headline The Black Rose Festival in The Netherlands on December 8, 2002. Wayne then disbanded Reverend in order to join Bastardsun, the English band featuring Stuart Anstis, formerly of Cradle Of Filth. This did not go anywhere and Wayne was unable to work in the UK either. Then Wayne formed David Wayne’s Metal Church as a new monicker for the band. David Wayne reformed Reverend in very late 2003 with guitarists Davey Lee and Nacho Vara of Byfist, as well as bassist Jay Wegener and drummer Todd Stotz. The band was essentially Byfist with David Wayne at this point. David Wayne suffered an injury in a car accident in early 2005 and died in May. He had kept on playing concerts despite medical advice that he needed leg amputation. He suffered from gangrene. His girlfriend had found him at his house.
The musicians claimed Wayne had asked them to continue as Reverend should he die. Reverend was part of the line-up for Texas Metal Health IV, a tribute to singer David Wayne, in 2006. The fourth annual benefit for leukaemia research featured Reverend, Azrael’s Bane, Ignitor, Ancient Cross and Drifter. The event was slated for May 13th at Sam’s Burger Joint in San Antonio, Texas. New guitarist Davey Lee and Nacho Vara soon had singers Dennis Carnell (Wayne’s brother who relayed that David had asked him to be his replacement), Eric Wayne, Michael Lance (of Ancient Cross who was part of the 2006 Resurrection mini-tour) and Rob Steele (Byfist) in and continued until 2010. This version of Reverend was based in Texas now. Drummer Jesse Vara’s daughter was in a car accident after returning from a Reverend concert. Bassist Brendon Kyle enlisted in the US Air Force. Reverend recruiting Byfist singer Robb Steele (also of Translucent Existence) in 2009 was an obvious choice given historic connections between Byfist and Reverend. Wayne himself had joined Byfist briefly and Metal Church had played with Byfist in the late 1980s. David Wayne then produced the early Byfist EP.
Reverend had entered the studio to record a new album, including songs like Epitaph, in 2006. The band uploaded its track B.O.B. - Butcher Of Baghdad in 2006 as a tribute to the American military occupiers of Iraq. Davey Lee died of a heart attack in 2010.
The band reappeared in 2019 and amazingly featured Exciter’s Allan Johnson! Exciter and Reverend (and Flotsam And Jetsam) were both booked for the Texas Metalfest in San Antonio, Texas on Friday, June 11th 2004. Allan Johnson was not a member of Exciter then however. Exciter and Metal Church had played together in the mid-1980s. Reverend featured early guitarist Bill Rhynes who had also recruited drummerJoe Moore who would die in 2022. Second incarnation drummer Todd Stotz would step in. The singer was Bobby Lucas of Seven Witches, etc. First order of business was restoring material on tape that guitarist Bill Rhynes and Wayne had worked on. Vic Records reissued A Gathering Of Demons compilation originally from 2001 with bonus material in 2020. Byfist released a full-length album in 2020 and included a cover version of Reverend’s slow song Scattered Wits.
Since he was the singer for a band called Metal Church, David Wayne was once nicknamed ‘The Reverend.’ The band’s original website was at www.reverend.cx, which Wayne liked as he imagined it as having a site with a crucifix suffix.
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