In the history of heavy metal, the voice of Mike Howe remains unforgettable. When he joined Metal Church in 1988, his arrival helped usher in a new era for the band with Blessing in Disguise, a record that balanced grit with melody, political bite with human pathos. Howe’s vocals were clear, commanding, and deeply emotive—capable of both soaring power and vulnerable nuance. Across albums like The Human Factor and Hanging in the Balance, Howe carved out a unique space in the metal canon, standing as one of the few singers who could embody both rage and compassion in equal measure.
But offstage, Howe was more than a metal frontman. He was also a father, a husband, a carpenter, and a man with a quieter life beyond the roar of amplifiers. When he died in 2021, fans mourned the loss of a voice, but his family mourned the loss of a father and partner. That distinction—the public figure and the private man—is at the heart of MIKE, a new art/photography book by Howe’s son, Elijah Howe, released by TIS Books.
A Work of Art Born from Grief
Elijah, an accomplished photographer with an MFA from the University of Kentucky, inherited his father’s archives after his passing. What could have remained a private collection of photos, journals, and recordings became something more: a meditation on memory, grief, and legacy. Through a mix of family snapshots, archival material, and Elijah’s own images, MIKE builds a layered portrait of a man who lived multiple lives—public and private, loud and quiet, visible and unseen.
“The most important part about this project is that it lets me share this person’s life and legacy with a wide audience,” Elijah explains. “But it shows him not just as a heavy metal singer, or a father, or a friend, or the subject of an art book. It shows the complexity of the life of a person in a way that I was not expecting and that I feel will resonate in a meaningful way with people who knew him and those who didn’t.”
The book isn’t a scrapbook or a fan keepsake. It’s something deeper: a meditation on how we remember those we’ve lost and how absence itself becomes a presence in our lives. As Elijah arranges these images, the narrative begins in familiar territory—youth, music, family—but after his father’s death, the structure unravels. Chaos, emptiness, and fragmentation take over. It’s a brave, unsettling way of putting grief on the page.
Beyond the Band
For longtime Metal Church fans, MIKE offers a glimpse into the personal life of a man whose voice helped define the band’s sound. But it also pushes past the mythology of “the singer” to reveal someone both more ordinary and more profound. We see Howe not only as a vocalist but as a carpenter, a dad at home, a man inhabiting the in-between spaces of everyday life.
This makes MIKE as much about what metal means as it is about one man. Heavy music has always been about connection, community, and memory—things that outlast the songs themselves. MIKE reminds us that the people behind the music carry stories just as powerful as the records they made.
Special Editions and Unheard Sounds
Adding to the poignancy of the book is its special edition, which includes a cassette tape of rare recordings: fragments of solo work and Metal Church material that never made it into the spotlight.
Much like the photographs, these tracks are raw and intimate—less about polish than about presence. For fans, this cassette is more than a collectible; it’s a haunting echo of a voice silenced too soon.
Art, Grief, and Heavy Music
Elijah’s work sits at the intersection of art photography and heavy metal history, a rare place where two cultures that often feel worlds apart converge. In galleries, MIKE stands as a contemporary art project, reflecting on death, memory, and the role of archives in shaping identity. In the pages of Decibel, it resonates as a document of one of metal’s most human voices, preserved and reframed through the eyes of his son.
That duality makes MIKE especially compelling. It’s not just for collectors or art-world insiders. It’s for anyone who has ever felt the weight of loss, who has ever clung to the scraps of memory that remain when someone is gone. In that way, MIKE belongs to all of us.
A Testament Worth Holding
Heavy music has always thrived on riffs, records, and rituals—but it has also thrived on people. Behind every stage performance and every album sleeve is a life full of contradictions: triumph and struggle, noise and silence, presence and absence. MIKE captures those contradictions with honesty and tenderness.
For Metal Church fans, it’s a must-have. For those who knew Howe only as a voice, it’s a chance to see him in a new light. For anyone navigating grief, it’s proof that absence can speak as loudly as presence.
Pick up a copy of MIKE here or explore the special edition with cassette. Let Elijah Howe’s moving vision guide you through a story that is as much about life as it is about loss.
The post MIKE: Elijah Howe’s Poignant Tribute to His Father, Metal Church Vocalist Mike Howe appeared first on Decibel Magazine.
In the history of heavy metal, the voice of Mike Howe remains unforgettable. When he joined Metal Church in 1988, his arrival helped usher in a new era for the band with Blessing in Disguise, a record that balanced grit with melody, political bite with human pathos. Howe’s vocals were clear, commanding, and deeply emotive—capable of both soaring power and vulnerable nuance. Across albums like The Human Factor and Hanging in the Balance, Howe carved out a unique space in the metal canon, standing as one of the few singers who could embody both rage and compassion in equal measure.
But offstage, Howe was more than a metal frontman. He was also a father, a husband, a carpenter, and a man with a quieter life beyond the roar of amplifiers. When he died in 2021, fans mourned the loss of a voice, but his family mourned the loss of a father and partner. That distinction—the public figure and the private man—is at the heart of MIKE, a new art/photography book by Howe’s son, Elijah Howe, released by TIS Books.
A Work of Art Born from Grief
Elijah, an accomplished photographer with an MFA from the University of Kentucky, inherited his father’s archives after his passing. What could have remained a private collection of photos, journals, and recordings became something more: a meditation on memory, grief, and legacy. Through a mix of family snapshots, archival material, and Elijah’s own images, MIKE builds a layered portrait of a man who lived multiple lives—public and private, loud and quiet, visible and unseen.
“The most important part about this project is that it lets me share this person’s life and legacy with a wide audience,” Elijah explains. “But it shows him not just as a heavy metal singer, or a father, or a friend, or the subject of an art book. It shows the complexity of the life of a person in a way that I was not expecting and that I feel will resonate in a meaningful way with people who knew him and those who didn’t.”
The book isn’t a scrapbook or a fan keepsake. It’s something deeper: a meditation on how we remember those we’ve lost and how absence itself becomes a presence in our lives. As Elijah arranges these images, the narrative begins in familiar territory—youth, music, family—but after his father’s death, the structure unravels. Chaos, emptiness, and fragmentation take over. It’s a brave, unsettling way of putting grief on the page.
Beyond the Band
For longtime Metal Church fans, MIKE offers a glimpse into the personal life of a man whose voice helped define the band’s sound. But it also pushes past the mythology of “the singer” to reveal someone both more ordinary and more profound. We see Howe not only as a vocalist but as a carpenter, a dad at home, a man inhabiting the in-between spaces of everyday life.
This makes MIKE as much about what metal means as it is about one man. Heavy music has always been about connection, community, and memory—things that outlast the songs themselves. MIKE reminds us that the people behind the music carry stories just as powerful as the records they made.
Special Editions and Unheard Sounds
Adding to the poignancy of the book is its special edition, which includes a cassette tape of rare recordings: fragments of solo work and Metal Church material that never made it into the spotlight.
Much like the photographs, these tracks are raw and intimate—less about polish than about presence. For fans, this cassette is more than a collectible; it’s a haunting echo of a voice silenced too soon.
Art, Grief, and Heavy Music
Elijah’s work sits at the intersection of art photography and heavy metal history, a rare place where two cultures that often feel worlds apart converge. In galleries, MIKE stands as a contemporary art project, reflecting on death, memory, and the role of archives in shaping identity. In the pages of Decibel, it resonates as a document of one of metal’s most human voices, preserved and reframed through the eyes of his son.
That duality makes MIKE especially compelling. It’s not just for collectors or art-world insiders. It’s for anyone who has ever felt the weight of loss, who has ever clung to the scraps of memory that remain when someone is gone. In that way, MIKE belongs to all of us.
A Testament Worth Holding
Heavy music has always thrived on riffs, records, and rituals—but it has also thrived on people. Behind every stage performance and every album sleeve is a life full of contradictions: triumph and struggle, noise and silence, presence and absence. MIKE captures those contradictions with honesty and tenderness.
For Metal Church fans, it’s a must-have. For those who knew Howe only as a voice, it’s a chance to see him in a new light. For anyone navigating grief, it’s proof that absence can speak as loudly as presence.
Pick up a copy of MIKE here or explore the special edition with cassette. Let Elijah Howe’s moving vision guide you through a story that is as much about life as it is about loss.
The post MIKE: Elijah Howe’s Poignant Tribute to His Father, Metal Church Vocalist Mike Howe appeared first on Decibel Magazine.