METAL CHURCH frontman Ronny Munroe recently spoke with Bravewords.com correspondent Deb Rao about his upcoming solo release, The Fire Within, due for release on April 20th via on Rat Pack Records. Following is a track-by-track overview of the album

Q: Tell us a little bit about the song-writing process for this album

Munroe: "There are twelve tracks on it. These are mostly songs that I have had in my head for quite a few years. Also, there are some more recent ones. Actually, I had Anthony Nichols from MELIAH RAGE contribute three songs and the rest were by Rick Van Zandt and myself. I am very proud of this record. It is my first solo release. It is very metal. I tried to stay true to what my roots are. I had a couple of guest appearances. I was lucky to have Michael Wilton of QUEENSRYCHE play solos. Also Randy Cooper from the TEXAS HIPPIE COALITION. They are a great hard rock band out of Texas. Also, Kurdt Vanderhoof engineered and produced, I co-produced. Also Kurdt helped me write one song that is basically the extent of his playing on it. We didn't want it to seem that it was just another Metal Church record. Because that is kind of what people would have thought for sure, if Kurdt had played everything on it. I had my buddies come in and do that. Everything turned out very, very well. I am very happy and really excited for everyone to hear it. Right now there is some clips being run on my MySpace and my blogs. My management and record label have got me out there everywhere."

Q: What is the meaning behind the title The Fire Within?

Munroe: "Well, it has not been an easy road for me. As far as getting at the level I am at right now. I have been singing close to thirty years now. I have been in a lot of different bands including tribute bands, and Top 40 bands. I started in the Seattle original scene. I was there for about eleven years, before I even decided to stop that after so many disappointments. I decided hey I am just going to sing in a club band for a while and make some money doing what I love to do. So The Fire Within is exactly what it says. The fire that has always been within me to be a musician and just spread the word and get my songs out there for the fans to here and what not. It is just a burning desire and a lot of perseverance I guess. It is either perseverance or stupidity one of the two (laughs)."

Q: You had so many great guest artists on the new release. What was it like working with Michael Wilton from Queensryche?

Munroe: "Michael doesn't live to far from me in Seattle. It was an honor working with Michael. He is a very, very cool guy and great player of course. He is a legend in the industry."

Q: Who did the artwork for The Fire Within?

Munroe: "Joel Price, who is a friend of mine from Nashville. He is in a band called MY DISGRACE with a good friend of mine Rob Young. People should check them out. They are one the top friends on my MySpace. He did all the work for me and I think he did a fabulous job."

Q: How did the war torn times of our nation effect the writing of the album. Was the song 'Ivory Towers' referring to 9/11?

Munroe: "Actually, to be honest with you, it didn't really have much to do with that incident. That is what I like though. People are reading the lyrics and they are listening. So that is good, I appreciate that. That song is really about religion. When I write, I like to write thought provoking lyrics. I guess I am accomplishing that."

Q: Tell us about your upcoming appearance at Rocklahoma.

Munroe: "Correct, I am going to be playing on July 11 at Rocklahoma. I need to throw this in as well, because Metal Church is not forgotten and it is not dead. We are just waiting for Mr. Vanderhoof's back to heal up. It is coming a long nicely. Metal Church will be playing Rocklahoma as well on July 9 on the main stage with ANTHRAX and OVERKILL, and whoever else is playing. We will see how Kurdt's back feels after that show. If all goes well, and he is able to do some more touring, then we will do a handful of dates in May and August."

Ronny Munroe Breaks Down The Fire Within Track By Track

-- 'Far' - "Far is about people need to find something good basically".
-- 'What You Choose To Call Hell (I Call Home)' - "I can't remember what show it was. But there is always people outside the heavy metal concerts preaching with their megaphones saying,” You are all going to hell because you listen to heavy metal songs." Basically that is what I wrote that song about. It is about heavy metal, well I guess Hell is my home."
-- 'Deafening Hypocrisy' - "Is about governmental issues and the extremities in government. People are getting sick of it."
-- 'Rebuild The Ruins" - "Is about basically all of the continuous wars that we had and we will probably continue to have. I hope that changes. It is about picking up the pieces and starting over again."
-- 'Delirium' -"That is just about a crazy guy (laughs)."
-- 'Demon Opera' - "That is about laying all your sins to rest. It is about starting over and letting go of past things. Maybe past sins. Sins that we have all done from time to time in our life and starting over."
-- 'Sea Of Souls' - "That is the power ballad if you will The 80's always had a power ballad. I guess I am going ahead and call it that anyway. That is written about past relationships and saying goodbye and welcoming new ones."
-- 'Desperate Man' - "That was one of the first songs that I ever wrote on acoustic, well as well I can play. This song was on my three song EP. But we did some revamping to it and I think it turned out much better. That is about my career in music really. It is about how long I have been striving to get to the top if you will. Basically, it is about just having perseverance like what we talked about earlier.
-- 'Ivory Towers' - "This song is about religion. It thought provoking, that is good"
-- 'Evil Genius' - " That song was co-written by Rick Van Zandt and myself. It is about someone that we knew that was just very conniving and underhanded. Not a very nice person. So basically that is what that song was written about."
-- 'Ride Me' - "(Laughs) That is a metaphor, you can take that one of two ways. You can think about someone riding you, or you could think about riding a Harley. It is a good ahead straight rock tune. For the past few years, I just wanted to put out a really good hard rock tune that had a memorable chorus. I think I accomplished that with this song."
-- 'Man On The Silver Mountain' - "The inspiration behind that song was I was a drummer before I became a singer. One day I was listening to the radio with my headphones and playing drums 'Silver Mountain' came on the radio. I heard the voice come on, and the unmistakable riff of course. I went down and called the local radio station and asked who is was? They told me it was RAINBOW. I asked who was singing, and they said Ronnie James Dio. From then on, I really wanted to be a singer. I always told myself that if I did become a singer, one day when I was able to do a solo record, I would just do my own thing and do a re-make of that song. Also, I tried to keep it as close to the classic original version as possible instead of trying different things in it. Ronnie is one of the best."