Hail to England --- Manowar --- 1984 (Music For Nations)
As a fresh-faced nineteen year old who was deep into heavy metal by the early eighties, I thought Manowar were an answer to prayer: a band who played unashamed, undiluted heavy metal and merged this with songs steeped in classic mythology, particularly Norse, my favourite kind. These albums had zero ballads, did not use pianos or synths, and were pretty much proudly proclaimed as “albums for men!” The songs were invariably about fighting, struggling for a cause, drinking, riding motorcycles and occasionally women. Manowar were a hard, guitar-based band rooted in the traditions of the “new” heavy metal, mostly gleaned from the rise of the NWOBHM, not surprisingly really as although they're American they formed in and used the UK as their base, and it was here that they gained their biggest following.
However, after a year or so I began to see the cracks appear in Manowar's “harder-than-****” claims. They always bragged they would take on any band who thought they could play louder or faster --- though of course many did --- but never made good on that boast. Then an article in “Kerrang!” made me question their sincerity, when it was reported they had a run-in with (I think) another metal band, and ran away from the fight, their defence “Hey, we're musicians, not boxers!” Manowar had always portrayed themselves as the hardest, baddest metal band on the planet (yeah I know: they really needed to get over that sense of modesty!) and yet when it came down to it, they ran like little girls when faced with some good old-fashioned violence. Now, I would never advocate fighting, and a more devout coward you would go far to find, but come on: if you're going to throw down a challenge and create an image at least make an effort to live up to it!
This was when I realised that the operative word there was “image”. Manowar were no harder than the next band, in reality: they just wanted to
seem like they were. They were creating a persona, an identity that they believed fit in well with heavy metal fans, and while bands like Sabbath and Motorhead regularly got into fist-fights and all-out brawls, Manowar were, to be frank, all mouth.
But was their music equally as disappointing? Well, that's where it all changes, because although they didn't live up to their hard-drinkin', hard-ridin', hard-fightin' image, their music spoke louder than any words, threw down a gauntlet that was hard to pick up, and established them as one of the premier emerging American heavy metal bands of the eighties. These guys were not afraid to scream that they
were heavy metal; in a time when many bands, including the older ones, were muttering about being “hard rock” or even “blues rock”, Manowar stood up to be counted, and musically at any rate didn't care what anyone thought of them.
This was the last of their albums I bought, and it's the one on which their massively overblown image and their equally often pompous, epic music crashed head-on and reached critical mass. It was in ways a massive
PR faux pas to call this album “Hail to England”, as they more than likely immediately alienated all Scottish, Welsh and indeed Northern Irish (to say nothing of us down here in the south!) fans, who probably complained that England wasn't the only place that had taken these American metallers to their hearts. Had they called it “Hail to Britain” I think that might have been more acceptable, but the title and the ridiculously comic art on the sleeve just made them full-blown laughing stocks, and I decided I'd had enough.
Not that the album is bad: it's not, though it's not really a patch on the first two, and although I recently acquired their discography, I have yet to listen to another Manowar album after this. It has some great tracks, some not so great, and really, for an Irishman to buy an album called “Hail to England”? Well, let's just say it was a little embarrassing, no matter how fundamentally flawed that thinking may be. It also would not have gone down well had they toured here in 1984/5 with that album, but they never came here, to my knowledge.
It starts off powerfully, though at first with just chiming guitar chords then the drums kick in and vocalist Eric Adams screams and launches into “Blood of my enemies”, a crunching power metal stormer, with definite mythological overtones:
”Strong winds, magic mists/ To Asgard the Valkyries fly/ High overhead they carry the dead” and some fine guitar solos from Ross the Boss, who is pretty much the heart of Manowar. Great choral vocals, created on Ross's keyboards (hold on! I thought these guys didn't
believe in using keys? Well, it seems they're not averse when the need arises) and a real sense of the epic, even though the song is only just over four minutes long, and it takes us into one which edges closer to black metal with a much deeper, growlier vocal from Eric Adams and chugging rather than blazing guitar from Ross. It's probably my least favourite on the album, but even at that, “Each dawn I die” is a solid metal track and you can certainly bang your head to it.
There's a thunderous rhythm section in the shape of Joey DeMaio on bass and Scott Columbus on drums, and indeed it's the latter who introduces “Kill with power”, starting off on slowly rolling drums that quickly pick up speed, like a steam train, the song itself Manowar's first fast one, with Adams screaming in glee
”Kill with power! Die! Die!” No, there are no deep political or socio-economic issues being discussed on this album! It's metal, through and through, unapologetically heavy and in-your-face.
It works well. Manowar followed the same sort of themes that Virgin Steele and Tyr, along with probably a lot of others who practiced Viking Metal and the like, though at the time I didn't know of these bands, and thought the boys were being really original. Ah, the innocence of youth! Sort of. The title track then rides along on a wave of glory and anticipation, evoking invaders heading for plunder, though the lyric is somewhat confused:
”The quest for the Grail/ To England we sail” Er, the only ones who searched for the Holy Grail were King Arthur's knights, and they were already in England. Nonetheless, it's great fun and I'm sure many an English heart swelled listening to this.
Great energetic chorus, which surely went down well onstage. More great guitar solos from Ross, and he
is good, but just that: he's not a prodigy and he's certainly not the greatest metal axeman there ever was, as I think he may once have claimed. The song slows down near the end in a grand, dramatic finale, with no doubt much air-punching and flag waving, and ends on a powerful guitar and vocal hammerblow, Columbus's drums almost exploding. Then you get “Army of the immortals”, which is a song written about their fans, and really is quite cringeworthy, although the music is good enough, a sort of mid-paced metal puncher, but there's a sneaking sense that Kiss have done this sort of thing before, and better.
To be fair, you have to listen to Manowar with tongue firmly inserted in cheek. They made out when they released their first album that they were totally serious about the claims they put forward, but they couldn't have been really. This had to be at least partially meant in jest, as otherwise it comes across as completely poe-faced and ridiculous. But taken on that level, it's good fun, and I was definitely a fan. Even now, listening to the last album I would ever buy from this band, almost thirty years later, I have a smile on my face, and while it may seem dated in many ways, in others it's as fresh and relevant as it was back in 1984.
There's an interesting departure from the normal metal stuff as the album comes to a close (yeah, there are only seven tracks on it: what a rip off, huh?) as Ross is allowed take centre stage for “Black arrows”, an unashamed wankfest on guitar with an ooh-so-scary spoken into that warns of the
”Black arrows of death” that will go
”straight to the hearts of/ All those who play false metal!” Oh no! Save me! I didn't mean it! I can c hange! See what I mean about surely not taking themselves seriously? Remember, these are the guys who ran from a fight in reality. Makes ya think, dunnit?
There's no denying the technical brilliance of Ross's guitar work, and anyone who enjoys shredding will get a kick out of this, with some neo-classical touches put in, not to mention the obligatory I-can-make-my-guitar-sound-like-a-motorbike effect, but really, do we
need three minutes of indulgence on an album that only has seven songs?
It closes exceptionally well though, it has to be said. A nine-minute epic called “Bridge of death” which opens with sharp acoustic guitar with very classical influences, almost harpshichordal, then settles down for heavy, doomy synth with the guitar fading into the background and a very effective, low-key vocal from Adams, no percussion at all as yet --- or very little --- with the keyboard work on this album showing other metal bands how it should be done. Rather than soften the metal, they complement it and add an extra dimension to the music. Hard metal guitar then kicks in, Scott Columbus's drums powering in as the song moves into what I guess would be its second movement as Adams faces the Devil at the end of his life.
Having sold his soul for a life of power and glory, it would seem, Adams now pays the price as he sings
”All my years of earthly pleasures/ gave support unto the bridge/ I now cross it, giving him my soul!” Then there's another silly spoken vocal as Adams dedicates his eternal soul to Satan, as Manowar perhaps try to cash in on the black metal movement, shouting
”Lucifer is king! Praise Satan!” But no-one is going to believe it, as they haven't referred to any sort of devil worship prior to this, unless very peripherally. Bells of doom peal out, before the music returns to the opening melody, Adams doing a fine job as the soul of the doomed warrior, damned for all time, willingly selling himself into slavery at the mouth of the pit. Laughter which is no doubt meant to be evil and ghastly at the end is just comical, and wouldn't scare a rabbit, but other than that it's a good ending.
After this album I moved more towards progressive rock and tended, for a long time, to leave metal alone, so as a result I never bought any more Manowar albums. It wasn't that I didn't like this one (though as an Irishman who never forgets, the title did sort of stick in my craw and may have had something to do with my decision, if only on a subconscious level) but it just never seemed to be that important to seek out the next Manowar album in the way I had waited with bated breath for the first three.
It's said this is seen as the best of the early “classic” Manowar, though I think personally I prefer “Into glory ride”, on which album I think they perfected both their sound and their image, but as it was the last one I bought for three decades I wanted to concentrate on it. It's quite possible that their later material blew this to hell, I don't know: I will make a point of listening to some “newer” Manowar as soon as I can, if only to see how they developed while I was away. But as long as you don't fall into the trap of taking them too seriously, or deconstructing their music, I think Manowar could always be relied on to satisfy most metalheads.
Though I do wonder if they played Edinburgh on this tour...?
TRACKLISTING
1. Blood of my enemies
2. Each dawn I die
3. Kill with power
4. Hail to England
5. Army of the immortals
6. Black arrows
7. Bridge of death
Suggested further listening: “Battle hymns”, “Into glory ride”