The Batlord

Warriors of the World. The jewel in the nonexistent crown of Manowar's post-classic period. Louder than Hell was lukewarm, Gods of War stupefyingly overblown, and The Lord of Steel just plain awful, but this album makes all the years of meh albums worth it. It's not a true classic, but I'll ****ing take it.

If I'd heard Louder than Hell back in '96, and then waited until '02 for this, their followup, I'd have assumed that their days were done and this would just be an even further diminished return. Opener "Call to Arms" -- the best song they'd done since 1988 as far as I'm concerned -- would have mercifully dashed those fears. Its crushingly heavy, savagely epic majesty kicks this album off perfectly. And of course it's about killing poseurs in the name of True Metal.

"I can see, by the look that you have in your eye, you came here for metal, to fight and to die!"

Indeed I did, Eric. Indeed I did.

In much the same way that Kings of Metal rejuvenated the band, it's biggest flaw is also Warriors of the World's: too many ballads in the middle of the album without any break. There's no bass solo, thank god, but instead there's a three-and-a-half-minute vocal cover of "Nessun Dorma". An opera piece. It's not good. It's not good even a little bit. And it's the third song on the album. **** that.

But those ballads -- "The Fight for Freedom", "Swords in the Wind", and "An American Trilogy" -- are epic and fan-****ing-tastic ("An American Trilogy" somewhat less so), and possibly the best ballads of their career. Eric Adams might not have the range he used to, but he's adapted to his new limitations far better here than on Louder than Hell, and some of his best work for the album is definitely on these slower songs.

Aside from "Nussen Dorma", the other turd on this album is "The March", a four-minute orchestral thing that desperately wants to be epic, but is really just tedious and overlong. Coulda been cool, but then Manowar just forgot that they're not Mozart. These two songs probably foreshadowed the unfortunate direction they took on their next album, but we'll get to that later.

But **** all that ****, cause the rest of the album is pure metal awesomeness. "Warriors of the World" kicks the last half of the album off in bitchin' fashion, and after that it's just epic heavy/power metal awesomeness. It would have been nice if Manowar had mixed these songs up with the ballads on the first half, but it is what it is.

I can only assume that the difference between Warriors of the World and Louder than Hell is that Manowar actually cared about this album. Why they all of a sudden got their mojo back after six years is beyond me, but I'm not complaining. This might have been their last truly listenable album, but I'm just glad their last one was so strong (**** it, it's a classic, warts and all), and not just okay. Listen to this album. It ****ing rules.

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