The Batlord's Manowar Discography: Hell on Music Banter
 

****in' A, dude, all the Manowar reviewing I've been doing has given me the urge to do their entire discography -- and I don't just mean their studio albums, but live albums and videos/DVDs, singles, demos, compilations, bootlegs, and anything else I haven't thought of. My eventual goal is to review every single release Manowar has ever put out or been on (official or otherwise). This is a glorious undertaking, which a True Metalhead of the Highest Caliber such as myself is not only solely qualified for, but obligated to perform (like Muslims visiting Mecca).

This will be a long-term venture, hence why I will not be doing this in the Manowar Week thread, which is almost over anyway -- though to a True Metalhead, every week is Manowar Week. I'll repost the reviews I've already done, and keep a list of links in the OP. I might even decide to rereview certain albums if I decide that I've sufficiently changed my mind on a release that it merits a new look, though the original review will not be replaced.

So, welcome to the co-best thread on Music Banter (the other being of course The Batcave). All glory to Manowar, and let's get this **** underway.



Demo

1981: Demo '81


Full-Lengths

1982: Battle Hymns

1983: Into Glory Ride

1984: Hail to England

1984: Sign of the Hammer

1987: Fighting the World

1988: Kings of Metal

1992: The Triumph of Steel

1996: Louder than Hell

2002: Warriors of the World

2007: Gods of War

2012: The Lord of Steel


Singles

1983: Defender

1984: All Men Play on 10

People generally call this Manowar's sellout album, but I'm kind of dubious about that. They definitely watered their sound down to a large extent, basically deconstructing their sound back to Battle Hymns, but without any of the energy. But considering this was 1987, the time of hair metal, when Judas Priest was releasing Turbo, I find it odd that Manowar would sellout by playing early eighties trad metal while continuing to sing the exact same lyrics they had from day one.

It could very well be that their record company gave them a vague, uninterested decree to shape up or ship out, without even caring enough to foist a gestapo producer on them to write their album for them -- and that probably did happen -- but I suspect that they probably didn't fight it very much, if at all.

They'd showed signs of running out of creative steam on Sign of the Hammer, so I don't find it surprising that their next album would see them going the path of least resistance in a desperate bid to replace their lost inspiration with money (I probably would too).

The biggest sign of this is "Defender", the only song that sounds like the material on their three previous albums, and it really sounds like a castoff from Sign of the Hammer. It's heavy and epic, or at least it tries to be, but in the end it's just uninspired dullery. Even a heavier production probably wouldn't have saved it from being filler.

Most of the rest of the album is second and third rate Judas Priest-style trad metal without much to recommend. The first half of the album has some alright tunes, but generally nothing that sticks in your head after it's over. The second half is pretty much garbage (I don't know why people say that "Black Wind, Fire, and Steel" is that great, as it's just decent/good metal which just happens to be better than the crap before it.)

Honestly, the only song on this album that I'll ever be going back to is the title track. It's a straightforward metal song that could just have easily been recorded by Judas Priest or Saxon, but Eric Adams' bombastic, arrogant voice nails the **** out of it. It's anthemic and catchy in a way that just invades your brain and sets up a tent for days. It might be more of a backpeddle than an actual musical accomplishment, but it's too awesome for me to care.

So yeah, that's all that really needs to be said about Fighting the World. Perfectly ignorable album, but check out the title song if you're a true Manowarrior.





Oh yeah, this is a pretty bitchin' song too.

This album is where Manowar really jumped the shark. They'd been plenty cheesy before, but now they crossed the line into full-on self-parody. It's probably also the album that saved them. After running out of creative steam on Sign of the Hammer, and presumably caving to record company pressure to tone down for mass consumption on Fighting the World (to absolutely no results), Kings of Metal found them rejuvenated, with a new sound, and a new sense of "**** you" -- presumably also caused by whatever went down with Fighting the World.

Firstly, there's still plenty of the epic heavy metal from Into Glory Ride and Hail to England, but there's a new power/speed metal edge to a lot of the songs on here -- such as opener "Wheels of Fire, and closer "Blood of the Kings" -- that really gives the music an energy they hadn't really had for the most part since Battle Hymns.

The other big change is the presence of actual ballads. It's funny that they'd play around with those on the album where they quit trying to attract mainstream exposure, but these ballads never fall into "Home Sweet Home" territory. "Heart of Steel" and "Kingdom Come" are basically what power ballads would sound like if they were recorded by metalhead morons with more leather than sense (imagine that). It takes a special kind of person to like a Manowar ballad, and I can understand if you think they're just cheesy ****, but I love them.

Now, about that jumping the shark ****. Rather than try to write something cohesive, I'm just going to go down the line here and list the main ways in which Manowar are ridiculous on this album... yet somehow make it work. (We're ignoring the lyrics, since Manowar's lyrics should just be assumed to be dumb.)

1.) "Kings of Metal" - The title track is facepalm worthy. I suppose it's not necessarily any worse than "Warlord" or "All Men Play on Ten" as far as dunderheaded self-aggrandizement goes, but I just feel like they turn it up to eleven on this song (Spinal Tap reference intentional). The reason it works? This song is just so catchy, heavy, and anthemic that you can't help but get swept along when Eric Adams sings, "Other bands play!" followed by the gang shout response, "MANOWAR KILL!!!" This song just sucks so good.

2.) "The Crown and the Ring" - Objectively, this song is a complete failure. It's just a ballad, where Eric Adams sings about battle over low key synths, and then they jam a chorus sung by a choir after every verse, as if you don't have to do anything else to justify a choir. It's meant to sound epic and stirring, but it's just so self-indulgent and ridiculous that it's hilarious instead. The reason it works? I guess jamming a chorus sung by a choir after every verse can't help but sound kind of epic and stirring, no matter how much you **** it up. Brilliant dumb song.

3.) "The Warrior's Prayer" - Oh my god, this track. This ****ing track. After you've listened to it once, you can skip it forever after. Thank god I live in the age of easily skippable digital music, or else I probably would have listened to the song it introduces a lot fewer times. It's just an old man telling his grandson about some battle being waged by four "METAL KINGS!!!" -- presumably Manowar -- against the armies of the world. It goes on for over four god damn minutes. The reason it "works"? You'll only listen to it every once in a blue moon, but when you do, it will make you smile despite yourself at its absurd grandeur.

As far as I'm concerned, the only real fault with Kings of Metal is that the three ballads -- along with the prerequisite terrible bass solo -- all sit in the middle of the album, without any pure metal tracks to liven things up, which kills a bit of the album's momentum. We're also going to pretend that the execrable "Pleasure Slave" isn't on this album, since it was only added for the CD rerelease and I immediately removed it upon download. I honestly don't even remember what it sounds like.

I can't sign off without mentioning "Hail and Kill" though. It's by far the most epic song on this album, though it starts off almost like a ballad, before ramping up into heavy/power metal gloriousness of the highest caliber, with a gang shout chorus that sends chills up my spine at just how badass it is. And the line at the beginning, "May your sword stay wet, like a young girl in her prime" is moron metal genius.

If you love Manowar, you love this album, but if you think they're an embarrassment, then this isn't going to convert you. It is however, the ultimate example of the sound for which they've become known, and it's just too bad that they'd never again be able to so almost perfectly bring together all of the goofy-yet-glorious elements that make it such a monumentally flawed masterpiece. Hail and kill indeed.

This album is a bit of a strange beast. It's not much different from the previous two, Kings of Metal and Triumph of Steel, but it's easily their weakest since Fighting the World (I'm no fan of the thirty minute "epic" from Triumph of Steel, but the album is otherwise as it should be.) For one, it never quite "gets going" in the speed metal department, but it also has none of the epic heaviness of Into Glory Ride or Hail to England. It's not nearly as tepid as Fighting the World, but it also lacks the energy and passion of Battle Hymns -- although if I was to compare it to any previous Manowar album, it would be that one. So, basically what we have is watered down biker metal.

Another problem is that I can't honestly say there's even one song that's really on the same level as their best material. Without any of the above qualities to latch onto (speed, heaviness, epicness, energy, passion), Manowar's songwriting limitations become very evident, with many song's only redeeming qualities being their choruses.

I'm not sure exactly what happened with this album. My first guess is that Manowar was just tired by this point and didn't have much left in the tank, and so they pushed out the best album they could be bothered to make to justify a tour. I'm sure that Eric Adams' clearly deteriorating voice was also a contributing factor to the album's lack of energy, as he probably wouldn't have been able to really pull off any songs requiring his trademark high end screams.

Perhaps label pressure? Metal was dead, so the suits wanted them to change with the times? If so then I don't know why Manowar even bothered listening to them as much as they hypothetically did, cause I highly doubt even those egomaniacs would think that Pearl Jam fans had any desire to listen to them play hard rock and sing about metal/themselves (I'm sure Manowar considered them the same thing by this point.) I mean, yeah, the music is a bit toned down, but it's still the same ol' Manowar, and they sing about the same things they always do, and they still have a god damn bass solo song. Besides, I doubt any label would stoop to giving even the slightest **** about them in 1996 anyway.

Yet with all the things wrong with this album, I still dig it. It's not the first album I pull out when starting a Mano-binge, but about halfway through, when I've already listened to the classics, but I'm not on my way to becoming bored with constantly listening to them, I'll throw Louder than Hell on and it'll do its job competently. There aren't any true classics, though a few songs are still pretty damn good, but the band also somehow manages to keep everything consistent; I'm never blown away by this album, but I'm never bored either. So, if you hate or are new to Manowar, then steer clear of Louder than Hell for the moment, as it's really a fans only release.

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.

God damn it I hate this album. It's so long, so overblown, and so boring. I'm honestly not sure if I've been able to make it through the entire thing more than once, so I really can't give a real review. Rather than subject myself to it enough times that I can speak about it intelligently, I'm just gonna go track by track and review it like I do in my avant garde rec thread. At least then this might be good for a chuckle or two. **** me...


1.) "Overture to the Hymn of the Immortal Warriors" 6:20: This is not a song. This is an intro. A six minute intro. There is a two-and-a-half minute intro after this. That's almost ten minutes before the first song actually starts. **** me...

Oh yeah, it's a bunch of orchestral ****. Because four minutes of this wasn't more than I wanted on the last album. Just FYI, this is a concept album about the Norse gods, so there are a bunch of these kinds of things in-between songs to "set the mood" (i.e. bore the **** out of people).

And now there's a choir. ****. Not even two minutes in.

Organ goes DUN! DUN! DUN! That's epic. Please do something else. No, I didn't mean a tuba. Oh god.

And there's the choir again. I don't understand how this was all arranged. It certainly wasn't according to what sounded good. Still two ****ing minutes. I almost feel bad for trying to foist this on Plankton.

And that **** is done! Almost! There we go!

2.) "The Ascension" 2:30: There's that same choir and more wannabe orchestral **** that just missed the cut for the LOTR soundtrack. Is there going to be a reason why this was separated from the first-

Oh, there's some guy talking! Just going to assume he's talking about Odin. If this had begun the album then it might have been cheesy but fun, but it's been too tedious for too long.

Hey, there's Eric Adams singing over he choir. No less boring than anything that's come before TBH. And it transitions to...

3.) "King of Kings" 4:18: ... An actual song! Yay! Too bad it's this one. I clearly remember this being unmemorable.

Yeah, the riffs are pretty generic, and there isn't much going on to draw my attention. There isn't even an epic chorus to make me forget that the rest of the song is mediocre.

God damn it! The dude is talking about Odin again (or whatever, I don't really care enough to listen). The song just stops so this guy can drone on for a little bit, then it's a ballad for a little bit longer, and then we're back to the generic heavy/power metal.

Hey, Eric just tried a scream. It wasn't that great, and it sounded like they used some studio trickery to make it sound better, but at least they're trying. It's a metaphor for this album though: Manowar is putting their all into it, but all that effort just goes into pointless bull**** rather than actually making an album you'd want to listen to.

4.) "Army of the Dead, Part I" 1:59: Oh good, there's two of them. That makes me not want to listen to this twice as much.

Another choir! Although this one is more monk than Christmas pageant. Something about Valkyries, so I'm assuming this is about dead warriors going to Valhalla. Yep. Nice, boring chant about Valhalla.

I feel like a lot of the intros and outros on this album would be fine by themselves on another album that wasn't filled with the same ****, but all together they just become tedious. This isn't awful, but this is the fourth track on the album, and there's only been one song. **** that ****.

5.) "Sleipnir" 5:14: I seem to remember this and the next song being good, so I'm optimistic for the first time in... fifteen minutes. Jesus Christ.

Oh god, please don't let this intro go on for two minutes like they always do in Manowar songs. There's a horse running and neighing, and that dude is talking again, and we're at a minute already.

There we go, the intro only lasted a minute.

._.

Okay, I guess my memory of this being good was a relative thing. It's the best thing so far, but that's not saying much. It's not terrible, but it wouldn't even have made the cut for Louder than Hell. At least it's almost over. I definitely remember digging the next song.

6.) "Loki God of Fire" 3:50: Bam! Next song hits like a boss. This is officially the first good riff on the album. What's with the production though? Kinda weak. This song could be totally heavier. Still, pretty bitchin' song with a nice chorus.

Not anticipating consistency though.

7.) "Blood Brothers" 4:54: I have no way of knowing when a song is a song or an intro/outro. You'd think length would be a hint, but not necessarily. Eric Adams is singing over synths, so I'm assuming this is an actual song, just with an overlong beginning.

There's like, guitar and drums going on in the background, but I still hesitate to say that this is a real song, cause nothing has happened yet. Just two-and-a-half minutes of build up. This isn't even a ballad.

Alright, I think this is a song, because the guitar just ramped up a bit, but I still refuse to call this a real song.

Why is this five minutes long? It doesn't need to be. No payoff can justify four minutes of utter boredom.

Okay. So there wasn't even a payoff. Just five minutes of boring bull**** that went absolutely nowhere. I think it says a lot about this album and Manowar's songwriting abilities that I wasn't sure whether it was a song or an intro until it was half over, and even then I wasn't 100%.

8.) "Overture to Odin" 3:42: I think I'm safe in assuming this is an intro. I'm curious if Manowar even knows what an overture is. Don't get me wrong, I have no idea either, but I would never use "overture" in one of my song titles.

Boring violins. Goody. Some synths. **** a duck, I think this might be almost four minutes of boring violins and boring synths. Wait, there's a tuba. I think that's how I'm supposed to know it's an overture.

What the ****?! Why did Manowar do this ****? There's nothing about this that has anything to do with their core sound. There's nothing to make this anything other than a non-sequitor in the middle of an album that it has nothing musically to do with. And it's so ****ing long!

Yup. Four minutes of synths, violins, a tuba, and apparently an organ, all of which are somehow supposed to invoke the feeling of Odin on a trashy metal album. All the things that Manowar haters say about this band, I say about this album, because it kills my patience to the point that we're all now on the same page.

9.) "The Blood of Odin" 3:57: I **** you not, this is the second of four songs with "Odin" in it. One of which is just called "Odin". I'm curious how they decided that "Odin" was just so much more about Odin than all the other Odin songs that it deserved to be called simply "Odin".

It's been three songs since a non-into/outro/ballad, and I'm praying for some ass kicking. I'm just getting more of that narrator dude talking about Odin. There's some drumming going on (like those heavy bass drums in an orchestra, not "band drums").

God damn it, two minutes in and nothing yet. Are you ****ing kidding me? Another intro followed by an intro? **** you, Manowar. I want to punch someone.

Oh, and this is about how Odin gave his eye and got nailed to a tree in exchange for wisdom, which is actually a pretty bitchin' legend.

10.) "Sons of Odin" 6:24: Yay! A song. Possibly a good one too. Can't be sure yet. Doesn't seem like it's gonna be a classic, but I'll take what I can get at this point.

Meh. Not awful, but if this is the best they got then I'm in Just Waiting Until the Album Is Over mode.

It feels like they went back to the passionless, tepid rock/metal of Louder than Hell, but without any of the catchiness to make the mediocrity more enjoyable. Songwise, this really isn't any better than The Lord of Steel, and at least I didn't have to sit through twelve hours of intros for that album.

11.) "Glory Majesty Unity" 4:42: Intro? I hear wolves and bass drums. Now synths. Rain. Intro? Don't know. I'm now making the sign of the cross to protect myself against the evils of orchestral bull****.

****. Almost two minutes in and the narrator pops up again. This is an intro. At least there are only five songs left after this. I shouldn't have to say "at least there are only five songs left".

Lol. They're reciting the Warrior's Prayer after having fought some battle. Dear god, just end.

12.) "Gods of War" 7:26: This has to be a song. They can't follow a five minute intro with a seven minute one. Even Manowar aren't that stupid. It's the ****ing title track for Odin's sake.

Some kind of drumming, and orchestral singing that sounds more like a war march. Coolest thing by far on the album yet. Now if only the song that must be about to happen can liven up to that, then we might be in business for once.

Some actually epic orchestral ****, a slow guitar riff that's got some weight behind it, nice synths. I'm not willing to declare victory yet, but this is promising.

And of course it all stops so Eric Adams can talk.

Epic **** starts back up. Already three minutes in. WTF? This is cool and all, but this is not a song. Still the best thing off the album up till this point.

Then Eric starts talking again, and then the epic orchestral war march stuff starts again. So this is just what this "song" is. I'd honestly put this on a Manowar playlist though. If it were shorter it'd be good to put at the beginning, but maybe in the middle or at the end or something. Definitely too long.

13.) "Army of the Dead, Part II" 2:21: Oh look. The other one. Yay.

*insert derisive comment about boring, unnecessary, orchestral bull*****

14.) "Odin" 5:27: Three more songs. One of which is a bonus track that has nothing to do with the rest of the album. And I'm assuming the last proper track is an outro. There's no way Manowar would end this album without a boring outro. Honestly, I can't be sure this isn't also a boring outro that will then lead into the second boring outro.

Hey, Eric is singing. Song.

One of those heavy ballads that Manowar usually does so well, but unless I'm just fatigued after an hour of this garbage then this is ****. The song is almost done and has left almost no impression on me.

15.) "Hymn of the Immortal Warriors" 5:29: If this isn't an outro then I'm going to be totally surprised.

Hey, I think this might be a song. Might be a ballad. Blah, blah, blah, boring, blah, blah, blah, orchestral nonsense, blah, blah, blah, overblown, blah, blah, blah, somebody shoot me, blah, blah, blah, narrator, blah, blah, blah, this album is ****.

16.) "Die for Metal" (bonus track) 5:17: ****. Yes. Why the rest of the album isn't this awesome I have no idea. Clearly they have the ability to write awesome metal songs if they can still pump out one like this, and yet they tack it onto the end of the worst album they ever wrote as a bonus track. I don't understand that at all.

I've already listened to this song more times than I can count. It's one of the cheesiest songs they've ever written and it's amazing. I'm just going to add it at the end so you can partake of its brilliance.


Final verdict: I think there might actually have been more intros and orchestral garbage than actual Manowar songs on this **** heap, and the songs that are actually on here are so mediocre and unmemorable that I remember all the stuff around them more than what should have been the meat of the album, making it seem less like a cohesive listening experience than... I don't even know. Something that sucks. **** this album. I don't even have the energy to sum things up anymore cause Gods of War made me not care about life.


Seriously, don't get this album. Just steal "Die for Metal" off the internet and save yourself the aggravation.




These are pretty cool, too, I guess.

You know, I find myself liking this album a little more each time I listen to it. "Why's that?" you ask. Are there things about it that you didn't notice the first time? Are the compositions so clever that they take more than one listen to appreciate? Is The Lord of Steel just so mind-alteringly amazing that its magic enthralls you anew with each spin?

**** no.

I like this album better than yesterday simply because I've given up on finding anything worth listening to, and so now I'm willing to settle for this third-rate gutter trash, like that fat, toothless chick in a tube top still waiting around at last call.

This is pretty much the same tepid hard rock/metal from Louder than Hell, except without any songs that you might actually want to listen to afterward. The guitar and riffs are all interchangeable and unmemorable, the vocals tired and indifferent, and the songs themselves have absolutely no soul. Manowar has dropped more than a few balls in their time, but even then there was something to be redeemed: Louder than Hell and Fighting the World were both watered down and relatively dull, but still had some fine tunes, Warriors of the World was uneven as hell, but the songs that did work were some of the best of Manowar's career, and even though Gods of War was boring, overblown nonsense with only a few good songs, at least it failed while trying.

Manowar has simply gone the path of least resistance with this album, not even bothering to pretend as if they still give a ****. The songs suck, the band sounds as if they'd rather be elsewhere, and I proudly declare that they didn't see a cent for the album I am currently listening to.

**** this ****. This is not acceptable. There is a difference between a band past their prime, and a band who are simply embarrassing themselves -- and even by Manowar's standards, this takes a **** all over that line. Fix this ****, Manowar. Or quit. Just don't release another piece of garbage like this.

****ing *******s.

****in' history right here, bros. The first thing Manowar ever released. Both of these songs are on the debut, so we're not getting anything we haven't heard before. The only difference is the production, which, being a demo, is thin and ****ty. It's not a big deal for "Shell Shock", which is a basic trad metal song, but "Battle Hymn" is an atmospheric song, and the weak production doesn't do it any justice -- which is to be expected -- making it feel distant rather than stirring.

The interesting thing to me is just how early on the band were playing with the slower, heavy aspect of their sound which they would truly develop on their second and third albums. It makes me wonder if they didn't quite have everything together to make the debut more like those two, or if they just weren't confident enough to make an album like that right off the bat. Given how they tacked "Warlord" onto the front of Into Glory Ride for seemingly no apparent reason, that would seem likely, but it's also understandable that a new band would be cautious in their early days. Of course, it may have just been a case of not wanting to waste so many good songs like "Metal Daze" and "Fast Taker".

So, an interesting historical artifact, but certainly not required listening for anyone but a Mano-nerd like me. Glad I've heard it, so now I can go listen to the good stuff on Battle Hymns.

P.S. It's nice to see the boys were keepin' it classy from day one. If the black and white cover with the naked chicks wasn't so hard to make out I probably wouldn't be able to show it.

Karl Kennedy on drums? WTF?

Possible avatar selection?

http://i539.photobucket.com/albums/f...pswju7knk5.jpg

It'd look better with "ManOCrotch" plastered over it though, tbh.

Custom
http://i539.photobucket.com/albums/f...psjmk3pf1c.jpg

I love the chaps. The best thing is the video to "Blow Your Speakers", where you don't notice Eric Adams is wearing them, until he turns around and it's just MAN ASS IN YOUR FACE!!!





That's what metal is about, right there.

You should've done this in chronological order rather than just random hits.

A.) Except for the demo, those were from Manowar week, when I was plugging in gaps rather than worrying about a full discography, and B.) I won't necessarily always go in chronological order anyway, which is what index in the OP is for.

What you've basically got here is British Steel without the diversity. Of course there are "Dark Avenger", "Battle Hymn", and that damn bass solo that's on almost every old school Manowar album (all on the B-side), but the meat of the album is two-dimensional Judas Priest worship, or maybe Saxon, though without riffs quite as brilliant as the latter band (but who can compete with Saxon's riffs?). The only real difference on the first half is that the proto-speed metal sound those bands were developing is a bit more polished, even if Manowar showed no desire at the time to continue evolving in that direction.

What sets the band's Priest-like songs apart from actual Priest for me is that Manowar have an almost unparalleled knack for being energetic and anthemic. "Metal Daze", "Manowar", "Fast Taker", etc are actually more enjoyable to me than a lot of the bands they're quasi-ripping off, just because they are more infectious and fist-pumping (Yeah, I'm totally saying I'd rather listen to this than anything Priest was doing at the time, excluding possibly Screaming for Vengeance). It definitely helps that Eric Adams is the perfect singer to pull off the attitude and swagger that gives the band so much of their charisma.

They don't have any straight-forward metal songs that rise to the creative levels of the twin-guitar assault of "Electric Eye", the riff orgasm that is "Wheels of Steel", or the sheer metal perfection of "Killers", but in general the trashier songs on Battle Hymns just infect my ears to a more insidious degree than any full album being put out by a band whose name wasn't Iron Maiden. The fact that Manowar weren't adding anything new is almost beside the point as far as I'm concerned.

Then of course there are "Dark Avenger" and "Battle Hymn", two songs that don't get nearly enough credit for pioneering a different sound in 80s metal. Even the very tiny handful of doom metal pioneers of the time were more concerned with aping Black Sabbath than really blazing any trails, whereas Manowar took the fantasy aspects of traditional metal and created a sound that suited those lyrics far better than anything Dio ever put out (Sorry, Ronnie, but it is what it is). Many bands since have realized that slowing down rather than speeding up can be far more effective in evoking an epic atmosphere, but Manowar were pretty much on their own in 1982.

It's easy for someone not versed in early eighties metal to not get how different this sound was *cough*Ori*cough*Machine*cough*, but I would challenge them to find anything from that time period to compare with "Battle Hymn" and "Dark Avenger" (along with their next two albums). The only things that come to mind are Saxon's "Crusader" -- which came a full two years after this album -- and Candlemass kinda sorta -- who released their first album four years after Battle Hymn. Whatever you want to say about Manowar being cheesy or unoriginal, they did have a legitimate period of unique creativity.

Like every "great" Manowar album, this is a flawed masterpiece of inconsistent originality and just plain fun metal songs, and aside from the mercifully short bass solo "William's Tale", this is arguably their most consistent album, along with Hail to England. If you dig trashy '80s metal beyond simply Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, then this is essential listening as far as I'm concerned. ****ing hail.

Your review of Battle Hymns was kind of odd to me. I really don't mean any offense, but it seems like over half of it was just you apologizing for Manowar's lack of creativity and originality. It's almost like you're saying "Alright, these guys suck, but... they're kinda fun." Anyway, when it comes to this part...

I don't know if I agree with that. From what I've heard so far, Manowar were indeed good at making relatively slow and intense songs with epic imagery and lyrics, without getting too Doom-y like the various Black Sabbath clones, and they also had some fun speed-metal tracks. However, there were plenty of bands achieving these sounds, even ten to fifteen years before Manowar, back in the late sixties and early seventies. Off the top of my head, Lucifer's Friend and Wicked Lady's sounds weren't too far off from what Manowar was doing, both with the slow/intense songs with epic lyrics and vivid imagery, as well as the speed-metal numbers (if you don't know who Wicked Lady was, go ask Unknown_Soldier :laughing:).

Supposedly this is the original version of "Defender", which was released later on Fighting the World. The only difference is a heavier production and an extra thirty seconds of cheesy fantasy narration by Orson Welles(!). It's a decent tune, with the slow, epic heaviness of their Into Glory Ride sound, but doesn't have quite the power of that material. I said on my Fighting the World review that it sounded like a castoff from this period in their career, and I stand by that. I can only assume that they released this as a single because they didn't think it was quite up to snuff to include it on their next album, Into Glory Ride, and either didn't want to waste it, or figured it was at least good enough to garner some interest for their upcoming full-length.

Unfortunately I could only find the '93 version with "Hatred" (which is easily the weakest song off Into Glory Ride, but still has more personality than "Defender"), so I can't know if the single version of "Gloves of Metal" sounds any different to the version from their sophomore album. I'm assuming it's probably just the same song, which would make it easily the biggest reason to listen to this single, as it's a heavy, fist-pumping song, and one of the greatest metal anthems of all time.

To be perfectly honest, if you already have Into Glory Ride and Fighting the World, then there really isn't any reason to listen to, let alone own this single, unless you're just an obsessive completist.

Not apologizing, just stating facts. Half of Battle Hymns is a retread of what other bands had already done. I'm just giving my subjective opinion that for the most part, I'd rather listen to Manowar than Judas Priest and a lot of more pioneering bands.

Gave those a listen, and while I'm sure Manowar drew influence from earlier bands -- no band completely reinvents the wheel after all -- those songs really only sounded superficially like anything off of Manowar's early albums. Can you really compare a song like "March for Revenge" off of Into Glory Ride to any of those songs you posted? If so then you'd have to call Iron Maiden a shameless Judas Priest ripoff.

Those songs weren't meant to be compared to Manowar's whole discography, only "Battle Hymns" and "Dark Avenger". Obviously, they're not going to sound completely similar, since they were made by different bands (and, in Wicked Lady's case, with virtually no budget, as those songs were recorded live in a garage). However, it's hard to listen to a song like "Ship of Ghosts" and then one of Manowar's slow and epic songs without seeing a pretty clear line of succession. I just wanted to give examples of how Manowar weren't the only ones doing it, neither in their time nor the past. But don't take this as an insult against them; just because they weren't the first doesn't mean that they weren't the best, which is still a valid matter of opinion.

And yes, "March of Revenge" does sound like one of the songs I posted. Lucifer's Friend's "In the Time of Job" captures the same epic imagery, the same power vocals, the same riff-based attack. To me, they're much more than "superficially similar" (also, the song kind of reminds me of Dio, especially vocally). However, i'm not completely unreasonable, and I can understand your point of view.

But yeah, I can give more examples, if you like. The drumming and synth work at the beginning of "March for Revenge" remind me of Curved Air's "Young Mother" (Curved Air Live, 1974), and Sonja captures the power vocals pretty well. Of course, Curved Air replaces the thrashy guitar riffing with electric violin hijinks, but other than that, the two songs sound fairly similar. But if you want something more heavy and thrashy, once the song gets going, it reminds me of the band Dust and their heavy song "Suicide" (Hard Attack, 1972. This song came out ten years before Battle Hymns, yet the vocals, guitars, and drums all sound very similar to Manowar).

Don't ask me I'd never heard of them till today. On the Spirit of Metal page Manowar has 2181 fans and Wicked Lady 8. :D So I don't feel so bad about not knowing them.

The Batlord is probably the truest metal fan on this whole forum as he just about appreciates the good things in every metal sub-genre and not just the poseur crap like Tool etc.

Manowar live and breathe metal, they're like the chosen disciples and even when the songs are bad, they're still kind of great anyway.

Into Glory Ride is their greatest statement as a band, it's big, bold and cheesy and only they dared to release something like this and didn't give a crap what anybody thought. Into Glory Ride is a blueprint for power metal as Paranoid was a blueprint for 70s metal making it a legendary album.

I wouldn't really compare Lucifer's Friend to a band like Manowar or any of the bands that you've suggested, odd songs here and there yer, but a band like Lucifer's Friend were an organ driven progressive rock-metal band that were putting out a sound similar to what Uriah Heep were doing at this time, probably darker but still similar. Organ driven bands at this time were two a penny as there were just so many of them. Whereas Manowar by their second album had turned into something unique in metal regardless of their quality.

If Unknown_Soldier thinks Manowar was unique, then I can't really argue with him, since he was actually there when all of this was going down (while I was still yet to be born). When it comes to Metal, I'll defer to his wisdom. :bowdown:

I was there but I didn't like that kind of music back then, I was probably listening to some slick AOR instead. My metal knowledge didn't really start until a hell of a long time after.

When did you first get into Metal?

Quite possibly Manowar's creative peak, Into Glory Ride is like no other album, even among like-minded epic metal bands. It captures a fantasy vibe that is all Vikings, magic, and armies on the march -- and heavy ****ing metal, of course. Possibly their least accessible album (that doesn't suck) with it's slow, thundering riffs that often have little for the average Metallica or Ozzy fan to latch onto, this album is an uncompromising tribute to all things manly and metallic.

Opener "Warlord" could perhaps have been a single, as it's more in line with the kind of traditional metal from Battle Hymns, and is just catchy as all hell -- and that intro of drummer Scott Columbus having relations with a girl of questionable age ("She's only sixteen!") is the dumbest thing to ever be awesome. Its masterfully poetic lyrics about motorcycles, banging broads, and generally not giving a **** about anyone who doesn't get what they're about fit that "theme" perfectly as well. But it's an odd choice to even include on, let alone kick off the album, as the entire rest sounds nothing like it.

The only other song approaching real accessibility is "Gloves of Metal" -- that ****ing riff! -- which I have already declared to be one of the greatest metal anthems of all time.


**** yeah, Eric. **** yeah.

The rest of the album is concerned entirely with fantasy, set to a background of grinding metal gloriousness heavier than a city block. "Secret of Steel", "Gates of Valhalla", and especially "March for Revenge (By the Soldiers of Death)" all perfectly conjure the epic, martial imagery of Conan, without any concessions to subtlety or good taste. If this album doesn't make you want to go out and raise hell with a broadsword, then you're dead inside.

The only duff track on the whole album is "Hatred", a somewhat dull song that doesn't really go anywhere and lasts for entirely too long, but still fits the tone of the album enough that it merely drags a bit, rather than halts the album. And there's just something about the personality of the song that keeps it from being outright skippable filler. On the bright side, there is no bass solo track on the entire record. A fine trade-off as far as I'm concerned.

The aforementioned "March for Revenge" closes Into Glory Ride in brilliant fashion. It's probably the most ambitious song on the album, with a series of interplaying riffs of godlike quality, setting the stage for a stirring tale of battle and victory. Surely a metaphor for the forces of True Metal letting no obstacle stop them in their glorious Crusade. I'm sure fuddy-duddies would deride the mid-point of the song, when it nearly stops for a lament to the death of a beloved comrade in arms, but when Eric Adams declares...


... Only poseurs are not moved. Yes, that means you, *******. **** off.

This was the first Manowar album I ever listened to, and for the longest time it never really resonated with me. It's certainly not the first album I'd recommend to someone new to the band, due to it being one of their least accessible albums, but with time it has become a treasured part of my metal collection. Into Glory Ride is only for the Truest of Metalheads, and everyone else can kiss its perfectly sculpted ass. Hail!

Continuing from where Into Glory Ride left off, while also adding a diversity that Manowar had never really shown before. Things kick off slow and heavy, with the relentless, vicious power of "Blood of My Enemies" and "Each Dawn I Die", before taking a left turn into speed metal for "Kill with Power", and then the title track is sort of a halfway point between the epic metal of Into Glory Ride, and the straight ahead trad metal of Battle Hymns.

"Army of the Immortals" starts Side B similarly to the previous song, before introducing one of the few bass solo tracks that doesn't actually suck, and then back to slow, grinding heaviness on "Bridge of Death"

Depending on your point of view, this diversity might be seen as an improvement over the the monotony of Into Glory Ride, but personally, it makes the album a less purely atmospheric experience. Regardless, this is a fantastic album, and probably their most consistent -- consistency being almost unheard of for Manowar. The band more or less nail every song, exploring and sometimes even improving on all aspects of their sound in a cohesive way that is almost unique in their notoriously spotty discography.

For any true Manowarrior, Hail to England is an artifact of worship, and simply one of the best heavy/power metal albums of the decade. If you don't live in America (where the band sadly does not have a distribution deal, making their records almost impossible to track down in a physical record store) and you consider yourself a True Metalhead, then you owe it to yourself to buy this album and wear it the **** out.

I don't know why Manowar so often releases singles with material you can hear off the next album. What's the point of buying a single if you can just skip it without missing anything? Both "All Men Play on 10" and "Mountains" are on their next full-length, Sign of the Hammer, making this release unnecessary. Still, those are two of the best songs from that record, so I suppose if you were a desperate Manowar fan in 1984, and you just had to know what the band was up to at all times, then this would have been mana from the heavens.

"All Men Play on 10" is probably more hard rock than anything they'd released since... possibly ever. It's definitely metal, but Manowar had never really released a song quite like this. Lyrically, it's not so different from their Battle Hymns material, but considering how much their lyrics had come to be dominated by fantasy, it's kind of odd for Manowar's first taste of the new album to deviate so much. Still, Manowar are a band who celebrates machismo, so the mentality of a song like "All Men Play on Ten" is hardly out of character, and it kicks some serious ass. I've certainly played this song more than a few million times when on a Manowar binge.

"Mountains" is far more in line with their then current sound. It's not quite as great as earlier epic songs, but it evokes an atmosphere that would have fit right in on Into Glory Ride, and when it gets going it's as thunderous as anything they've ever recorded.

Again, if you already have Sign of the Hammer, then you don't need this at all, but it's still pretty cool all by itself.

Well I was always into the well known 70s stuff like Zeppelin, Alice Cooper and Deep Purple in the 1980s. At that time I was only into the popular commercial metal band of the day like Van Halen, Scorpions and Def Leppard and finally got into the NWOBHM in the 1990s, but it wasn't until the 00's that I finally got into metal properly and that includes most of its sub-genres including most of the extreme metal styles as well. Megadeth were probably my gateway into extreme metal and all the goodies that went with it.

I don't know why, but I got the impression that you were a big metalhead back in the day. Anyway, better late than never. :laughing:

And to Batlord, Thor > Manowar. Even though they started off pretty glam, they had the look and the sound years before Manowar had even recorded their debut. Plus, they're just way more fun to listen to. :finger:

The Triumph of Steel (1992)

Alright, I'm kinda drunk and back listening to Manowar, so let's do this...

1. Achilles, Agony and Ecstasy in Eight Parts - 28:37: Holy ****, why? I've hated this song ever since the first time I heard it. Manowar are a trashy-as-**** band, and attempting a 30-minute "epic" is just so laughable that it's not even almost Spinal Tap-ish. It's just straight-up Spinal Tap. ****, even Spinal Tap would never attempt such an obviously ****ing terrible idea.

I know it will just degenerate into arbitrary solos from every member of the band that will just be a series of arbitrary sections, awkwardly welded together in a self-indulgent display of uber-metal excess. I'd love it if it weren't thirty minutes of ear pain. I'm going to review the rest of the album normally, but this one song I'm going to do all by itself, since it's album-length. God help me I hate this song.

One minute in, and after an intro it kicks off with a pretty-decent-but-far-from-brilliant riff. If this was a normal-length song, I'd say it was probably going to be good filler, but I know otherwise, so...

Man, three minutes in and it feels like a heavily mediocre song has just flown by without accomplishing anything, but now we drift into some melodic, almost ambient... keyboards? I don't know. But it's boring, and Eric Adams's vocals have never sounded so silly. That might not be true, since this is Manowar, but on this song, it is what it is.

I didn't know this, but this was the first album without Ross the Boss on guitar. I don't know how much he contributed to songwriting, but considering Manowar's decent into relative mediocrity after Kings of Metal, I have to assume he was a major part of the band. In the SEVENTH MINUTE, new guitarist David Shenkle (in his only appearance on record) plays a solo which sounds like he might as well have been playing the American National Anthem. It's boring, it's pointless, and it... I can't say it kills the momentum of the song, since it never had any, but it's the lowest point so far.

And now we have a drum solo... ****, nine minutes in? And of course, it's pointless and self-indulgent. There's nothing to enjoy about this. It's just listening to some guy bang on his kit. Nine minutes in, and the song hasn't even been interrupted by pointless wank. It's not even wank, since wank implies some kind of skill, whereas this is just a bunch of guys jumping the shark so atmospherically that I'd be surprised if they didn't require space suits just to survive.

Escape velocity has officially been reached.

Twelve minutes in and the drum solo is still ongoing, but now with some boring guitar to back it up. Guitar is now gone, and the drums are trying to do something martial, I guess to be all Trojan War and ****... and where the **** did that flute come from? I'm so indifferent to this piece of crap that I didn't even remember there was a flute.

And now Eric Adams is talk/whispering in order to sound epic, but it just comes across as... well, Great Whites are glancing into the sky in befuddlement.

Fifteen minutes in and it's not even dragging, since it leaves so little of an impression that I can't even be bothered to immerse myself in it. **** off with this ****, Manowar.

Around 16:30 they just totally ripped off that riff when Metallica's "Battery" switches from acoustic (or whatever) into thrash. If I wasn't actively trying to listen to this I probably wouldn't even have noticed, so boring is this song.

I guess this is a more traditionally metal part of the song, since the whole band is playing, and Eric Adams is singing, but the quality of what's going on is basically so unimpressive that it may as well have been on Gods of War. WTF, Manowar? WTF?

And there, around the twenty minute mark, is the dull bass solo that I've been waiting for. Joey DeMaio is famous for his pointless bass solos, and this is no less awful than anything from previous albums, and is possibly even worse since it's so laidback... cause epicness?

**** this ****. I'm going for a piss and a smoke.

I'm back. So where are we now? The twenty-five-minute mark, and another generic Manowar song has been stuffed inbetween the pointless solos. Not once have I been engaged by this track. I've only ever managed to make it through the whole thing a few times, but never has my initial impression been changed.

This song ****ing blows. Just... blows. Two-and-a-half-minutes left. Just end already, so I can review the actual album.

And just in case you needed further evidence that the band had no idea how to write a thirty-minute epic, the song just fades out rather than actually ending. Not even any kind of resolution, just fading into nothingness, exactly how it began. This is seriously one of the lowest points of the band's entire catalog. And that's ****ing saying something.


As to the rest of the album (you may as well just treat it as two records lumped together)...


It almost saves The Triumph of Steel. If it weren't for the absurdity of "Achilles" turning this album into a mutant beast all its own, I'd say it was the transitional album between the doofy awesomeness of Kings of Metal and the middle-of-the-road decentness of Louder than Hell. It basically copies the anthemic, occasionally epic-in-the-style-of-early-Manowar-style of the former, while exhibiting the lack of inspiration which turned the former into just another Manowar album.

There are some truly cool songs on here -- most notably the meathead glory of "Metal Warriors" -- but others are bogged down by overlong intros -- most notably the unintentionally quasi-racist, Native American mumbling of the first minute-and-a-half of "Spirit Horse of the Cherokee", an otherwise awesome track -- or just a lack of proper editing, resulting in unfocused songs which attempt, but fail to recapture the epic atmosphere of Into Glory Ride and Hail to England.

The ass-end of The Triumph of Steel has no truly bad songs (though also almost no good riffs), but also pretty much no songs that can compete with the best of their previous releases. To be honest though, if you attempt to listen to this record front to back it can be an endurance test due to "Achilles", but if you're like me (and you ****ing should be) then you can just pretend that the album starts with "Metal Warriors" and be left with a highly decent album that succeeds at nothing about as much as it fails at nothing.

I think the band had blown much of their load with their first three albums, started treading water with Sign of the Hammer and Fighting the World, unexpectedly regained their passion and came out swinging hard with Kings of Metal, but had again lost inspiration with The Triumph of Steel. Perhaps a combination of desperation and egotism led them down the road to an ill-conceived and vomit-inducingly-executed "epic", whose scope left them with too little time to concentrate on the rest of the album. But a mediocre Manowar album is still pretty fun, and I'm a fiend, so I'll take what I can get.

I give this album a solid "meh".




Eh, **** it, you might as well... just to say you did.

Some call this the lost gem of Manowar's 80's period. I guess that's kinda true, but there is still a reason why Sign of the Hammer was lost in the first place: it was a noticeable step down from the glory of their first three albums, and added nothing creatively to the sound they had developed on those releases.

The A-side is definitely strong, if not so much as previously. "All Men Play on 10" is gloriously idiotic, and one of my most-played Manowar tracks, but while it bears some resemblance to the heavy, epic metal of Into Glory Ride and Hail to England, the song treads on much more traditional metal ground; the next song, "Animals", backpedals even further. But both tracks also rule, so my disappointment is minimal.

Closing out the first half are "Thor (The Powerhead)" and "Mountains", which are much heavier and atmospheric, conjuring the same Conan the Barbarian vibe as the last two albums. They're also strong, but can't quite touch previous highs. At this point the album is basically just a slightly less good version of what the band had already been doing.

But the B-side is where the band drops the ball: the title track and "The Oath" are pretty nondescript traditional metal, and aren't much more than decent filler; "Thunderpick" is the obligatory ****ty bass solo before the last song on more Manowar albums than I care to think of, and is no more memorable than any of its inbred siblings; and while "Guyana (Cult of the Damned)" is a step up from the last three tracks, it's just a not-quite-as-good version of "Thor" and "Mountains", but at least it ends the album on a semi-strong note (and opening line, "We thank you for the Kool-Aid, Reverend Jim" is pretty hilarious).

There's really not much more to say about Sign of the Hammer. It's a decent footnote in Manowar's discography, marking the exact place where the band started running out of steam, and only really offers four songs of note, which are still no more than a retread of better albums.

Finally finished the full-length albums, now I just have to do the five billion singles, live albums, compilations (cause why the **** not), and bootlegs. Not to mention track down the Hell on Earth videos/DVDs. This project will likely never end, but I doubt there will be another Manowar tribute as comprehensive.

BTW, I'd rather do those Hell on Earth DVDs without just watching the concert footage. I'd like to have access to all the features, and it would be nice not to have to shell out $593,082 on Amazon, so... can you pirate fully functional DVDs and not just the main footage?

Ebay has some decent deals...

manowar hell on earth in DVDs, Films & TV | eBay