I do like Manowar, I just had a really bad start, with Fighting the World. Battle Hymns showed that this was some cheese worth listening to.

This is my favorite from page 39.

Understandable. I've only ever been able to make myself listen to Fighting the World once, and I have no particular desire to spend any more time on it. Which albums have you listened to?

Fighting the World, The Triumph of Steel, Battle Hymns, the first couple of songs from Sign of the Hammer, and a couple of tracks from Kings of Metal. Once I get my hands on a copy of Hail to England I'll hear that one too; it's not on Spotify.

Yeah, I love Manowar, but they've put out a lot of crap. Fighting the World obviously, but Sign of the Hammer, while not a bad album, is relatively mediocre. The first half is awesome, but the B-Side is fillerish. The Triumph of Steel is also not my favorite. Some people love it, but "Achilles, Agony and Ecstasy in Eight Parts" just comes off like a bunch of dull solos that the band strung together and the rest of the album is hit-or-miss. Aside from Battle Hymns the albums to really get are Into Glory Ride, Hail to England, and Kings of Metal. Louder than Hell left almost zero impression on me, Warriors of the World has some of their best stuff on it, but it's got some overblown crap (like the 3 minute+ cover of an opera song). And Gods of War was a new standard in the field of overblown, overlong, boring crap. It's got good stuff, but dear God they needed to edit that ****er. They haven't really put out a truly good album since Kings of Metal, but they have a knack for putting out truly god-like tracks amongst the mediocrity.

I never heard "Achilles" in its entirety. After eight minutes I skipped the rest.

EDIT: Just found out that "The Crown and the Ring (Lament of the Kings)" has organ in it. This better be something more than a pointless filler..!

Manowar are artless goons. "The Crown and the Ring" is basically just them throwing choral singing onto an uber-uber-uber-cheesy ballad. It's one of those songs where you either despise it as worthless garbage, unfit to be recorded, or, like me, you appreciate it for what it is: Manowar, somehow, someway, pulling epicness from the jaws of mediocrity by sheer self-belief and charisma. Nobody else could have made that song anything other than god awful, but Manowar are too stupid to have the common sense to not try to make something that is completely beyond their abilities. It's what makes them "great" as far as I'm concerned.

This is some cool stuff.

Been meaning to listen to more Wednesday 13. Good stuff. Not that it sounds like White Zombie but this has that same sleazy, horror vibe I missed from Astrocreep 2000.

Edit: Listening to Astrocreep and Wednesday 13 does actually sound a lot like White Zombie.

I like these guys they remind me of Metallica, Remove the flesh from the bone? I don't know why that line reminds me of Timothy Treadwell.