Manowar at Myspace

Manowar’s most recent studio album is a mixed bag. For one, there are far too many synths, with some tracks having virtually no metal content at all. This makes Manowar sound like a limp-wristed fairy power metal band like Rhapsody, instead of the oiled-up and insanely muscled metal band we’ve all come to love. There’s fairly little narrative for a concept album; most of the lyrics are fairly generic stuff about Norse mythology. Also, there are few hilariously cheesy lines like “may your sword stay wet like a young girl in her prime.” Another problem is that there’s way too much narration, which is as uninspired as the lyrics (an exception is at the end of the excellent track “Sons of Odin”).

The album’s low point is definitely “Glory, Majesty, Unity.” A filler track with virtually no music, this track also has narration by a completely different person than the rest of the album. After a few listens, it dawned on me that the narrator was the one from “The Warrior’s Prayer” from Kings of Metal, an album that was nearly 20 years old when this was recorded! I have no idea why they didn’t re-record it with the new narrator.

The album isn’t entirely bad, though; strong tracks include the aforementioned “Sons of Odin,” as well as “Hymn of the Immortal Warriors” and the bonus track “Die for Metal” (the only non-Viking related song on the album, with typical Manowar lyrics, although the main riff is a little to close to Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir” for my tastes). In my opinion, this would’ve been better off if they’d done what they did with their earlier half-hour track “Achilles: Agony and Ecstasy in Eight Parts” and made one very long song with this album’s material, cut the filler out, and filled out the rest of the album with unrelated tracks.

Saturday, June 28th, 2008 @ 9:16 pm Heavy Metal
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