It is time once again for a slab of majestic metal to fall from the sky, and severely maim all non-believers in the ways of metal. The message from the MANOWAR camp is quite LOUD and clear: believe in metal, or perish under various weapons of terminal war-waging mayhem. Or something like that. This is not fun-poking, this shit is serious as a heart attack. This heartily fills the bill of ‘True Metal’ and many of you live and die to the sounds of MANOWAR. There are some very good tunes on this release, typical DeMaio compositions that will knock your head off. There is however, issues that the layout and quantity on the record cause. First we have a long keyboard intro (song?) “Overture to the Hymn of the Eternal Warriors” leading right into ANOTHER intro “The Ascension” even before the first ‘real’ song begins. At this point we are nine minutes into the disc. “King of Kings” is a solid, if unspectacular MANOWAR tune, but just when you are ready for some serious headbanging, they manage to slow it down again with another atmospheric intro. Next come (finally) three decent tunes, the third of which is a ballad. Now, there is nothing wrong with a MANOWAR ballad, but this again slows the tempo of the record down. It is worth mentioning, however, that Eric Adams vocals are second to none in the genre; always on the mark. The ballad flows into another couple of interludes/intros/etc. and then we get more meat and potatoes. The next three songs are crushing MANOWAR rockers, with a personal favorite being “Odin”.

With the idea of a concept record coming forth, you can give a bit of leeway to MANOWAR, but I felt as if I had to wait to hear the music buried on this record, kind of like looking through the cereal box for the prize (and it was a BIG damn box). The actual music here is almost played with too much sonic polish; a little bit of rawness here and there would make the tunes sound more genuine. MANOWAR doesn’t break any new ground on this record. But then again, MANOWAR seeded the ground that many other power metalers are standing on! Solid effort, and best in a while, but after spending half the time sitting through hearing interludes, atmospheric keys, and spoken word, ENOUGH already! Take my head off with thy mighty hammer! Gimme tunes!

-Murtaugh

OFFICIAL SITE: www.manowar.com

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