Tracks
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Released in the distant 2002, Manowar’s Warriors of the World is an ambitious album which seeks to showcase the album’s more traditional (read Elvis, opera as well as Wagner) roots through a ‘true metal’ interpretation.
Interspersed with lengthy (at times too-lenghty) instrumental passages, this is nevertheless an album delivered by a band at the peak of its powers, riding on the shockwaves which its amazing Rock in Rio headline performance (1998) had sent across the world.
The album does not deviate from the familiar for the band territory – human spirit overcoming obstacles, deeds of heroism echoing in eternity and songs about unity and camaraderie. That said, if there is anyone who knows how to craft ‘true metal’ slabs of a 100-tonne heaviness, that is Manowar, the band which practically forged the genre out of the deepest fires of the Kingdom of Hades.
‘Call to Arms’, ‘Warriors of the World United’ are mid-tempo, 120bmp offerings which are performed well and taken to a whole new level by Eric Adams’ vocals. I don’t believe that anyone in the metal business does guttural screams quite like Manowar’s charismatic vocalist, and his sense of dynamism, the ability to enunciate certain phrases [‘blood is upon my STEEEEEL’ in the ‘Call to Arms’ being an example] and do so with conviction and heart is outstanding as ever. With regards to introductions, the drum introduction to ‘Warriors of the World’ is epic. The drums of doom put you at the epicentre of what feels like a monumental battle between the forces of Good and Evil. The guitar dive-bombs howl like the wind and Eric Adams’ vocals are Thor-like. I do think the lyrics work very well, too and I always smile at the ‘with dreams to be a King, first – one should be a man’ line which should be (if not already?) in Robert Howard’s Conan stories.
‘An American Trilogy’ and ‘Nessun Dorma’ should stand apart and seem strange but, somehow, they do not! Instead, they are brought together, alongside ‘Swords in the Wind’ in a storyline of dignified sadness, loss and remembrance – the apex of emotion is reached in the outstanding ‘Swords in the Wind’, which sends shivers down my spine. The lyrics are thoughtful and poignant, lacking none of the splendour and imagery of Tolkien’s high fantasy:
“I will lead the charge, my sword into the wind
Sons of Odin fight, to die and live again
Viking ships cross the sea in cold wind and rain…”
The final theme is perhaps that of death in battle and ‘House of Death’ and ‘House of Doom’ are gloomy, dark and fast pace skirmishes into heavy metal territory, crushing and yet full of epic melodies and sung with Adams’ snarling and menacing style, signalling defiance and haughtiness of other worlds and times. The drumming of Scott Columbus (RIP) is precise, powerful and driving and musically, the songs have passages of storytelling, light and shade composition and show why Manowar are regarded as the law-givers of the genre.
‘Warriors of the World’, indeed!
Interspersed with lengthy (at times too-lenghty) instrumental passages, this is nevertheless an album delivered by a band at the peak of its powers, riding on the shockwaves which its amazing Rock in Rio headline performance (1998) had sent across the world.
The album does not deviate from the familiar for the band territory – human spirit overcoming obstacles, deeds of heroism echoing in eternity and songs about unity and camaraderie. That said, if there is anyone who knows how to craft ‘true metal’ slabs of a 100-tonne heaviness, that is Manowar, the band which practically forged the genre out of the deepest fires of the Kingdom of Hades.
‘Call to Arms’, ‘Warriors of the World United’ are mid-tempo, 120bmp offerings which are performed well and taken to a whole new level by Eric Adams’ vocals. I don’t believe that anyone in the metal business does guttural screams quite like Manowar’s charismatic vocalist, and his sense of dynamism, the ability to enunciate certain phrases [‘blood is upon my STEEEEEL’ in the ‘Call to Arms’ being an example] and do so with conviction and heart is outstanding as ever. With regards to introductions, the drum introduction to ‘Warriors of the World’ is epic. The drums of doom put you at the epicentre of what feels like a monumental battle between the forces of Good and Evil. The guitar dive-bombs howl like the wind and Eric Adams’ vocals are Thor-like. I do think the lyrics work very well, too and I always smile at the ‘with dreams to be a King, first – one should be a man’ line which should be (if not already?) in Robert Howard’s Conan stories.
‘An American Trilogy’ and ‘Nessun Dorma’ should stand apart and seem strange but, somehow, they do not! Instead, they are brought together, alongside ‘Swords in the Wind’ in a storyline of dignified sadness, loss and remembrance – the apex of emotion is reached in the outstanding ‘Swords in the Wind’, which sends shivers down my spine. The lyrics are thoughtful and poignant, lacking none of the splendour and imagery of Tolkien’s high fantasy:
“I will lead the charge, my sword into the wind
Sons of Odin fight, to die and live again
Viking ships cross the sea in cold wind and rain…”
The final theme is perhaps that of death in battle and ‘House of Death’ and ‘House of Doom’ are gloomy, dark and fast pace skirmishes into heavy metal territory, crushing and yet full of epic melodies and sung with Adams’ snarling and menacing style, signalling defiance and haughtiness of other worlds and times. The drumming of Scott Columbus (RIP) is precise, powerful and driving and musically, the songs have passages of storytelling, light and shade composition and show why Manowar are regarded as the law-givers of the genre.
‘Warriors of the World’, indeed!