Manowar - Warriors Of The World
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Call To Arms* |
| Genre | Heavy Metal |
Eric Adams
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Vocals
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| Tracks | 11 |
Karl Logan
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Guitar
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| Runningtime | 47 Min. |
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Guitar
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| Label | Nuclear Blast |
Joey DeMaio
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Bass
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| Release | 25 May 2002 |
Scott Columbus
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Drums
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| Country | USA |
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Keyboards
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| Similar artists | Majesty, Virgin Steele | ||
They are back - the men in the nifty leather underwear that claim to be the True Defenders of Metal. Then tell me one thing: After letting the fans wait 6 years since the past studiorelease, why releasing an album consisting to 75% of ballads, slow and boring below-Manowar-standard-songs and operas sung in italian which singer Adams gladly confess he doesn't understand a word of himself.
This is - not suprisingly - one of the most hyped album this year, and I can tell you it will probably need it to sell. This is not good. The riffs are the same as the past 15 years, a bit of Return Of The Warlord, a bit of Kings Of Metal, and an ounce of Sign Of The Hammer (which I am generally not opposing against, it's just that this time it's not done especially well).
Hearing statements from the band such as "The making of an album is a process that has to grow......" are so ridicolus that I can't find words for it. This is basically nothing - give most bands 6 years, and I promise you they will come up with better than this. You can almost learn someone play guitar good enough in 6 years to play on a metalalbum. This album has strong moments, though - Call To Arms, Hand Of Doom and parts of Fight Until We Die are songs that have one foot in the Metal Hall of Fame already according to me. This is Manowar as they are supposed to sound. Marvellous uptempo riffing over pounding drums with a metalhymn chorus that makes the Power of True Metal litterary crawl under your skin and up your spine. Noone do songs like this better than Manowar - I must admit that.
But when Manowar don't do songs like that , but instead do.....something else, than they are not good. then the whole facade cracks apart and expose the pretty empty shell that lies beneath. Perhaps the inspiration aren't enough for more than this nowadays. Sure - songs like Fight For Freedom, The March and Warriors Of The World United are majestic and epic, but very flat and non-saying to be Manowar. From time to time during songs - The March is even a whole one like that - this sounds like a soundtrack for Lord Of The Rings or something like that, and......I mean - what's so metal about that? The song An American Trilogy even has touches of country (!) in it.....I'm not kidding.
It opens with the killer Call To Arms, than we have to wait 21 minutes over 5 songs of ballads and patriotic hymns before the tempo even rises to something that can be called rock'n'roll - than we have already arrived at Warriors Of The World United (if we manage to stay awake for that long). Kind of slow and boring history that, though, so the wait is pretty much in vain. The finishing 3 songs are good, though. Hand Of Doom are a pure killer as I previously described, and Fight Until We Die are a nicely driven song with a catchy riff and refrain, but House Of Death is too much of a bad copy of "Power" from the previous album to be considered really good.
I guess I will be pretty alone describing this album like I do, and giving it this kind of grades, but even how much I would like give Manowar - who have done tremendously much for Metal in their career - a better grade, I just can't make myself do it. Not in this case. I don't know if other metal critics are afraid to talk against Manowar in some way, but I take the risk of Mr. DeMaio knocking at my door one of these days and trying to choke me with his leather boxers. Rather that, than misleading you, dear readers, into buying something that is one of this decade's most disappointing experiences.
If you're a diehard fan since before - sure, you'll probably appreciate this. But I doubt that many new fans will join the lines of The Army Of Immortals. All of a sudden Manowar's music don't feel so immortal anymore. Manowar - Kings Of Metal ?? My ass...
See
also review of: Gods Of War
»
See also: second
opinion review by David »
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Production
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Vocals
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Compositions
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9 |
8 |
2,5 |
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Summary
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3 chalices of 10 - Tommy |
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