History
Reviews
MANOWAR - WARRIORS OF THE WORLD - METAL BLADE
You will either love or hate Manowar or so the cliche goes. In actual fact the man/Manowar relationship is more like a love/hate one. On the one hand, Manowar's loyalty to their sound and the championing of heavy metal over the years is praise-worthy. On the other hand, the rampant cheesiness inherent in many of the topics covered carves at you and brings you down. At this moment the latter is overtaking the former. Musically, more leads would have been good as the sound and feeling this band gets, for example on Swords In The Wind, is impressive. The sound is expensive and loud, although there is the good chance that much of that impeccable and clinical drum sound is a microchip at work. Topicality is where Manowar begins to fall apart. Are they losing it? Nessun Dorma is an operetta for Eric's deceased mom. As much as she probably deserves respect, does Eric realize that people are paying for this? An instrumental called Valhalla (they already did Gates Of Valhalla years ago) is next and while we are at it Warriors of The World is very close, in title, to the other Manowar album Fighting The World. No one can accuse these warriors of abandoning the... world. Later we are treated to tender voices singing, 'Oh I Wish I was In Dixie, Away, Away In Dixieland...' Have the fraughts of the battle made these warriors sentimental? Later and during the Elvis ode it's "Glory, Glory, Hallelujah". What goes on in the minds of four grown men to pay allegiance to metal one minute and then serenade Elvis the next ? "So Hush Little Baby Don't You Cry" and "In Dixieland, where I was Born" continues the tomfoolery. An instrumental called The March is dedicated to the 'father of heavy metal Richard Wagner.' I can see the corpse of the composer hitch a ride outta town on the Valkyrie were his publicist to inform him of his new role as the father of heavy metal. But more importantly, and again, this little melody is counted as a track. Are people to pay for this? Of course, then there are Warriors Of The World United and House Of Death which are respectively dedicated to Nuclear Blast owner Markus Staiger and Metal Blade head Brian Slagel and are quite good. These, and Fight Until We Die, are the best tracks here. They are full-on Manowar with powerful everything. All in all the latest Manowar episode is an LP that should have been an EP and priced accordingly - especially surprising since the band took five years since the last studio album.
MANOWAR - THE DAWN OF BATTLE - NUCLEAR BLAST
To celebrate Manowar's signing to Nuclear Blast records again - this time for a worldwide deal - the label has issued this three-song MCD. The CD features two new songs, The Dawn Of Battle and I Believe. It is good to see a veteran act like Manowar write songs like (the appropriately-titled) The Dawn Of Battle. The fast song blows down the door and the poser and is great metal fun. I Believe is slower, but cool nonetheless. The other song here Call To Arms is taken off the band's last full-length, the below-average Warriors Of The World. The new material is clearly better than most of the material the American poser-killers have recently released and is hopefully a sign of things to come. Despite the praise, the band is completely consistent or monotonous depending on one's perspective. Lines like, " By the sign of the hammer falling/yes Heathens will fall" or "To the defender of the faith I belong" are not show casing Manowar's ex-ploration of newer themes. Then again, who needs another Metallica?
The CD also features a couple of short promotional footages. - Ali "The Metallian"
MANOWAR - THE DAY THE EARTH SHOOK - THE ABSOLUTE POWER (2DVD) - MAGIC CIRCLE MUSIC 
Manowar do it big is one way of putting it, The Day The Earth Shook is set at the 2005 Earthshaker Fest where a two-hour plus live concert and a fan convention have resulted in a near 390-minute long double DVD. The headlining show was obviously an expensive one to produce as it is very loud and very big, a testament to Manowar’s attitude and style. The concert features all the previous members of Manowar, Ross The Boss among others, playing songs of their era and makes this particular show as complete a retrospective as any band has come up with. As such every famous, and maybe not so famous song, along with a 200-piece orchestra is featured here and their devoted fans, the thousands present at the festival, and those watching this DVD will certainly appreciate it all. The second DVD is easily one of the most extensive around. It covers many aspects of the 3-day fan convention, like a guitar clinic, a scream competition, a Miss Manowar contest and many many more. An emphasis is also made, through interviews with the band, the band’s ‘spiritual adviser’ and the production team, on the scope of the show and the care that all involved have made to make it big and explosive. Manowar with their ‘we are the loudest, our fans are the best’ attitude is one to love or hate but they deliver where it counts. – Anna Tergel
MANOWAR - THE SONS OF ODIN – MAGIC CIRCLE 
The Sons Of Odin is a single, but unsurprisingly Manowar have to do it big and turn this into a five-song CD and add a bonus DVD and a poster on top of that too. Two live songs, The Ascension and King Of Kings, are taken from the 2005 Earthshaker Fest recording. The studio tracks are the instrumental Odin, Gods Of War and The Sons Of Odin. As expected all are typical Manowar, meaning spoken grand epic stories accompanied by heavy rhythms and traditional heavy metal solos. The bonus DVD features more from the fan convention that occurred parallel to the Earthshaker Fest. Also included are the rehearsal by the 200-piece orchestra that was part of the said concert, a slide show and a 5.1 surround sound version of the CD. – Anna Tergel
MANOWAR – GODS OF WAR – SPV 
There was a time, many many heathen moons ago, when Manowar actually released good music. Not only was the material good in terms of glorifying metal with impressive vocals, guitars and a rhythm section, but also the albums featuring the material in point of fact contained… music. Gods Of War, however, is Manowar doing what it has been doing over the last decade or so, which is essentially throw a repeat of the old stand-bys and unleash it upon its fandom with aplomb. After all, why write music or strive for fresh ideas when the releases sell by the bucket load anyway and are essentially meant as openings for merchandising, touring and white trashy so-called conventions where assorted whores and sluts disrobe to the tune of 100 fat-bellied degenerates swirling near-beer foam?
Gods Of War – the actual album name is ‘to be confirmed’ at press time for the group has only blessed its fans with runes in and on the album – is yet another such embarrassment. The band that could come up with hair-raising vocals, bass guitar solos and wicked lead guitars need do so no more. Rock Hard, and other sell-out magazines, will dole out the perfect scores anyway, so why bother? It must be a relief not to have to compose songs.
Manowar 2007 is liable to repeat the word ‘Valhalla’ in this concept at the rate of 6 times per minute per song, have more slow strumming, Classical pieces performed badly, spoken word and badly-narrated elucidations instead of music, focus on semi-balladry popcraft and, as a way of throwing the dog a bone or two, only graces the disc with a minute or two of music here and there. Too bad, Manowar still apparently has it the knack to write a good riff or deliver a harrowing scream or two. How this band calls itself metal (let alone metal’s kings) and avoids putting any metal on its album is a testament’s to society’s stupidity. The fact that the rhythm section is as relevant as art in capitalism or the drum sound is more monotonous than the band’s autopilot narcissism will surely be overlooked by the band’s European groupie entourage.
If you have seen the album’s cover, then you have seen its best part. The band is laughing all the way to the bank, although what the price of embarrassment and social retardation are only the group’s legacy can determine. – Ali “The Metallian”
MANOWAR - GODS OF WAR LIVE - MAGIC CIRCLE 
Words cannot describe how much the world needs to be rid of the Neanderthal known as Manowar. Relying on every overwrought power metal cliché in the book, Manowar consistently finds itself laughed at - with good reason - for being the epitome of ridiculous, and rightfully scorned for its brutish misogyny. Add the fact that Manowar puts out live CDs and DVDs at a pace (and with such narcissistic glee) that surely makes KISS jealous and Gods Of War Live acts as yet another waste of time, energy, money and resources from these gorillas (although that comparison is an insult to our evolutionary cousins). Gods Of War Live is, at its core, nothing but Dungeons And Dragons geekery, made by four immensely out of touch losers that don’t realise the rest of us are living in something called the real world. I mean, I don’t know how this band isn’t perpetually embarrassed at itself, these sad forty-somethings prancing around in loincloths and tight leather to laughable effect. When it comes down it, Manowar is part of the reason metal is deprived of the credibility it so desperately deserves… if Manowar really loved metal as much its claims, the band would call it a day and stop making the rest of us look bad. - David Perri
Interviews
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