Jump to content

Manowar


916kaden

Recommended Posts

Totally agree with what you said about Battle Hymn!

As for the Scorps, "Taken By Force" is awesome. I have an incredibly hard time choosing my favorite, but I do know that my favorite era is the ROTH one!

At the same time, I liked every Scoprions album up until "Crazy World". That's the first one that felt like a letdown to my ears.

Sure, "Savage Amusement" was a plain attempt at a Def Leppard kind of high tech commercial hard rock type of record, but I featured great tracks such as "Media Overkill", "Don't Stop at the Top" and even the ballad at the end of it!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Totally agree with what you said about Battle Hymn!

As for the Scorps, "Taken By Force" is awesome. I have an incredibly hard time choosing my favorite, but I do know that my favorite era is the ROTH one!

At the same time, I liked every Scoprions album up until "Crazy World". That's the first one that felt like a letdown to my ears.

Sure, "Savage Amusement" was a plain attempt at a Def Leppard kind of high tech commercial hard rock type of record, but I featured great tracks such as "Media Overkill", "Don't Stop at the Top" and even the ballad at the end of it!

 

Come on dude, it's gotta be Taken By Force in the top spot. Sails of Charon, Steamrock Fever, He's a Woman, She's a Man, it's got all of their best songs on it.

 

Sent from my HTC6535LVW using Tapatalk

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You are right. Taken By Force is their best, BUT it has to be the one with the tombstones sleeve, not the one with the band pic :D

That pic was taken in Normandie at the US World War II memorial. I purposedly went there last year for both reasons (i.e. to remember the fallen and to see where the Scorps got their inspiration for the cover).

"Virgin Killer" and "In Trance" are plain awesome too. I happen to love Uli Roth's Hendrix impersonations ("Hell Cat" and "Polar Nights").

The best Hendrix impersonators (guitar wise), for me, were Uli Roth (Hendrix and waaaay beyond... he is the missing link between Hendrix/Blackmore and Yngwie Malmsteen), Robin Trower and Frank Marino! Jesus Christ was I happy when I found Frank Marino's name in the "inspiration" list of Trey Azagtoth in "Blessed Are The Sick"'s booklet!!!

And Stevie Ray Vaughan was mentioned in one of Obituary's records... it's all one big musical family!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You are right. Taken By Force is their best, BUT it has to be the one with the tombstones sleeve, not the one with the band pic [emoji3]

That pic was taken in Normandie at the US World War II memorial. I purposedly went there last year for both reasons (i.e. to remember the fallen and to see where the Scorps got their inspiration for the cover).

"Virgin Killer" and "In Trance" are plain awesome too. I happen to love Uli Roth's Hendrix impersonations ("Hell Cat" and "Polar Nights").

The best Hendrix impersonators (guitar wise), for me, were Uli Roth (Hendrix and waaaay beyond... he is the missing link between Hendrix/Blackmore and Yngwie Malmsteen), Robin Trower and Frank Marino! Jesus Christ was I happy when I found Frank Marino's name in the "inspiration" list of Trey Azagtoth in "Blessed Are The Sick"'s booklet!!!

And Stevie Ray Vaughan was mentioned in one of Obituary's records... it's all one big musical family!

 

Virgin Killer is rad, still need to get In Trance. Original covers are cool and all, but I'll stick with the band photo for Virgin Killer. Yikes. Uli was certainly one of the best at putting Hendrix into a metal context, and Sails of Charon's guitar solo is still one of my favorites in all of music. Utter brilliance. Robin is also rad, especially on Bridge of Sighs. That was one of the vinyls that got passed down to me from my dad's collection, I probably wouldn't have heard of him otherwise.

 

Sent from my HTC6535LVW using Tapatalk

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The concept behind "Virgin Killer" (the song) is actually cool, but I agree that the original cover is too over the top. The original cover can be paired with that of Blind Faith's only LP... BTW, just in case someone reading this doesn't know it yet, the "Virgin Killer" Uli wrote about is...TIME!

"Taken By Force" is also controversial, but at least it is not disturbing.

The Scorpions had an amazin run of sick covers. My favorite is that of "Animal Magnetism". It's so damn sexist. "What's wrong with being sexy?" "SEX-IST". Get the quote?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, the closest is Virgin Steele... These fellow NewYorkers put out some fairly decent records after their original guitarist (Dave Starr) left the band and was replaced by one Edward Pursino. Starr was a mediocre guitarist back then (he might have gotten better later on, but I am not familiar with his band's discography... Jack Starr's Burning Star).

If you try out songs like "Symphony of Steel" or "Invictus", you'll certainly get the clue... They sound like "Wheels of Fire" and "Black Wind Fire and Steel" respectively!

Not a single band ever sounded like the first four ManOwaR records, though... Those are unique. A prime slice of barbarian epic heavy metal.

If you want to get the same vibe, but with a very different sound, try out MANILLA ROAD, OMEN and WARLORD. Those bands were also forefathers of Epic Metal, each with its own peculiar style. Do not expect bombast, though. 

If we move on to the 90's and forward, ManOwaR torch has been probably carried by acts like Hammerfall, Dream Evil and Nocturnal Rites. These are power metal band that, in my opinion, are more inclined to straight heavy metal rather than happy european power metal.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...
On 2/20/2017 at 2:55 PM, Skull_Kollektor said:

If you want to get the same vibe, but with a very different sound, try out MANILLA ROAD, OMEN and WARLORD. Those bands were also forefathers of Epic Metal, each with its own peculiar style. Do not expect bombast, though. 

@Parker In addition to those three, I'd also recommend Cirith Ungol, Brocas Helm, Slough Feg, Heavy Load, Eternal Champion (which is a relatively new band) and Cloven Hoof. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Ecthelion said:

@Parker In addition to those three, I'd also recommend Cirith Ungol, Brocas Helm, Slough Feg, Heavy Load, Eternal Champion (which is a relatively new band) and Cloven Hoof. 

Cirith Ungol: LOVE them, got all their albums.

Brocas Helm: got the reissues of their 2 albums from the 80's... I like them, but I rarely ever listen to them because of the non-existent production values... Everyone tells me that their comeback album rocks too.

Heavy Load: got the reissues of their 2nd and 3rd album on CD and the original swedish LP pressing of the 3rd (with poster and other inserts)... they ROCK! Especially the track "HEAVY METAL ANGELS"... I need to get ahold of their first LP "Full Speed at High Level". I only got the mp3's.

Cloven Hoof: got reissues of their 3 STUDIO albums (I miss their live album though) and I have the ep by french band H-Bomb that features the original Cloven Hoof lead singer... what can I say? Their third is awesome. Russ North has a wonderful voice. I actually saw them play live in Italy in 2008. Pretty decent show.

Slough Feg: like what I heard, but left them on the shelf because I am too fascinated with vintage stuff to really care about "newerish" bands

Eternal Champion: never heard a single note.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Ecthelion said: @Parker In addition to those three, I'd also recommend Cirith Ungol, Brocas Helm, Slough Feg, Heavy Load, Eternal Champion (which is a relatively new band) and Cloven Hoof. 

Cirith Ungol: LOVE them, got all their albums.

Brocas Helm: got the reissues of their 2 albums from the 80's... I like them, but I rarely ever listen to them because of the non-existent production values... Everyone tells me that their comeback album rocks too.

Heavy Load: got the reissues of their 2nd and 3rd album on CD and the original swedish LP pressing of the 3rd (with poster and other inserts)... they ROCK! Especially the track "HEAVY METAL ANGELS"... I need to get ahold of their first LP "Full Speed at High Level". I only got the mp3's.

Cloven Hoof: got reissues of their 3 STUDIO albums (I miss their live album though) and I have the ep by french band H-Bomb that features the original Cloven Hoof lead singer... what can I say? Their third is awesome. Russ North has a wonderful voice. I actually saw them play live in Italy in 2008. Pretty decent show.

Slough Feg: like what I heard, but left them on the shelf because I am too fascinated with vintage stuff to really care about "newerish" bands

Eternal Champion: never heard a single note.

 

I'm one of the more cynical people you may talk to about retro heavy and thrash metal, but take it me, Slough Feg is the shit. Very Thin Lizzy inspired folky heavy metal that takes equal parts from NWOBHM bands and American epic heavy metal like Cirith Ungol and Manilla Road.

 

 

Sent from my HTC6535LVW using Tapatalk

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nice! Thanks for sharing. The Thin Lizzy connection is pretty evident...

I liked the track up until 3:00... that is when I started wishing there was a Gary Moore, a Scott Gorham, a Brian Robertson or even a Snowy White or that dude from Ultravox that toured with Lizzy... The idea and the intentions are very good, but they should get a proper lead guitarist, IMHO.

BTW, both Overkill and Ace Frehley (with Slash) recently put out covers of "Emerald" and they are both very nice! If even Ace Frehley aged 66 can pull off a decent solo over a Thin Lizzy track, there is no excuse for these guys... :D 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nice! Thanks for sharing. The Thin Lizzy connection is pretty evident...

I liked the track up until 3:00... that is when I started wishing there was a Gary Moore, a Scott Gorham, a Brian Robertson or even a Snowy White or that dude from Ultravox that toured with Lizzy... The idea and the intentions are very good, but they should get a proper lead guitarist, IMHO.

BTW, both Overkill and Ace Frehley (with Slash) recently put out covers of "Emerald" and they are both very nice! If even Ace Frehley aged 66 can pull off a decent solo over a Thin Lizzy track, there is no excuse for these guys... [emoji3] 

 

 

That is one of their earlier albums, and their leads would improve over time. The feel of it is more important than the precision for me though, and they nailed that feel all throughout their albums. Some of the newer ones go a bit more retro and simplistic, but I prefer their more intricate early works with Traveller being my favorite. Try this one on for size.

 

 

Sent from my HTC6535LVW using Tapatalk

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Cool track too! It marches along like early ManOwaR... It's as if "Blood of My Enemies" by ManOwaR met "Massacre" by Thin Lizzy... shoulda been titled "Massacre of My Enemies" ahah

I see your point about feel in solos. I actually agree with that, I just wished they closed that track above with some fast licks instead of trying to go for the intertwined arrangement. "Black Rose (Roisin Dubh)" is not something that can be easily achieved eheh But I respect them for trying to do something like that (with the recurring theme and everything).

I just saw on Discogs and Amazon that their CD's became quite rare and expensive :(

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Cool track too! It marches along like early ManOwaR... It's as if "Blood of My Enemies" by ManOwaR met "Massacre" by Thin Lizzy... shoulda been titled "Massacre of My Enemies" ahah

I see your point about feel in solos. I actually agree with that, I just wished they closed that track above with some fast licks instead of trying to go for the intertwined arrangement. "Black Rose (Roisin Dubh)" is not something that can be easily achieved eheh But I respect them for trying to do something like that (with the recurring theme and everything).

I just saw on Discogs and Amazon that their CD's became quite rare and expensive [emoji20]

 

Traveller is a concept album with a sci-fi narrative, so those recurring themes help to reinforce that narrative. They've never been a hugely solo oriented band with more emphasis on riffs and lead melodies, and that's okay with me. As much as I love a good solo, riffs and leads are more important for me. Their best albums are more rare these days, I was really lucky to snag Twilight of the Idols, Down Among the Deadmen, and Traveller used for $6/each from the same record store a few years ago. It's unfortunate that more rarities don't pop up that way, or seem to keep up with the demand for a timely reissue.

 

Sent from my HTC6535LVW using Tapatalk

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 months later...

I'm telling anyone who will listen (and many who will not) that I'm attending a Manowar tribute show this Saturday at a small local venue. I'm really excited about it. They're playing the entire 'Fighting the World' album to celebrate its 30th anniversary - it's one of my favourite albums of theirs. Even if this band sucks, the fact that they'll be cranking through Manowar songs while I get sauced on manly beers means it will be a good night. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm telling anyone who will listen (and many who will not) that I'm attending a Manowar tribute show this Saturday at a small local venue. I'm really excited about it. They're playing the entire 'Fighting the World' album to celebrate its 30th anniversary - it's one of my favourite albums of theirs. Even if this band sucks, the fact that they'll be cranking through Manowar songs while I get sauced on manly beers means it will be a good night. 

 

I don't have that album, but it is from Manowar in their prime (80's). Sounds like it could be fun. Too bad I'm on the other side of the world.

 

Sent from my HTC6535LVW using Tapatalk

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, BlutAusNerd said:

 

I don't have that album, but it is from Manowar in their prime (80's). Sounds like it could be fun. Too bad I'm on the other side of the world.

 

Yeah, True Belief turned me down like a virgin at a prom after-party about going, so if you were here we could go, praise heavy metal and argue over about how At the Gates and Sentenced finally got good around 1995.... 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

5 hours ago, BlutAusNerd said:  

 

I don't have that album, but it is from Manowar in their prime (80's). Sounds like it could be fun. Too bad I'm on the other side of the world.

 

 

 

 

Yeah, True Belief turned me down like a virgin at a prom after-party about going, so if you were here we could go, praise heavy metal and argue over about how At the Gates and Sentenced finally got good around 1995.... 

 

 

 

 

What's there to argue? Both bands died in a fire around that time, and were never heard from again... ?

 

 

Sent from my HTC6535LVW using Tapatalk

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, FatherAlabaster said:

So you'll drive each other around all hours "listening to music together" but he still doesn't want to be seen in public with you? Hmmm.

That's a very suspicious use of quotation marks there... 

He has just started a new job so is really busy. I'm sure he'll call when things settle down. Right..? Right???

I'll just have to make some more friends at the Manowar show. I'm sure everyone who attends a Manowar covers band gig in a tiny bar in suburban Melbourne is going to be really down to earth with their head screwed on properly. Right? Right???

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.


  • Join Metal Forum

    joinus-home.jpg

  • Our picks

    • Whichever tier of thrash metal you consigned Sacred Reich back in the 80's/90's they still had their moments.  "Ignorance" & "Surf Nicaragura" did a great job of establishing the band, whereas "The American Way" just got a little to comfortable and accessible (the title track grates nowadays) for my ears.  A couple more records better left forgotten about and then nothing for twenty three years.  2019 alone has now seen three releases from Phil Rind and co.  A live EP, a split EP with Iron Reagan and now a full length.

      Notable addition to the ranks for the current throng of releases is former Machine Head sticksman, Dave McClean.  Love or hate Machine Head, McClean is a more than capable drummer and his presence here is felt from the off with the opening and title track kicking things off with some real gusto.  'Divide & Conquer' and 'Salvation' muddle along nicely, never quite reaching any quality that would make my balls tingle but comfortable enough.  The looming build to 'Manifest Reality' delivers a real punch when the song starts proper.  Frenzied riffs and drums with shots of lead work to hold the interest.


      There's a problem already though (I know, I am such a fucking mood hoover).  I don't like Phil's vocals.  I never had if I am being honest.  The aggression to them seems a little forced even when they are at their best on tracks like 'Manifest Reality'.  When he tries to sing it just feels weak though ('Salvation') and tracks lose real punch.  Give him a riffy number such as 'Killing Machine' and he is fine with the Reich engine (probably a poor choice of phrase) up in sixth gear.  For every thrashy riff there's a fair share of rock edged, local bar act rhythm aplenty too.

      Let's not poo-poo proceedings though, because overall I actually enjoy "Awakening".  It is stacked full of catchy riffs that are sticky on the old ears.  Whilst not as raw as perhaps the - brilliant - artwork suggests with its black and white, tattoo flash sheet style design it is enjoyable enough.  Yes, 'Death Valley' & 'Something to Believe' have no place here, saved only by Arnett and Radziwill's lead work but 'Revolution' is a fucking 80's thrash heyday throwback to the extent that if you turn the TV on during it you might catch a new episode of Cheers!

      3/5
      • Reputation Points

      • 10 replies
    • I
      • Reputation Points

      • 2 replies
    • https://www.metalforum.com/blogs/entry/52-vltimas-something-wicked-marches-in/
      • Reputation Points

      • 3 replies

    • https://www.metalforum.com/blogs/entry/48-candlemass-the-door-to-doom/
      • Reputation Points

      • 2 replies
    • Full length number 19 from overkill certainly makes a splash in the energy stakes, I mean there's some modern thrash bands that are a good two decades younger than Overkill who can only hope to achieve the levels of spunk that New Jersey's finest produce here.  That in itself is an achievement, for a band of Overkill's stature and reputation to be able to still sound relevant four decades into their career is no mean feat.  Even in the albums weaker moments it never gets redundant and the energy levels remain high.  There's a real sense of a band in a state of some renewed vigour, helped in no small part by the addition of Jason Bittner on drums.  The former Flotsam & Jetsam skinsman is nothing short of superb throughout "The Wings of War" and seems to have squeezed a little extra out of the rest of his peers.

      The album kicks of with a great build to opening track "Last Man Standing" and for the first 4 tracks of the album the Overkill crew stomp, bash and groove their way to a solid level of consistency.  The lead work is of particular note and Blitz sounds as sneery and scathing as ever.  The album is well produced and mixed too with all parts of the thrash machine audible as the five piece hammer away at your skull with the usual blend of chugging riffs and infectious anthems.  


      There are weak moments as mentioned but they are more a victim of how good the strong tracks are.  In it's own right "Distortion" is a solid enough - if not slightly varied a journey from the last offering - but it just doesn't stand up well against a "Bat Shit Crazy" or a "Head of a Pin".  As the album draws to a close you get the increasing impression that the last few tracks are rescued really by some great solos and stomping skin work which is a shame because trimming of a couple of tracks may have made this less obvious. 

      4/5
      • Reputation Points

      • 4 replies
×
×
  • Create New...