I just have to ask, WHERE IS THE SCOTT COLUMBUS TRIBUTE????????
I mean, I know at the time of his death, he had left the band. But of all their drummers, he served them the longest and the best and if Joey is the essence of truth and justice and honour and godliness and all that racket, Scott should be honoured!

Manowar had a great album?

Yup, Battle Hymns. Everything else is strictly in the 'fun but not really substantial' category though...

What heavy metal have you been listening to where this equals to decent? The album sucks and no amount of changed production will take away from the music sucking.

Nah, it'll help a little. It'll suck ever so slightly less. After all, we can assume production quality and songwriting quality are both independent of each other. Yet since there are cases of well-written albums with bad production being hurt overall due to the latter, we can also assume both elements contribute to an album's quality. Now, you'll never have a good album with zero songwriting and amazing production, just as you'll never have a good album with great songwriting but production so terrible you can't discern any of it.

Therefore, if songwriting is held equally terrible but production is made less terrible, the album on the whole will be made slightly better. Not good, but better.

God help me, I'm engaging in a Manowar debate...

How can Triumph of Steel not be considered substantial in their catalogue? I think I'd listen to that as much as anything else they put out.

So, the new version of the album is out.
I haven't listened to it yet, they said the thing would be loaded with surprises or something like that, but so far it only has one new song called The Kingdom of Steel. A few more days until the retail version is out; the album cover is great but it should belong to a better album with a better title.

I listened to about three songs from it, it still sounds like Guitar Pro, just more muffled and less egregious. There were some new random screams added in "Manowarriors" but that's about as far as I got. The sound is slightly better, but it doesn't make the songs less shitty.

He really does think he's the king of spin, doesn't he? Have a listen to this interview with him:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1r50ZPlTu0o

How and where did he get it into his head that he's good at it? I can literally smell the bullshit from the other side of the world. On one hand he sits there spouting rehearsed line after line about how fantastic his fans are, and on the other he insults them by expecting them to believe such a load of garbage? Doesn't help that the interviewer sucks right up to him, either.

Joey is one of those guys that needs to have his ego absolutely SHATTERED. I love their music (even up to some stuff on the last album) but I have some well and truly Frank Grimes-esque moments when I read/listen to Demaio.

Some guy on youtube did a home recording of a bass part from the new album to show how heavy it should have been, sent it to Manowar and got a cease and desist letter from their label.

Wow, that's..... Pretty harsh. I knew Joey was kind of an asshole, but not to THAT degree.....

I'll listen to the new version at some stage to see if there are any substantial changes.

One specific criticism I have is of the title track, which to me is easily the strongest on the album. It's just begging for Eric to pull some higher register screams at the end, though. Instead it just kind of plods through the same vocal pattern a few times, when it could go "The Lord of STAAAAAAAAAAAL!" in the vein of the end of "Call to Arms".

What is the source of this information ?

Speaking about that interview, I am yet to hear anything new in it. Same old bragging about sound and fans. I have no clue how the loyal fans accepted the "Hammer Edition", but it is the sound / production where they are failing in recent times.

Yeah, there's nothing new in the interview. But that was kinda my point - maybe my fuckwit radar is too sensitive, but there's something really fucking annoying about the way he acts.

I don't understand Manowar's decision to release the "Hammer Edition" at all. Aside from making some quick cash from Metal Hammer magazine, it's such a stupid business decision. Why would a band who act like they only release the highest-quality music release an inferior version of their new album first, only to offer a better version of it to their fans later? Not only did the "Hammer Edition" have lame generic cover art, but it had an inferior mix, and it's even missing a song.

To make matters worse, by doing this...they've created a negative buzz about their new album from many of their fans who thought the recording was sub-par and so was the whole package. Because of their decision there are now a ton of bad reviews about the "Hammer Edition", and I'm sure many people will have written off the album and will not check out the new edition.

The icing on the cake is that many hardcore Manowar fans who purchased the Hammer Edition will now have to re-buy the album a 2nd time because now it's being offered with real cover art, a better mix, and an 11th song. It's a bullshit move from a band that acts like the would never fuck over their fans. Not only have they fucked over their fans, but they fucked themselves over as well.

Because they saw the incredible backlash and tried to make a quick buck off of apologetically pasting together a second version? (I didn't say anyone in the Manowar camp was clever...)

Further supporting the random song title generator theory. Cool cover though.
Maybe their next album will be called The Glory Of Thunder? Or Hail The Kingdom? I'm just dying in anticipation.

Ah, but Manowar didn't think it was inferior until the entire metal-listening part of the internet put shit on it! The only intended difference between the two versions was the artwork, I'm sure of it. The fact that there's only one extra song (and a real stinker at that) on the "real" album points pretty solidly to how much they fell over themselves pretending this was the plan all along. For a band that "gives fucking everything of the fucking highest motherfucking quality to their fucking fans", just one piddly extra song seems a little...rushed, don't you think?

Now that's a dickish move, and I can see Manowar doing that kind of stuff. They can't take criticism, something which is also proven on their YouTube channel: every video there has disabled comments.

On the new album: the new artwork looks really good! I doubt the music will be anywhere as good as the art, but I'll be able to decide that in two weeks... I ordered the album, but it can't be really good.

I'm listening to the final version of the album, and it's 100 times better than the Hammer Edition. It's amazing how much a difference the recording process makes. If there's one thing Manowar knows how to do well, it's perfect quality sound. I mean, their sound man is Dawk, the legendary man who created Deep Purple's gear, as well as many other bands. If you listen to the new version and don't like the sound quality, your ears fail at everything.

Okay, I'm listening to the final cut now and it has improved to some extent. Am I still allowed to think that the writing is bland?

Sure, if that's what you think it's your opinion. I'm a sound purist, and I care deeply about good quality sound. If there's something that annoys my ears I am very vocal about how annoying it is, regardless of the talent it takes to play or the complexity of the song writing. Such as most death/black metal bands.

As a Manowar fan since i first heard Battlehymn on the dutch radioshow Vara's Vuurwerk,in the late '80's,and later heard the entire Kings of metal album,this latest
album is the only one i truly despise. Though i will probably end up buying it anyway. haha. I listened all tracks on Youtube some months ago and the sound and the vocals are just terrible.
The songs as well ofcourse. No imagination,no epicness,nothing. Has it become that impossible for Manowar (Joey inc.?) to write even one or two songs that will hold up to their '80's material.
This is the first album where i have the feeling the band just thought,"we just put something together in 2-3 days including composing and studio time to get it over with,no matter what,the fans will buy it blindly anyway". What a disappointment.

And i'm just one of those stupid fans that will buy the cd after all,i'm afraid. I'm going to see Manowar the 19th this month by the way. Curious if they sell their cd's for 20 euro's
again like a year/2 years or so ago. A euro is some 1,26 dollars so you know that this is a absurd price. Joey the Jew would be a better name for him these days. Even the guy at the
merchandise stand was embarassed and told us to better buy it somewhere else. The show/playlist was excellent i must admit,with a load of old stuff. Hopefully they will repeat it
next week with not too much newer material.

I love the new version. Better sound and although the songs are not the best they have done, I will still own it on vinyl.

You mean this guy right? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnmgOK1H ... plpp_video

Anyway this guy has some good points but I think he's kind of an asshole especially since he constantly bashes Stratovarius, a great band.

His version is better, but it does not make it any good. Compressed as hell with some audible clipping.

Any Stratovarious bashing is only for the benefit of metal.

Disagree completely. Stratovarius is a band with power and melody, something lacking in a lot of today's metal.

I'm just gonna say this; Stratovarius would be awesome if not for Timo Kotipelto. That guy has one of the flattest, most boring and terribly inconsequential vocals to ever pollute power metal.

Nah, Koltipelto is good. Distinct tone, a great ear for melody and hooks and nobody else sounds like him really. He's a polarizing singer but I really like him, and at least 3 or 4 Stratovarius albums are absolutely great. Lots of people only hear their really bad stuff from the mid 2000s and judge them on that.

Oh, I do think Stratovarius have written some seriously great music, Emp. It's just that I can't stand Kotipelto. I we're gonna talk about Finnish power metal vocalists, then I'd say that Tony Kakko can easily sing circles around him, but hey, colours and tastes, eh?

Admittedly, I have not listened to a whole lot of their music, but I do know that the few times they were being spun around me I could hear power, melody, harmony, and straight forward heaviness. I think older Strato is what I was listening to.

Well i saw Manowar yesterday. The new cd was just officially released the 19th. It was sold for 15,-,so i guess that is relatively fair. T-shirts costed 30 euro's,which i find
quite expensive. Manowar condoms for 5. and god knows what else those leatherboys sold. I don't wanna know. LOL.

The show was,well,ok i guess. Not as good as the last one where they played the complete Battlehymns album. Now they played 5(!!) songs off the Lord of Steel
album. Way too much as the gap in quality between those boring compositions and the far superior older material was instantly hearable. Hail,kill and die was
ok for a live setting but a bit later on they played 3 in a row (El gringo,Expendable and Touch the sky) which ruined the set halfway thru. Especially since knocking out a
few Louder than Hell tracks before and after,which are also more rock and average. Manowarriors was the last off of the new one. I didn't buy the new cd. I'll wait 'till it's
sold for 10 or less bucks in a year or so. On a plus i must say that Eric Adams was in great form and had no probs with clear vocals. So why they use just his gruff voice
on their latest and worst album is beyond me. They played Mountains,which was a suprise i believe. I can't remember if they played that the last time. No Battlehymn though,
which is a real let down. That song is like Maiden's Number of the beast and should always be played. ALWAYS!! Grr. They did play hail and kill luckily.
See if i can come up with the whole setlist. I saw a swedish and a french flag and there were ofcourse germans and belgians since their borders are just around the corner
here in the south of the Netherlands. We just had to drive a good half hour and were there.

As a live band Manowar certainly,no,absolutely,has a right to exist...if they would just back it up with better albums. It cannot be THAT impossible to come up with
some epic tracks like on "Into glory ride" or straight ahead metal tracks like Hail and kill,each dawn i die etc... I just don't get it. Is their (limited,after all) reservoir completely dried up...drained?

Edit. Found this on youtube. "Mountains". From yesterday.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxcXqHc2V-A

The two Stratovarius albums without Tolkki have been absolutely amazing to the point where I really don't care about the stuff they put out when he was still in the band. That said, I've only heard Elements Part 1 and that was more than I could handle.

Also, am I the only one who thinks Gods Of War is still the weakest Manowar album? The Lord of Steel is very flawed but its back to basics approach was the right idea after Gods of War's tired symphonic overload...

How did we derail from Manowar to Stratovarius, of all bands? lol. 'kay, real quick, then: Kotipelto is the prototypical Kiske clone; Strato's classic era, style wise at least (from 'Twilight Time' to 'Infinite') is very straightforward Keepers-era Helloween worship, only without the goofy, lively elements; it's an incredibly repetitive, predictable, uninspired, booooring soft-ass EuroPM band that did the same album, with the same songs, riffs, structures, verses, choruses and hooks at the exact same plodding pace over and over and over again, and inspired legions of depressingly wimpy and shallow bands to do the same. I'd rather rock out to even Manowar's new album.

@AuditaTremendi: Thanks for the fun live review and link. 'Louder Than Hell' tracks should get along really well with the new album's tracks, since the former was clearly the template for the latter.

No, you're not. I'm totally with you, as were many fans. I was so saddened and disheartened by that album; it was probably the biggest disappointment next to St. Anger for me personally.

Joey DeMaio wanted to write an orchestral album because he worships and idolizes Richard Wagner. The thing is, he's not Wagner and he'll never be close to being him. So not only did it fail as a Manowar album due to the change of style, but it also failed as a symphonic album.

He also wanted to write an orchestral album and did it with crappy synths, a drum computer and neutered guitars (not to mention songs that go nowhere), but at least Adams sounded awake/alive, so it's really hard for me to say that Gods of War is more of a staggering failure than The Lord of Steel.

Huh...that's odd because one of the main problems I had with GOW was Eric's vocals. He sounded aged, lifeless, rusted, not even close to as vibrant as he used to sound back in the day.

I have to disagree here. I find Eric's vocals in Gods of War really outstanding, especially in Hymn of the Immortal Warriors. Of course he sounds older and more mature, so to say, than in Battle Hymns (Which is probably one of my favourite vocal performances ever).

Now, onto the new Lord of Steel, I have to say it's an improvement than the Hammer Edition. Not even close to being Manowar's best record, but at least they really nailed it with Touch The Sky, it just sounds so Manowar.
Overall it's a listenable album, but I'd rather have any other out of their discography anyday.

I think some of the lyrics are just fucking awful. One line goes "In the night, we take flights, witness the night, the power and glory of steel"

They're not giving me a good idea of this power and glory that they're talking about when they reference their "flights in the night". The worst part of being in a band is the airplane rides and all the fuss that goes on when trying to get on and off your planes...why bring attention to something like that?