Manowar should bear in mind, that if they repeat certain words over and over again those words apparently lose their power. Steel, honor, glory, metal, it's all been said.

I'm not going to disagree with the majority here. The new record sucks. And I'm a huge Manowar fan. Maybe it's better than Gods of War, I don't know. I'm not propably going to listen this record ever again.

Well, I read MA reviews before getting most of my new albums, so I thought, "Oh, it can't be as bad as everyone says it is..."

It is. Honestly, though, it doesn't seem to be a special kind of bad (anyone who's ever listened to Upon the Crimson River knows EXACTLY what I mean there), just your regular bad latter-day Manowar album with stupidly simplistic drumming, no riffs, mindless shredding for solos (precisely what Manowar doesn't need), neutered vocals, and THAT FUCKING BASS SOUND. But, yeah, not memorably bad, just regular bad.

The new version is an improvement production wise for sure, but it's still a pretty lackluster album. Somehow I hope they heard the criticisms they've been getting and actually work on improving it next time around, who knows we might actually get a good album.

I do have to say this though, while he may get a lot of criticism, Karl Logan absolutely owns the leads on this album.

Logan is a fantastic lead player and has a very great guitar tone, but his weakness is his lack of contribution to the song writing. Ross the Boss could write music; Logan writes very little for Manowar. Actually Joey DeMaio controls just about everything.

And by the way, Joey has stated many times that he pays absolutely no attention to any criticism. He thinks that everything he does is perfect and he won't spend one second of his time considering a dissenting point of view, even when it comes from his most diehard followers.

Joey DeMaio once said that anyone who doesn't like every single song that Manowar has written can go fuck themselves.

Hahaha I was listening to Manowarriors and fuck, it's probably the best lyrics in metal ever! Here's a little paste from it:

Kings of metal
Loudest in the land
Never gonna change our style
Gonna play tonight for quite a while
In heavy metal we believe
If you don’t like it time to leave
Manowarriors raise your hands
We fight for metal
Manowarriors raise your hands
Our fight is real
We do just what we feel
Sons of steel
We come from different countries
With metal and with might
We drink a lot of beers
And play our metal loud at night
Fly the flag of metal
Brothers all the same
Born to live for metal

Fine lyrics, but they could program an app to write this stuff. Notice the repetitive phrases that come up in other songs of theirs'. Like every aspect of this record, there doesn't seem to be much effort put into making them special.

wHaha I was thinking the exact same thing. Manowapp Of Steel!!!!!!!!

But it's too late to change their lyrical message now. They've been doing this for 30 years and they're still sticking to their story. If they change their basic message now after all this time they'd lose a lot of good fans.

I question your measurement of "good fans" if the message for such people trumps the musical quality, which for the past +20 years has been well below "good".

That said, they were capable on occasion of lyrics beyond WARRIOR BROTHERS OF STEEL BY MY SWORD OF METAL BLOOD.

"Guyana (Cult of the Damned)" would be a good example.

Yeah. That actually happened some time ago.

Their first four records are imperfect but still great metal classics. The next two may be less historically significant but they were great too.

Then it all went downhill after that. Numerous lineup changes, polishing their sound (to the point of neutering genuine energy) more and more, worrying more about style instead of substance in the actual music.

It's not surprising. Few bands can maintain the same standards over 30+ year. Things change, people too.

Good for them if this generic shit still sells well enough, but I'm not interested.

just thought I'd pipe up and go "what about warriors??". Everyone fellates the first four which is totally valid, but man, a few bad ballads aside warriors of the world was an awesome album. It's really fun to listen too! Good production and adams sounds great!

[quote="OzzyApu]I question your measurement of "good fans" if the message for such people trumps the musical quality, which for the past +20 years has been well below "good".[/quote]

Yeah, stuff like this perplexes me. But hey why actually listen to albums when you can all join the bandwagon, right? Well below good, what the hell.

Lord of steel did suck though, and I have given it numerous chances.

I'm not saying that it trumps the musical quality. I'm a HUGE Manowar fan and I'd say at least 85% of my love for the band has nothing to do with lyrics. I'm just saying that I also support their overall message and subscribe to it.

Warriors of the World, to me, illustrates perfectly the decline of Manowar. Louder Than Hell had been their shittiest album ever and they follow it with Warriors of the World, which is basically Louder Than Hell: Part 2.

Sterile production, formulaic songs. It's basically when Manowar acknowledging they are now an insipid power metal band when they were so much more before.

The main thing it has going for it today is that it's not as laughable as what they've done since.

Manowar have a message in their music?!

You see, there was this kid named heavymetalbackwards/lippyassmajor who could have explained it to you. You should search some of his threads up (any manowar one will do). Probably the funniest stuff you'll read in the last couple of years here.

Oh yeah, the Erectile_Projectile guy! I get what you mean

Of course. Isn't it clear? They've been preaching the same basic message since they started. That message is basically as follows: Believe in the power of metal, play seriously and from the heart because the passion for the music is more important than the wallet, and stay true to yourself and true to heavy metal.

You see Emerald..... I don't think that message is nearly as powerful when your last five albums or so are pretty much rehashed versions of the same thing. It even has come to the point where the lyrics themselves sound phoned in and dishonest, but hey, what else can you expect from a guy like DeMaio, who believes everything he shits out to be diamonds covered in gold and silver and doesn't listen to any criticism whatsoever?

Well you know, once a band has let out all their passions and creativities it's difficult to continue to stay fresh while still continuing to preach the same message. That's one of the reasons why Ross the Boss decided to leave in 1988. He felt that the band had run its course.

But if they decide to change their message now, they'd lose all the loyal fans who have been sticking with them for all of these years.