Head of the Deceiver

When I think of heavy metal the first thing comes to mind isn't Manowar, believe it or not, it's this album. Probably one of the most intriguing and satisfying things in heavy metal's short history are Wizard's 2001 and 2003 releases; if you were to want to define what true, perfectly versatile, captivating, original & capable modern underground heavy metal was to someone who was metal illiterate, this would be the album you'd want to give them.

The sparse availability of this album is one of life's truly tragic tales - I was looking for it for a good long while until it very recently became available in what I imagine is a short supply from a regular power-seller on eBay.

This is one of those albums where you don't skip a track, in fact you don't dare try it for fear of being jolted with nine million volts of electricity for even daring to attempt to push the "Skip" button on your CD player. It is something you have to respect like raw aqueous nitroglycerine - it is truly explosive in the most veritable sense of that word, in my opinion one of the greatest (and definitely close to being the most underrated) heavy metal albums of all time.

"We are here to raise some hell - to wake the dead", truer words have never been spoken. One could only stare in awe as this album blasts fire through huge woofers into an ancient cemetery and the rotten warriors rise from their tombs just to hear this insane sound, wondering why their time had to come before 2001.

Take everything that's great about Manowar, Judas Priest and Rage (GER) and you have Wizard, I don't know what the fuck they were ingesting to make this album but if other metal bands in this vein could write music that were 10% as good as this then metal would no longer be ignored by the mainstream.

Someone in another review mentioned imagining that the guitar strings were on fire - very good observation. Not only do the guitars sound heavy, crunchy and technically sound - EVERYTHING does. Everything is as tight for this genre of music as Cannibal Corpse is as tight for death metal. You'll be lucky if your sound system or spinal cord make it through this one intact.

"I'm the calm in the center of the storm - the steady axis in this dance of death" You will feel a surge of pride in your chest when you hear "Calm of the Storm" one of the greatest heavy metal songs ever written; nevermind what will happen when you hear "True Metal".

In conclusion, if you like Manowar, then you need this album. In fact it really depends because it will make you want to throw out all of your Manowar albums in anger, that's how good this is. This album really should come with a warning label on it as I believe that hearing it alone is enough to make wimps and poseurs drop dead upon auditory contact.