Manowar - Gods of War
Another band that my son has asked me to listen to.
~~A bit of background~~
Apparently they are officially the Worlds loudest band and have played the worlds longest heavy metal concert....I got this info from Wikipedia before having a listen.....I was already ... Read review
A review by paulhanton on Gods Of War - Manowar August 20th, 2008
Author's product rating:
Originality
Lacking inspiration
Lyrics
Dire
Quality and consistency of tracks
One hit and lots of B-sides
How does it compare to the artist's other releases
Weak
Value for Money
Very Poor
Advantages:
Good instrumentally
Disadvantages:
Silly
Recommend to potential buyers:
no
Full review
Manowar - Gods of War
Another band that my son has asked me to listen to.
~~A bit of background~~ Apparently they are officially the Worlds loudest band and have played the worlds longest heavy metal concert....I got this info from Wikipedia before having a listen.....I was already thinking that they may not be for me.
They are heavy metal in the old style, and concentrate on the fantasy and war type songs, well look at the track listing and you will see what I mean.
The album was released in 2007 and has added to their 10 million plus sales worldwide (and I had never heard of them). I laughed somewhat trying to read the CD booklet which is in Norse type writing, and there is a Norse translation at the end of the booklet, pretentious mothers!!
~~~The Tracks~~~
1. Overture to the Hymn of the Immortal Warriors Think Wagner, Mahler, played on electric guitars, organ and drums with a bit of dramatic film opening music.....some choir backing, you got it, actually quite pleasant. 8/10.
2. The Ascension I cannot see much difference from the opening track, maybe a bit of 'bells and cymbals' thrown in, then we get a deep voiced narrative "He was baptised by Earth, air, water and fire......from darkness he rose up", oh my, by this stage I was laughing my socks off. 2/10.
3. King of Kings Then we get a vocal that sounds like it comes from Joseph's Technicolor dreamcoat, followed by racing heavy metal, not sure where the last track ends and this one starts, oh no, not for me unless it is for a laugh. 2/10.
4. Army of the Dead, Part I Short track...Benedictine Monks?, Odins Choir....please, enough, oh dear, I need to take my son for some therapy, really, apparently this lot have a big folowing in South America, what can I say? 1/10.
5. Sleipnir Horse hoofs galloping to start, with another deep voiced narrative, oh come on, this is getting embarrasing. The music that follows is good old heavy metal but still telling this mad story. 3/10.
6. Loki God of Fire Really great guitar riff start with manic drumming, reminds me a bit of Motorhead or Hawkwind, a song I actually like, 6/10.
7. Blood Brothers More Andrew Llyod Webber type start, oh no more, please. 1/10.
8. Overture to Odin By the time I listened to this I was getting tired, so the pleasant, almost classical start was refreshing, bit of violins, nice keyboards....ahh....trumpets? Oh I do like this, it is an overture, with hints of Tchaikovsky, 8/10.
9. The Blood of Odin More narrative 'He wears a golden helmet, a golden ring, by his side sits two wolves', no, no, no. 0/10.
10. Sons of Odin Boring, heavy metal opera, 1/10.
11. Glory Majesty Unity Oooo, thunder and lightening sound effects and more narrative, really, I am falling off my chair in laughter at this point, are these grandparents of tenacious D? 1/10.
12. Gods of War The title track, over 7 minutes of it, and it is good honest heavy metal again, fair enough, some really pretty special guitar playing, gets a bit silly toward the end again with more narrative, but a drun solo that is pretty special, for that reason it gets 7/10.
13. Army of the Dead, Part II Lol, Hammond organ start, choir backing, stop it now, I cannot contain myself, then a bit of what sounds like a Welsh choir. 2/10 (for amusement).
14. Odin Lots of guitars and drums, these are very accomplished musicians I must say, just a bit bonkers with it. Okay as a HM song. 5/10.
15. Hymn of the Immortal Warriors Pleasant beginning, very classical again, then a bizarre narrative followed by triumphant anthem like metal, getting a bit formulaic now. 2/10.
16. Die for Metal (Bonus Track) I actually like this, it is a bit of a metal send up, half decent if clichéd lyrics and great guitar and drums. 6/10.
~~~~Finally~~~~ Well, it is interesting and no doubt appeals to a lot of folk, hence their popularity and sales. Not really for me, too pretentious and much to funny in a 'They take themselves far too seriously' kind of way. I have had to tell my son that I like a lot of his stuff, but this is absolute dross absolute from tracks 1 and 8.
There is no doubting their musical ability and some of the playing is superb, it is just that I cannot take them seriously. I feel like I should have written 666 words, lol.
Advantages: Some great heavy metal songs. Disadvantages: Too many boring instrumentals. "Slepnir" intro is annoying.
Manowar's latest album, after a five year hiatus was met with mixed reactions. The first three tracks on the album are narratives and instrumentals, all three of which are not so much metal. At this point, the album was a huge disappointment. Track 4, "King of Kings" however, turns the album into a completely different direction; back to Manowar's roots; Heavy Metal. The tracks on the album oscillate between hard and fast, those "epic" songs that ... ...the album once, I found myself skipping most of the tracks, especially the instrumentals and narratives. The few great songs that appear on the album kept me coming back.
I would recomment any Manowar fan to go out and buy the album, but for new listeners, I would recomment listening to some of their older albums to show the absolute brilliance and talent that Manowar have. ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
This album is a powerful, Yet still achieves thier true metal sound. It is the first of many to come concept albums to be based around mytholgical gods, This one sets with "ODIN" (God of war) Manowar have done it again, 5 Years after the 2002 album "warriors of the world" they proved with this album that they are stil one of the best. Manowar are still one of the most under-rated bands out there, But with new material like this, They are sure to ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful
Album Reviews: Kerrang (Magazine) (p.47) - "[Y]ou can't deny their genius when it comes to crafting empowering anthems that seem to distil some distant heroic age."
Titles on disc 1
1.: Overture To The Hymn Of The Immortal Warriors
2.: Ascension
3.: King Of Kings
4.: Army Of The Dead Part I
5.: Sleipnir
6.: Loki God Of Fire
7.: Blood Brothers
8.: Overture To Odin
9.: Blood Of Odin
10.: Sons Of Odin
11.: Glory Majesty Unity
12.: Gods Of War
13.: Army Of The Dead Part II
14.: Odin
15.: Hymn Of The Immortal Warriors
16.: Die For Metal
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Listed on Ciao since : 07/03/2007
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