Manowar - Hail to England (1984) Reviews
Look, I know that ManOwaR is a polarizing band, but I've never understood why. Eric Adams is right there with Halford, Dio, and Dickinson in the realm of mind blowing lead singers. Scott Columbus is a barbaric cannon of a drummer that suits the whole ManOwaR theme to the T. Ross the Boss can shred the paint off the walls, but he can also write catchy battle riffs, and Joey DiMaio is simply the fuckin' man on the bass. I truly believe people that hate ManOwaR just hate fun, and want everything to be sinister and serious all the time. Yes, ManOwaR are incredibly fucking cheesy-that's the point!
I read the other reviews for this album, and I thought it was odd that people were sighting the production (or lack thereof) as a negative, as some of those people champion some of the rawest black metal albums made. "The bass is too far forward in the mix". No it's fucking perfect. It's the thunder of the Heavy Metal army marging into battle! I am a sucker for the kind of cliches and cheese ManOwaR leans so heavily into; Metal as an Army, Battle Hymns, Barbarians, Swords, The Riddle of Steel. I love all of that shit! I think the production on this album actually makes it ManOwaR's heaviest offering.
Then you have the frosting on the epic cake this album is: "Bridge of Death".
The story of Bridge of Death is about a man who goes down into hell itself and walks across the titular bridge to confront the Horned one himself, not to fight him, but to become the most powerful demon in the universe. It's fucking awesome! I cap all of my workouts with this song, because when you're very tired the opening is slow and lets you catch your breath and summon strength for that final confrontation-that final set.
If nothing else you need to hear that track. The whole album is fantastic, but Bridge of Death is just a whole other level of kick ass.
Many stand against us, but they will never win! 5/5
This is a good record, I don't really know Manowar too well. Know them really only for their man yelling at clouds album covers, it's a joke but many of their album covers have the shirtless guy about to go on a raid or something. I know these guys as the epic battle hymns to pump you up to go to war. Hail To England is no different. This has all that but as I have read and agree with, my listen to this record really had a weaker production then I would have liked and the song writing doesn't quite hit to where I expect the potential is there. I love a good war anthem, and after listening to this album a few times and have a good time it's not really all that memorable. It does start of solid with a great intro of Blood Of My Enemies but then the song slows down where It could be a heady hitter, even though I enjoy the chorus it just again feels like lack of potential and needs a bit more power to it. This may be the best of the "US Power Metal" albums that I've listened to because there is some very catchy choruses amongst the lack of true powerful feeling that I would want from a record like this. I do feel the production has more to do it, because I can tell they are playing their instruments well and the singing is good but also in the mix it just feels muddy and nothing really gets to shine even when I'm enjoying my catchier chorus that I do sing-along to and get stuck in my head.
I have never fully understood the draw of Manowar. In fact I had (until today) always found their records to lack some degree of punch and power, certainly considering all their puffed up posturing at least. Whether it is an increase in tolerance levels with age or just the fact that I have been a dick all of these years and am finally coming round is open to interpretation, the fact is that despite half convincing myself I wasn't going to enjoy Hail to England I actually got on quite well with it.
Yes, it is still far too pompous and overbearing for me to all of a sudden be calling myself a fan of theirs, but I was actually impressed by the lead work of Ross on this album and although on more than one occasion my finger strayed dangerously close to the skip button I never once pressed it when Adams' vocals started to grate. As most tracks got going there was a mental note to self that read something along the lines of "this is not going to get played through to the end", however a full thirty three minutes was heard.
There's a consistency here that you can't fight. The album does exactly what it says on the tin. Sticks out it's chest, pulls back the shoulders and charges headlong into battle, raising epic tunes as it goes. Considering this was released in 1984 it is a surprisingly full sounding record that is not afraid to do a fair share of shredding to entertain the listener. On sheer lack of fucks to give rating the album gets five stars all day. It goes too far on Black Arrows though, coming off as a poor man's Eddie Van Halen (although I applaud the effort), but it does right itself with Bridge of Death to close things strongly.
Taking it that everyday is a school day and you're never too old to click with a band you'd long since given up on I will chalk today as being a good day.
I've never been a huge fan of Manowar: I appreciate the epic approach, especially in the early days of metal, but you really have to be in the right mood for the cheese factor, and I often find their sound lacking in real punch and meatiness. On this one however, I can't deny how effective it is.
Right from the first track, Manowar establish exactly what they're all about with "Blood of My Enemy" - vocals full of epic wails and cries, lyrics to ride down your foes to, and steady, pounding rhythms acting as a march into those battles. The riffing is simple but effective, and this whole style feels like it's laying the groundwork for the epic Viking metal Bathory would do so well with in their later career, as well as many other more modern bands that owe their origins to this.
That sort of steady, striding beat forms the backbone of music tracks on Hail to England, always accented with wild, manic vocals, galloping percussion and perfect pacing. "Each Dawn I Die" and "Army of the Immortals" make good use of delicious, rumbling bass behind it all, all just demanding you join in, while "Kill With Power" is indeed full of power as well as thrashy riffing.
The only real misstep of the album is in "Black Arrows", an interlude of sorts that begins as a spoken word declaration against false metal, then follows with the eruption of a bizarre, frantic solo. The solo itself just sort of wanks around for a few minutes, and it ends up sounding like a parody of metal more than anything, something I'd expect to hear on Metalocalypse or Aqua Teen Hunger Force. Granted, this is long before those shows existed, but This Is Spinal Tap was right around the corner when this album came out, so the notion of poking fun at this sort of thing was certainly around.
Some these days might expect something with a fuller sound from "epic metal", fleshed out with all sorts of symphonics and extra parts. But there's something refreshing in how this whole style got started, still full of pomp and glory, but utilising just the core of heavy metal music to do it. Yes, you need to be in the right mood for this kind of true metal glory, but when you are, there's really nothing quite like it.
Choice cuts: Blood of My Enemy, Each Dawn I Die, Army of the Immortals, Kill With Power
The first two studio records from the polarizing New York epic metal institution known as Manowar connected with me on varying levels. 1982's debut album “Battle Hymns” presented a fresh & original take on the traditional heavy sound & their can be no denying the huge influence it had on the future direction of the epic metal subgenre. Its highlights were certainly worthy of as many fists as you can muster however I've never had any qualms about claiming it to be an inconsistent record with its losses being just as poor as its highlights were impressive. Overall though, the B side bestowed enough metal glory on its listeners to overcome the obvious flaws of the A sides less ambitious & predominantly rockier material. 1983’s follow-up album “Into Glory Ride” saw the classic Manowar line-up coming together for the first time following the arrival of drummer Scott Colombus & the result was a much more focused, dark & doomy sound that really got under my skin. That’s not to say that it was a perfect record as it still possessed a blemish or two but it showcased a more mature band which seemed to possess a greater understanding of what they were trying to achieve & this new version of Manowar sat very well with me indeed.
And now that brings us to 1984 where Manowar looked to consolidate on the strength of their early works & some lengthy & arduous touring schedules by releasing not one but TWO new albums & these would go on to be known as the two that would define Manowar’s career right up until the current day. But the subject of this review is the first of those two; the band’s piece-de-resistance… the epic “Hail To England” album. It’s interesting that the band chose to name the record in such a way given that they’re a US band but supposedly this was for a couple of reasons. 1. They wanted the title to acknowledge the role that the English played in both the creation & the continued expansion of the heavy metal genre & 2. They were looking to cash in on the fact that Manowar was much more popular in Europe than they were in their native America. Hhhmmmm…. That all sounds like a bit of a wank to me. I’ve always felt that for all their true metal/death to false metal posturing, Joey DeMaio & co never let their eyes drift from their commercial & egotistical ambitions for too long. The cover artwork the adorns “Hail To England” was certainly the band’s best effort to date though & I think that definitely added to the products appeal. It displays a colourful image of a proud warrior in the midst of an epic battle with bloody sword in one hand & the English flag in the other. It’s a much more convincing & mature image than the band’s previous efforts & it definitely suits the Manowar sound & image much more comfortably than their cheap & (at times) embarrassing earlier efforts.
It’s a very short album clocking in at just over 33 minutes & including only the seven tracks. The more drawn-out & lengthy compositions we saw on “Into Glory Ride” have been replaced by shorter & more accessible songs that require a bit less patience to take in & I think this is a strong contributor in the album’s wider appeal. Only closing number “Bridge Of Death” can be regarded as lengthy as it clocks in at almost nine minutes. When you first press play on “Hail To England” you should prepare yourself for a shock though because the production job is very strange indeed. In fact I’d go so far as to label it as horrible! The rhythm guitars are almost completely lost in the mix while the bass guitar is all the way out front & the drums seem almost detached from the rest of the instruments with an annoyingly big snare sound. There’s this big gap where the rhythm guitars should be & when Ross The Boss comes in with his solos they cut through the mix really well due to the lack of competition which makes them sound really good but overall I have to say that I find this production to create a substantial obstacle for me to overcome if I’m going to enjoy this album. Vocalist Eric Adams is in fine form as usual & he sounds really good here with an emotive & over-the-top performance & I do think that we get Ross’s best work from a lead guitar point of view but Joey DeMaio & Scott Columbus’s rhythm section tend to keep things very basic & given how far out the front they sit in the mix I feel that they needed to contribute more than this if the album was going to recover from the lack of rhythm guitars.
But that’s not the only issue with the guitars. The other is the noticeable lack of riffs! They seem to have gone missing for the most part with the band preferring to go with simple galloping power chords to accompany the vocal hooks which in effect makes for a more commercially accessible feel that I would imagine has contributed further to the appeal of the album. Manowar really haven’t tried anything majorly different here. This is pretty much a summary of everything they’ve done to date. We get faster thrashier numbers like “Kill With Power”, epic battle numbers like “Hail To England”, “Bridge Of Death” & “Blood Of My Enemies” & the obligatory Joey DeMaio bass solo piece in “Black Arrows” which is once again the low point of the album. He honestly has no idea of just how poor he sounds on these complete wank-fests. He sacrifices all precision & technique in the hope that the listener will appreciate how fast me can play but I don’t there’s too much doubt that most top level guitarists can play that fast if they forget about doing it cleanly. Interestingly enough, there’s a fair bit more cheese about this album than there was on “Into Glory Ride” & it’s starting to become clear that Manowar fans consider this to be one of the band’s drawcards while someone like myself who struggles with cheese is always going to recoil from it. This increase in cheese is almost certainly the reason that many critics claim “Hail To England” as Manowar’s first US power metal album too. I can’t say that it’s very different to their other releases though so this doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. I can actually see merit in claiming all three Manowar albums as US power metal to be honest but if you do that you’re pretty much making the epic metal term redundant because it doesn’t get much more epic metal than this.
Overall, I’d have to say that "Hail To England" had some potential but it’s hard to say just how much as I simply can’t get past the awful production. Of the seven tracks on offer I only enjoy three so even though a majority of Manowar fans consider this to be the band’s best work, I find it to be comfortably the weakest of their first three records.