Manowar-Fighting the world, 1987

Venom's frontman Cronos once said "Manowar want you to believe that they come to your town riding on a fire breathing dragon". Actually Manowar were formed in New York by former Dictator's member Ross "the boss". The band sang about battles, dragons, warriors and similar topics. The early were rough at times for these guys. They landed an opening for Ted Nugent on their first, but were quickly kicked off as the Nuge thought that they were just too different. By 1987 the band was set to release it's fifth album and they were on their fifth record label. That doesn't sound like a good thing except that they were now on a major label. In late 1985 Manowar recorded a two song demo with songs that would eventually end up on this album and they began shopping the demo around looking for a new label. Eventually Atlantic affiliate Atco took a chance and signed them on. This album came out in early 1987 and although the lyrics were the same as always, it was the change in music that cause this band to catch on. The album has nine tracks, but two of them are under two minutes a piece and serve more as intros for other songs. Largely most of their songs are anthems about metal or some kind of stuff about riding into some kind of battle. No one will accuse these guys of being lyrical geniuses,yet the music and vocals are strong enough, straight forward and above all else fairly memorable. Some fans of the band's early stuff point to this as a sellout. I say it's the point where they got their act together and realized that you have to play something a bit more cohesive than some of their earlier stuff. The band got some good press for this album, the video for "Blow your speakers" got some regular play on Headbanger's ball and the band's popularity grew in the underground. The album is a little short at under 40 minutes and not all of the songs are great, but it was their best album at this point and a decent offering for the most part. My favorite tracks are the title track, Blow your speakers, Holy War and Carry on.