MANOWAR — Warriors of the World (review)

MANOWAR — Warriors of the World album cover Album · 2002 · US Power Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3/5 ·
Kingcrimsonprog
Warriors Of The World, the American Metal band Manowar’s ninth full-length studio album, is something of a strange record. Its fair to say that it isn’t exactly the fan’s favourite album, and in my own opinion, it is easy to see why.

This is a bit of a bizarre album; the structure feels unbalanced and unnatural. Its more or less half Heavy Hard Metal songs, and half ballads and slow tracks. That’s not so terrible in and of itself, some of the band’s most popular albums like Kings Of Metal are full of ballads and slow songs. However, on this record they’re all bunched up together near the start of the record. Not in a gradual rise from slowest to fastest and quietest to heaviest. It just feels like a very unnatural hodgepodge. Of those quiet songs, three are tributes to Wagner, Pavarotti and Elvis. The album feels sort of overlong, and three tracks aren’t even Manowar originals. It might have served the album better if they had been bonus tracks, regardless of how good they are, it is too long and having three slow non-originals is a bit of a momentum killer.

Of the Hard, Heavy Metal songs on the record, some are mid-paced and some are blisteringly fast. On an intellectual level it is kind of feels annoying that the songs are repetition of previous Manowar tracks, there’s a sense of Deja Vue for sure.

On top of that, the lyrics feel like a repetition of previous stuff, taken almost up to a parody level. In fairness though, that’s been going on for years now and it didn’t spoil previous albums. I don’t listen to Manowar for thought provoking, soul searching lyrics anyway, I listen to them because they make good music and sometimes it’s a lot of fun.

So there we go; cheesy lyrics, repeating old glories, too many tracks, too many quiet tracks, weird track ordering. Sounds like a bit of a stinker, right? Well see, here’s the thing… I really like it. I have to say, I’ve personalized the running order in iTunes so it feels more balanced, and it is overlong but then again that’s extra value, if they’d been called bonus tracks people would accept it more easily. The songs are similar to old songs but hey, I loved those old songs and I’m glad to hear more.

Is this the best Manowar album? No. Should a newcomer get it as a first album? No. Its very much something I would recommend to fanatics and collectors only. It’s the kind of thing you’ll probably only listen to when you’re in the mood or only listen to highlights from. Can I call it a bad album though? Well, I can’t really bring myself to. ‘House Of Death,’ ‘Hand Of Doom,’ ‘Warriors Of The World Unite’ and even the ballad ‘Swords Of The Wind’ are all just too good to allow me to say that.
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Unitron wrote:
more than 2 years ago
Fighting the World and Kings of Metal.
Kingcrimsonprog wrote:
more than 2 years ago
Which ones have you heard?
Unitron wrote:
more than 2 years ago
Really good review, I like how you describe the album. I've only heard a couple of Manowar albums, I should probably listen to some more. :)

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