Artist: Manowar
Title: Kings of Metal MMXIV
Genre: Heavy Metal
Release Date: 21st March 2014
Label: Magic Circle Entertainment
Album Review
MANOWAR, the Kings of Metal! Maybe once… MANOWAR was one of the first Metal bands I have listened to, ‘Battle Hymns’ was my first bought Metal CD, for a period I was wearing a MANOWAR back patch on my vest. I loved them very much but nowadays they often disappoint me. The albums they released this century are not what I expected from them, countless DVDs and no real substance, I don`t want to talk about the childish interviews. In my eyes they destroyed their legend piece by piece. Years ago they re-recorded their classic ‘Battle Hymns’, I disliked it, it sounded wrong and worse to my ears. Now they re-recorded ‘Kings of Metal’, okay heavy stuff, but I decided to be objective, listened to it several times.
First thing to note is that they changed the order of the songs, not the best decision, the original starts with ‘Wheels of Fire’ and this was the perfect opener. Also they put it now to the end of the Album, fail. ‘Warriors Prayer’ and ‘Blood of the Kings’ in the middle sucks too, it was the perfect outro. All songs are newly arranged and have little changes in the lyrics, ok better than a one to one copy, does it make them better or worse, hard to say objectively; they are good in both versions, but my heart screams that is wrong it does not have to be so. The Bass solo ‘Sting of the Bumblebee’ was never a fave of mine, now it sucks, sorry Mr. DeMaio. Eric Adams vocals are still good and unique, sometimes not so powerful than in the past.
There are two bonus tracks on CD1, which are variants of ‘Thy Crown and thy Ring’ and ‘The Heart of Steel’, and a second CD with alternated instrumental versions. Expandable in my eyes. The old version bonus track ‘Pleasure Slave’ (too sexist?) is completely missing. The artwork is only a variant of the classical one, not very impressive. After all it is very hard to value it, I think everyone who is still fan of MANOWAR and buys their stuff, would do it anyway, all the others should first listen a few times to it to make their decision.
Tracklist
| CD1 01. Hail and Kill MMXIV 02. Kings of Metal MMXIV 03. The Heart of Steel MMXIV 04. A Warriors Prayer MMXIV 05. The Blood of the Kings MMXIV 06. Thy Kingdom Come MMXIV 07. The Sting of the Bumblebee MMXIV 08. Thy Crown and thy Ring MMXIV 09. On Wheels of Fire 10. Thy Crown and Thy Ring MMXIV (Metal Version) 11. The Heart Of Steel MMXIV (Guitar Instrumental) |
CD2 01. Hail And Kill MMXIV (Instrumental) 02. Kings Of Metal MMXIV (Instrumental) 03. The Heart Of Steel MMXIV (Orchestral Intro Version - Instrumental) 04. The Blood Of The Kings MMXIV (Instrumental) 05. Thy Kingdom Come MMXIV (Instrumental) 06. Thy Crown and Thy Ring MMXIV (Orchestral Version - Instrumental) 07. On Wheels of Fire MMXIV (Instrumental) |
Line-up
Eric Adams – Vocals
Karl Logan – Guitars
Joey Demaio – Bass
Donnie Hamzik – Drums
Website
www.manowar.com / www.facebook.com/manowar
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 3(by heart), 7(by head)
Sound: 8
Total: 5.5 / 10(by heart), 7.5 / 10 (by head)
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