:: Manowar - Gods Of War

Manowar

Although fans of Manowar have been inundated with plenty of new offerings from the self proclaimed ‘Kings Of Metal’ since the release of 2002’s ‘Warriors Of The World’, it’s been a long wait for most in regards to something new in the studio sense. But after a five-year gap between albums, the New York outfit have finally returned with their tenth full-length effort ‘Gods Of War’. In what is the first in a series of planned conceptual albums based around the different war gods from various mythologies, ‘Gods Of War’ is centred around the story of Odin (who is otherwise known as the god of war in the Norse Mythology), whose story is more than befitting of Manowar’s take on traditional heavy metal. The album gets off to a dramatic and bombastic symphonic start with the orchestrated introduction piece ‘Overture To The Hymn Of The Immortal Warriors’. It’s quite an effective and well written piece of music, but with the spoken word/slow building follow up track ‘The Ascension’ following immediately afterwards; ‘Gods Of War’ does seem to get off to a slow start.
By the third track ‘King Of Kings’, Manowar finally get down to doing what they do best - and that’s play metal. With thundering drums, powerful vocals from Adams and some catchy riffs, ‘King Of Kings’ is everything you could want from a Manowar track. Unfortunately, the album is disrupted once again by the intermission track ‘Army Of The Dead, Part I’. Again, the choral vocal production is well performed and quite interesting, but it tends to break the flow of the album to some extent. Thankfully, ‘Sleipnir’ sees Manowar inject some more metal into the album with another strong mid-paced number, while ‘Loki God Of Fire’ and the slower anthem based ‘Blood Brothers’ continue a string of strong selections from Manowar.

Around the halfway mark, the album tends to fall into a bit of a lull with the symphonic pair of ‘Overture To Odin’ and ‘Army Of The Dead, Part II’ and the narrative due of ‘Glory Majesty Unity’ and ‘The Blood Of Odin’, with the four tracks coming across as little more than padding to the actual metal numbers of the album, but once again things pick up with ‘The Sons Of Odin’, the epic title track ‘Gods Of War’, ‘Odin’, ‘Hymn Of The Immortal Warriors’ and the bonus track ‘Die For Metal’ (which is actually closer to classic Manowar than anything else on the album). With ‘Gods Of War’, Manowar have certainly created an album that’s as every bit as bold and epic as the material it’s based upon, but it does have its flaws as well. The orchestral and narrative pieces tend to drags the album out a little longer than they should, which inevitably makes ‘Gods Of War’ a bit of a frustrating listen at times. Despite its flaws, ‘Gods Of War’ is still a welcome (not to mention a long overdue) return of the true kings of metal.