The artist: Manowar are a very recognisable heavy metal band. However, recognition doesn't always mean praise. While many metal fans love their music, many others hate it. One of the common complaints about the band is their apperance and accusing them of being homosexuals which is rather absurd. Not only does their album cover Gods of War contains naked women on the album cover, bashing a metal band for being "gay" is downright disrespecting Rob Halford and his sexual preference. Anyone who's this ignorant shouldn't be associated with metal in any way. Whether Manowar are gay or not doesn't determine their musical quality and these guys have written great tracks.
Last week, Scott Columbus passed away for unknown reasons. He's played in all the Manowar records so far except for Battle Hymns and The Triumph of Steel. It's sad to see a metal brother like him going at the age of 54 and my sympathy goes to all his family and friends. For this week we will cover Manowar to pay tribute to the late drummer.
The album: Sign of the Hammer is one album that can slip under the radar. From the early Manowar days, Battle Hymns and Hail to England are more praised while Into Glory Ride has become infamous for the "homoerotic" album cover (Anthology is worse, though). That just leaves us with Sign of the Hammer and there are tracks in the album that prove to be worthy additions for Manowar's library of music.
The song: Guyana (Cult of the Damned) is based on the mass suicide by Jim Jones in 1978 who was full of conspiracies and a lot of bizarre things he did with his cult. The song starts off with Joey DeMaio's crystal clear bass, Ross the Boss on guitar and an orchestral feeling it gives off which shortly moves onto a bass solo. The verse soon begins with Eric Adams singing about Jim Jones who claimed to have been Jesus and the people asking about his individuality. Eric Adams has a great vocal range and with that he sounds high and mighty with the chorus. The song provides a marching riff as well as a rocking solo which are the ingredients Manowar needed to make an epic closure for Sign of the Hammer. This along with Battle Hymn, Bridge of Death and Blood of the Kings are how Manowar should end their albums.
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