Manilla Road to the World - Part 15: Grindhouse (Playground of the Damned)

This is where we reach the end for the Manilla Road spinoff for Monday Metal Treasures. Playground of the Damned is Manilla Road's most recent album that came out last Summer (July on vinyl, August for CD). For the latest Manilla Road release, Playground of the Damned feels more laid back after following a couple of concept albums from the band since the reunion. Although there is a lyrical theme throughout the record, this feels like it has more freedom than its predecessors. Fifteen albums on and the 'Road are still as great as ever. When you have some really dark tracks like Into the Maelström, Grindhouse and Abattoir de la Mort and the anthem of Brethren of the Hammer, you can tell the band is still in great shape after all these years.

Grindhouse starts off with some acoustic guitars which is rather ironic to have considering the lyrical theme of the song. The intro is rather lengthy when the light intro is turned heavier and then eventually into the darkness. Not only do the riffs have a whole new flavour of dark, there is a sense of familiarity from Gates of Fire (think The Fall of Illiam). Although the overall sound production from Manilla Road can turn listeners off (hopefully not whoever has followed this to the end), from someone who's adapted to the oddities, the drums do sound rather thin here which is a shame but it doesn't knock the awesomeness of the song. When you have a song with evil lines such as "Welcome to the mind of a madman / Welcome to the house of pain / Inside this nightmare of slaughter / The reaper always knows your name", it's easy to love the brutality of the Grindhouse. The song ends off with a lengthy solo that elaborates a lot and makes a great way to conclude this grim song. Overall, Grindhouse is downright dark but that's the overall atmosphere of Playground of the Damned and it fits perfectly. The inclusion of this secures a top 10 spot for this album for the best of heavy metal in 2011.

Manilla Road to the World - Part 14: Chromaphobia (After Midnight Live)

For once, a live album is covered on the whole of Monday Metal Treasures with After Midnight Live. The reason this is being covered is because the whole album consists of never before heard on any of Manilla Road's albums. After Midnight Live is a live album recorded from KMUW radio back in 1979. The tapes that recorded the show from Rick Fisher, the drummer of the band at the time, were discovered a few years ago. The tapes were handed to Mark Shelton and he fixed the sound as much as he could to put out an adequate release for it. The sound production is still raw and loses its quality here and there but this is to be expected when taken from cassettes. However, for a 30 year old tape, the results turned out rather well.

Chromaphobia is the first track the band play on the show and is the strongest point of the album. This song contains the rocking feel from Mark of the Beast. The vibe comes from the riffs and Mark Shelton's vocals that make it sound a lost track from the said album... As if it wasn't lost enough already from being buried for 20 years. The song makes an elaborate intro that feels like it stands within Black Sabbath and Motörhead. The verses tone down the guitars and gives off the spacey feel which is what Invasion and Mark of the Beast would corporate after the initial recording. Mark Shelton states the song is about being a metalhead in the future and receiving the grief for being a dedicated metal fan, having long hair, etc. This isn't a favourite song of the Shark's but it's still a damn good way to kick off a live recording from the early days of the band.

Manilla Road to the World - Part 13: Blood Eagle (Voyager)

Voyager is where Manilla Road take yet another very interesting turn for their music. Voyager is an entire album dedicated to vikings. This may not be your typical "viking metal" band but Mark Shelton does a fine tribute to the Norse mythology even if hundreds of other metal bands had beaten to him already. Voyager is yet another record that's full of doomy riffs and Mark Shelton even shows his roughest and lowest pitched vocals out of everything he's done, even coming close to the sound of a death metal vocalist. For an album that lasts a little over an hour, you can be sure to be on quite a journey when hearing Manilla Road's Voyager.

Blood Eagle starts with a cathedral organ which drops off the sudden dark riffing. The first section of the track could have been cut from the rest to be on its own but it adds more flavour to this very song. When the main course arrives, there is some headbanging to be done and it only steps down a bit for the chorus. The chorus even has a power metal anthem feel to it which is rather bizarre when you're throwing in fast doomy riffs with a slight hint of death metal grunts. Six minutes seem to go incredibly fast here but then again, it does accompany with the organ intro. The song takes on the vikings heading to Vineland and confronting the bishop in the name of the norse gods. They sacrifice the bishop to avenge Thor and Odin. The song may be religiously controversial but those were very tough times back then and Mark Shelton has reflected that well with this beast.

Manilla Road to the World - Part 12: The Fall of Illiam (Gates of Fire)

Gates of Fire is another concept album from Manilla Road. Instead of one big concept to focus on, Gates of Fire tells three different stories with them being based on The Frost Giant's Daughter, Virgil's Aeneid and the Spartan King Leonidas and the battle of Thermopylae. The album shows a strong variety including the album opener Riddle of Steel that has a vibe from Open the Gates era, Behind the Veil and Epitaph to the King as acoustic ballads and some challenges in terms of length with Betrayal and the whole of tracks 4-6 covering Virgil's Aeneid. There's a whole lot this album offers and you will need to give it time for both the music itself and the conceptual themes.

The Fall of Illiam stands as the longest track Manilla Road have recorded yet. With this song, Mark Shelton makes the way with an acoustic guitar with Cory Christner on the drums. Christner is quite a drummer and you will acknowledge this when the distorted doom metal guitars kicks in. The drums stand out very well and show some technical aspects to them. The first three verses use the same musical structure to them and although the flow of music usually works if it's repeated just once, the triple occurrance makes a better use of endurance as well as giving a really good feel of the sound. The song makes it way to a three minute solo and you'd think by the last minute it would start to get tedious but the solo segment doesn't feel boring nor tedious at all. Mark Shelton creates a sweet melody that would sure require a lot of memorization if this was ever played live.

The second half of the song shows yet more amazing musicianship from the band where Mark Shelton takes on another intense riff. Cory Christner shows a lot more aggression to the drums and a most of his drum kit in full use. Harvey Patrick even has his bass louder and clear in the second half. Like the earlier part of the song, this part of the song structure is repeated a few times and again gives you a lot of time to absorb the fantastic moments from the song. For a 15 minute song, time sure goes quick with this masterpiece. It's an endurance for a Manilla Road song but the band as whole made the lengthy song very effective. This is easily a top 5 contender for the best songs ever recorded by Shelton & co.

Manilla Road to the World - Part 11: Teacher (Mark of the Beast)

Mark of the Beast was originally going to be Manilla Road's second album. It was recorded in 1981 but wasn't met with satisfactory so it was left in the dark to make way for Manilla Road's Metal. It was reflected back 20 years later and picked up by Monster Records to clean up the sound production of the demos and provide an official release for the fans. For what was a bootlegged release back then, the outcome of the sound production has managed well. Mark of the Beast takes a more rock approach as opposed to metal, although there do exist some heavier songs, including a speed metal rocker. For the most part it's not in your face and feels laid back but despite the band scrapping this album in the early 80s, it has become a common favourite.

Teacher ups the tempo of the overall mood of Mark of the Beast and keeps on running throughout. The raw atmosphere of the song fits to make it feel very retro and despite it not seeing the light of day until 2002, this should be an early example of speed metal. Half way through the song takes a different turn but the pace remains. The song talks about a Christian teacher wanting to take advice from the lord about how to explain the prophecies of Eschaton. It feels like there's an attempt to escape from it all but in the end, there is sadly defeat. Overall, Teacher is one that stands out from Mark of the Beast. This doesn't reflect the overall energy of the album but it's songs like this that make you wonder how all 66 minutes of this album even got rejected.

Manilla Road to the World - Part 10: Sands of Time (Spiral Castle)

Spiral Castle was released just a year after Atlantis Rising and this is where Hellroadie became more established with his vocals. Bryan tends to handle the higher pitch vocals whereas Mark Shelton deals with the lower and rougher vocals. This is where Manilla Road truly took a doomier direction with their music and Spiral Castle is where the doom metal elements are as big and loud as they could possibly be. They offer crunching riffs from the title track, enduring doom metal epic with Merchants of Death and... an acoustic instrumental with a middle eastern feel? Let's find out!

Sands of Time is the instrumental finale for Spiral Castle. Starting off with an acoustic guitars that gives off quite an atmosphere for the instrumental piece. There are various unusual instruments used such as the percussions that certainly don't sound like they're from the drum kit and they're very oriental. In addition to that, Manilla Road throw in some violins and these violins are very strong and passionate for this particular track and makes it as part of a character for the track. Mixing this with the other instruments makes it all for one unique piece but at the same time it makes you think of the settings from Aladdin. There's a strange progression but those 7 1/2 minutes will go quick simply because it feels very relaxing and you'd want to sink in this track after 40 minutes of epic doom chaos.

Manilla Road to the World - Part 9: Megalodon (Atlantis Rising)

Atlantis Rising is Manilla Road's comeback album after the hiatus in the early 90s. Mark Shelton reformed the band with a whole new lineup featuring Bryan "Hellroadie" Patrick on drums as well as vocals and Mark Anderson on bass. This is Bryan Patrick's debut and his contributions to the band as a vocalist only became greater after this release. Amazingly enough, Hellroadie has the exact same vocal characteristics as Mark Shelton meaning he sounds exactly like the Shark so the introduction of a second vocalist could easily slip through the crack if little to no research was done on the band.

After a 10 year break, Mark Shelton struck back the music industry with this monstrous album. The concept of the album alone instantly marks this album as heavy metal. Atlantis Rising tells the tale of the lost Atlantis re-emerging with a war between the Norse Gods and the Great Old Ones over the continent. If this isn't metal, nothing in this world is! This album comes with a few interludes but it's hard to overlook the great work of this record with the harsh opener Megalodon, the fast and aggressive Siege of Atland and rifftastic tracks including March of the Gods, Decimation and Resurrection.

Starting off with a familiar verse (think Open the Gates' opener Metal Storm), Megalodon strikes with some distorted guitars and still maintains the rough sound productions from the earlier releases but at the same time modernizes it. It's not long until Mark Shelton offers a new flavour of vocals to his music with his very harsh voice. With this combined with the introduction of the concept, you can be sure that he makes the big blue sea so brutal that you wouldn't want to touch a drop from the ocean. The solos find themselves to be the screams of the monsters coming to battle. This only marks the beginning of the return of Atlantis and you can bet the war will not get any easier later on and neither will the music.

Manilla Road to the World - Part 8: Forbidden Zone (The Circus Maximus)

The Circus Maximus can simply be described as "Manilla Road's Seventh Star". It was the side project Mark Shelton formed after disbanding Manilla Road. This was going to be labeled as a Mark Shelton solo project but after the stronger contributions from the other two bandmates, the Shark insisted this should be a band rather than a solo artist and named themselves The Circus Maximus. However, when it came to release, Black Dragon Records shoved the name Manilla Road on the album just so they'd get more sales on the record. That didn't do well, though since the album shows this was never intended to be a Manilla Road album. However, you will get a track or two where you can relate it to Mark Shelton's main band. The songs with Shelton on vocals are generally the better songs on the album. The rest don't sound that focused and seem to be contributing to something else rather than this album. This is only recommended for the hardcore fans.

Forbidden Zone has Mark Shelton as the only vocalist in this song and the atmosphere of the song is a big surprise. This sounds like it came from an album that had a mixture of The Courts of Chaos and The Deluge which isn't what you'd expect when the band had no intentions to sound like Manilla Road. The song starts off with a clean guitar intro which is something you'd expect to hear from the 'Road. There's plenty of great guitar work to be found here whether it's the leading riffs or the grand solo halfway. The mid section even takes it time to have a highly audible bass and this is a goldmine. The chorus is definitely one to sing to. It'll make you mystified but it does take you to the darkest place that no-one should dare enter. In conclusion, Forbidden Zone is the ultimate saviour for The Circus Maximus. This may have not been a great side project but at least it had a beautiful and epic song like this.

Manilla Road to the World - Part 7: From Beyond (The Courts of Chaos)

The Courts of Chaos is Manilla Road's official last release prior to splitting up in the early 90s. This album continues the thrash metal roots as found on the previous two works but not only that, you'll even hear keyboards from this release which weren't familiar in their territory until this record. The best use of them is for the appropriate named instrumental track Road to Chaos which leads the listener to full of mayhem with Dig Me No Grave, From Beyond and The Books of Skelos). The Courts of Chaos has several bizarre moments to make it stand out very well from Manilla Road's back catalogue.

From Beyond starts off with some very weird acoustic guitars that give off a sci-fi feel and rightfully so. For a song that sings about different dimensions and scientific experiments, there better be a sense of science fiction here or it wouldn't work at all. As a song that has a situation of failed experiments, the song takes the route down to chaos further and further thus Shelton intensifying with the riffs. The first riff has quite a rhythm to it but the second one goes full out thrash as the whole song goes to well, chaos. To finish it off with "No, nothing can save you from beyond" is rather evil but Manilla Road show no mercy! Overall, From Beyond is a fantastic song with some strong riffs and making its way to gradually intensify the music.

Manilla Road to the World - Part 6: Return of the Old Ones (Out of the Abyss)

Out of the Abyss continues the thrash metal roots that were incorporated in Mystification. Although the thrashy elements from Mystification worked like a charm, this record wasn't as lucky. Manilla Road may have altered the atmosphere and overall sound to make it feel refreshing, most of the songs don't tend to stick. While you have many great songs from Invasion to Mystification, there isn't a whole lot that makes Out of the Abyss memorable. This album does make it the first for where Mark Shelton works on harsher vocals and although he can provide some rough voices that add to the music, here it's not so effective. Maybe this was just working on that style and hoping the Shark could work from it later on. Out of the Abyss may not be a bad album but it certainly pales in comparison to everything else they've done (except for The Circus Maximus but that doesn't really count).

Return of the Old Ones starts with some notable drumming from Randy Foxe to show that he's not just some drummer to assist the band with them. Mark Shelton plays some rougher tones on his guitar as opposed to the previous work but still manages to play some shrieking solos. The riffs are more subtle than its predecessor but some quality guitar performance can still be picked up from here. The lyrics are based on HP Lovecraft and Cthulu but that isn't anything particularly new for the band nor is it their greatest moment of singing about said themes. Still, this is one of the better songs from an album that offers very little for the band and listeners in comparison to everything else they've done.

Manilla Road to the World - Part 5: Children of the Night (Mystification)

Mystification is where Manilla Road take a thrashier route with their music. In 1987, many thrash metal bands were becoming big so it's understandable that you'd hear a stronger sense of thrash metal during that time. Hey, it could have been worse and they could have jumped on the hair metal bandwagon which is what almost every big band was doing at the time. The album takes a lot of inspiration from the legendary writer Edgar Allen Poe. The album went through a different track listing with the same songs on the re-issue in 2000 along with a whole new album cover which looks a lot better than the original one. Mystification is on par with The Deluge and with songs like Up from the Crypt and Valley of Unrest, you can be sure to bang your head when hearing it.

Children of the Night is the song one of the big four wish they wrote. Right away Mark Shelton is showing no messing around with this song by taking it off with some rapid pace riffs and this will make those 7 minutes listening to this song fly by without you even noticing. Of course, with that length you expect the band to take some breaks and not wear them out entirely if they were to play this song live. Roughly 3 minutes in, they introduce some clean guitars but it's not long until you're thrown right back to some heavy thrashing and this second main riff Shelton plays for this song is one hell of a headbanger. Having these two riffs played in the same song shows some interesting movements. Not only that, there are some wailing solos heard halfway through and this puts the song at its very peak. Overall, Children of the Night is one hell of a song from Manilla Road that sure as hell will pump up the live audience for putting those riffs right in their faces.

Manilla Road to the World - Part 4: Shadows in the Black (The Deluge)

The Deluge was released in 1986 and is one of the classic Manilla Road albums that are often highly praised by fans. The album proves to be a fast paced album with only clocking in at 39 minutes and having a strong factor in fast pace songs, especially with some speed/thrash metal elements. The title track is the slowest track on the album but has the strongest epic feeling out of all ten tracks. The only flaw that can be spotted from The Deluge is the interlude known as Morbid Tabernacle that doesn't really contribute anything to The Deluge. At least the other instrumental track Rest in Pieces nicely finishes off the album despite the bizarre noise right at the end. That aside, The Deluge is a brilliant album and with it being recently re-issued by Shadow Kingdom Records, now is a great time to pick it up.

Shadows in the Black starts off with a clean intro which gradually rises in intensity and then launches a heavy metal frenzy. The direction could have been a doomy song which the band experimented with for some of the previous releases but instead they take a thrashy route and this song is easily one of the fastest they've ever played. Although Mark Shelton is the only guitarist for this album, at times the song is multilayered to hear the riff and solo played together. Even so, the solos are damn fast and show how Mark Shelton can fucking shred on his guitar. It isn't just Shelton that makes the song, Scott Park has some sweet basslines and Randy Foxe does what he can to pound those drums fast to keep up with the pacing of the song. From these aspects, you can tell Shadows in the Black is a fantastic and gets you pumped up as fast as this song goes.

Manilla Road to the World - Part 3: Road of Kings (Open the Gates)

Open the Gates is the second album in Manilla Road's "classic trio". It features several songs that would become fan favourites such as Metalstorm, the title track and Witches Brew. Personally it's the weakest album in the classic trio and there's a lot of other works outside this album that strikes out better than the songs here overall. Still, it's one album that deserves to be picked up.

Road of Kings starts with a lengthy intro that should bring a lot of enjoyment to the song. What easily stikes out here is the riffs as well as the rhythmatic drumming which is well played by Randy Foxe. The intro even features a solo at around a minute in that's very short but sweet. Mark Shelton does kick in with his vocals and this has to be one of his better songs in terms of vocal performance. The echo from his vocals adds an atmosphere to the song that should clear away the doubt of what many have had troubles with when listening to Manilla Road. The vocals in general of the band may need an acquired taste but this song should be easy to settle in with such great singing performance here. Most of the album's songs are based on the legends of King Arthur and this song is one of them. This song shows the younger days of King Arthur and his future to become king someday. Overall, Road of Kings is an excellent song and one of the more accessible songs by Manilla Road to get new listeners to sink in with their music.

Manilla Road to the World - Part 2: Dreams of Eschaton/Epilogue (Crystal Logic)

Crystal Logic is Manilla Road's third album and starts to show the true style of the band moving away from the progressive rock and space rock elements that were present previously. Crystal Logic also gave the band the most recognition they ever received throughout their career with the hit song Necropolis. There was even a song that made a radio-friendly attempt which only ended up as being a song that sticks out like a sore thumb in the album and would have been better off as a bonus track. Despite that, it's still a decent song but the rest of the songs are better by far.

Crystal Logic contains tempo changing tracks such as The Riddle Master and The Ram to add a lot of interest to the songs as well as the title track that contains a thrashy feel to it and has even had the same riff used by several thrash metal bands. The absolute jawdropping moment has to be the album closer Dreams of Eschaton which happens to be today's Manilla Roadkill song. Crystal Logic is the most accessible Manilla Road album and is definitely an album worth picking. The only flaw that can be found in the whole album is the placement of Feeling Free Again.

Dreams of Eschaton is the 12 minute album closer that certainly deserves to be described as epic. The song starts off with an acoustic folk-ish intro where the lyrics speak of a vision of a nuclear apocalypse. Just after two minutes in, the song changes to heavy riffages and the lyrics describe the true chaos of the apocalypse where the antichrist will soon rise up and destroy everything. The lyrics even have a bizarre mix of Ragnarok of King Arthur but if everything is going to hell, you'd expect chaos to happen. The third section of the song at six minutes in is an instrumental section with an awesomely song that gradually fades out to the album's epilogue.

Although the epilogue track was originally an individual track (not heard on the embedded video), the song transition from Dreams of Eschaton to the ending flows so well that merging the two tracks together on the re-release makes a lot of sense. The epilogue track is somewhat scary with the piano and the screaming you hear right at the end but again, this is concluding a song that pictures the end of the world and the screams at the apocalypse are to be expected. Overall, Dreams of Eschaton is an excellent song in Crystal Logic and if the world is about to end, this should be the last song to be listened to before it all goes.

Manilla Road to the World - Part 1: Cage of Mirrors (Metal)

Metal is Manilla Road's second/third album released in 1982. The band recorded an entirely different album a year before that never saw the light of day until 2002 when it was picked up by Monster Records to clear up the master tapes and release it under the name Mark of the Beast. Metal shows a heavier approach to the band from the debut album. Although Mark Shelton's vocal performance was still lacking here and there, he definitely improved in this album. The songs overall had more reasonable track lengths which makes it an easier listening experience. Most of the tracks aren't some of the greatest performance by the band but the speed metal opener Enter the Warrior, the shortened and improved Far Side of the Sun and the epic Cage of Mirrors (today's pick for Manilla Roadkill) are worth additions to the Road.

Cage of Mirrors stands as the longest song in Metal. The song stars with a slow acoustic intro and with Mark Shelton's soft voice with a great echo. After the intro section, the song is struck with a damn heavy riff and for heavy metal's standards in 1982, these riffs are extreme and not many songs from that year were as heavy and loud as these riffs. There's a touch of doom and thrash to the riffs as well and this was around the time when thrash metal was starting to rise in the metal scene. The song's structure goes back and forth with the acoustic and heavy sections of the song but it works for the more intense parts of the lyrics which cover the story of a dark sorcerer making his attempt to open the gates of hell and summon Lucifer. It's a fantastic song and not only is it one of the greatest songs from the album, it's also one of the finest Manilla Road songs ever written!

Week 27: Manilla Road - The Dream Goes On

The artist: Welcome to American traditional metal month which pays a tribute to all the great yet overlooked music from USA. These are the bands that keep the traditional metal feeling alive even today and Manilla Road will start off this themed month. If there's only one word to describe Manilla Road, it's underrated. Although their name is popular amongst underground metal fans, they're severely underrated in the outside world. The mastermind of the band Mark Shelton formed Manilla Road in 1977 and released the first album Invasion in 1980, the same year Iron Maiden would rise up with their self-titled debut.

Manilla Road seem to be America's ideal answer to Iron Maiden yet they only get 1/1000th of Maiden's popularity which is a damn shame since with the exception of their best selling album Crystal Logic, they've been completely under the radar. You'd think a song of theirs would have made an appearance in Brutal Legend considering that game had Slough Feg, Omen and Brocas Helm in it but no. Manilla Road have so many great and underrated tracks that the whole of Monday Metal Treasures could have been dedicated to them. Infact, this will be the start of Metal Monday's spinoff series called Manilla Road to the World!

The album: Invasion is Manilla Road's debut album released in 1980. This album doesn't quite show the band's musical style that would be established from Crystal Logic. Invasion contains progressive rock and space rock elements that would be absent in Manilla Road's music starting from Crystal Logic. This album is one of the weakest efforts by the band for Mark Shelton's not so great vocal performance and having overdrawn songs that could have easily been shortened. A great example is Far Side of the Sun which had half of the song omitted in its remake in the following album Metal. Despite these flaws, most songs are still worth listening to but they do require patience. The highlight from the albums are Street Jammer which would later be covered by Slough Feg on Hardworlder and today's Metal Monday song The Dream Goes On.

The song: The Dream Goes On is the album opener for Invasion. The song starts off with some strange guitar noises but then breaks with a crazy fast solo and then followed by the main riff. The riff for the song is also strange but damn catchy and good to headbang to. Despite this song being 6 1/2 minutes long, it doesn't feel like it drags on like some tracks do in this album which is a good plus. The lyrics are a typical love song involving some musical differences between a man and a woman and his dreams to be live on stage. Nothing too special but it does justice to the catchy chorus. Overall, The Dream Goes On is one of the better songs on the debut album and gets some credit for its strangely awesome riff.