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Rating:
8.0 |
Manowar - Sign Of The Hammer
1984
01. All Men Play On Ten
02. Animals
03. Thor (The Powerhead)
04. Mountains
05. Sign Of The Hammer
06. The Oath
07. Thunderpick
08. Guyana (Cult Of The Damned)
Not many people will admit it, or even know it; however, Manowar had a lot of vision back in their prime during the mid 80s. Albums like Hail to England showed the band in a very aggressive but epic light. Hail was a more aggressive album with songs like "Kill with power" and "Each dawn I die", but Sign of the hammer takes a more melodic route while still keeping the sound they had in their previous effort in the vein of epic songs like "Blood of my enemies".
The album starts off with very commercial sounding metal in the form of the first 2 tracks. This throws me off since the title and appearance of the release represent otherwise. Luckily, then we get these very melodic and epic, yet raw tracks that I can only compare with Viking-era Bathory, especially in "Mountains", which is an ode to the people that served in Vietnam. A lot of fan favorites are here like "All Men Play on 10", "Thor(the powerhead)" and the title track. My personal favorite and cult classic "Guyanna(cult of the damned)" also appears. It is a very humorous historical track about some cult in the 70s that attempted mass suicide. The only thing negative that I can point out here is the pointless bass solo "Thunderpick" but anyone who listens to Manowar already knows about these. I strongly recommend this album to anyone who is curious about these self-proclaimed "Kings of Metal". This happens to be the peak of the band creatively and musically, while later efforts are of little or no interest to me whatsoever.
written by Joey Jo Jo | 06.08.2005 |
Guest review disclaimer:
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
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| Historical album 10 without any thinking!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
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Written by Dandelion on 30.03.2007 at 18:37
Historical album 10 without any thinking!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Disagree, although this is their last okay album IMO. Their classic album is and always will be Hail To England to me. |
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Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 30.03.2007 at 18:48
Written by Dandelion on 30.03.2007 at 18:37
Historical album 10 without any thinking!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Disagree, although this is their last okay album IMO. Their classic album is and always will be Hail To England to me.
Hail to England is great too-all first 4 manowar albums are monuments but for me the best is kings of metal... |
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va5ilis - 19.12.2007 at 02:11
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Two great albums in the same year, Hail to England and Sign of the Hammer.
How great it would be if they do it again!!! |
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| hail to England was Manowars worst before Gods of War. This is a classic, an 8.8 for me. Thor (The Powerhead) has to be one of the best Manowar songs of all time, especially live. |
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| actually, every song on this album is amazing. |
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I remember Sign Of The Hammer to be the last song i played in my mp3player before my school leaving exams started  |
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| Eric Adams' vocal delivery in Mountains is ridiculously good, i got quite teary right now while listening to that track. |
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