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This is a work in progress - a list of all Manowar’s songs - and subject to change as the list progresses.... please feel free to comment in the meantime
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1.
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Manowar - Battle Hymns
BATTLE HYMN: Battle Hymn is the essence of Manowar. Like distilled Manowar with a double shot of Manowar and three cubes of frozen Manowar thrown in for good measure. The title of the track is enough on its own to set eyes wide and spark visions of magical battles in parallel dimensions. From the first line the lyrics are like heavy metal gold dust, the chorus a rousing anthem, the interlude may be as magically sweet as Eric Adam's voice ever sounded, the key change a thing of majestic beauty. It's so good, they could have done this, left it there and Manowar would still be the best band heavy metal has ever hurled from its oak and steel hewn war machine. The storyline so clear in my head - we ride by moonlight, 10,000 of us, loaded with weapons and instilled with bravery and self-belief by a lead singer whose voice was born to lead armies against the forces of evil not bands in smokey concert halls. A bass that sounded like the clash of steel on steel and a soaring, soulful lead guitar from which poured magic, beauty and self-righteousness. The stepped key change sets fire to the hymn to end all battle hymns and laid a path that was only too eagerly joined once again on the follow-up, the glorious Into Glory Ride. It's the final track on the album and it electrifies the atmosphere on Battle Hymns and leaves you feeling both elated and bereft when it's all over. But I don't - shouldn't - even need to explain why this is so good. Each time I hear it I feel exhausted afterwards - it's that good. Battle Hymn is Manowar. 'Buff said. |
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2.
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Manowar - Into Glory Ride
GATES OF VALHALLA: they say that when you lay eyes on the gods the sight is so awesome and terrible the human mind and body can not tolerate its celestial nature. The climax of this song is that very moment. If this is not in your top five songs of all time then please: leave the hall. It was probably my favourite Manowar song for many of the past 33-or-so years - in fact a Battle Hymn probably only really settled into the top spot for the last half of that time. When I finally laid my hands on a second-hand copy of Into Glory Ride in my teenage years - by then out of production - I was already deep into a world where this band - steeped in fantasy and deeply atmospheric, almost progressive, music - defined my musical existence. Into Glory Ride added another even darker dimension to that place. Gates of Valhalla was its finest warrior - with a voice like a beautifully crafted weapon of terrible destruction. Even now when I hear this ode to the All-father I feel the elation of adventures past and yet to come. Close your eyes and listen as death's chilling wind blows through your hair and listen to Manowar at the height of its power, power that was surely forged in a pact of blood and steel with the gods of war. |
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3.
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Manowar - Fighting The World
BLACK WIND, FIRE AND STEEL: this was probably my number one Manowar song for many years. It's sheer exuberance is a joy to behold and was so good to discover in the morass or dour, earnest heavy metal at the time - but at the same time blowing apart the best of the rest with undeniable skill, even if you didn't like the band - as with so many of my friends. Black Wind, Fire and Steel was like a drug. Colours emerged from the track in aural form, swirling from the speakers in images, emotions and sounds I had never even imagined could be produced by a set of drums and two electrified guitars. So good to find back in those teenage days it made me giddy. My older heavy metal mates (ie in the school year above) told me this album was too commercial. By that point I couldn't have cared less. I was completely smitten. I had found Manowar and Black Wind, Fire and Steel was my teenage anthem and, sadly because so few would ever measure up, the heavy metal song by with everyone other song would be measured forevermore. |
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4.
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Manowar - Kings Of Metal
BLOOD OF THE KINGS: the best song on what, at the time it came out at least, was far and away my favourite Manowar album. The final blistering track from a band that would always provide you with a venue-demolishing epic at the end of each album. Blood of the Kings sounds like the thunder of charging, armour-plated knights mounted on warhorses galloping headlong towards the epicentre of battle. The opening riff like the sound of trumpets urging you on. Listing the previous songs and albums in the lyrics was a marvellous touch for Manowar addicts and I am absolutely sure I bored many friends and family with that observation time and again - just as they bored me with the observation that constant self-reference was, counter-intuitively, lacking in self awareness and unattractive. I disagreed. I laid the albums out as I listened, blinded by the mental image of black warhorses leaping burning barricades. The track builds to a glorious crescendo (even if I probably never let it play out through to the extended, end-of-concert-crashing finale). in fact, looking back, I sometimes wonder whether Manowar put so much of its magic into this track that the spell was spent. Indeed, Manowar hooks in both the verse and chorus would never quite reach the same heights ever again. |
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5.
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Manowar - Kings Of Metal
HAIL AND KILL: Kings of Metal was long my favourite album and Hail and Kill was the pillar that held up my high esteem of this crowing moment in Manowar's glory. I knew by this song that more greatness was to come in future albums that would carry the Manowar flame on eternally. The ease with which tracks like Wheels of Fire, Kings of Metal, Heart of Steel, Crown and the Ring - and this - were tossed in, it was all the proof I needed. When Hail and Kill marches in, things on Kings of Metal escalate several notches if that is even possible on an album where over-the-top is the order of the day. Heavy metal does not get any better than the crescendo of voices echoing out the song's title long into the night. It's one of the most powerful moments in heavy metal history - and the whole track is a titan. I used the love the blast of the intro, the sublime vocals that softens us up for that glorious first verse. But, now do I wince a little at the opening lyrics? Even back in the 80s a 'young girl in her prime' was a bit much but now it more or less makes this track impossible to play to anyone in the hope of revealing unto them the joys of Manowar. Still a great track, and amazing lyrics otherwise. But, for me, the slight curse the dodgy lyrics alone probably helped knock Kings of Metal off the top spot some time ago. |
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6.
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Manowar - Hail To England
BRIDGE OF DEATH: the darkest and perhaps the most provocative Manowar song (and let's pretend we never heard 'bonus' track Pleasure Slave On Kings of Metal) - and the one that has grown on me most over time as I've gradually delved into the more extreme end of the metal genre elsewhere. The first person narrative (something Eric is fantastic at anyway) lends this journey a bleak edge as he completes his journey across the bridge. Joey's ominous bass lines are the perfect accompaniment to Eric's lost soul vocals that perfectly reflect the mood of a man who is now paying the price for his pact of good fortune. It's not until the end you wonder whether the price is should a weighty one after all - as he takes flight into his life of hellish service. A monster of a song that deserves its place on Manowar's best album. But it should also be appreciated in full, on its own and with deep appreciation that it's message - however you want to interpret it - is as deep as any religious text. |
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7.
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Manowar - Kings Of Metal
The Crown And The Ring (Lament Of The Kings): what an amazing achievement this song is on every level. Another single moment in the history of the band that is breathtaking and eyebrow-raising in equal measure. Who else could have even believed this idea would have worked at all - never mind making it work so well. This song is so good every time I put it on it feels like Christmas Day. In fact, every year I make a point of playing it on Christmas Day because it feels like the song a true heavy metal fan should play on Christmas Day. Heart of Steel maybe Manowar's beat ballad, but this goes further still. It's more than a ballad. It a song for cathedrals. For public squares. For nations to sing at the top of their voices. An anthem to be sung alone on mountains; to be sung around campfires the night before battle. It's amazing and appallingly, recklessly, brash, brave, stupid, call it what you will. Back in 1988 only Manowar could have pulled this off. Name me another track by another heavy metal band this huge, this mad and this brilliant at the same time and I will show you the grave error of your ways. Another reason why Manowar, for all their fuck ups, will forever hold an unassailable position in the heavy metal pantheon. |
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8.
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Manowar - Hail To England
Blood of My Enemies: so, why do I think this could well be Manowar's best album? I think, in a 360 degree, holistic assessment of the quality of the songs and the flow of a work that never once drops the ball (even Black Arrows is kind of ok as a brief, blacker-than-black egomaniacal interlude) it probably is. In my view anyway. While Battle Hymns blasts the granite from the mountain, Into Glory Ride chisels its features, then Hail to England polishes it into something that is artfully and skilfully Manowar in all its creative glory. While there would be many more great songs to come, their craft would never be this well exhibited ever again. nor would any albums be as flawless as Into Glory Ride and Hail to England. In fact, Hail to England is peak Manowar and Blood of My Enemies ushers in that peak with an upward swing of the battle axe - riding down it's enemies to make way for an album that no one else could make and would stand the test of time and bitter opposition from unbelievers for decades to come.... All Hail Manowar. |
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9.
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Manowar - Fighting The World
Defender: wow, what a lot of criticism this album gets - but it undeniably contains some of Manowar's best. Holy War is an ominous classic and surely no Manowar fan would deny the glory of Carry On which has carried me through both bleak and happy times; meanwhile Fighting the World - probably the first Manowar song I ever heard - bounces along shamelessly, and of course Black Wind, Fire and Steel and then Defender carve out the previous Conan the Barbarian swords and sorcery fantasy so painstakingly well. Defender.... here to prove that Manowar did it bigger and better than anyone: theatrical storytelling, yes, swords and probably sorcery too, perfect songwriting and perfect pulp fantasy fiction all rolled into one single song that made it seem so easy. It's a song I could put on anytime and enjoy it just as I did the first time I heard it. It may have been a previous single pared down and squeezed on an album spewed out in the face of - and to capitalise on, lets be honest - the MTV hair metal craze. But I didn't know that at the time and, besides, who cares when it is this good? |
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10.
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Manowar - Into Glory Ride
Secret of Steel: Manowar's most Conan the Barbarian moment on its most bearskin furs and glittering steel-edged album. Such an evocative song on an album that seemed to stir something almost primal deep within. Understated and epic at the same time - it should have had its own Orson Welles interlude. How did they manage to make this album sound like something emerging from the mists of the past. If Manowar - or someone - has taken this formula and nurtured it with the likes of Eric's voice, Ross's blues lines, Scott's theatrical percussion and Joey's fire and brimstone bass. The track is shrouded in mystery (some hero or pagan god, possibly Prometheus, but the album feels too Nordic - forest bound and snow-covered as it is - for that) but we all know about the Secret of Steel - or the Riddle of Steel - the philosophy of Conan the Barbarian, as personified in the 1982 film directed by John Milius and co-written by Oliver Stone. The film was as light on detail as Into Glory Ride and its central pillar Secret of Steel. But if ever it had a sound track forged in steel and written in blood, this was it. |
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11.
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Manowar - Into Glory Ride
March For Revenge (By The Soldiers Of Death): back then each Manowar album had one guaranteed classic. The finale, a story of adventure, a story of battle - an epic. Some people thought metal had to be fun. I knew it was serious - and Manowar masterpieces like Battle Hymns, March for Revenge and Bridge of Death were the only proof I needed. This was stone-faced epic 1970s prog rock, forged in molten metal and carried by sons of demons with whirring axes, magic broadswords and a wall of shields. The song of battle was a description never more apt than the slow march towards death, the slugging clash of battle, the requiem for a dead comrade and the grim and heroic rise from the grave to take the ultimate, ceaseless revenge. Prepare yourself for life, death and battle. |
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12.
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Manowar - Battle Hymns
Manowar: I always regarded the 'other' side of Battle Hymns as filler that I would respectfully play every now and again in deference to the band's efforts to fill the whole album. What I really wanted to be doing was play the other side (officially side 'B'). Manowar was the turning point of the album - the moment it went from an album by an American heavy metal band to the album the cover promised - something so powerful that it would last a thousand years. But my appreciation of this track has soared as time has gone by. What a song - an anthem that rubs shoulders with the band's most epic works. Manowar's narrative talents were right there from the very beginning to tell the tale of, well, Manowar. So audacious, so fucking foresighted, so clever, it's actually poetic. And what a track. The best 'metal' track the band has ever done - and this is probably the right time to point out I tend to break them all down into the "metal" and the "epic". With Metal Daze a close second it's the track Manowar would not be the same without. Like a Manowar T-shirt in song form. Ladies and gentlemen, from the United States of America, all Hail Manowar...! |
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13.
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Manowar - Kings Of Metal
Heart of Steel: has any metal band, power metal band, any band, ever created a more perfect ballad than Heart of Steel. Yes, you could slag it off it you really want to, but put your cynicism to one side for a minute (pretty much essential when listening to any post-Sign of the Hammer albums and probably the ones before too). The lyrics are like poetry - the entire album probably as well written lyrically as any other Manowar album. The unbelievably emotional piano intro, the rousing, thundering verse, the Eric Adams showcase chorus; flashes of imagery of fires burning in the mountains a thousand miles away guiding you home, reaching a low point, but looking into your heart to know that you are on the right track, 'born to walk against the wind', burning bridges behind you, staying true to your friends (presumably the ones who like Manowar) and ignoring 'those who laugh and crowd the path'!!! **pauses for breath** Was there ever a better guide to being a Manowar fan? Now I'm well aware this track is not a recipe for real life where real men - and women - must find compromise. But boy it lifted me up in the good times and the bad. So much so my wife bought me a gold and black soundwave picture of the track framed that now sits on the wall. Never forget tracks like this whenever you doubt the now battered entity that is this band. Manowar until I die. |
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14.
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Manowar - Hail To England
Hail to England: |
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15.
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Manowar - Battle Hymns
Dark Avenger: yeah, sure, this now reeks of Spinal Tap (or Britain's Bad News - go and listen to "Warriors of Ghengis Khan" and listen for the Dark Avenger lyrics echo). But I really couldn't care less. I have almost worn out the B-side of Battle Hymns and this sinister ode to Manowar's favourite subject - revenge - was on it and was very welcome to be there. Epic intro with Eric on superb story-telling, narrative? Check. Amazing appearance by Orson Welles on this unknown heavy metal band's debut album? Check. Blistering if completely un-PC chorus? Check? Last stop - more or less - before Battle Hymn? Check. What's not to like? |
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16.
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Manowar - Into Glory Ride
Revelation (Death's Angel): you've probably noticed a pattern. Yes, I love Manowar's extended, grandiose moments perhaps to the exclusion of all else (apart from the band's self-titled introduction Manowar which now holds a special place in my heart). Nothing really comes close to those body-strewn battlefield epics and, let's be honest, the achievement is down the utter determination and vision of a band that could scent metal perfection forming at their finger tips in the early 1980s when Rainbow, Sabbath and Priest had formed a blueprint that just needed a touch of magic to bring it to life. |
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17.
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Manowar - Sign Of The Hammer
Sign of the Hammer: |
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18.
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Manowar - Fighting The World
Carry On: |
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19.
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Manowar - Battle Hymns
Metal Daze: |
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20.
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Manowar - Hail To England
Army of Immortals: |
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21.
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Manowar - Hail To England
Kill With Power: |
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22.
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Manowar - Kings Of Metal
Wheels of Fire: |
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23.
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Manowar - Warriors Of The World
Call to Arms: yes, I know, I know, this could - should - be higher in the list. This song single-handedly saved Manowar from looking like a band that reached its creative peak in 1988 - perhaps even 1984 - and steadily declined from then on. It didn't just put the band back on the map, proving the magic wasn't just in our imaginations (or the uncomfortable belief that all the best songs must have been lifted to those heights with the aid of Ross). It forced us to take notice again, accept that modern day Manowar had bad but also good and even great songs. Made us accept that Triumph of Steel was pretty good - was just born too take, as well as being too flabby. That Manowar was not going down without a fight. At least for now. It blew apart the first five minutes of Warriors of the World and made the whole album look like a beast Ecen though it would take until track eight (and really nine and ten) to get back on track afterwards. An album steeped in 9/11 patriotism was too much for most of us and in many ways makes Warriors of the World seem terribly dated now. But the rumbling, thunderous march into hell's jaws that is Call to Arms - a song that builds and builds with explosive power, was worth everything else that washed up with it. Going back to the beginning though, for all its importance to the legacy of the band, does it measure up to the real classics? The lyrics are as aimless as any latter day Manowar song, ambiguous and abstract. Also, while the main riff, the verse and the chorus is enough to blow the roof off any concert hall, does it really deserve top five or even top ten status alongside the real beating-heart classics of Manowar. Does it even top my sentimental choices - Army of Immortal, or the blasting Wheels of Fire, the killer riff and early days charm of Metal Daze or the dearly beloved Kill With Power. At the end of the day Call to Arms is only as good as it is because it's the best track Manowar made after 1988 bar none. So let's keep it in perspective - it's a great song, but there should have been so many more like it. |
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24.
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Manowar - Sign Of The Hammer
All Men Play On 10: |
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25.
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Manowar - Sign Of The Hammer
Thor (The Powerhead): |
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26.
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Manowar - Warriors Of The World
Hand of Doom: |
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27.
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Manowar - Hail To England
Each Dawn I Die: |
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28.
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Manowar - Sign Of The Hammer
THE OATH: a much over looked track but one that surely made the gritty Sign of the Hammer the classic that it was. Looking back I struggled with the album at first. I remember buying it straight after Fighting the World but, confused by the in-your-face bass and jarring production, I took it back to the record shop and swapped it for Battle Hymns. Needless to say I bought it again once I'd exhausted the other options and grew to love it as I did the other first six albums. The Oath was one the tracks I appreciated most, in part because I loved the fast ones almost as much as the epic ones. And The Oath is oh so fast, perhaps one of the fastest ever Manowar songs. The bass chops sounded incredible, the first person lyrics, although somewhat abstract, again providing a window onto a world where demons and men walk alongside one another. The escalation that comes with the bridge between the verse and the final declaration of fealty to dark forces - a a musical feat Manowar seems to pull off so easily in those early days and became painfully bad at later on - was hook enough to seal the deal for me and this dark recess of Manowar's output - one that now pulses ever stronger as proof of the bands reckless 80s versatility and sheer, arrogant power. |
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29.
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Manowar - The Triumph Of Steel
The Power of Thy Sword: |
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30.
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Manowar - Louder Than Hell
Brothers of Metal: Demo version! |
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31.
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Manowar - Dawn of Battle
Dawn of Battle: after Louder Than Hell, it took two live albums and an EP to remind us that Manowar was not to be ignored. Hell on Wheels and Hell on Stage were followed by the Dawn of Battle, a three track EP that not only included the title track but two songs from the up coming album - namely I Believe, but more importantly, Call to Arms. The ballad was highly disposable, but the other two tracks harked back to Triumph of Steel (Dawn of Battle is pretty much the same formula as Ride The Dragon, Power of Thy Sword and others of that era) while Call to Arms came completely out of the blue as a stone-cold Manowar classic. Dawn of Battle ain't the best Manowar track. Hell, it's not even the best of its kind. The lyrics are aimless and abstract and lacked the truly emotive kick that the early first-person narrative poetry had provided us. But it was better than anything from Louder Than Hell and some, and it stood as proof that the band could still provide us with fire in our bellies that wasn't just the whiskey we'd been drowning our sorrows with for the past decade. |
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32.
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Manowar - Louder Than Hell
The Gods Made Heavy Metal: |
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33.
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Manowar - Warriors Of The World
House of Death: |
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34.
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Manowar - Sign Of The Hammer
Guyana (Cult of the Damned): |
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35.
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Manowar - Fighting The World
Holy War: |
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36.
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Manowar - The Triumph Of Steel
The Demon's Whip: |
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37.
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Manowar - The Triumph Of Steel
Spirit Horse of the Cherokee: |
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38.
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Manowar - Into Glory Ride
Warlord: |
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39.
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Manowar - Sign Of The Hammer
Animals: |
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40.
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Manowar - Into Glory Ride
Hatred: |
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41.
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Manowar - Fighting The World
Violence and Bloodshed: looking back its hard to know what to make of this track. First off, it's a great track. At the time I just regarded it as just one part of the random, thrown together jigsaw puzzle of Fighting The World. It was also clearly an attempt to show that Manowar could thrash with the best of them in 1987 when thrash made up about a third if not far more (particularly in the UK) of what metal was. But its unique in its own way - a very Manowar track that's part hard rocker, part speed metal and with those chunky basslines only barely recognizable as thrash these days. The lyrics, at least to a Brit, sound odd looking back at a time when extreme patriotism was probably frowned upon in metal. In the 80s extreme metal - thrash and the fledgling death metal scene, was anti-establishment, thrash was anti-war, anti-politics and probably, if anything, left wing. Here we have a sort of timeless vigilante, one food in Vietnam-era America, one foot in 1980s action films like Escape From New York. The gun-totin' message is mixed up but the bridge between chugging chorus and screaming verse holds up the track and provides more than worthy filler for the albums standouts like Black Wind, Defender and Carry On. |
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42.
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Manowar - Gods Of War
King of Kings: King of Kings |
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43.
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Manowar - Louder Than Hell
KING: boy this track was a disappointment. It has all the ingredients of an album slayer - cracking intro, grandiose title, chest-beating lyrics, nice bridge as well as being neatly near the end of the album where you, until this point at least, could be sure to find a real gem. But the riff was too flat. The lyrics in the verse too patched together. The woefully presented chorus that was crying out for help from Eric failed to fulfil the promise of the proclamation within the verse and the hooky bridge. The best part of the track - perhaps even the whole album - was Eric's acoustic lullaby intro. He puts his heart into it, and desperately tries to rescue King as it limps towards the end. A valiant effort but even then the flakey chorus lets it down again. It's the point of failure for Louder Than Hell. Defeat seized from the jaws of victory. That's a terrible thing to say about a Manowar album and I regret having to say it. Not helped by weak-ass production, King was a let down. As was Power, another track which should have been a giant but ended up being a disappointment. In fact it says something that the 'metal' tracks - something I would normally have regarded as filler on a Manowar album - are now my favourites on here (Brothers of Metal and The Gods Made Heavy Metal) - And I only use the word favourite loosely, because this album for me is the weakest of the entire catalogue with the obvious exception of the frankly unforgivable Lord of Steel. |
Disclaimer: All top lists are unofficial and do not represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
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