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Manowar - Sign Of The Hammer review



Reviewer:
8.0

406 users:
8.16
Band: Manowar
Album: Sign Of The Hammer
Release date: 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.


Comments

Comments: 9   [ 1 ignored ]   Visited by: 92 users
30.03.2007 - 18:37
Rating: 9
Grey_Dandelion

Historical album 10 without any thinking!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Don't turn away just take my hand and when you make your final stand i ll be right there i ll never leave all i ask of you is believe...
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30.03.2007 - 18:48
Marcel Hubregtse
Grumpy Old Fuck
Written by Grey_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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Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal

Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight
Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.)
05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996

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31.03.2007 - 10:16
Rating: 9
Grey_Dandelion

Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 30.03.2007 at 18:48

Written by Grey_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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Don't turn away just take my hand and when you make your final stand i ll be right there i ll never leave all i ask of you is believe...
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19.12.2007 - 02:11
va5ilis
Account deleted
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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01.04.2008 - 04:37
Rating: 10
IconMaiden

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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03.04.2008 - 05:46
Rating: 10
IconMaiden

actually, every song on this album is amazing.
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28.09.2009 - 09:11
Rating: 6
Ellrohir
Heaven Knight
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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My rest seems now calm and deep
Finally I got my dead man sleep


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17.06.2010 - 19:43
Valentin B
Iconoclast
Eric Adams' vocal delivery in Mountains is ridiculously good, i got quite teary right now while listening to that track.
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20.07.2019 - 21:10
Bad English
Tage Westerlund
If you read a lyrics of opening song you will know why its commercial
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Life is to short for LOVE, there is many great things to do online !!!

Stormtroopers of Death - ''Speak English or Die''
apos;'
[image]
I better die, because I never will learn speek english, so I choose dieing
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