Band:	Manowar
Album:	Hail To England
Style:	Heavy metal, US power metal
Release date:	1984
Guest review by:	Joey Jo Jo

01. Blood Of My Enemies
02. Each Dawn I Die
03. Kill With Power
04. Hail To England
05. Army Of The Immortals
06. Black Arrows
07. Bridge Of Death

Once in a while I'll put on an old album I haven't heard in a long time for nostalgia purposes rather than wanting to hear something of actual quality. Manowar's Hail To England, which happens to be one of my first metal albums, seemed to fit that bill perfectly. After all, I do remember having a great time at their live show when they came down here with Rhapsody (either a sign of the apocalypse, or a dream come true depending on perspective). Manowar actually acquired their "cheese cred" after their Hail To England/Sign Of The Hammer releases. Don't get me wrong though, there's plenty of lame moments on this album. All of it just happens to be appropriate for the time and context without aging too badly. So it's not as bad as one might expect.

Actually, I think I'll just come out and say it. Quite frankly, Hail To England is a solid piece of traditional metal with a healthy amount of epic tinge around some of the songs (a lot of people pointed to some of early Manowar as an influence when Bathory released "Hammerheart"). The opener "Blood Of My Enemies" is an excellent example of this, and is one of the best, if not the best song Joey DeMaio has written. Choirs are used in the background for many of the songs here, a trait that has stayed with the band throughout their long career, even if it has gotten a lot less subtle over time.

A great career decision on Manowar's part was to cut down those slow, plodding songs that never seem to end that appeared on "Into Glory Ride" in half while being pretty catchy and anthemic. While being just above the 30 minute mark makes Hail To England pretty easy to digest and multiple listenings more common. The only time your skip button should even come into play is on the ridiculous bass solo "Black Arrows Of Death", which happens to be the worst of these Manowar has ever put out (that's saying a lot).

Did I mention the fan dedicated songs such as the title track and "Army Of Immortals" are tastefully written and fun to sing along to? Well, they are. Except for the part in "Army Of Immortals" where the line "Metal makes you stronger...longer" is repeated for awhile. The closing epic track "Bridge Of Death" shows the band must have a major hard-on for Satan himself as the line "Satan don't forsake me. I wait for you take me..." is uttered. Some cringing moments aside, this is a classic album in every sense that gets better with each listen. Their next offering "Sign Of The Hammer" makes a great companion disc if you'd like to hear more of the same, which except for the title track, was made at the same recording session.