Review: Manowar- The Final Battle (Part 1)

Manowar are a band that in recent years, have had an unprecedented amount of bad luck and bad will encumber their status of being the “Kings of Metal”. Lawsuits, albums recorded and then outright scrapped, the death of longtime drummer Scott Columbus, re-recordings of some of their classic albums, and..well we’ll leave the other recent big event alone because there’s been plenty of talk of that controversial (as well as devastating) subject. The band has encountered controversy after controversy in recent years, and in many ways, been denigrated to be a running joke in the metal community.

 Any regular reader of this blog is probably familiar with many of my takes on the various controversies, and how I view much of their recent trajectory (that is, not so favorably).

That said, when it comes to the music, the question on many fan’s minds is what they would do next. After announcing their final tour, they have now decided to release a series of EPs to mark their “final” tour (and if it’s actually final of course remains to be seen). The first in the succession of these EPs is the aptly named “The Final Battle Part 1”.

One of the first things I noticed is an immediate improvement to the production. Their last album, The Lord Of Steel, had abysmal production, confounded by the fact that there were two different mixes of the album, one exclusively available with the purchase of Metal Hammer magazine, and the other available through online sources and retail. The “magazine” mix arguably being more trebly and less muddy, and the “retail” version sounding very murky indeed.

The Final Battle, in contrast, is back to at least “Gods of War” level of production. The drums, actually sound less mechanical it can be argued than anything since 2002’s Warriors of the World actually, and considering the low standards I had for this release, is an amazing improvement. Also, the recruitment of former Yngwie Malmsteen/Hammerfall drummer Anders Johannson is certainly a course correction as well.

The guitars are also improved. As far as the last few albums, Karl Logan had a very weird tone at times, and an even worse lead tone. I always thought he had an idiosyncratic style, but hearing the tone of the guitars on this ep (assumingly their new guitarist), the improvement to the overall guitar tone (especially on leads) is obvious.

Hearing a smooth guitar tone on a Manowar album (or in this case, EP) is very refreshing after many years of weird mixes (even on the “remake” albums to some extent). The mix is the best mix probably since 90’s Manowar, and this is another improvement that is an exciting course correction. 

You can hear the bass, drums, guitars, vocals, and orchestration in even amounts, something that recalls albums such as Louder Than Hell, or Triumph of Steel!

But how does the songwriting stack up?

The album begins with an orchestrated  intro piece, March of the Heroes Into Valhalla, and I must admit, it reminded me of those YouTube ads for RPG mobile phone games that feature video game music, even if it succeeded at being exciting to a certain extent. 

The first "proper" song, “Blood and Steel” is about as hackneyed as Manowar can get, lyrics wise. The riffs almost make up for it though, featuring groovy somewhat old school riffs and turnarounds. The second song another “touching Manowar ballad” as in the tradition of ballads of their past. Not on the Swords of the Wind, or Heart of Steel level of epicness by any stretch, it’s still refreshing to hear a Manowar song with a somewhat Celtic feel, something that they hadn’t attempted before. And of course, the excellent vocals of Eric Adams catapult this song to a higher level as well. New guitarist E.V. Martel brings one of the best solos in a Manowar song in a very long time as well.

The final song should prove a huge surprise to long time fans. Entitled “You Shall Die Before I Die”, it almost recalls the beginning of Bridge of Death in some ways, but features vocals by none other than..Joey Demaio! It’s an interesting, somewhat doomy dirgey song, with a somewhat extreme vocal style from Demaio, along with some very low melodic vocals in the beginning. It’s somewhat of a challenging approach to vocals, but the song remains dramatic and interesting enough to carry it along.

One thing about the release that is clear is that Manowar seems not to be playing it as safe as they have often in recent years. Case in point: the album that Lord of Steel was intended to be was an album called “Hammer of the Gods”. According to the band themselves, they completely deleted the album (other than the Thunder in the Sky EP/Single) and recorded “Lord of Steel” instead. Many fans have long suspected the reason for this was the backlash that Gods of War had for being a hugely “orchestral” album, and following that up with another album in the same vein seemed to be controversial to a lot of diehards.

Even through the short running time of “The Final Battle” though, they seem to have returned some of the orchestral direction/influence that they were going towards with Gods of War. This is refreshing, given the underwhelming response that even Lord of Steel (which granted, wasn’t the worst album in the world) received, Manowar aiming higher with their music even to the dismay of critics is something that is indeed admirable and the response to Gods of War should in many ways not have swayed them to go so far in a “rawer” direction just to please the critics bashing the orchestral direction.

Overall, to call The Final Battle Part 1 a “return to form” would be premature. However, if the band continues in such a direction then this may very well be the case. Correcting the production issues plaguing (some of) their recent releases, releasing more original material instead of rerecording classic earlier albums (granted, many bands do this, and Manowar may be no exception behind the scenes, because of some of the horrible record company contracts that were signed in the 60s, 70s and 80s, and the only way for a band to have the rights to their earlier albums in some cases is to rerecord them), as well as having a fresh recording lineup may inject literal new blood in the band, even if they are truly in their “final” years as a band.