After decades of unleashed Heavy Metal, The Loudest Band on Earth has decided to call it quits. For the last 36 years and over the course of 11 albums, the New York city quartet have been letting loose their message: other bands play, Manowar kills! But the strains of having to basically live on another continent has taken its toll and they're all getting on the wrong side of their 50s so that's it.
The
Last Battle tour will be their last and the band has no intentions of ever playing again. They promise to come to the US but last time they came, they were unable to fill 300 places venues. Funny because just months earlier, they were playing in front of a hundred thousand people in Germany, Romania and Russia. It's easy to understand: the macho-womanizer-warrior persona doesn't work in this time of pussification of America. You don't have the right to look like this anymore:
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Manowar has a long history of breaking walls, taking down barriers and smashing all opposition. To this day, nobody has been able to break their Guiness World Record of Loudest Band on Earth. It's pretty much impossible since The Kings of Metal have their own custom sound system designed to be the loudest on Earth. It's also a big problem if they want to come to the US because the system is so heavy and big, it has to come here by boat!
http://www.meyersound.com/news/2008/manowar/
The beginnings were strange for Manowar. Both roadies for Black Sabbath, Joey DeMaio (bass) and Ross The Boss (guitar) met in England, backstage. Joey was bass tech while Ross was just roadie / merch guy. They soon realized that they had musical compatibility. All they needed was a signer so Joey proposed his friend, the diminutive but extremely powerful Eric Adams (vocals). They started jamming as soon as they came back to New York. Here's a picture from that time, maybe a year or two before Joey and Ross met:
Left to Right: ANDREW MACDONALD / ERIC ADAMS / JOHN GAGLIANO / JOEY DEMAIO.
Photo's from 1976! I believe the band's called LOOKS.
Eric and Joey were already in a band back then. Joey knew Eric had the range and power to match the best Metal signers. They got themselves a drummer and they managed to set a few shows that gathered attention all around. So much that in their debut album,
Battle Hymns (1982), the legendary Orson Wells himself asked to do vocals for the band, which resulted in two awesome songs: Dark Avenger and Defender, both narrated by Wells. It would not be the last time Manowar gets the help of a legendary actor for narration, too:
The band has had its share of trouble over the years. Guitarist and founding member Ross the Boss was kicked out after their more successful album,
Kings of Metal (1988). Rumors has it Ross wanted more liberty to include his blues influence but Joey was against it all the way: only Heavy Metal exists in the head of Joey DeMaio, the brain and muscle behind Manowar (writes all songs, does all the arrangements, is the only "virtuoso musician" in the band). Drummer
Scott Columbus was kicked out of the band, came back and got kicked out again. He died a month after getting kicked out again, cause of death unknown (we all know what that means). They called back their first drummer
Donnie Hamzik who took the job and has been back with them since.
Whatever the adversity, whatever the problems, whatever the struggles and despite all criticism and humiliations, they have stayed the course without veering away from Heavy Metal like so many other bands did. Manowar will only be cutting their hair when they're done, not a second before! (Joey will most likely never stop wearing leather and having long raven hair).
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So it's with no shame whatsoever that I claim my respect and admiration to Manowar, The Kings of Metal. Sure, they're the laughing stock of "serious metal" and even Viking Metal bands pretend to ignore them (Manowar has invented Viking Metal back in the early 1980s, Valhalla was their first Viking song back in 1983). Some people say they are the "Kiss" of Heavy Metal but I will fight to the death anyone who claims that. Kiss is a gimmick, Manowar is real. And Manowar doesn't appeal to casuals at all: you're all in or you're out. In their own words:
"Wimps and posers, leave the hall!"
If you want to know more about me, I'm a hobbyist bassist and long time guitarist. I understand how easy and simple it is to play a Manowar song. Honestly, I don't even bother, it's just not challenging. Most of my other musical influences are "perfromance bands" (bands based on virtuosity of musicians). My favorite band in Canadian Power Trio
RUSH. I'm also a big fan of
TOOL and
PRIMUS. I also have been in a long love-affair with Fusion Jazz. Pat Metheny is one of my Idol and I've created a thread on drummer Antonio Sanchez just recently in this forum:
http://forums.sherdog.com/threads/the-magnificent-drumming-skills-of-antonio-sanchez.3236925/
So I'm not some kind of retard who doesn't understand music. I'm far from a good guitar player and I'm even worse at bass. But damn do I like it! Manowar just paved the way for my undying love for Heavy Metal and other hardcore styles of music, even though my friends are all into jazz, blues and pop-rock.
If you want to see me play over a Manowar song, here's a old video I did when I was starting to learn video edition. Be kind, it's not a masterwork, just a fan tribute:
Feel free to bash me, my resolve is unshakable.