martindavey87 Break out the loincloths and battle axes, it's time to delve into the sword and sorcery world of "real metal", as Manowar's debut album, 1982's 'Battle Hymns' shamelessly ups the ante on pure cheesiness and forces us to ask ourselves what it means to truly be a metal fan.

Kind of like America's answer to Judas Priest, Manowar's early albums seems more akin to hard rock than metal. It's got a bluesy, swinging feeling to it, that doesn't quite match up to the imagery of the band. But that's not going to stop them from preaching the gospel of the metal Gods.

But the thing is, while this might have been heavy and cutting edge in 1982... by today's standard, it's tame, light, and... well, it'll always be cheesy no matter when you hear it. Vocalist Eric Adams sings his heart out, and certainly possesses an impressive range. And guitarist Ross the Boss... yeah, that's his "name"... certainly has incredible guitar skills... just not very good songwriting ones.

Still, not all's lost, as there is some stuff here which is, well... alright, to put it bluntly. 'Death Tone', 'Metal Daze' and 'Manowar' (born to live forevermore, and don't you forget it), are all okay, nothing fancy, but certainly a precursor to the cheese that is to follow. Much like the Priest... their earlier material is pretty tame when compared to metal today, but Manowar's sound will adapt with the times and they will certainly improve on later albums, but otherwise, 'Battle Hymns' is a bit of a naff one, to me anyway.

Warthur Manowar's debut album might include a few more hard rock motifs than appear on subsequent albums, but on the whole it sets the blueprint of what it is to be a Manowar album. Here's the bass solo (William's Tale), there's the epic Dungeons & Dragons sagas of barbarian mayhem (Dark Avenger, the title track), there's the self-referential song about how awesome it is to be Manowar (Manowar; of course, in later albums songs such as this would shift gradually to becoming declarations of how much Manowar love and appreciate their fans), and so on. It's missing muscles, thews, and greased-up man-nipple on the cover, but otherwise it's the platonic form of 1980s Manowar, presenting a style which albums like Hail to England or Sign of the Hammer perfected but which has a raw charm of its own.

TerryDactyl I love the first six Manowar albums with an undying passion that has possessed my soul since sometime in my mid-teens. I get it. They really are a silly band and are incredibly earnest in a sort of embarrassing way and all, but I find I don't care one jot about that and if a Metal band can't sing about going to war with your darksword and using it to shed the blood of your enemies all over the white sands, that if you can't rape some girls as you burn their villages and kill their men with said darksword, then what is metal for?

Manowar sing about other things too, of course. Like how cool they are and how cool their fans are, how awesome the world would be if others took up the Manowar Mantle and held it high turning their music into a way of life, or whatever. They also sing about motorcycles and Vietnam Vets with PTSD. One of the other things I love about this band is the connection between lead singer Eric Adams and his uncle Orson Welles. I find it great that Welles obviously loved his nephew enough to give the exciting (slightly silly) narrative of "Dark Avenger" and hearing Welles utter the phrase "They brought forth their demon horse Called Black Death, a grim steed..." is one of the greatest things that ever happened.

While "Battle Hymns" is a great introduction to Manowar's musical vision, it is not yet a complete encapsulation of said vision. There are many "not really metal" moments on it, as we aren't TOO far from the seventies- and the hard rock/proto-metal that defined the decade-with this one. Those elements will be gone by the next album, and that's part of what makes "Battle Hymns" special. The boys are playing metal, they know they're metal, but they haven't exactly determined what metal IS so there's still some cowbell and a few bluesy moments that tarnish the polished steel of the rest of the album, but still it is Metal of course. It's Manowar, how could it be anything but?

Actual review: Great starter album for a great band, nice and metallic if not quite metal, great basswork and vocals, great guitar and drumming, clever sword and sorcery and other lyrics that take us to those very special Manowar places. Four and a Half stars. Great record, not their best but close to the top. Listen to it and you'll see.