Sign of the Hammer

by

Manowar

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If you are a true fan of Manowar and their 'true metal' style, you would do yourself a great injustice by passing this album over. Yes, it is the rarest of all of the titles to find in the stores. No, it does not have that 'explosive' production sound that all of the releases after would have (or even the remasters for that matter). I would agree that this is like a Manowar "unplugged" type album. Very stripped down and basic. The interesting thing to note here is that with the exception of the title song, this entire album was recorded at the same time as "Hail to England". The differences between the two have more to do, I think, with a change of labels and post production than anything else. However, this is a fine album that even I, an extreme Manowar fan, am guilty of overlooking from time to time.

Much faster paced than the two previous records, "Sign of the Hammer" starts out with the obligatory metal anthem that is trademark Manowar. Some have accused these songs as being "cheesey" as others have made the comment about this being the last of their "old sound". In all honesty, there is no "old sound". Manowar always has and always will progress intheir abilities while still remaining true to where they began. Few, if any, bands can honestly lay claim to that. As far as cheesey lyrics, well come on! This is 1984 and yet their FOURTH album since their 1982 debut. If you are old enough to reme,ber what 1984 was really like in terms of music, EVERYTHING was cheesey. Even heavy metal, with sparse exceptions. 'Mountains' is an excelent track. This is one of those Manowar inspirational/strength songs that they have come to be masters of. Unfortunately, knuckle-dragging musical nit-wits lose patience on these kind of songs that Manowar does. As they would prefer the talentless speed smashings of, say, Slayer than to listen to heavy metal that need not always be fast because the people playing it are actual musicians who know how to read, write, compose, and play music with a singer who can actually sing. Which brings me to 'Thunderpick', the Joey DeMaio bass solo that, once again, carries the tradition started in the first album. As one reveiwer stated, "might be impressive from a musicians point of view, but as a listener, well, it's just random noise." To that I have this to say: If it's just random noise you hear, you need to educate yourself in music more. This bass solo is OBVIOUSLY set in a Spanish Flamenco guitar style. If you know anything about Flamenco, it is a very difficult style to master as it goes all around the fretboard. Once again, this proves that Joey has some very serious abilties to back up his words about Manowar being the best. I know this is going to sound lame, but, even my mother who grew up on classical music, classical guitar, and opera was impressed years ago when she heard this and the following song 'Guyana(cult of the damned)' coming through my bedroom wall when I was a kid. She recognized the styles and background of the music. It is because I grew up being exposed and educated in all forms of music, particularly the centuries tested classics, that I am able to recognize Manowar for what they are. True musicians who know how to play well. And they do it hard and LOUD!!!! So it is written in the book of world records.