(Translated from my original Italian text by ChatGPT and Piero Scaruffi)
By picking up and refining ideas from Blue Öyster Cult, Uriah Heep, and Rush, Manowar invented a subgenre of heavy metal that sought to fuse the terrifying violence of that music with majestic medieval visions, partly derived from Nibelung and Eddic mythology (filtered through Wagnerian grandeur), and partly from the comics of Conan. Their sound draws on the macabre atmospheres of gothic rock, but reinterprets them through the lens of progressive rock with increasingly grandiose arrangements.
Formed from the remnants of the Dictators (Ross Funichello and Joey DeMaio), and featuring a spectacular singer like Eric Adams, they defined the standard of pomp metal with a series of cult tracks that revisit imaginary sagas of death and destruction, from Battle Hymns and Dark Avenger, on Battle Hymns (Liberty, 1982), to March For Revenge, Valhalla, Defender, on the more aggressive Into Glory Ride (Megaforce, 1983).
After their last classics of 1984Bridge Of Death, Guyana and Thorthey largely coasted on their reputation as the last true metal warriors.
They would still be around in the 1990s with uncompromising albums such as Louder Than Hell (Geffen, 1996).
Warriors Of The World (Metal Blade, 2002) is a collection of battle hymns intended as a tribute to Elvis Presley.
