The Triumph of Steel (Triumph Of Steel - Manowar)

Member Name: Frankingsteins

Product:	Triumph Of Steel - Manowar
Date:	31/12/08 (21 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Tries something different...

Disadvantages: ...with very poor execution.

Manowar has always strived for an epic sound in its music, and frequently succeeded, despite the band's silliness and ego problems occasionally getting in the way. 1983's 'Into Glory Ride' provided an excellent balance, and is genuinely one of my favourite albums of all time, but by the nineties the band's natural talents became buried under over-ambition, and perhaps laziness.

It also can't have helped that the disappointing 'The Triumph of Steel' suffered the first major line-up change since the band's second album, with the departure of guitarist Ross "The Boss" and his replacement in the far less creative and often quite annoying David Shankle. New drummer Rhino fares better, but left me with an instant dislike thanks to his irritating drum solo in the already far-too-long opening non-epic 'Achilles, Agony and Ecstasy in Eight Parts.'

This opening song takes up half of the album, and isn't worth sitting through. It's also not an epic song, lacking coherence between its eight parts that all sound radically different, and are connected only by theme. It has its high moments, but also its significant lows (foremost among them the afore-mentioned drum solo 'Armor of the Gods'), making it a failed experiment that it seems the band quickly forgot.

The rest of the album is similarly disappointing, with only the fun anthem 'Metal Warriors' and the catchy 'Power of Thy Sword' standing out amidst a number of dull rock riffs, culminating in the unwise ballad 'Master of the Wind.'

Summary: Manowar's seventh album (1992).