Manowar - Fighting the World
ATCO Records
Heavy Metal
9 songs (64 / 100)
Release year: 1987
Manowar
Reviewed by Shane
Archive review

Two years after releasing the incredibly raw and unpolished, yet still excellent, Sign of the Hammer, Manowar releases Fighting the World. Fighting the World is everything that Sign of the Hammer is not and this is not a good thing. While the production is much better, the songs unfortunately are not. On this releases Manowar blatantly contradicts their “death to false metal” credo by making Fighting the World their most commercial release to date. The songs, for the most part, are catchy in a pop-metal sort of way, plus they are not as heavy and they almost completely lack the balls that Manowar is famous for. What makes this even more disturbing is that, even on this album, Manowar still pretends that they are metal saviours coming to destroy all “false metal”. The problem lies in the fact that they trumpet this message, while changing their sound so that it is more MTV accessible. Any one who takes the Manowar message seriously will not like this album. This album is like making a statement but totally failing to back it up.

The album starts with the title track, Fighting the World. While this song isn’t that bad, it is still a second rate heavy metal anthem by Manowar standards. Despite this, it is catchy and one of the better songs on the album. Blow Your Speakers is next and in it, Manowar is basically begging MTV to play their music. Sad indeed. The gang vocals are extremely lightweight and really lack balls but this is intentional, I’m sure, as to give the song a more commercial appeal. Manowar writes a lot of metal anthems and this, like Fighting the World, is supposed to be one of them. Yet again though, this song is not on par with other Manowar anthems.

Carry On is probably the lamest song on this album because it is the sort of song that will get stuck in your head, however, having this song stuck in your head may bring you to the brink of insanity. The problem is that once again, any potential heaviness has been removed from the song, especially from the chorus. What’s left is a “feel good” track with a “Carry on” chant that sounds so weenie that you will have to check your CD player to make sure that is actually Manowar you are listening to. The only thing that this song will inspire you to do is skip it and go on to the next. Like I said before, it is mainly the chorus’s fault, as the rest of the song isn’t all that bad. Thankfully the next song, Violence and Bloodshed gets Manowar back on track a bit. While this song isn’t as cool as its name suggests, it is still closer to the Manowar we know and love than the previous offerings. Defender follows and this track is fairly cool but way too repetitive. It’s potential is not realised because it repeats the same parts over and over again. Regardless, it is one of the cooler songs on the album.

This album contains much filler, like the two tracks Drums of Doom, which is basically just galloping horses and Master of Revenge, which is just one verse with some screaming and sound effects with a little guitar. Both these songs are capable preludes to other songs but there really is no need to have them be separate tracks, as they can not stand-alone by themselves. Holy War can be seen as filler as well because it is yet another call for “metal brothers” to unite and fight for metal. Manowar has done a million songs like this so it is unfortunate that this song is nothing more than mediocre. The album ends with Black Wind, Fire and Steel and thankfully, this song sees Manowar finally return to form. This song kicks ass. Maybe it is just the fact that it is on an album that features so many mediocre songs but after listening to Fighting the World from the start, Black Wind, Fire and Steel is like a breath of fresh air. I think that it is the only song on the album that can even hold a candle to Manowar’s other, better works. The last verse rocks especially hard, as Eric Adams sings it in his screaming voice while Demaio frantically rips on his bass, which sounds especially ballsey considering how lightweight the rest of the album is. That one part is by far the coolest part on the whole album.

I don’t think that Fighting the World is a horrible album, it is just not what Manowar claims it is and this makes it seem not exactly genuine. Fans of cheesy, commercialised metal will like this album, as Eric Adams sounds great and the songs are catchy with some nifty, if not cliché guitar work. Die-hard Manowar fans, who care deeply about Manowar’s integrity, will be bothered by how the lyrics are so blatantly contradicted by the music. I happen to fall into the latter category, as I don’t really buy into Manowar’s shtick, so there are aspects of this album that I can enjoy, however, it is just too obvious that Fighting the World is definitely a sub-par Manowar album.

Killing Songs :
Black Wind, Fire and Steel
Shane quoted 64 / 100
Jeff quoted 70 / 100
Other albums by Manowar that we have reviewed:
Manowar - The Lord of Steel reviewed by Olivier and quoted 59 / 100
Manowar - Gods of War Live reviewed by Jeff and quoted no quote
Manowar - Gods of War reviewed by Jeff and quoted 70 / 100
Manowar - Sons of Odin (EP) CD ONLY VERSION reviewed by Jeff and quoted no score
Manowar - Hell on Earth, Part IV - DVD review reviewed by Alex and quoted no quote
To see all 14 reviews click here
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