Manowar
Photo: Magic Circle Music

Many smack-talkers have called Manowar cartoonish, silly, pompous and out of touch, but there's a legion of diehards for whom that kind of criticism warrants a sharpened spear to the groin. These are the Manowarriors, the fans that have followed the band through 25 years of music trends, label and lineup shifts and an increasing emphasis on the European music market.

"I have fans in the U.S. come up to me all the time saying, 'OK, next time, I'm flying to wherever it is in Europe that you're playing,' " bassist and band spokesman Joey DeMaio said. " 'And if I can't get the time off, I'll just quit and get another job.' You're talking about some seriously devoted people that are kind of like family to us."

The Manowar elite isn't incredibly huge (if Nickelback had an army, it'd outnumber Manowar's 1,000 to one), but it's unbelievably loyal. So much so that in July 2005, 25,000 fans from across the globe flocked to Geiselwind, Germany, to attend the first Manowar convention, which featured appearances by ex-bandmembers, the crowning of the lovely Miss Manowar and a band concert with full orchestra. So, when Manowar's first album in five years, Gods of War, comes out April 3, you can bet these folks will flock to the stores and celebrate with gallons of mead and mountains of beef cooked rare. Kiss, eat your heart out.

"People are so loyal to us because they listen to our songs and say, 'Yeah, they're talking about me. That's my life. That's the way I feel,' " DeMaio explained.

Manowar fans seem to take pride in what others mock — mainly, that their favorite band constantly strives to top itself, creating the loudest, most intense and most bombastic songs each time it enters the studio. Gods of War is no exception. The disc, which features titles like "Hymn of the Immortal Warriors," "Loki God of Fire" and "Glory Majesty Unity," is filled with crashing power chords, thunderous beats and orchestral arrangements that enhance the might and majesty of the music.

"It will fry the hair on your balls," DeMaio said, without a hint of irony. "These days, there's a real lack of big, epic metal that is drenched with crushing guitars and choirs and orchestras. So it's nice to be one of the few bands that's actually doing that."

There's an inherent problem with metal bands that constantly try to be more extreme. There are ceilings on volume, speed and intensity, and when the barriers are pushed too far, the results tend to be either absurd or unintelligible. But according to DeMaio, the quandary lies in the musicians, not the formula.

"Most people that are out there playing in bands are not musicians, they're just people holding guitars," he said. "They're not playing the instrument, the instrument is playing them. But if you're truly a musician and you're able to look at music as a whole and understand it, you have a lot of doors open to you. There's a lot of different kinds of instrumentation, so you can always challenge yourself and give your audience a fresh taste of what you're doing."

Gods of War will be Manowar's first offering in a series of albums about mythological gods — in this case, Odin. "We've always been interested in Norse mythology and it's been a lifelong passion for our fans as well," DeMaio said. "The idea is that Odin was the god of war, and that lends itself to something big and dramatic."

Manowar worked on Gods of War last year at their studio compound in Valhalla (well, upstate New York, actually) and at the members' individual homes, and the process was fraught with frustration and rigid perfectionism.

"It's not easy for us, ever," DeMaio began. "There's too much [analyzing] of the material and equipment we use. You're talking about people who approach this as scientists, and we push man and machine to its limit. And that requires 100 percent commitment to each and every note played, and the quality of the performance and how it is reproduced and recorded."

It didn't help matters that Manowar's overwhelming volume tends to fry their equipment. "We have a saying that a speaker sounds best before it blows," DeMaio explained. "When you're living on the edge all the time and your whole mission is metal to the max, things get pushed to the limit."

The rest of the week's metal news:

Down will headline a gig March 9 at El Corazón in Seattle, the band has revealed. The Phil Anselmo-fronted sludge rockers will also perform March 30 in Worcester, Massachusetts; March 31 in New York; April 1 in Philadelphia; and April 2 in Washington, D.C. To top it all off, they'll serve as the openers, along with Megadeth, on Heaven and Hell's upcoming Canadian tour. ... Progressive-metallers Dream Theater have signed a deal with Roadrunner and will issue their next LP, Systematic Chaos, in June. ... Michigan metalcore collective Still Remains have begun tracking their next LP, The Serpent, with producer Steve Evetts (Saves the Day, He Is Legend). Expect the album to include 15 tracks, including "Anemia in Your Sheets," "The Wax Walls of an Empty Room" and "An Undesired Reunion." Frontman T.J. Miller said the album is "a lot darker and more honest," adding that the songs are "heavier and more melodic than anything we have ever written as a band." Look for the effort to drop this summer. ...

Floridian death-metallers Malevolent Creation have wrapped the recording of their forthcoming album Doomsday X. The LP is being eyed for an early summer release and will boast 11 songs in all, including "Strength in Numbers," "Buried in a Nameless Grave" and "Deliver My Enemy," which features a solo from Slipknot guitarist Mick Thompson. ... A Life Once Lost, those lovable metalcore hippies from the City of Brotherly Love, began tracking their next album on Thursday with engineer Eric Rachel (Atreyu, Dillinger Escape Plan). Look for the album, titled Iron Gag, to land in stores later this year. ... In related news, Norma Jean, the Chariot and the Handshake Murders will team with A Life Once Lost for a spring tour across the U.S. The trek kicks off March 17 in Homewood, Alabama, and dates run through April 14 in Charleston, South Carolina. ...

Avant-garde rockers Genghis Tron have inked a deal with Relapse. "We're incredibly excited to be joining the Relapse family," the band said in a statement. "The three of us have been huge fans of the label since the dawn of time and we can't wait to work with them on our future releases." The band has begun working on its first outing for the label, which Genghis claim is "sounding insane and awesome and entirely indescribable." ... The latest video from New Jersey metallers God Forbid — who're currently on the road with Goatwhore, Mnemic, Arsis and Byzantine as part of the Chains of Humanity Tour — will debut this weekend on MTV2's "Headbangers Ball." The clip, for the track "Chains of Humanity," focuses on the group's diehard fanbase, according to a press release. In other news, God Forbid will film their February 18 gig at the Starland Ballroom in Sayreville, New Jersey. The footage will be incorporated into the band's first DVD release, which has yet to be titled. ...

I Killed the Prom Queen have parted ways with singer Edward Butcher — a member of the fold for just over a year. "As some of you may have already heard, Ed ... has decided to leave the band," reads a statement from the Australian metalcore act. "His decision was entirely of his own accord and came as a bit of a shock to us, however, we must respect his decision to return home to the U.K." The band will announce Butcher's replacement in the coming weeks. ... Extreme-metal quintet Origin plan to begin writing material for their next album as soon as they've returned from their current European tour with Necrophagist and Misery Index. The jaunt wraps March 14 in Karlsruhe, Germany. Origin guitarist Paul Ryan said the band is "stoked about the material that we have now." He added: "As with all our CDs, we are trying to make the approach different than the last. We want to continue writing stuff that we find challenging as musicians as well as over-the-top in its approach." Expect the album to hit stores late this year. ...

More bands have been added to the lineup for the second annual California Metalfest, slated for March 31 and April 1 at the Galaxy Concert Theatre in Santa Ana, California. The bill includes Testament, Necrophagist, Flotsam and Jetsam, Animosity, As Blood Runs Black, Arsis, Decrepit Birth, Ion Dissonance, Light This City, the Funeral Pyre and Ankla, among others. ... Light This City are also joining forces with the Faceless and Antagonist for a tour that launches February 23 in Anaheim, California. The mostly West Coast run ends March 12 in Corpus Christi, Texas. ... Southern California experimental noise-mongers the Locust will hit the road next month with Cattle Decapitation and Daughters in tow. The tour commences March 23 in San Diego and will make stops in Seattle; Denver; Boston; New York; Philadelphia; Atlanta; and West Palm Beach, Florida. It wraps April 28 in Tempe, Arizona. The band's forthcoming album New Erections is set for a March 20 release.

• Manowar
• A Life Once Lost
• Origin
• Slipknot
• Cattle Decapitation

Lamb of God (file)
Photo: Epic Records

Considering Lamb of God were one of the first honest-to-goodness underground metal acts in recent memory to get called up to the big leagues (Epic signed them a few years back), it's only right they headline the Sounds of the Underground tour's maiden run.

The Randy Blythe-fronted Virginia thrash-metal band — fresh from supporting Slipknot this spring — will close out each and every night of this summer's other huge metal festival, and bassist John Campbell said he can't wait to see GWAR's performances and unleash some material LOG have ignored for eight years. He's just not thrilled about the band's abstinence edict.

"All of our friends who are on before us, as soon as they get offstage, they punch the clock and they're done," he explained. "They can start partying and drinking. But we're going to have to maintain a level of sobriety until after our set. So that's going to be my cross to bear this summer."

To keep things fresh for longtime fans, Campbell said Lamb of God — whose "Killadelphia" DVD landed in stores on Tuesday — have fiddled a bit with their setlist for this summer's Underground gigs. For instance, they've scrapped "Bloodletting," a staple since they recorded it under the band's erstwhile moniker Burn the Priest, and replaced it with the song "Suffering Bastard."

"We've had to take some time while we've been home, to learn how to play that song," the bassist explained, "because it's been seven, eight years since we've played that song live."

The band's also got big post-Sounds of the Underground plans. Campbell and Blythe will both be getting married, and after that, they'll start working on the follow-up to 2004's Ashes of the Wake. "We're going to start writing this fall, and [we're] looking to deliver a record early in the year, to be out mid-year 2006," Campbell explained.

"Killadelphia," filmed over two sold-out nights at Philadelphia's Trocadero, features behind-the-scenes footage and captures "the who, what and how we rolled at the time," Campbell said. While he said LOG have no immediate plans to release the concert in CD form, he's sure "that's definitely the kind of thing the marketing geniuses at Epic are probably already typing away on their calculators about."

The rest of the week's metal news:

Mötley Crüe have been added to the bill for Toronto's Live 8 concert on July 2. The lineup also includes Jet, Simple Plan, Bryan Adams and the Tragically Hip. ... New Jersey melodic-hardcore mavens Nora have lost their bassist, Chris Byrnes, to Every Time I Die. But the departure's not about to slow the Carl Severson-led band down. It's already replaced Byrnes with ex-Burnt by the Sun vocalist, original Nora guitarist and political commentator Mike Olender (check out theamericanindependent.com). The band's been busy writing new material and will take the stage for the first date of the Sounds of the Underground tour Saturday in Lowell, Massachusetts. ... The premier metalcore band of our nation's capital, Darkest Hour, will release their fifth album, Undoing Ruin, on June 28. The disc is the follow-up to the band's 2003 offering, Hidden Hands of a Sadist Nation, and was produced by Strapping Young Lad mastermind Devin Townsend. ...

Arizona metalcore collective The Bled will release the follow-up to 2003's Pass the Flask with Found in the Flood on August 23. The disc will feature 10 tracks, including "Hotel Coral Essex," "She Calls Home" and "I Don't Keep With Liars Anymore." ... Literary Los Angeles headbanger Otep will show how well-versed she is in the spoken word when she appears on HBO's "Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry" series August 5. Her eponymous band's currently in the middle of its Mouth of Madness tour. The final date, June 30 in Los Angeles, will feature Jada Pinkett Smith's band, Wicked Wisdom. ... Life of Agony will be the featured guests on this weekend's edition of MTV2's "Headbangers Ball" on Saturday at 10 p.m. ... Sweden's In Flames have finished their new album, called Come Clarity. The effort, being eyed for a fall release, will boast 13 tracks, including "Pacing Death's Trail," "Crawl Through Knives" and "Your Bedtime Story Is Scaring Everyone." ...

San Diego death metallers Cattle Decapitation will be playing a spate of summer dates with Some Girls and the Locust, and will release their long-awaited split with Caninus next month through Wartorn Records. The disc will feature five new tracks, including a revised version of "The Decapitation of Cattle." ... Philadelphia metalcore extremists A Life Once Lost will release Hunter on June 28. The band shot a video in April with Darren Doane (Deftones, Thursday) for the track "Vulture," which, according to frontman Robert Meadows, features "a guy on an operating table and then all of a sudden, he's jumping out a window and he lands on a car and he's being chased by people. There's a fight scene with him beating up some dudes in water. It's like an action movie. It's total madness." ... Connecticut straight-edge hardcore bashers With Honor will release their second full-length album, This Is Our Revenge, on October 18. The group is working on the album with producer Brian McTernan; its last release was a 2005 split with Distance. ...

Raleigh, North Carolina, math metalcore band Between the Buried and Me will release their third album, Alaska, on September 6. The disc was tracked with Jamie King in Rural Hall, North Carolina, and is being mixed by Matthew Ellard. The band will tour extensively this summer with Sinai Beach, the Red Chord, the Acacia Strain and From a Second Story Window. ... Canadian bashers A Perfect Murder will release their new disc, Strength Through Vengeance, on July 26. Last weekend, John Phillipe Bernier directed the video for the first single, "Body and Blood." A Perfect Murder's last album was 2004's well-received Unbroken. ... Swedish sextet Sonic Syndicate (ex-Fallen Angels) will release their debut, Eden Fire, this fall. The album was recorded at StudioMega in Bollebygd, Sweden. ...

Orange County, California, metalcore outfit Scars of Tomorrow are getting ready to enter Litho Studios in Seattle with producer Matt Bayles to work on the follow-up to 2004's Rope Tied to the Trigger, which is scheduled for release in October. The group is currently on tour with Himsa, the Agony Scene and the Esoteric through June 30 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. ... Ontario, Canada, screamo band Boys Night Out have added the new song "Medicating" to their Web site. The track will be featured on their third album, Trainwreck, which comes out July 26. Their last album, Make Yourself Sick, was released in September 2003. ... Norwegian black-metal luminaries Arcturus will release Sideshow Symphonies in September.

• Lamb of God
• A Life Once Lost
• Otep
• Cattle Decapitation

Hey, what's up fellow metallers, how goes it? Iann Robinson here, still in L.A. finishing up some work for "Headbangers Ball," which we all know hits this Saturday at 10 p.m. ET/ 7 p.m. PT on MTV2. Working Metallica's "mtvICON" was fun. They shredded through the old stuff and I gotta say, I thought Rob really brought it. I haven't had much time to listen to anything, but I'm hoping the new 16 record is waiting for me when I get back to New York. If you guys wanna do something cool for yourselves, then check out this month's Terrorizer magazine. It's the first magazine of two on the history of thrash metal, and it totally rules. Gotta give a shout-out to the Dark Realm record store in Downey, California (where James Hetfield once lived). They were really amazing to me when we shot some stuff there for "HBB." That is one of the greatest metal record stores ever. They have everything, so check it out if you're ever there or online. Well, enjoy this week's news, and hopefully I'll have some stuff to recommend to you next time. Stay metal and stay true:

In Flames will kick off their next North American tour, featuring Chimaira, metallic hardcore outfit Unearth and fellow Swedish metal merchants Soilwork as support, June 26 in Toronto. In July, In Flames will drop Trigger, featuring remixes, the video for "Cloud Connected," a new song called "Watch Them Feed" and a cover of the socially conscious '80s Genesis hit "Land of Confusion." ...

Skid Row bassist Rachel Bolan may be moonlighting as a 600 Racing Legends driver, but that's not gonna delay any of the band's summer plans. If anything, it'll mean they'll be able to get to their gigs faster. This summer the '80s metal band will release a new album, Thickskin, on their own Skid Row Records. The band will begin a tour with Poison and Vince Neil in Mankato, Minnesota, on May 23. ... Politically minded thrash metal band Nuclear Assault will release their first record in nine years, Alive Again, on July 1. The group is on tour through July 13 in Buffalo, New York. ...

Cattle Decapitation have parted ways with drummer Dave Astor, who was tired of touring. He has been replaced by Michael Laughlin from the group Creation Is Crucifixion. Cattle Decapitation will enter the studio at the end of May to work on a new song for the upcoming metal compilation album Uncorrupted Steel 2. ... Coal Chamber bassist Nadja is auctioning off several of her basses, including the one she played when she auditioned for the group. If you have the coin and the interest, head to nadjaonline.com. ...

Seattle's Himsa will support Courting Tragedy and Disaster (June 17), their first album through Prosthetic Records, with both their current tour with Bleeding Through and several dates with Eighteen Visions, Atreyu and Underoath. The metallic hardcore band will also appear at the New England Metal Fest in Worcester, Massachusetts, and the Syracuse, New York, Hellfest. ...

Dark Realm Records has announced plans to release several demos from Possessed on CD as well as a tribute record to the long defunct seminal California band, whose Seven Churches album helped shape the death, black and thrash metal genres. The tribute album will reportedly feature, among other artists, Cannibal Corpse, Vader, Marduk, Absu and Sadistic Intent with a guest appearance by Possessed's Jeff Becerra on vocals. ... Speaking of Sadistic Intent, they are in the studio working on The Second Coming of Darkness with Agent Steel's Bernie Versailles producing. ... Initial pressings of Arch Enemy's forthcoming Anthems of Rebellion will include a limited-edition bonus CD full of live songs recorded in 2002 and 5.1 surround sound mixes of album tracks. The album is scheduled for an August 27 release. ...

—Compiled by Iann Robinson, Ryan J. Downey, Jon Wiederhorn and Robert Mancini

• Metallica
• In Flames
• Skid Row
• Nuclear Assault
• Cattle Decapitation