Manilla Road
Playground Of The Damned

They were born in the Mesozoic era of metal, spat out "Invasion" and "Metal" respectively in 1980 and 1982: yet the legend of Manilla Road actually began in the mid-'70s when singer and guitarist Mark Shelton decided to form this group. The beginnings can be traced back to the dusty pubs of Wichita, Kansas: only after a few years of apprenticeship did Manilla Road decide to publish their first work.

Over thirty years after the band's inception, Manilla Road has kept their humility intact: they never sold out to the business, never winked at easy success, simply because it is in their nature to remain simple, tucked away in a corner. Yet many have never known some of their works which, as far as I'm concerned, are indispensable pillars of all heavy metal: chapters like "Crystal Logic," "Open the Gates," and "The Deluge" would have been hailed as miracles had any other weighty metal band published them. Instead, they were born of Manilla Road, whom no one knows but who perhaps should begin to be rediscovered.

For this entire long list of reasons, "Playground of the Damned" was awaited by me (but a bit by all fans) like a mirage, because the band's albums are always something unique and unrepeatable: you never know when Shelton and company might stop, especially as age advances. However, to understand this CD, one must take a step back to "Voyager" of 2008: an important album, excellently accomplished (even if over time it has been re-evaluated negatively), but nevertheless a work of strength and great compositional class. There had been the departure of Bryan Patrick from the microphone, who became just a guitarist, and the first-time use of growl by Shelton, which peeked out here and there. In "Playground of the Damned," Patrick remains as guitarist while there is no longer any trace of the growl: "The Shark" Shelton returns to his nasal but expressively unique voice.

All elements are in place, nothing else is needed but to listen to the CD, yet the very first seconds of "Jackhammer" reveal the only major flaw of this album: a poor, downright terrible recording. The sounds are very distant, especially affecting the two guitars. The recordings of albums like "Invasion" and "Crystal Logic" from thirty years ago were absolutely better than this, which says a lot. Nothing, however, can undermine the martial rhythm of "Into the Maelstrom" or impair the final result of the title track, dark, epic and tremendously evocative in its dreamy chorus, an indelible signature of Shelton. A series of fairly canonical tracks, full of power and heavy metal (the pathos of "Brethren of the Hammer" is spectacular), are followed by others directly from Manilla's new course: we're talking about complex compositions often interspersed with sudden acoustic bursts perfectly integrated into the legendary atmosphere the Kansas band manages to evoke. Such is the case with "Abattoir de la mort", varied and with a dramatic progression: the same characteristics are found in the closing "Art of War", a ballad with a lost flavor framed by lyrics only Mark Shelton can write. The definitive farewell for yet another excellent Manilla Road album.

Thus, aside from a disastrous recording, "Playground of the Damned" teaches epic metal to all today's bands who claim that label, showing how style and class do not so much come from the available means as from the ability to compose and the humility to do so. In this, Manilla Road sets a precedent.

1. "Jackhammer" (5:20)
2. "Into The Maelstrom" (4:37)
3. "Playground Of The Damned" (4:20)
4. "Grindhouse" (7:28)
5. "Abattoir De La Mort" (7:02)
6. "Fire Of Ashurbanipal" (4:33)
7. "Brethren Of The Hammer" (4:53)
8. "Art Of War" (7:01)