Manowar
Fighting The World

The album I am about to review is the one that for Manowar (a band founded in 1982 in New York) was the album of discord, the one that sparked rumors of a compositional decline of the band. And unfortunately, in some ways... so it was!! The album is globally good, no more, let's be clear... but it alternates between continuous highs and lows. There are perfect tracks like "Defender," "Carry On," "Black Wind Fire And Steel" and tracks with a very bland rhythm such as the very commercial "Blow Your Speakers" from which a video, I believe among the most tacky in history, was taken (but that’s how Manowar are, what can you do!), the terrible title track (repetitive to the point of fainting, just think that Eric Adams, the Manowar singer, for those who do not know him, repeats the word "FIGHT" up to 50 times!!!
In short, if these were banal and predictable tracks, imagine the useless intros like "Drums Of Doom" and "Master Of Revenge". In practice, from this disastrous pair, I only save the sufficient "Holy War" supported by a brilliant initial bass riff from the great bassist Joey De Maio. But let's move on to a more in-depth analysis through track by track: we start with the title track "Fighting The World" which, as I have already said, sounds boring and repetitive and with a drawn-out and unconvincing solo. Let's move on to the second track "Blow Your Speakers", a song I continue to consider (as written above) the most commercial song by Manowar, this time accompanied by a more convincing solo... and a great vocal work by the great Eric Adams... all of this does not suffice to save a song that is essentially banal.
Moving on, we find "Carry On", in my opinion, the most beautiful song on the album, at times poignant and moving (the fantastic initial guitar intro by Ross The Boss). Here, everyone does a great job, perhaps Scott Columbus on drums appears a bit out of breath, for the rest, an epic song. We continue with "Violence And Bloodsheed", a song that I have not mentioned before either among the acceptable pieces or among the mediocre ones because it deserves a separate analysis... I would define it as an "experiment." Because it is a very valid song from a compositional point of view (the lyrics of the song are indeed a critique of the Vietnam War), but it then gets lost with a chorus that here too, let me define it as "commercial," as always excellent bass and vocal parts.
After this failed experiment, we move on to the second masterpiece of the album, "Defender" (Manowar will not write songs like this for a long time), simply perfect. The song begins with a narrated part by Orson Welles, an English actor from the 60s (I believe) (unfortunately no longer with us today), who also lends his voice to the song "Manowar" live. The actor's voice is cadenced by the acoustic guitar arpeggios of Ross. As for the second part, we find Eric duetting with Orson, showcasing his remarkable vocal qualities to everyone (note that the song had already been written for some time, it was supposed to be published on their first work "Battle Hymns" but was not released due to contractual reasons) but let's move on. We skip the useless "Drums Of Doom" which serves as an intro to the decent "Holy War", another song "in full Manowar style," indeed it speaks of war for metal and that every good metalhead must consider metal their religion to carry to their death!!!!! (how tacky)!!!. Once past the tacky song I just mentioned, we finally reach "Master OF Revenge", the second useless intro of the disc, serving as an opener to one of the most beautiful songs by Manowar, "Black Wind Fire And Steel", which concludes "The album of discord."

In conclusion, we can say that this album did not please the fans precisely because of its "commercial" sound and because it was not like the previous masterpieces (Manowar recovered, however, the following year with their milestone par excellence, "Kings Of Metal"). Going back to "Fighting The World", it is indeed an album for those who know a good part of the "Manowarian" repertoire but are not "die-hard" fans of the group because compared to other masterpieces, it pales significantly! I am not a die-hard fan of the group; in fact, the album did not convince me right from the first listen. With that, I say goodbye to everyone!!! Bye!