Manowar – Hail to England (1984)

Full disclosure: I’m listening to the “Imperial Edition MMXIX” remastered version of this album which, needless to say, sounds glorious. No dim nor timid production mars the epic delivery of the heavy-wrought riffs, nothing impedes the sure passing of our reckless band through entrancing landscapes. The sound is crisp and big, and suits this band very well, seeing as they focus totally on a minimalist expression from drums to bass to heavy guitar riffs. As long as these lines come through heavy and distinct, the job is done. 

Each of the songs in this album claims its own territory in the album. You recognize each of them as entirely distinct from the others, both in character and in lyrical theme. Clearly audible lyrics stream from a vocalist of the first order, delivered through riff-driven passages, from image to image, unyielding archetypal grip to energetic release. Again, the songs are not uniform nor do they confine themselves to ‘slow’ or ‘fast’ paradigms. These songs breathe and move, crawl and run, as befits the sentiment being projected. Again, unlike Iron Maiden, the songs adhere more tightly to a strong and affirmative metal aesthetic that (again, unlike Maiden) gives no quarter to pop music pretensions.

Manowar plays metal’s metal, the impersonal human experience in a universe of action, obsessed with power and overcoming. The paintings here are over-human. We can see the settings, the haunts, painted for us in vivid color by the music, but these are always entirely centered on action, on human action. Hail to England continues to pay its respect to Judas Priest, and indeed all of this kind of music outpours in unrelenting streams from the “Metal Gods”. Nevertheless, observe closely that Manowar capitalizes on the “epic promise” that Judas Priest shies away from, leaving it largely unstated and only implied.

Part of what makes peak Manowar so good is that, like early Candlemass, it does not deviate from its task in musical and thematic focus. It advances single-mindedly, constructing a towering cathedral lifting block after block, detailing the imagery with heavy hammer blows, setting its foundations on the rich ground soaked in the blood of conquered peoples (q.v. Conan the Barbarian for an exposé of the glories inherent in mythic violence). Rather than try to hit a variety of moods, Manowar takes us through a series of images of equal caliber and consistent with a world, with a story. Most importantly, we must pay close attention to the fact that Manowar accomplishes that musically rather than just lyrically. Everything here occurs up close and in vivid detail. Every primal action occurs first-hand, enacted by the listener’s hands, your hands.

Surprising, too, is that Manowar paid attention to album structure, and in so perspicacious a manner. You have a set of diverse songs extending most of this great album. And then, the track before the last surprises us with a 3-minute guitar solo, wild as a diatonic epic solo can be, fast and colorful, expressive and ripping. No drums stop or mark its comings and goings. We are given a climax over climaxes which by itself would leave us thinking, this was really good, and we would have a lingering ‘but’ in the back of our heads. 

So, how does Hail to England conclude? With a long, heavy-treading song two times as long as any other in the album. Giving us both a musical and lyrical conclusion, a suitable emotional finale to the aforementioned events and approaches. And although it may not constitute the perfect arrangement and composition for a concept album, the effect cannot but, in the end, endear us and bid us come back for more, time and again.