About Manowar
Manowar is an American heavy metal band from Auburn, New York. Formed in 1980, the group is known for lyrics based on fantasy and mythology , as well as numerous songs celebrating the genre and its core audience. The band is also known for a loud and emphatic sound. In an interview for MTV in February 2007, bassist Joey DeMaio lamented that "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". In 1984, the band was included in the Guinness Book of World Records for delivering the loudest performance, a record which they have since broken on two occasions. They also hold the world record for the longest heavy metal concert after playing for five hours and 1 minute in Bulgaria in 2008. They also have been known for their slogan "Death to false metal".
Manowar's history began in 1980 when Joey DeMaio, the future bassist of the band, met guitarist Ross the Boss while working as a bass tech and fireworks manager for Black Sabbath on the Heaven & Hell Tour. Ross the Boss, a former member of the punk rock band the Dictators, was the guitar player in Black Sabbath's support band, Shakin' Street. The two bonded over their shared musical interests, became friends and decided to form a band with the suggestion and advice of Black Sabbath's singer Ronnie James Dio during the tour. At the end of the tour with Black Sabbath, the duo got together to form Manowar. To complete the roster, they hired drummer Donnie Hamzik and singer Eric Adams, a former classmate and friend of DeMaio. Adams's real name is Louis Marullo; Ross the Boss proposed him to use a stage name instead, and he chose "Eric Adams" as an homage to his sons Eric and Adam. The name Manowar was suggested to Joey DeMaio and Ross the Boss by their instrument designer, John "Dawk" Stillwell, while DeMaio and The Boss were brainstorming possible names. The name is a shortened version of the phrase "Man of war", and although it may be understood as a reference to the Man-of-war naval ships, DeMaio simply chose it as a synonym of "Warrior".
The band recorded a demo after its creating. It was enough to secure a recording contract with label Liberty Records in 1981. The debut album, Battle Hymns, was released the following year. As the song "Dark Avenger" required an introductory narration, the band wanted to include a famous actor in it. Executive producer Bob Currie contacted the manager of Orson Welles, who was open to the idea. He recorded two narrations for the band, "Dark Avenger" and "Defender".
Soon after the album's release, Manowar engaged in their first tour. The band played support for hard rocker Ted Nugent, but their collaboration lasted only a few months. Manowar then decided to put together a short tour by themselves and all the arrangements were made in a few weeks by their manager. Despite these setbacks, the band gained domestic fame on this short tour and also began to get their first European fans, particularly in the United Kingdom and in Germany. Stressed from the strain of the continuing performances, Hamzik decided to leave the band at the end of this tour and was replaced with Scott Columbus.
By 1983, the band left Liberty Records and struck a deal with Megaforce Records in the US and Music for Nations in Europe—signing the contract in their own blood, to make a stance against the music industry they felt slighted by. The signing was a cover story in the 1983 July–August issue No. 47 of Kerrang!.
When Manowar returned home, they immediately went into a recording studio to produce what, in the intentions of the group, would have been a simple EP, but came out instead, due to the quantity and quality of the tracks made in that period, as the band's second album, Into Glory Ride. An EP was actually published in 1983 with the title Defender containing, as its main track, the eponymous song, which included more work by Orson Welles. The atmosphere of the album evoked classical heroic fantasy and mythology, and served as a predecessor to Viking metal. It contained several innovative features, both in style and sound, and led to a huge increase in the number of fans of the group, particularly in the United Kingdom, where the band planned a long tour that was ultimately canceled. The song "Defender" was later re-recorded and included in the Fighting the World album of 1987.
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