After a brief absence from the European live scene, Manowar returns in full force with what is promised to be their biggest production so far. Of course being a die-hard fan of the band myself I had to check this out - and thus it happened that I found myself in the Brielpoort in Deinze (Belgium) on the 19th of November to see if they could fulfill my rather high expectations.
I can be relatively short about opening act Bludgeon - although certainly not a bad band they felt somewhat out of place musically, and I did not have the impression that a lot of people took an interest in them. It has to be said that these U.S trashers played a tight set however, performed with lots of energy and certainly weren't a bad band, but in the end I think they would be better off on a smaller stage in a club and would probably leave a better impression that way.
After a rather long pause during which the hall finally started filling up (apparently the concert was sold out, although I'm not sure of this) Manowar took the stage shortly after 21:00 PM with their usual intro and opener Manowar. Amidst a huge metallic construction and wall of speakers the band made their way through a set list compromised off classics like Spirit Horse, Hail and Kill and Army Of The Immortals coupled with a handful of (excellent) new songs.
The main difference with former Manowar gigs (at least the times I've seen them) was that the band kept the in between song-chatter to a minimum, resulting in the first 11-12 songs played virtually back to back, only interrupted by the now traditional solo spots by Karl Logan and Joey Demaio (ending up in Sting Of The Bumblebee). The band was in excellent shape and clearly enjoyed themselves onstage, most obviously Eric Adams, who was as impressive as ever and besides Demaio's bass-playing (and posing of course), the main attraction of Manowar. Also rather enjoyable and surprising was a short acoustic set near the end of the show featuring Courage, Swords In The Wind and Master Of The Wind and again, showing off Adams's incredible vocal power. Of course we also got a small (and funny !!) Demaio speech and the Harley's onstage before the band ended the gig with a final, devastating blast in the form of some of their fastest songs to date.
However, as enjoyable as it might have been there were a couple of small complaints on my side - while Logan definitely is a decent guitarist I'd still wish that they'd scrape his solo off the set list and replaced it with another song. My second complaint deals with the set list, which although very good, completely ignored the Into Glory Ride album - it wouldn't have hurt the band to play at least one track off it (how about doing THAT instead of the guitar solo guys ?) as well as the absence of Battle Hymn.
Having said that - Manowar still is a very entertaining live band, coupling great songs with excellent performances and this on the loudest possible volume you could ever imagine (and still being able to sound pitch perfect !!) - definitely worth seeing live and certainly amongst my three favourite concerts of 2002.
Set list : Manowar / Brothers Of Metal / Spirit Horse / Warriors Of The World / Kill With Power / Army Of The Immortals / Call To Arms / Kings Of Metal / Sign Of The Hammer / Sting Of The Bumblebee / The Gods Made Heavy Metal / Hail And Kill / Swords In The Wind / Master Of The Wind / Courage / Outlaw / The Power / House Of Death / Black Wind, Fire And Steel.
