Manowar Kills in Cleveland, Ohio
March 12th, 2011 - Cleveland, Ohio
Manowar has been melting faces and exploding eardrums for over 30 years. Their two shows in Cleveland proved without a doubt that Manowar is still the most metal band alive. They truly exhibit the lifestyle of metal – Passion, pursuit of your dreams, and letting nothing get in the way of being the absolute best you can be in the way that you want to do it.
And how does Manowar want to do it?
As loud as they possibly can.
Looking around the stage you can feel the raw power bursting from the stacks of amplifiers. Hanging from the ceiling, rows of amps imported from Spain blast the crowd with Karl Logan's shredding guitar solos, Joey DeMaio's hard hitting bass, the amazing beats of Donnie Hamzik, and the incredible vocals of Eric Adams. They begin to play, and you can feel the music pounding your body, and teaching you all that is metal. The sound is perfection. Crisp, clean, clear and unbelievably intense.
The show flowed beautifully. Complete with costume changes, there were no breaks between songs, no respite for your eardrums, just pure, true metal ringing out over the fans who knew every word of every song. Every member of the band was looking out, connecting and sharing in the brotherhood created by this music. Always pushing for more interaction from the fans, screaming for us to sing our metal anthem as loud as we possibly can, “The gods made heavy metal, and it's never going to die.”
Each member of the band had a moment with the fans where they showed us their mastery of their art. A solo spotlight and constant eye contact let us know that even though Joey and Karl used all of their strength to draw metal out from their instruments and speak to us, they wanted to also ensure that we recognized the importance of what they did on stage. Watching to make sure that it pierced our hearts with steel and fire.
Before the show closed, Joey took up the microphone. He spoke of times past, when respect and honor was not a rare commodity, but a requirement for survival. He reminded us that there was a time where dishonor meant death and that we now live in an age of self-entitlement. We have forgotten the faces of our fathers. Gunslingers, barbarians, Vikings, the lyrics of all Manowar songs, remind us that although we may differ, we all stand as one against a common enemy. Death to false metal.
He took the words out of all of our hearts as we were standing there, and spilled them like blood upon the earth. He said what every metal head in that hall was feeling with every ounce of their soul. “We want to play in every fucking city in this country!” he shouted to us, “But you need to help us!”
Do you hear that USA?
After his speech, they took the show home. Eric took the guitar and bass and held straight out from his sides and Joey and Karl both began to shred the final notes to their songs while he held their weapons of metal. When the shredding commenced, Joey took his bass strings and ripped them out one by one and handed them to fans.
For those of you who think of Manowar, and think of a thing of the past, listen again. Really listen. If you still can't hear true metal, you must see them live to understand what it really means. For those of us stateside, we have some hard work ahead of us, but I know I want to do everything in my power to bring them back here. More people need to hear this and feel it before it is too late.
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Subscribe to this comment's feed Ashleigh said: 
 | Epic I can't even add anything to your post, because it does an AMAZING job at describing the concert. Of course, no one can come even close to understanding what is being said unless they've seen Manowar live. It was absolutely epic, and I am so glad that I was able to go with you guys and experience the power of Manowar! |
Satan said:
 | Fuckin Manowar Holy shit lucky, I wanna see them live, lemme know if you hear of them coming over here and I'll do the same. How did you see them in Cleveland? |
Raevyn said:
 | ... After writing this article I realized that I forgot to mention two things: 1) Listening to MANOWAR live has forever ruined my MANOWAR listening experience. I ONLY WANT TO HEAR THEM LIVE NOW! Everything else sounds so hollow and fake. Their sound was absolutely incredible. 2) We want MANOWAR on a full tour in the USA! Keep an eye out for our MANOWAR fan page, coming soon. We want to help the fans get the promoters on board! HAIL AND KILL!!! ~Raevyn |
