Manowar

Hail and Kill!

Father, on bend-ed knee
I ask thee, raise thy hand
We! The sons! Of Odin!

Await thy command!

—Manowar, "Gods of War"

Manowar are a heavy metal band from New York, USA, founded in 1980. Fond of Vikings and insanely over-the-top Epic Rocking. Some believe they are the manliest band of all time.

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Discography:

• Battle Hymns (1982)
• Into Glory Ride (1983)
• Hail to England (1984)
• Sign of the Hammer (1984)
• Fighting the World (1987)
• Kings of Metal (1988)
• The Triumph of Steel (1992)
• Louder Than Hell (1996)
• Warriors of the World (2002)
• Gods of War (2007)
• Thunder In The Sky (2009)
• Battle Hymns MMXI (2011)(remake from the 1982 release)

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Manowar provides examples of the following tropes:

• Audience Participation Song: "Die For Metal" has a chorus that was made for singing along to.
• Battle Cry: "Death to false Metal!"
• Bilingual Bonus: The lyrics booklet for Gods of War is written entirely in norse runes.
• Blood Knight
• Badass: The band in general pretty much oozes this.
• Concept Album: Gods of War, which is about Óðinn.
• Cover Version: Warriors of the World has their own take on Giacomo Puccini's "Nessun Dorma" and "An American Trilogy" by Mickey Newbury.
• Cult: "Guyana (Cult of the Damned)" is based on the People's Temple led by Jim Jones.
• Did Not Do the Research: "Spirit Horse of the Cherokee" supposedly talks about the Ghost Dance Movement, in which the Cherokee tribes never actually took part of. About the indian chiefs mentioned in the song (Red Cloud, Crazy Horse and Geronimo), none of them were Cherokee. The first two were Sioux, and the latter was Apache.
• Doing It for the Art: Basically the point of the band.
• Epic Rocking: Plenty, but Triumph of Steel's "Achilles: Agony and Ecstasy (in Eight Parts)" tops them all as it is over 28 minutes long.
  • Shown Their Work: It goes into quite a bit of depth on The Iliad as it pertains to Achilles.
• Good Name for A Rock Band: Their name is taken from the name "Man-of-war" given to the battleships from 16th to the 19th century.
• Fan Flattering: Several lyrics claim that Man O War fans are better than other people, more metal than other people. Wimps and posers, leave the hall.
• Fan Service: The cover of the Gods of War album consists of the Dark And Scary Sons of Odin getting Leg Clinged by naked women.
• Happiness in Slavery: "Pleasure Slave" from Kings of Metal.
• Heavy Meta: "Metal Daze","Gloves of Metal","All Men Play on Ten","Kings of Metal",Metal Warriors","Brothers of Metal", "The Gods Made Heavy Metal", and "Die for Metal". In fact, the main focus of the band can basically be summed up as; "Heavy Metal is awesome."
• Heavy Mithril: Possibly the Trope Codifier.
• Hey, It's That Voice!: "Dark Avenger" and "Defender" are narrated by Orson Welles. In their most recent album, "Battle Hymns MMXI", Dark Avenger" is narrated by Christopher Lee. Yes, that one. If it means anything, Christopher Lee has expressed a liking for Manowar. That ought to tell you enough, really.
• In the Name of the Moon: "Sons of Odin", "Hand of Doom" "Gods of War" and "Call to Arms" could probably be sung just before a massacre. It is for this reason that their music tends to go extremely well with Warhammer 40000 and Warhammer Fantasy.
• Jumped At the Call: The title character of "Defender"
• Kayfabe Music: They're really manly men, fantasy heroes who are always ready to kill anyone. With STEEL, of course.
• Large Ham: Joey DeMaio is the embodiment of this trope.
• Like a Badass Out of Hell: Dark Avenger
• Little Boy Blue Note: Lead singer Eric Adams formed his first band at age 11.
• Loudness War: Officially the loudest band on earth. Just ask Guinness.
• Mad Lib Metal Lyrics
• Metal Scream: Eric Adams is a master of those.
• Misogyny Song: "Pleasure Slave."
• Mohs Scale of Rock and Metal Hardness: A fairly solid 7.
• Norse Mythology: 98% of Manowar's songs are about this subject. To their credit, they do tend to research the aforementioned in great detail. Odin would be proud.
• Power Ballad: At least one per album since the late 80s. Often more.
• Power Metal: Some of Manowar's songs have a distinct power-metal feel to them.
• Proud Warrior Race Guy: The protagonists of Manowar lyrics are often portrayed this way.
  • This makes songs like Father, about a peaceful and kind family man, actually pretty jarring.
• Rated "M" for Manly: So much so that the trope might as well be renamed, 'Rated M for Manowar'.
• Serious Business: Served up with extra cheese.
• Signature Style
• Spikes of Villainy: "We wear leather, we wear spikes, we rule the night..."
• Stab the Sky: On the cover of Gods of War, and the often used line "Swords in the Wind", which is also the name of a song.
• Unperson: "Hand of Doom"
• War Is Glorious
• World of Ham: Every album they have promotes war, heroism and violence. Listening to band is one big Ham.