After getting everything right on the previous year's Hail to England, Manowar rushed back into the studio to record 1985's Sign of the Hammer -- and it shows.
Despite the return of Hail producer Jack Richardson, the album sounds noticeably flat when compared to its predecessor, seriously dulling the impact of promising cuts like "Thor (The Powerhead)" and "The Oath." Uneven songwriting is also to blame, as becomes painfully obvious on the pair of epics contained here: the Vietnam tale "Mountains" and the Jonestown bio "Guyana (Cult of the Damned)," both of which alternate moments of brilliance and pointless excess.
And there's little to write home about in terms of the uninspired title track, the dull, uneventful bass solo "Thunderpick," or the downright lousy "Animals." A cheesy but undeniable highlight does arrive in "All Men Play on 10," another amusing vehicle for Manowar's career-long mission to bring "death to false metal." The irony of it all, however, is that the band would promptly sell out the very next year, signing to a major label and betraying their hardcore fans with their overtly commercial next record, Fighting the World.
| Title/Composers | Performer | Listen | Time | Size | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | All Men Play on 10Joey DeMaio | Manowar | Play | 04:01 | 9 MB | 26 MB |
| 2 | AnimalsJoey DeMaio | Manowar | Play | 03:33 | 8 MB | 23 MB |
| 3 | Thor (The Powerhead)Joey DeMaio | Manowar | Play | 05:23 | 12 MB | 34 MB |
| 4 | MountainsJoey DeMaio | Manowar | Play | 07:39 | 17 MB | 44 MB |
| 5 | Sign of the HammerJoey DeMaio | Manowar | Play | 04:18 | 9 MB | 28 MB |
| 6 | The OathRoss the Boss, Joey DeMaio | Manowar | Play | 04:54 | 11 MB | 30 MB |
| 7 | ThunderpickJoey DeMaio | Manowar | Play | 03:31 | 8 MB | 17 MB |
| 33 mins | 76 MB | |||||
| 33 mins | 205 MB | |||||
| Artist | Job | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Joey DeMaio | Composer |
| 2 | Manowar | Primary Artist |
| 3 | Tony Platt | Mixing, Producer |
| 4 | Jack Richardson | Producer |
| 5 | Ross the Boss | Composer |
| Quality | Format | Encoding | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | MP3 | 320kps 44.1kHz | MP3 is an audio coding format which uses a form of lossy data compression. The highest bitrate of this format is 320kbps (kbit/s). MP3 Digital audio takes less amount of space (up to 90% reduction in size) and the quality is not as good as the original one. |
| CD Quality | FLAC | 16bit 44.1kHz | FLAC is an audio coding format which uses lossless compression. Digital audio in FLAC format has a smaller size and retains the same quality of the original Compact Disc (CD). |