Manilla Road - Open the Gates (1985)

I don't know a whole lot about Manilla Road, where they've been and what they've done. I don't know a damn thing about its founder Mark "The Shark" Shelton, some dude from Wichita of all freakin' places, or the so called "Epic Metal" genre that he helped create. I mean were talking about a band that has an earlier release simply titled 'Metal' with songs like 'Out of Control with Rock n Roll.' What? Sounds like cock rock, man. Well, what I do know is that this isn't any cock rock, and the bands fourth effort from '85 titled, 'Open the Gates' is one solid release.

From what I know epic metal is more or less a genre that involves lyrics centered around themes of fantasy or history and mythology, which I'll venture a guess and say Manilla Road was among the firsts to do so. Surely, Mark spent his boyhood reading Tolkien and pretending he was a barbarian or warrior, because his band are probably also one of the first bands to pose with swords and non-typical metal clothing in their photos. Musically though Manilla Road is hard to define. There's traits of power, speed, traditional and even a little thrash metal going on here, of course with a sense of majesty and, well, epicness to it.

Mark's vocals are raspy and honestly not instantly appealing at first, but numerous listens and they start to grow on your more. The way he sings almost sounds like some sort of story teller actively dancing in front of a fire while acting out the scenes from the story in a very vivid and animated manner. The lyrics themselves are inspired by writers, such as, Marcus Manilius, Alfred Tennyson and R.B. Anderson, while others are inspired by Welsh and Norse cultures and of course there's songs like 'Heavy Metal to the World,' which is a simple nod to what we all love the most.

'The Ninth Wave' is one of the albums bright spots, opening with a slow but powerful lead riff it instantly catches my attention and throughout its nine minute duration remains interesting, epic (we can't over use that word in this review) and just totally metal all the way. The aforementioned, 'Heavy Metal to the World' is a solid tune, somewhat poppy, but nonetheless good, while the opener 'Metalström' is a hard hitting thrashier sounding song that I much enjoy. 'Astronomica' isn't bad either, slow, powerful and totally heroic in its delivery, and 'The Fire's of Mars' is really something special with its fabulous guitar wizardry on display. What makes the album difficult though is that it is long. Ten songs in fifty two minutes may be a bit much and with some of the ideas being repeated between songs, as well as, the fact that the production isn't exactly top notch may not make for an easy ride. However, I've found listening to the songs on a more random basis sometimes makes me appreciate everything all the more.

Manilla Road is probably more influential to heavy metal than they are really given credit for. I suspect if they'd been from England or some other European country they'd be as well known as Iron Maiden, but being from Kansas, well, I'm sure they were always limited. Still, not many bands were writing about Norse mythology, fantasy themes and having comic book styled covers in the 80's. For that they are surely hailed.

Manilla Road would continue to release albums throughout the 80's and eventually take a hiatus in '92 after album eight. They'd get back into the swing of things in '01 and have been released no less than seven albums in the past twelve years, all of which seem to have favorable reviews too. So, I've got some catching up to do for sure.

I can honestly say Manilla Road doesn't get my highest recommendation, but there sure are some great moments on 'Open the Gates.' Definitely a band I'm going to have to explore further.