Steel Metal

Kings of Metal MMXIV is a re-recording of Manowar's 1988 album, Kings of Metal. Lyrics are slightly changed as well as song titles.

Parody metal powerhouse NANOWAR OF STEEL turns to the musical roots of their homeland, bringing heavy new life to traditional Italian music on their new album Italian Folk Metal (out July 2 on Napalm Records)! Filled with references to Italian folklore, NANOWAR OF STEEL puts its own comedic metal twist on the various traditional sounds of their beautiful country. Each song on Italian Folk Metal is performed in a distinct style of Italian folk music: Napoli-based sounds of musica neomelodica clash with melodic guitar sweeps on “Scugnizzi of the Land of Fires“ and speedy accordions (prominently known from northern Italy‘s mazurka) are layered with dizzying guitar solos on “La Mazurka del Vecchio che Guarda i Cantieri“. The powerful blast beats and violins on Italian Folk Metal‘s album opener “L'Assedio di Porto Cervo“ prove that NANOWAR OF STEEL are absolute aficionados of both Italian folk music and heavy music.

Predating Metallica's self-titled blockbuster by 11 years, Judas Priest's British Steel was a similarly pitched landmark boasting many of the same accomplishments. It streamlined and simplified the progressive intricacies of a band fresh off of revolutionizing the entire heavy metal genre; it brought an aggressive, underground metal subgenre crashing into the mainstream (in Priest's case, the NWOBHM; in Metallica's, thrash); and it greatly expanded the possibilities for heavy metal's commercial viability as a whole. Of course, British Steel was nowhere near the sales juggernaut that Metallica was, but in catapulting Judas Priest to the status of stadium headliners…

Predating Metallica's self-titled blockbuster by 11 years, Judas Priest's British Steel was a similarly pitched landmark boasting many of the same accomplishments. It streamlined and simplified the progressive intricacies of a band fresh off of revolutionizing the entire heavy metal genre; it brought an aggressive, underground metal subgenre crashing into the mainstream (in Priest's case, the NWOBHM; in Metallica's, thrash); and it greatly expanded the possibilities for heavy metal's commercial viability as a whole. Of course, British Steel was nowhere near the sales juggernaut that Metallica was, but in catapulting Judas Priest to the status of stadium headliners, it was the first salvo fired in heavy metal's ultimate takeover of the hard rock landscape during the 1980s…