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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Neither the 'weakest' nor the 'best ever', September 16, 2005
If you are a true fan of Manowar and their 'true metal' style, you would do yourself a great injustice by passing this album over. Yes, it is the rarest of all of the titles to find in the stores. No, it does not have that 'explosive' production sound that all of the releases after would have (or even the remasters for that matter). I would agree that this is like a Manowar "unplugged" type album. Very stripped down and basic. The interesting thing to note here is that with the exception of the title song, this entire album was recorded at the same time as "Hail to England". The differences between the two have more to do, I think, with a change of labels and post production than anything else. However, this is a fine album that even I, an extreme Manowar fan, am guilty of overlooking from time to time.
Much faster paced than the two previous records, "Sign of the Hammer" starts out with the obligatory metal anthem that is trademark Manowar. Some have accused these songs as being "cheesey" as others have made the comment about this being the last of their "old sound". In all honesty, there is no "old sound". Manowar always has and always will progress intheir abilities while still remaining true to where they began. Few, if any, bands can honestly lay claim to that. As far as cheesey lyrics, well come on! This is 1984 and yet their FOURTH album since their 1982 debut. If you are old enough to reme,ber what 1984 was really like in terms of music, EVERYTHING was cheesey. Even heavy metal, with sparse exceptions. 'Mountains' is an excelent track. This is one of those Manowar inspirational/strength songs that they have come to be masters of. Unfortunately, knuckle-dragging musical nit-wits lose patience on these kind of songs that Manowar does. As they would prefer the talentless speed smashings of, say, Slayer than to listen to heavy metal that need not always be fast because the people playing it are actual musicians who know how to read, write, compose, and play music with a singer who can actually sing. Which brings me to 'Thunderpick', the Joey DeMaio bass solo that, once again, carries the tradition started in the first album. As one reveiwer stated, "might be impressive from a musicians point of view, but as a listener, well, it's just random noise." To that I have this to say: If it's just random noise you hear, you need to educate yourself in music more. This bass solo is OBVIOUSLY set in a Spanish Flamenco guitar style. If you know anything about Flamenco, it is a very difficult style to master as it goes all around the fretboard. Once again, this proves that Joey has some very serious abilties to back up his words about Manowar being the best. I know this is going to sound lame, but, even my mother who grew up on classical music, classical guitar, and opera was impressed years ago when she heard this and the following song 'Guyana(cult of the damned)' coming through my bedroom wall when I was a kid. She recognized the styles and background of the music. It is because I grew up being exposed and educated in all forms of music, particularly the centuries tested classics, that I am able to recognize Manowar for what they are. True musicians who know how to play well. And they do it hard and LOUD!!!! So it is written in the book of world records.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Onward Pounding..., August 29, 2002
Yes, Manowar pounds onward. I will propably catch alot of heat for uttering this, but I think that Sign of the Hammer is a great improvement over Hail to England, which I felt lacked some of the power you expect from Manowar.
This time Manowar follow their old reciept, fast and furious metal, mixed with awe-inspiring hymns and exelent musicianship.
Even for non-fans there can be no doubt of the technical exelence of the members of the band.
The album starts out with All Men Play on 10, a good traditional Manowar tune. After that follows Animals, which I consider the albums weakest track. Thor(The Powerhead) is Manowar as we know them, fast, agressive, in-your-face metal. Mountains a Vietnam-hymn, and a traditional Manowar power-balad, is just as awe-inspiring as one would expect. The Oath and Thunderpick are good tunes too, although I feel that the title track and Guyana(Cult of the Damned) stand out here. Both I feel are Manowar classics.
I doubt any Manowar fan would be disapointed in this album. It contains all the qualities that you would expect from the Kings of Metal
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
German Composer Richard Wagner would be pleased!, March 10, 2006
I was around 16 or 17 when this record was released, and it was another Masterpiece by the Kings of Metal! This release, like the three before it, is part of the foundation of Manowar's Kingdom.
This is one of my favorite Cd's of all time. It has some of the Heaviest moments in Manowar history, it's raw, stripped down, and heavy. This is what True Heavy Metal is all about. If I were going to give somebody a few CD's to give them an idea of what Manowar is really about, it would be the first 4 CD's, because they truly are a great period for the band. During that time period, information about Manowar was hard to come by here in the United States; the media ignored them, and the critics panned them, and neither had a just cause for doing so - Manowar's musical abilities far outweighed any of the bands that were getting coverage. Joey DeMaio is still the most original bassist around, Eric Adams' voice is simply unbelievable (I've studied voice for the last 6 years - trust me, the guy is incredible). Scott Columbus is simply my favorite drummer. I began playing drums well over 20 years ago, and John Bonham was quickly replaced by Scott Columbus; and we finally come to Ross the Boss - there is not another guitarist around who has the style that Ross has.
The first 4 releases were recorded in Analog - that's why the releases that came out after this had a much different sound, the band began utilizing Digital Recording equipment for the following releases. For me, this CD was the end of an era, because Manowar's sound changed and became a bit more polished and less raw, and it wasn't until they released Triumph of Steel that they regained a lot of the rawness that the digital recording medium of the late 80's seemed to kill.
That said, I would highly recommend this CD to anyone wanting to get a taste of what Manowar was really about.
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is Manowar's 4th studio release. Browse Manowar's Discography 
